AMERICAN PRIVILEGE, YOU... CANADIAN.

I still don't get the "shone" thing. It's SO DIFFERENT TO "SHAWN" AND "SHOWN".

Also, the last question is one I feel I ought to, if I talked properly, say "different", but I don't talk properly. XD

LOL I WANT TO HEAR YOU SAY "SHONE" IDGI. It sounds exactly like Sean/Shawn/Shaun to me.

They sound the same to me, I don't have that "wh" sound in my speech. If I say them differently I feel like A BIG PHONY.

Sorry for my butthurt response to question 1. I'm still butthurt.

Also, high school is measured by secondary levels (ie: secondary I - secondary V). But if you want: high school starts in Grade 7, but we don't use terms like "freshman".

But you'd say "grade 7" I guess? Mostly I notice that "Grade __" seems to be Canadian whereas "___th Grade" seems to be American.

Except for mum, we have all the same answers lol. EVEN SHAWN.

PSHAW Quebec did not ruin me forever.

LOL WELL I DID NOT INCLUDE "HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE TERRACE" OR "WHAT DO YOU CALL THOSE TINY STORES THAT SEEM TO BE OPEN 24/7 AND SELL CIGARETTES, JUNK FOOD AND MILK"

I am surprised by the number of "shown"s actually.

I do not understand how shone could sound like Shawn

I don't understand how it could sound like "shown" tbh.

American privilage rules! :-D

mom/mum was the hardest. i think cos i'm secretly trying to be british, i spell it mum all the time now and say it, i really had to think about what normal me was thinking about.

I didn't realize anyone here said "mum" until goldy_dollar's mom accused me of sounding American. Then I started asking people, and I think it depends on context a bit -- I think most of my friends say more like "mum" when they're talking TO their mom, but "mom" in a general "so and so's mom" way. And I think they would spell it with an O.

I don't call my mother either of those things so it's a bit harder for me to answer.

I LOVE NOT HAVING A REGION SPECIFIC AMERICAN ACCENT!

YEAH NEWSCASTER ACCENT

Well idk I do have some Canadianisms in my speech. The difference in writer and rider is what they call "Canadian raising" and I do that. And I say shone "the Canadian way".

In Quebec freshman year of Highschool is 7th grade actually... your quiz is all non-Quebec priviledge!!!!

Buzzed = marijauna. THAT'S HOW WE DO IT IN BOSTON, YO.

LOL I had a debate with goldy_dollar's family about this. My hypothesis was that it might be a generational thing. To me it means tipsy, not even full-out drunk. "Blazed" would be weed, though.

Definitely had a big long argument with my (Torontonian) boyfriend about "shone" the other day. It's just... what? No.

Also, the "9th grade/grade 9" thing is so weird. Such a tiny difference, but so completely universal, depending on where you are.

He says it the "Canadian way"! Which makes sense, if he is from Toronto.

Yeah it's weird isn't it? It's definitely "grade ___" in my head, but I remember noticing in high school that all my American (online) friends said "___th grade".

I LOVE POLLS. XD

I also love how I've heard words get smashed together around her and how vowel sounds are completely changed for no reason.

Ha! this is fascinating to me. Particularly since I'm a West Coast Canadian (this is an important distinction!!!) teacher who has recently moved to the UK where I am now teaching 5 and 6 year olds how to read and write using phonics. Considering I have 6 students it's amazing to me how different their accents are and how differently they pronounce letters and sounds. Some of them really make it hard on themselves though when they pronounce things like "eat" as "et" How the heck are they supposed to learn that ea usually has the long e sound when they don't pronounce the word right?!?!?!? Although yes, I know, my perception of "right" is very likely skewed by my Canadian upbringing. But still - the other children say it the way I do, but this one does not. She also adds "R's" to words in odd places. For example for "Saw" she says "Sore". !?!?!?!?!?

Also, I saw your comment somewhere about IPA and I have to say I agree. One of my voice teachers used to make me write out all of my pieces entirely in IPA (I hated it) and it totally made it so I could properly pronounce the words of almost any song in any language. Except German because German is one tough language to sing in. Too many hard consonants. Italian on the other hand, is a dream... unless you have to say "deyouolmini non seguio" (not the right spelling, but that's what it sounds like phonetically - took me forever to learn to say that properly. It has j's and lots of vowels and is just... !!!!)

Lol "et" is definitely regional. Although I say "sore" and "saw" the same. HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO SAY IT?

I approve of this poll.

I do not approve of these comments that are talking about which versions are "correct" or whatever. I hope your flist knows I'm judging them.

Linguistics questions/comments:

-I think the problem with the shone/shawn/shown is that shone/shawn or shone/shown might not be homophones for everyone. (AVOIDED IF EVERYONE JUST LEARNT IPA.) Anyway, I pronounce it / ʃan /.

-I said "rice ales" and "rye sales" sound the same, but I misidentified. I raise "rice ales" to / rʌis'ailz / but leave "rye sales" as / rai'sailz /.

-I do the same thing with "rider" and "writer" -- I raise "rider" but apparently not "writer"? At first I thought I was using the same vowel and just holding it longer for "writer", but no, it's definitely / rʌiɾr / and / raiɾr /.

