I love many things about living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The weather, although not superior to SoCal, is far nicer than the weather in the northeast. There are tons of parks and rec centers where my girl can play with her friends. We have lots of greenery year round. We have low car insurance rates. The people here are, in general, very, very, sincerely nice and welcoming. Traffic is light. The cost of living is comparatively low, and we are therefore able to live in a nice house with a lovely yard on one salary. We truly have a wonderful thing going here, and we hope that Winston-Salem is our permanent home.
However, Caroline has begun adding syllables to words. She says "bay-urr" instead of "bear". "May-un" instead of "man". "Fay-uct" instead of "fact". (remove your minds from the gutter - she's newly 3 fer-chrissakes) "Nay-ow" instead of "now". She also does not differentiate the vowel sounds between "dog" and "log" -- much unlike a Jerseyite. They both sound like "aaaaah". And merry, Mary, and marry sound THE SAME WHEN SHE SAYS THEM!!!! Criminy!
In short, I fear for her accent. No, I think my real fear is that she's becoming, gulp, southern. Will she wear proper attire to football games? Speak in kind tones to opposing teams? Yell no profanities at annoying drivers? Not know how to drive in snow? Wait...is that really a bad thing? Maybe not...
posted by Cheryl @ 5:43 PM
6 Comments:
As a southerner who has (purposefully) lost her accent, I can tell you that you need not fear that she'll be saddled with sounding like a hick her whole life. (It takes some doing, but you CAN get rid of your accent if you want.)
But there are a lot of good things about being southern, too. Yes, a true southerner might curse at you in traffic, but should you take ill, have a baby, or have a death in the family, a good southerner will bring you a casserole, fried chicken, or a ham. And even though they'll offer you some melted cheese on it, they'll always bring an apple pie, too.
A good southerner will also send you cards for all your occassions, ask after your mother, and remember what you take in your coffee. If they have coffee. Because the great thing about southerners is that they always have sweet tea available.
And the accent thing. . . well, just keep working on it. It can be reformed. Though, honestly, is there REALLY supposed to be a difference in the sound of dog and log? I keep repeating them out loud and can't figure out how they should be made to sound differently from each other.
I was really speaking (tongue in cheek) more as a true Yank from NJ than anything else. And I thought only yankees swear at people (when they can hear you)...
How's it going, Melissa? Are you in GA yet?
OH -- and dog is said "dawg" (doe'-ahg)while log is said "laaaaahg". At least in Toms River, NJ. And most of the NE.
Perhaps we should get little Miss Caroline a wee strand of pearls for her 4th birthday.
Ah. Thanks for the clarification on dog and log. that's been driving me batty since yesterday. I kept saying them out loud....
Funny that I was born in and lived for 7 years in tom's River and I couldn't figure it out.
We're here in GA, still at my folks'. Found an awesome park at which to have a playdate with Caroline.
I have issue with your phonetic spelling of dog. When I see doe'-ahg, I think of 'doe a deer...' or 'doe ray mee...' you get the idea, I hope. My point is that nobody has a doe'-ahg, they have a dog. I suppose an audio comment would serve well here.
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