Hillbilly accent getting in the way of our phonics!!!

[fairfarmhand]

Ok, I'll admit it..I live in the south and I talk like a hick. Every time I teach one of my kids to read we run into this....

 

We don't say Hen; we say it more like "hin"

 

We don't say Pen; we say "pin" (and we still mean the writing utensil)

 

We don't say When; we say "whin".

 

My little ones think it is so funny to sound out those words and find out that the rest of the world doesn't talk like we do.

 

 

:001_smile::001_smile::001_smile:

[Alenee]

We have a lot of fun sounding things out in a British accent. With SWR 'baby' sounds like bay-bi ...short /i/ sound. All of my girls' names end with a 'y' too so we have a lot of fun with that one especially. :)

[I talk to the trees]

Ok, I'll admit it..I live in the south and I talk like a hick. Every time I teach one of my kids to read we run into this....

 

We don't say Hen; we say it more like "hin"

 

We don't say Pen; we say "pin" (and we still mean the writing utensil)

 

We don't say When; we say "whin".

 

My little ones think it is so funny to sound out those words and find out that the rest of the world doesn't talk like we do.

 

 

:001_smile::001_smile::001_smile:

 

:lol::lol::lol:

Ahhh, but what's really important is the number of syllables. Do you say "when" or "whee-in"? (True southerners will know exactly what I'm talking about.)

 

I was at least 10 before I knew that my grandfather's name (Roy) wasn't usually pronounced "Raw-ee." Sad, isn't it?:D

[smrtmama]

My brother in law says one of the biggest problems he sees in new SLPs (he's a speech-language pathologist, too) is the tendency to treat Southern dialect like it's a speech disorder.

 

We say it like you say it and if I don't like the example used, I'll say "we don't say [that word] like that, so let's use [this word]."

[LizzyBee]

I've discovered that in order to make a correct short e sound, the jaw needs to drop further than it does for the short i sound. So when pronouncing those kinds of words, I concentrate on dropping my jaw far enough to get the short e sound out. My 9 yo dd is dyslexic, which only exacerbates the problem!!!

[Lily of the Valley]

I lived in southern Georgia when I was a child. My spelling list one week included "any" and "many". I can still remember my grandpa from Ohio saying, "No, it isn't pronounced "innie" and "minnie", it's "aaany" and "maaany". :lol:

[mommaduck]

My brother in law says one of the biggest problems he sees in new SLPs (he's a speech-language pathologist, too) is the tendency to treat Southern dialect like it's a speech disorder.

 

We say it like you say it and if I don't like the example used, I'll say "we don't say [that word] like that, so let's use [this word]."

EXACTLY! I was stuck with three years of speech therapy because of this. My stepdad was from Chicago and I wasn't pronouncing things "pro-per-ly" by "a-nun-ci-a-ting" my words. That's how my mama phrased it. My stepfather associated southern accents with one particular ethnicity and used words that shocked me (well, I did speak geeche). When people met me later they could not believe how un-accented my speech was when speaking formally (and I can't tell you the grief it used to cause me online as people read it to be cold and know-it-all). When I speak with the southern half of my family though, it all comes out! I love southern dialects.

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

I agree, smrtmama. Dialects are not problems, and I'd hate to hear us all become the same. For teaching purposes, I also just choose a different word and my children are all excellent readers.

 

Hen is pronounced "hin" around here. When I taught my oldest to read, I thought I would use the word "egg" to teach about E. Then I realized I don't say eh-g. I say Aig.

 

I use "excellent" or "echo" to teach the E sound because I pronounce those correctly.

 

chrisjo, we say "innie" and "minnie," too. LOL

 

I mostly speak my Dad's family dialect (Appalachian) but for some words we use my maternal Grandma's northern Indiana dialect.

 

"Feesh" instead of fish. "Deeshes" instead of dishes.

 

I am careful to say "wash the deeshes" instead of "warsh the deeshes," though.

 

She was so dedicated to the "warsh" sound that I remember her telling me about our first president, George Warshington.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

We live in Ohio and my brother had a kindergarten teacher from Mississippi. I remember (being 9 years older than my brother) the parents were all up in arms over her accent. I think it was Abeka curriculum used at the school, and they had those phonics charts to drill and the kids were pronouncing them like the teacher! I thought it was hilarious, even at the time. Still do.

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

I hesitated for years over buying Latina Christiana because of all the claims about Leigh Lowe's awful, sloppy southern accent.

 

This year I bought it, and I think her accent is very mild and not a problem. I can't imagine anyone thinking they can't sort out her pronunciation.

[Mom-ninja.]

