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

[Joyofsixreboot]

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.

 

I'm a born and raised Hoosier and I do to 'warsh my deeshes in the crick'. But only when I'm talkin', when I'm writin' I can do it properly. It does make the whole hen/hin thing annoying though. My dd didn't get how hen and ten were supposed to rhyme.

[katemary63]

Has anyone ever used this song to teach the vowel sounds? I did with all my kids and it really helps set the differences between them. Of course for me, short i and short e are very different and I wanted my kids to say them the way I do and not like our southern family. (No offense, it's just my preference.)

 

http://www.songsforteaching.com/b/applesandbananas.htm

 

"I like to Eat Apples and Bananas."

 

You can sing this with all the vowel sounds including short. After you sing it correctly, you change the vowel you use with each stanza. Eventually, you can point to a vowel on a chart or something and have the child try to sing the right version. It's really fun!

 

Long Vowels:

I like to ate ate ate aypples and baynaynays.

I like to eat eat eat eepples and beeneenees.

I like to ite ite ite iypples and biyniyniys.

I like to ote ote ote ohpples and bohnohnohs.

I like to oot oot oot oopples and boonoonoos.

 

Short Vowels:

I like to at at at apples and ba-nanas.

I like to et et et epples and benenes.

I like to it it it ipples and bininis.

I like to aht aht aht ahpples and bahnahnahs.

I like to ut ut ut upples and bununus.

 

Kids LOVE to sing this song and try to get the sound right. It really, really helped my kids learn the vowel sounds I wanted them to learn inspite of what they heard around them. My DD9 has been here in AR since she was two and you would never know it. Mission accomplished! :D

Edited August 14, 2010 by katemary63

[Sahamamama]

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. ;)

 

So we're both right! She HAS a Southern accent, but she hams it up, y'all.

 

:lol: My husband will die laughing over this, y'all.

 

Years ago my friend from Florida used to say "might could" all. the. time. Don't y'all know, as a New Jersey girl, this was new to me. :D Now I actually say "might could," and my husband just rolls over...

 

Bye, y'all. See ya later, gator.

[Sahamamama]

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.

 

:lol::lol::lol:

[mhg]

I have that problem. Other day my husband pointed out (accurately) that I say the word bread with 2 syllables. Bray-ed.

 

I have to REALLY work at it.

 

It seems that northerners use their lips more to form words and articulate whereas we southerners keep lips a bit more stationary and let the tongue make our sounds more (at least I think this is my theory of my trouble with this).

[mhg]

I saw that post about the apples and bananas song.

I recall from my childhood hearing the 3 stooges singing the alphabet song. I did a search on youtube and found them singing it. It's hilarious (and it actually helped with learning phonics).....

go to www.youtube.com and enter "3 stooges alphabet song" (think I'll start a thread on this.....it's too funny).

[abbeyej]

...

Years ago my friend from Florida used to say "might could" all. the. time. Don't y'all know, as a New Jersey girl, this was new to me. :D Now I actually say "might could," and my husband just rolls over...

 

I grew up in the South but genuinely don't have a Southern accent. But I do say, and have always said, "might could" and "might should". Dh used to get such a kick out of it. "Which is it?!?" he would say. ;) ... But lately I've even heard him say them. Once or twice.

 

I love "might could" and "might should". ;)

[babysparkler]

When I was newly teaching in Texas, I sat in on a phonics lesson of a fellow teacher on my off-period one day. I was in shock when I (as a Pennsylvania native) heard the teacher lead the children in sounding out the word "hit" as "h - eeuh - t"!!! :001_huh: It took me a while to realize what the word was! :lol::lol::lol: True culture shock :)

[Liz CA]

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

 

 

 

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

 

So...it had to be "Hey Mate?"

I also remember how he said "Wednesday". We thought it was so funny until we heard the Scottish version. :lol:

[Sahamamama]

I have that problem. Other day my husband pointed out (accurately) that I say the word bread with 2 syllables. Bray-ed.

 

I have to REALLY work at it.

 

It seems that northerners use their lips more to form words and articulate whereas we southerners keep lips a bit more stationary and let the tongue make our sounds more (at least I think this is my theory of my trouble with this).

 

My mother and sister say "mine" as a two-syllable word. It sounds like "mayan." As in Mayan and Incan.

 

"No, you can't have that piece of pizza. It's mayan."

