Meet Matilda, our new baby.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Speech Patterns in Northern WV
In early December, I got a letter from a Meghan Chiampa, of the Island of Somerbridge/Camberville, MA, asking: "Do people talk differently there?"
Well, yes Meghan, there is a dialect.
I am not going to do this justice, but it's something I've been wanting to write about for several months (my first attempt to blog about it was on 9/25/07, a little more than a month after moving, however, I felt that I didn't have enough to work with and banked it for another time). I had a big plan to collect data and evidence, but it's hard to stop someone mid-conversation so that I can jot down their unusual way of speaking so that I can point it out later on in a public forum.
But, there is a specific dialect and vernacular here in WV that deserves a bit of attention. Wikipedia calls it Pittsburghese. However, I think what people speak here is just a little set apart from Pittsburgh English, simply because here most people speak with a pretty distinct southern accent. However, the specifics are nearly identical.
I would say that the most common bit of creative phrase-work around here is need/want/like + past-tense, dropping the "to be." I hear this combination every single day and everyone originally from here uses it. Here are some examples I've heard: "My coffee needs warmed," "my oil needs changed," "Mike said he wants picked up at three," the best one: "I said, if he has anything that needs biopsy-ed, he should just buck up and get it done."
I hear stuff like this every day, and have jokingly let it into our home, most commonly with: "Aaron, the dang dog needs walked!" However, we tread a bit lightly here, because we both know that things like this can become a bit habit forming.
Another, less common, dialectical trait is the use of "anymore." I've only heard this a handful of times. It goes something like this: "He always takes his lunch early anymore." Meaning, lately he's been taking his lunch early. (Can you tell I do most of my linguistic analysis at work?)
I am going to try to be more diligent about taking notes when I hear something interesting and I'll report back.
ps - people also seem to use the word "choosy" here a lot, but I can't tell if that is a regional thing. They say things like: "I'm choosy when it comes to ..." or "she's real choosy about how she wants that."
Well, yes Meghan, there is a dialect.
I am not going to do this justice, but it's something I've been wanting to write about for several months (my first attempt to blog about it was on 9/25/07, a little more than a month after moving, however, I felt that I didn't have enough to work with and banked it for another time). I had a big plan to collect data and evidence, but it's hard to stop someone mid-conversation so that I can jot down their unusual way of speaking so that I can point it out later on in a public forum.
But, there is a specific dialect and vernacular here in WV that deserves a bit of attention. Wikipedia calls it Pittsburghese. However, I think what people speak here is just a little set apart from Pittsburgh English, simply because here most people speak with a pretty distinct southern accent. However, the specifics are nearly identical.
I would say that the most common bit of creative phrase-work around here is need/want/like + past-tense, dropping the "to be." I hear this combination every single day and everyone originally from here uses it. Here are some examples I've heard: "My coffee needs warmed," "my oil needs changed," "Mike said he wants picked up at three," the best one: "I said, if he has anything that needs biopsy-ed, he should just buck up and get it done."
I hear stuff like this every day, and have jokingly let it into our home, most commonly with: "Aaron, the dang dog needs walked!" However, we tread a bit lightly here, because we both know that things like this can become a bit habit forming.
Another, less common, dialectical trait is the use of "anymore." I've only heard this a handful of times. It goes something like this: "He always takes his lunch early anymore." Meaning, lately he's been taking his lunch early. (Can you tell I do most of my linguistic analysis at work?)
I am going to try to be more diligent about taking notes when I hear something interesting and I'll report back.
ps - people also seem to use the word "choosy" here a lot, but I can't tell if that is a regional thing. They say things like: "I'm choosy when it comes to ..." or "she's real choosy about how she wants that."
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
What I Want to be: Part 2
I am roasting a turkey and root vegetables right now and just made maybe my favorite thing in the whole world: Green Goddess Dressing. I am trying the version from this cookbook. Needless to say, I am feeling very domestic. And thus thinking again about the question I posed last week: what is it that I want to do with my life?