I am careful to say "wash the deeshes" instead of "warsh the deeshes," though.

 

She was so dedicated to the "warsh" sound that I remember her telling me about our first president, George Warshington.

 

 

My in-laws have southern accents. It took me forever to figure out what they were saying when I heard "warsh."

 

"Warter" always throws me for a loop as well. My dh does not speak with an accent unless he's around his family. My boys get confused when we visit the in-laws. They sometimes ask DH to translate. :lol: At times I still ask DH for help as well.

 

I had to ask what "far" ants were.

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

 

I had to ask what "far" ants were.

 

:lol:

[Parrothead]

 

We don't say Pen; we say "pin" (and we still mean the writing utensil)

 

 

It would bother my dad so much he really enunciated when he said pen. I went with the two word term though and started saying ink pen when I speak about that particular writing instrument.

 

 

We say it like you say it and if I don't like the example used, I'll say "we don't say [that word] like that, so let's use [this word]."

I don't remember which sound/word it was that I had to do the same with dd. She hasn't lived in the south since she was 3, but she picks up dh's and my accents, and has a bit of southern in her speech. I've been gone from the south so long now that I can not understand half of dh's relatives when they call on the phone.

 

 

When I speak with the southern half of my family though, it all comes out! I love southern dialects.

I've lived in so many places over the past 40+ years that I pick up accents rather quickly. Before we left Montana I realized I was starting to use that short a sound of the midwest. And we've been watching a lot of Cake Boss via Netflix streaming. My six years in NY/NJ started coming back . Dh looked at me as if I'd lost my mind when I said something as if I'd been in Hoboken all my life.

[Hen]

I don't have a Southern accent, lived in Ca my whole life- but I do have some kind of accent..I've encountered difficulties when teaching phonics, also.

 

off the top of my head, I can think of "Egg", I pronounce it "Aag" long A

 

as an adult, I started noticing when I first meet someone and introduce myself as "Jenny" most people think I said "Janey"..so I started introducing myself as "Jennifer"...just easier.

 

my husband says my accent is "valley girl" :001_huh:

 

I just make a concentrated effort to say the words in question the correct phonics way when teaching the lesson, and then forget about it...!

[bairnmama]

My sister went to K and 1st in an inner-city school in the mid 70's and then we moved to a small central TX town for her 2nd grade year. Her new teacher could NOT understand why my sister thought "door" and "floor" rhymed with "show"!

[mommaduck]

 

I've lived in so many places over the past 40+ years that I pick up accents rather quickly. Before we left Montana I realized I was starting to use that short a sound of the midwest. And we've been watching a lot of Cake Boss via Netflix streaming. My six years in NY/NJ started coming back . Dh looked at me as if I'd lost my mind when I said something as if I'd been in Hoboken all my life.

I've lived a lot of places and in/around a variety of cultures as well and it does make it easier to pick up accents. Sometimes I pick them up very unintentionally and other times I do it intentionally and then forget to drop it at the proper time. Example of unintentional is when hubby asks me to not speak dutchified when we go visit his old boss or looking for a house, because the people know I'm not PA dutch and it makes me look "weird" to them. But I can't help it. I spent time IN a mennonite community/church. We have family that is dutchified by conversion and my genealogy on my mama's side is Finnish/German....there are some things that are just too difficult not to pick up or mimic when in conversation. Example of intentionally but forgetting to "drop it" is when telling an Irish joke (one where you HAVE to have the accent to make it any good). Thoroughly embarrassed myself by having trouble dropping the accent from the conversation after the joke was done...friend of ours had fun teasing me about it.

 

Now here on the east coast, I'm having trouble saying coffee. It sometimes comes out cah-fee or caw-fee. We get a lot of Jersey folks over here and go to the Jersey shore ourselves.

[fairfarmhand]

My sister went to K and 1st in an inner-city school in the mid 70's and then we moved to a small central TX town for her 2nd grade year. Her new teacher could NOT understand why my sister thought "door" and "floor" rhymed with "show"!

 

 

:lol::lol::lol:

[Mejane]

Yup, I'm from NY where the name of that animal that barks should be spelled "dawg." :D

[musicianmom]

Yes, I'm running into this a lot now that we're doing AAS. It wasn't such a big deal when I was teaching dd to read, but spelling -- yikes!

 

And there is absolutely NO difference between the way we say "W" vs. "WH", so how is she to know when to spell one or the other?

 

Please tell me it sorts itself out eventually.

[lailasmum]

I have noticed this. We are British with a fairly RP/classic BBC accent but with the odd twinge of westcountry in it, I correct the local influence in my own speech and my kids haven't really picked it up.