 

Interestingly enough, only my mother and sister do this. My father and I are immune.

[babysparkler]

I grew up in the South but genuinely don't have a Southern accent. But I do say, and have always said, "might could" and "might should". Dh used to get such a kick out of it. "Which is it?!?" he would say. ;) ... But lately I've even heard him say them. Once or twice.

 

I love "might could" and "might should". ;)

 

Yes, I've surprised myself by saying that a couple of times... it is catchy :)

[Ellie]

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.

There are over 200 Southern dialects, so I've heard. :) None of the ones I'm familiar with say "warsh" or "warter." However, a friend from Washington state does say "warsh." Go figure.:)

 

Oh, and "far" ants...:lol: Some people here in Central Texas say that. I'm determined not to let myself slip into that, lol.

[Rosie_0801]

I also remember how he said "Wednesday".

 

That's funny?

 

We thought it was so funny until we heard the Scottish version. :lol:

 

I'll bet :D

 

Rosie

[babysparkler]

There are over 200 Southern dialects, so I've heard. :) None of the ones I'm familiar with say "warsh" or "warter." However, a friend from Washington state does say "warsh." Go figure.:)

 

Oh, and "far" ants...:lol: Some people here in Central Texas say that. I'm determined not to let myself slip into that, lol.

 

A childhood friend of mine in PA said "warsh" and "warter"... we all thought it was funny because everyone knew the proper pronunciation was "wooder" :lol:. I didn't learn "water" until moving to Texas... go figure!

[Liz CA]

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:

 

How funny! I had to learn French too (remember very little unfortunately) and our (native) French teacher spoke so well that it took us 2 years to hear her make a mistake. All our heads shot up in unison, we were so surprised.

[SonshineLearner]

And you probably don't say "for" you say "fer"... Darn... I can't get rid of that!!

 

:)

[fairfarmhand]

I have that problem. Other day my husband pointed out (accurately) that I say the word bread with 2 syllables. Bray-ed.

 

I have to REALLY work at it.

 

It seems that northerners use their lips more to form words and articulate whereas we southerners keep lips a bit more stationary and let the tongue make our sounds more (at least I think this is my theory of my trouble with this).

 

 

WE say bray-ed for bread and cay-at for cat....

[Parrothead]

Did you catch the ball or did you ketch the ball?

[LibraryLover]

Ha!

Edited August 15, 2010 by LibraryLover

[LibraryLover]

I thought it was watah.

 

A childhood friend of mine in PA said "warsh" and "warter"... we all thought it was funny because everyone knew the proper pronunciation was "wooder" :lol:. I didn't learn "water" until moving to Texas... go figure!

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

Did you catch the ball or did you ketch the ball?

 

We ketch it.

[sparrow]

I'm so enjoying reading this thread! :lol:

 

My grandmother was born and raised in southern Indiana and passed 'warsh' and 'Warshington' down to my mom. Any time we tried to ask if she saw an 'R' in 'wash', she'd get all offended and ask how we'd like her to say it, 'waaahhhhsh'? :D

 

I also remember visiting my cousins in GA when I was about 9. We were all playing and one of my cousins asked if I wanted some M & M's. I cannot convey to you how LONG the brief sentence, "Kim, want some M & M's?" sounded to my northern ears. First of all, 'Kim' became two syllables and seemed to have at least 5 extra 'm's' at the end and 'M & M's' was extended to longer than I thought possible. They just thought I talked WAY too quickly. I still do :blushing:.

[sassenach]

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...!

 

Funny, I grew up in SoCal and short e is not an issue for me. For me it is the short a sound. It's hard to describe, but I almost put a y sound at the end of a short a. If I omit that y sound, it sounds like I'm speaking in a British accent. It's funny how you don't notice these things till you teach phonics.

 

There is definitely a SoCal accent, but for the life of me I can't put my finger on it. I've lived all over the country and I could often tell if someone was from the LA area before they told me.

[Parrothead]

Where does putting an er at the end of any word that ends in a come from?

 

Amanda becomes Amander

enigma becomes enigmer

 

It doesnt' matter where I live, inevitably someone is going to do that.

[Mejane]

Where does putting an er at the end of any word that ends in a come from?

 

 

 

That's a Brooklyn thing. My mom used to take her umbreller out when it rained. In Boston, they put r's where a's go, and a's where r's go. What's up with that? :D