Days of the Week....Kansas City/Missouri indigenous maybe?

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dsteve54
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Days of the Week....Kansas City/Missouri indigenous maybe?

Postby dsteve54 » Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:52 pm

My parents were both born in Kansas City, Missouri...father in 1927, mother in 1931. They moved to a suburb of Kansas City on the Kansas side circa 1953. They have lived in some suburb of Kansas City on the Ks side since then.

This is the way my parents recite the days of the week (note: NOT IPA :D ...simply a reasonable American English phonetic set)

Monday - /Mu'n-dee/
Tuesday - /T'ews-dee/
Wednesday -/W'ins-dee/
Thursday -/Th'urs-dee/
Friday - /Fr'y-dee/
Saturday -/S'air-dee/
Sunday - /S'un-dee/

My father answers the phone by saying "hello" as follows:
"mmmmmmmmmmmmm..yell'ow" . Nobody else except him and his father say this, as far as I know.

When my father says "yeah", it is indeed one syllable, but there is a trailing "l" on the end or even embeded...hard to represent...almost sounds like "yealh" or close to "yeeal".

Unfortunately, I find myself saying this odd "yealh" even though I can't seem to transcribe it into print very well. Sometimes it is fine for the receiver, but sometimes I simply get a fish-eyed look...maybe even recipients might be hearing that I say "yowl" or something. (I live in Colorado Front Range currently).

My mother says she has to "warsh" the clothes, but I say it as /wahsh/.

As far as the above, I sometimes catch myself saying /M'un-dee/ and /T'ews-dee/ as above, but the rest of the days of the week sound civilized.

I say "reckon" alot.....hmmm, maybe that qualifies me as British :D ...I think that may be a Midland feature. None of us is ever "fixin' " to do anything, which is fortunate.

I definitely say "kinda" and "sorta", which almost sounds Minnesotan. But I do not straddle the fence and make non-commital type statements otherwise in my conversation.

Probably the 'yealh' thing is the worst for me and sometimes instead of "Well, it's time to wrap it up", I will say "Whelp, it's time to wrap it up", which sounds like I am talking to some litter of animals.

I took the dialect test on this site and I scored (without ambiguity in the questions except for Mary, merry..etc all sounding the same). It came out nearly all the bar on South was populated, followed by about a three quarter bar filled for Philadelphia, a two thirds bar filled for the Inland North, half bar for Northeast, one third bar for West, and miniscule for Boston and North Central. I was classified as Midwest.

Anyway, I was wondering if others have run across the weekdays being said the same way and also this strange yeah sound and the way my father answers the phone...is it uniquely "Missouri", uniquely "Kansas" or unique to the entire planet? Just curious; Thanks.

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Postby Perry » Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:21 am

My father used to say hello in nearly the same way. Also his yesses and nos were easily confused. (Are you hungry? Nnnyes.) But he was born in Detroit, and lived for a few years in Adrian, Michigan. His forefathers were from Poland, so there is no outward connection to Kansas here.
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gailr
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Re: Days of the Week....Kansas City/Missouri indigenous mayb

Postby gailr » Fri Oct 05, 2007 7:12 pm

... sometimes instead of "Well, it's time to wrap it up", I will say "Whelp, it's time to wrap it up", which sounds like I am talking to some litter of animals.
Iffin you say this at work, it sounds right to me...

I reckon there's nothing wrong with 'reckon' either.

I've heard both mmmmmyellow and mmmmmbye from a few midwesterners.

I can't help you with the dees of the week; I've still got issues from a Wiscaaaaahhhnsinite who ridiculed me for pronouncing measure as may′ zhure. :wink:

-gailr

And welcome to the front′range. (That's apparently one word to the natives.)

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Re: Days of the Week....Kansas City/Missouri indigenous mayb

Postby sluggo » Sat Oct 06, 2007 11:00 pm

I hear the dees of the week all over, from no discernible point of origin. Certainly it exists in Philadelphia but not universally. Same with whelp, which I employ myself as one of those put-ons one incorporates just to stay whimsical (same with yellow*), so some of these affectations are individual choice.

*sometimes just to throw a changeup I'll answer the phone "green" or "brown". It usually works.
It came out nearly all the bar on South was populated, followed by about a three quarter bar filled for Philadelphia, a two thirds bar filled for the Inland North, half bar for Northeast, one third bar for West, and miniscule for Boston and North Central.
Arr, where be all these bars then??

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dsteve54
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Re: Days of the Week....Kansas City/Missouri indigenous mayb

Postby dsteve54 » Sun Oct 07, 2007 10:02 pm

Arr, where be all these bars then??

Sluggo, finally soaking in a stash of Sea Dog Riverdriver Porter (yum)
Whoa!...my mistake. I was thinking the dialect quiz I took was on this site. I might be mistaken in thinking I linked to it from somewhere here.

Anyway, the quiz I was referring to is here:

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_a ... o_you_have


Upon completion of that quiz, you obtain a bar graph of, I suppose, your composite dialect. I was trying to describe it proportionally. Had I been little more technical, perhaps I would have embedded the graph directly in my post. Once you take it, you will understand my references.

I don't know if it was intentional on your part, but your one line response made me wonder if you were making a wordplay on "bars" as "drinking establishments". That would have been clever, and it had not occurred to me.

I hope that clarifies what I was describing.
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Postby RBruyere » Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:36 pm

My grandmother is from the boot-heel region of Missouri and she pronounces her days of the weeks just like your parents do. My grandfather, her husband, is from barely two hours north of her and does not pronounce his days like this, but his brothers both say, "Yeahl." He used to tell my grandmother that he married her because she "talked funny."


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