 

I have had a few problems using American Phonics programs. Words like Orange sound like Arange to me when I listen to them and my daughter gets confused. I have also notice a lot of words where the vowels are marked as long and we pronounce them short and vice versa. It can be really confusing and take a minute to figure out.

[Laurie4b]

Ok, I'll admit it..I live in the south and I talk like a hick. Every time I teach one of my kids to read we run into this....

 

We don't say Hen; we say it more like "hin"

 

We don't say Pen; we say "pin" (and we still mean the writing utensil)

 

We don't say When; we say "whin".

 

My little ones think it is so funny to sound out those words and find out that the rest of the world doesn't talk like we do.

 

 

:001_smile::001_smile::001_smile:

 

Yep, a friend's mom (who was from the north) used to get really frustrated with her southern kids. For instance, if they asked for a p_n, she would say, "Do you want something to cook with? Something to write with? Or something to fasten your clothes with?" It was hard for them to make a differentiation in the vowel sound. It does make it harder for kids to spell (not read) regular, short-vowel words because they have to memorize more since there is no distinct difference in sound. You can also use the "say to spell" method in which you exaggerate the pronunciation of words to aid in spelling. This is usually used for words like again , but could be used for pan, pen, and pin, but you, as the mom, would have to be able to pronounce them with a difference.

[LizzyBee]

I agree, smrtmama. Dialects are not problems, and I'd hate to hear us all become the same. For teaching purposes, I also just choose a different word and my children are all excellent readers.

 

 

Teaching spelling is where I've had issues and I've had to force myself to pronounce words correctly. For reading and conversation, I don't care and I don't make corrections.

[Closeacademy]

I made adjustments to the SWR phonograms and how I teach my kids for just this reason. Some of the phonograms don't have some sounds and others have "extra" sounds.

 

I also came up with physical movements so my children would know the difference. When it is spelled with an "e," I put my hand behind my ear. When it is spelled with and "i," I shiver and go "icky." This has helped them to get the spellings right.

 

My parents are from souther KY but I grew up in WI and we live in Southern IN and my dh grew up in IN but spent a lot of time in TX (to the point he had a drawl) so my dc have a nice mix of speech sounds.:tongue_smilie:

[Sahamamama]

My brother in law says one of the biggest problems he sees in new SLPs (he's a speech-language pathologist, too) is the tendency to treat Southern dialect like it's a speech disorder.

 

School-based SLPs are not supposed to do this for any speech patterns that are dialectal (e.g., Southern English, Black English, foreign language-inflected English, etc.), unless the child's parents request consultation for "accent reduction." My SLP friend does get these requests from parents at times, and she also works with foreign-born immigrants (mostly Chinese) on accent reduction. Unless there is a request for services, she is not permitted to "treat" accented speech like it's a speech disorder.

 

BTW -- the "accent" thing is not just a Southern thing, y'know. Youse guys in da South always gotta think youse is the onny ones wid a accent.

 

Geesh! Try living in New Jooyzie! :D Here many people say "water" as "worter."

 

Drives me crazy, cuz I never say worter. :tongue_smilie:

[VA6336]

My Memphis-born-raised-lived-there-for-55-years mother in law moved to Alabama and sent us a letter from her address in (and this is what she wrote on the return address of the envelope): "Muntagermery."

 

Did I mention that she's a self-described "educator" in Catholic and public middle schools for 30 years?

 

I couldn't possibly post something like this anywhere else, so please forgive my smirking. That said, we're doing spelling this year and I have discovered that my 6 year old can't distinguish between short i and short e sounds. Constantly mixes them up when spelling. I'm sure we sound much more Southern than I'd like to think we do here at home.

[KidsHappen]

My kids say thum instead of them. I have no idea why but I have been correcting them for years now. They have actually reached a point where they say it incorrectly and then correct themselves.

 

It took me a good long time to learn to say wash instead of warsh. My first hubby once asked me how many r's there were in wash. I said, "One, why?"

 

I have lived so many places though that I really don't have any accent at all. Every now and then some people can detect an ever so slight WI tinge to my vowels but people frequently ask me where I am from because I don't have an accent. I once took one of those on-line tests and it also said that I didn't have an accent.

[fairfarmhand]

And don't you southerners hate the fakey southern accents that are usually portrayed in movies and on tv?

[athena1277]

This thread is cracking me up! We have had a few struggles with pronouncing things right also, but nothing too bad. What has been bugging me lately is that I keep hearing people (IRL and on TV) pronounce "for" like "FUR". "We're going out FUR ice cream, want some?" Um, no. I don't like fur on my ice cream. :tongue_smilie:

[Liz CA]

:lol:

 

Well, as a person whose first language was not English, I had a few problems with "he had aar under his tars". That took me a while. Now I can even decipher some Australian / New Zealand and Southern US accents. :lol:

[mommaduck]

And don't you southerners hate the fakey southern accents that are usually portrayed in movies and on tv?