This is really a difficult topic, because I don't have a clue as to what the answer might be. I talked about teaching in the last post, but is that really what I want, or is it just a job? I think it's just a job I don't think I'd totally hate. It's just what most English majors do, because there aren't that many options. But to be a professor, you have to produce. It's not just about teaching. You have to publish papers and be an asset to your department in order to be kept. I don't know about that. Sounds pretty daunting. For just a job.
The problem with me is that I don't ever find myself considering a career "my life," if you know what I mean. Everyone asks, "so, what do you want to do with your life?" Well, this day is pretty nice. My house smells really good right now. With my life, I want to cook good food, make my home comfortable, listen to my dog snore in the next room, and be engrossed in whatever book I'm reading. Travel. Sleep. Experience. What job do I want in order to have these things in my life? Beats me. If I must take something at all, make it something painless. I like learning. I do want to go back to school. I don't mind editing. I think I would be a fair teacher. I secretly want to open a business making and selling my own artisan goat cheese. I think I'd like that. But no one here wants goat cheese. This is a Kraft Singles kind of place. Plus, no goats. It poses a bit of a problem. I need like way more than one goat and probably need to work on learning how to make cheese. This isn't going to happen any time soon, if ever.
I remember my friend Dana once said, half jokingly, as we were talking about our looming graduation into Reality: "when I grow up, I want to be a professor's wife."
Sounds good to me.
But seriously, it's all too much. I don't know what I want to be, yet. I feel weird because most people I know know what they want to do and are doing it. I am sitting here making a turkey and feeling a little angry with myself for not getting more excited about the rat race. Is it wrong to want this? (This being the turkey and dog and house and in the spring the garden and chickens and crossmyfingers, the goat (a goat, not many).) A year ago, I would have said yes, except I would have thought no. Now...I don't know. I am living far away from everyone right now: people who looked so disappointed when I said that I was moving to West Virginia and was giving it a year before I thought about grad school. It's easier to justify this now. It's easy to live the life you want when you're not around people who think less of you for it. But is it realistic?
This is really a difficult topic, because I don't have a clue as to what the answer might be. I talked about teaching in the last post, but is that really what I want, or is it just a job? I think it's just a job I don't think I'd totally hate. It's just what most English majors do, because there aren't that many options. But to be a professor, you have to produce. It's not just about teaching. You have to publish papers and be an asset to your department in order to be kept. I don't know about that. Sounds pretty daunting. For just a job.
The problem with me is that I don't ever find myself considering a career "my life," if you know what I mean. Everyone asks, "so, what do you want to do with your life?" Well, this day is pretty nice. My house smells really good right now. With my life, I want to cook good food, make my home comfortable, listen to my dog snore in the next room, and be engrossed in whatever book I'm reading. Travel. Sleep. Experience. What job do I want in order to have these things in my life? Beats me. If I must take something at all, make it something painless. I like learning. I do want to go back to school. I don't mind editing. I think I would be a fair teacher. I secretly want to open a business making and selling my own artisan goat cheese. I think I'd like that. But no one here wants goat cheese. This is a Kraft Singles kind of place. Plus, no goats. It poses a bit of a problem. I need like way more than one goat and probably need to work on learning how to make cheese. This isn't going to happen any time soon, if ever.
I remember my friend Dana once said, half jokingly, as we were talking about our looming graduation into Reality: "when I grow up, I want to be a professor's wife."
Sounds good to me.
But seriously, it's all too much. I don't know what I want to be, yet. I feel weird because most people I know know what they want to do and are doing it. I am sitting here making a turkey and feeling a little angry with myself for not getting more excited about the rat race. Is it wrong to want this? (This being the turkey and dog and house and in the spring the garden and chickens and crossmyfingers, the goat (a goat, not many).) A year ago, I would have said yes, except I would have thought no. Now...I don't know. I am living far away from everyone right now: people who looked so disappointed when I said that I was moving to West Virginia and was giving it a year before I thought about grad school. It's easier to justify this now. It's easy to live the life you want when you're not around people who think less of you for it. But is it realistic?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