-I think fewer and fewer people are making the distinction between [w] and [ʍ]. They're not contrastive in any variety of English, so it doesn't surprise me.

PRESCRIPTIVISMMM

1. IA,but I couldn't think of a better way to do it without homophones, since no one knows IPA. I say / ʃan / as well.

2. Same. Our prof brought this up while discussing raising and whether or not the raising carries beyond word boundaries. It doesn't for me.

3. Strange! I do the same but inversed -- / raiɾr / for "rider" but / rʌiɾr / for "writer".

4. Yeah when we talked about it in class most people didn't use it, just our prof.

THIS IS FASCINATING TELL ME MORE.

I could never major in linguistics (at CMU, there's a required "Nature of Language" course that involves math and sin waves and listening to umlauts or wingdings or whatever for hours), but still interested in how language differs geographically. LJ poll = awesome.

I'm only minoring, partly because at my school you have to do CRAZY THINGS like SPEAK FRENCH to major at my school and... I suck and can't, lol. But I do find it super interesting!

OMG this is so relevant to my interests! I'm actually thinking about a double major, one of them Linguistics because languages/accents/dialects utterly fascinate me.

So excuse me as I go pour over these answers.

You totally should because linguistics is awesome! I took an elective as a whim in first year and thought it was the awesomest thing ever, lol. I have now not had a linguistics class in over a year and have FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING but it's still really interesting.

Disclaimer: English is not my first language and while I now have all my diplomas, I self-taught watching TV when I was younger, so I might have an American-sounding accent but I use British slang and my English is a mess because I pick up tons of stuff from books/tv/etc.

I don't have this issue with my mother tongue.

That makes your answers interesting though! There aren't really right or wrongs to any of these, I'm just curious.

This was really interesting! Some of the results surprised me and made me go 'really? really?' haha. Thanks for this interesting linguistic insight, I will tell you my thoughts on msn later.

I'm surprised by a couple and others match up with my hypothesis. The shawn/shown division almost perfectly liens up with the Canadian/American divide I anticipated. I'm surprised by how many people say "rice ales" and "rye sales" the same though, there's a big difference for me.

Some of these have multiple answers for me! D:

Like your pronunciation changes in context? Or something else?

The on accident vs. by accident really tripped me up. I never really considered it and logically I know I should call my mom Mom but I always call her Mumsy or Mumma. It's weird.

Edited at 2010-10-30 11:09 pm (UTC)

I call my mom by her first name (idk why, just always have) so I only ever use it in context of "___'s mom" or "my mom" but never as a direct address. I think most people around me use "mum" when they are addressing their mother, "mom" when they are referring to someone's mother, and would spell the word with an O.

Oooh I like this poll.

My Texas step-brother things once told me that I have a New York accent, but I don't think I do. Hmm.

I'm not very good at identifying regional accents so I probably wouldn't be able to tell you. I would notice things we said differently, probably, because linguistics has made me more aware of how people pronounce stuff and how it differs from my pronunciations but I'm not good at pinpointing regions or anything. I noticed that my relatives in Michigan sounded very "American" but I couldn't be more specific if I hadn't known where they were from.

The two I skipped were the one about 'shone', and the one about freshman year in highschool.

a) I pronounce shone as 'shon', short o.

b) We have grades in primary school, but once we hit highschool it's 'year __'. So, highschool starts with year 7.

I am just going to jump in here to say I concur with both these statements. Except I'm pretty sure I called it "year _" right from year 1...

Actually, "shone" does not sound like either Shaun OR shown to me, but rather like the word "on".

Bloody europeans and their nitpicking.

It might alos help to mention that I am a german, who started to learn english in school (year 7), where they begin by teaching you about brits but mostly in american accents. Then I had full frontal language flashes by going to my sister's hostfamily in Texas, followed by language class in Florida two years after that, then jazzed things up by reading ALL the books in english, watching X Files tapes from the US. Then: cue the anglophilia. Harry Potter, Jane Austen, DW and everything that was ever produced in the way of film and telly on the isles. Ever. Roadtrip. Family's traditional trip to London with friends as the girl turns 18. More trips to London. More roadtrips - this time in Scotland. Abroad semester in London. British boyfriend.

And then, there you have it: Mostly british accent, with probably some german undertones and the odd southern slang to irriate everyone. Second languages are fun!

SQUEEEEE. I LOVE THIS KIND OF THING. :D

I DIDN'T ANSWER THE ACCIDENT QUESTION BECAUSE I THINK EITHER ANSWER IS ACCEPTABLE. I THINK I WOULD SAY "BY ACCIDENT"

I DON'T KNOW WHY I SEEM TO BE STUCK IN CAPSLOCKY MOOD TONIGHT. I AM HAPPY.

SHONE SOUNDS DIFFERENT TO BOTH THOSE THINGS. WHAT DO I DO?

BTW, linguistic things that I love? "What are you talking about? I don't have an accent."
yes, yes you do.

LOL omg I side-eye someone as soon as they say that.