Yes! Especially when the point is to just make us look ignorant and bigoted.

[The Girls' Mom]

And don't you southerners hate the fakey southern accents that are usually portrayed in movies and on tv?

 

 

YES!! I can spot the fake ones in a heart beat.

 

Ok, here's a weird one. We've moved from TN (born and raised) to TX. I cannot hear much of an accent difference, neither can my girls. But apparently WE sound very Tennessean to Texas folks. I've heard more "ah, so that's where the accent comes from" :confused: I know I have a strong southern accent, but I just can't tell a difference?

[3lilreds in NC]

I love accents. I don't think I have one, but apparently I do - I've been asked which part of Michigan I'm from! :lol: And I get asked which part of the Midwest I'm from all the time.

 

What's cracking me up right now is my girls! Before we moved, we lived around primarily "Northerners." We had lots of neighbors from New York, Ohio, etc. The girls never picked up an accent. Now, though, between listening to Jim Dale read Harry Potter all the time, and hanging out with our new friend who does have a Southern accent, they are making up their own accent that is a cross between British and Southern and it's so cute! I will have to try to record it sometime so I can tease them with it when they're older.

[Rosie_0801]

Now I can even decipher some Australian / New Zealand and Southern US accents. :lol:

 

Huh. It's not so hard. We Aussies only have three accents, apparently.

 

:)

Rosie

[Liz CA]

Huh. It's not so hard. We Aussies only have three accents, apparently.

 

:)

Rosie

 

:lol:

When you learn English from predominantly non-native speakers, it gets really fun when one semester you have an Australian teach and the next semester a lady from Scotland.

We went from "Hey Mates" to "On you go" (think of British accent) in the last year of our studies when we had to take oral state exams. I thought I'd faint and hoped I'd never wake up. But...now I am very grateful for the variety of expressions and accents we were able to experience.

 

Nevertheless the "aar under your tars" was a head scratcher for me. I had never had a teacher from the south.

 

Oh...and I did not mean that Australians and Southerners (US) have anything in common in terms of accents. I was merely pointing out that these different ways of speaking make the journey all the more fun for those who learn the language.

[Rosie_0801]

:lol:

We went from "Hey Mates" to "On you go" (think of British accent) in the last year of our studies when we had to take oral state exams.

 

Ha. Now you're pulling my leg. Aussies never say "Hey Mates" in the plural like that. :tongue_smilie:

 

Oh...and I did not mean that Australians and Southerners (US) have anything in common in terms of accents.

 

I wouldn't accuse you of suggesting something so obviously untrue! We talk much faster than Southerners, I think, for one thing. There are other things, but I wouldn't like to offend our Southern friends ;)

 

Rosie

[Sahamamama]

YES!! I can spot the fake ones in a heart beat.

 

 

So, is Paula Dean's real or fake? My husband says it's fake, I say it's real.

 

What says Apryl? :bigear:

[Chelle in MO]

:lol:

When you learn English from predominantly non-native speakers, it gets really fun when one semester you have an Australian teach and the next semester a lady from Scotland.

We went from "Hey Mates" to "On you go" (think of British accent) in the last year of our studies when we had to take oral state exams. I thought I'd faint and hoped I'd never wake up. But...now I am very grateful for the variety of expressions and accents we were able to experience.

 

Nevertheless the "aar under your tars" was a head scratcher for me. I had never had a teacher from the south.

 

Oh...and I did not mean that Australians and Southerners (US) have anything in common in terms of accents. I was merely pointing out that these different ways of speaking make the journey all the more fun for those who learn the language.

 

 

I thought I'd DIE as an American (Midwesterner) taking French in college from a woman raised in Tunisia, Africa! Apparently, French is the primary language there, but I thought it was just odd!

 

She was trying to tell us the French word for "pond", and she kept saying it w/a long "o" sound. Finally, she said, "SMALL LAKE!"

 

:lol:

[The Girls' Mom]

So, is Paula Dean's real or fake? My husband says it's fake, I say it's real.

 

What says Apryl? :bigear:

 

 

I'd say that she's probably got a real southern accent under there, but I do believe she over does it on purpose. She's just a little too drippy sweet tea Suh-thun to sound real to my ears..lol. That and the way she throws 'ya'll' into every sentence. ;)

[The Girls' Mom]

When we lived in Minnesota briefly (talk about an accent difference!), for the life of me I could not get people to understand the words foil or pinto beans. I would actually have to give definitions. :lol: My poor MIL came to visit, and it was like she was from another country. She dropped her photos off at Walgreens to be developed and requested 'one air'. The poor girl was like :confused::confused::confused:. I had to translate for her.

[Laurie4b]

I've discovered that in order to make a correct short e sound, the jaw needs to drop further than it does for the short i sound. So when pronouncing those kinds of words, I concentrate on dropping my jaw far enough to get the short e sound out. My 9 yo dd is dyslexic, which only exacerbates the problem!!!

 

Another trick is to feel where the sound is being made. The mouth can be held in the same place, but the "i" sound feels like it's made higher up and the "e" causes more vibrations in the chest, so it feels like it's coming from there. (Not a speech-path, so i don't actually know!)

[Desert Rat]

My youngest has a Boston type accent. We don't and never have lived near Boston. He just has lazy Rs. He also says _ag words with a cockney accent. Odd bird, that one.

[KJsMom]

Ok, here's a weird one. We've moved from TN (born and raised) to TX. I cannot hear much of an accent difference, neither can my girls. But apparently WE sound very Tennessean to Texas folks. I've heard more "ah, so that's where the accent comes from" :confused: I know I have a strong southern accent, but I just can't tell a difference?

Do you guys get *ill* when you are angry? That one took quite a while for me to figure out with my Tennessee relatives, we don't say that in TX. And they drink *pop* while we only drink *coke* or maybe a soda now and then.

[The Girls' Mom]

Do you guys get *ill* when you are angry? That one took quite a while for me to figure out with my Tennessee relatives, we don't say that in TX. And they drink *pop* while we only drink *coke* or maybe a soda now and then.

 

 

Oh yes, I've been *ill* many times! :) The pop thing I think is sporadic. Most people I know say coke, and then you specify which kind of coke you want. I had never really heard pop used much until I made a friend who was from Illinois. She also said weird things like express way. :auto:

[fairfarmhand]

Do you guys get *ill* when you are angry? That one took quite a while for me to figure out with my Tennessee relatives, we don't say that in TX. And they drink *pop* while we only drink *coke* or maybe a soda now and then.

 

I get ill too when I'm crabby. And every carbonated beverage is a coke. Even if its a Pepsi!

[Ellie]

My friend who lives outside a tiny town in the middle of North Carolina says that teaching phonics was a nightmare to her, too.:D

[Ellie]

We have a lot of fun sounding things out in a British accent. With SWR 'baby' sounds like bay-bi ...short /i/ sound. All of my girls' names end with a 'y' too so we have a lot of fun with that one especially. :)

But that is how SWR and Spalding and Phonics Road teach it, anyway. :-)

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

Thank you, LizzyBee and Laurie, for the how-to-hold-your-face tips. Seriously, my oldest son wants to study several languages and he would like to know these things!

 

I've never heard anyone with our family dialect speaking French correctly, for example.

 

Not that many of us have tried :lol: but our generation is trying to help our children be a tad more educated!

[katemary63]

Teaching spelling is where I've had issues and I've had to force myself to pronounce words correctly. For reading and conversation, I don't care and I don't make corrections.

 

 

Here in AR, the word "pen" is SPELLED "pin" in the newspapers ALL. THE. TIME. as in round pin, dog pin.

 

As far as pronounciation, I have a funny story. I am from WI. I live here in AR. I went to the bank drive up and asked for a pen. The teller looked puzzled and said, "You want a sticker?" I repeated "pen" again and she still didn't get it. I finally raised my hand and my checkbook and mimicked writing out a check. She says, " Oh, you want a PIN!!! Good Lord girl!!!! You talk so proper, I had no idea what you was sayin'!!!" :lol:

[katemary63]

So, is Paula Dean's real or fake? My husband says it's fake, I say it's real.

 

What says Apryl? :bigear:

 

Totally real all the way. I know many people who talk like her and many even more extreme.

[HerdingCats]

My friend who lives outside a tiny town in the middle of North Carolina says that teaching phonics was a nightmare to her, too.

 

I had a friend in college from "Saiyndi Reedj, Nowth Cerahlahnuh." I think her name was "Jyehnahfuh." I grew up in NC and still couldn't understand her a lot of the time. I have noticed such a great diversity in different regional southern accents over the years I can usually tell which part of the south someone is from. I think it's fun to guess!

 

There is an actor on one show I started watching recently who is doing a pretty good Texas accent, but into the second show I was pretty sure he was from Canada. I looked it up on Wiki and sure enough, he is from B.C.:D