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Seeking The Possibly Inaudible: Is There a Houston Accent? «The question of whether there exists a definable, distinct Houston accent has come up in the blogosphere, inspired from beyond the grave by Marvin Zindler. Sixty-year-old tapes of the white-suited wonder's radio broadcasts, posted on J.R. Gonzales's Bayou City History blog, reveal that the vast majority of interviewees and old Marvin himself sounded a lot more Southern than people around here do now. »
Thank you, Grant, for posting this article! I'm feeling all nostalgic now, over my old hometown. The comments following the article were even more fun. Words and pronounciations I just don't hear anymore, unless I'm visiting family: doodle bug (for the little armadillo-bugs), feeder roads, pen/pin, "wrapping" a house, iddn't and waddn't (isn't and wasn't).
But what made me laugh out loud: Waterburger and chester drawers. I feel homesick!
I think there's definitely a Houston vocabulary (or at least an urban Texas vocabulary). As mentioned in the article linked, "Doodle bugs" for "sow bugs" is definitely one I remember as a kid, but my father who grew up in Brazoria county calls them "pill bugs," and he gives me a funny look when I call them "doodle bugs."
I've wondered about the term "pump" myself, and that seems localized, but may go further afield than I know.
People say I don't have an accent, but when I lived in Louisiana careful listeners have said that I sound like I another friend from Austin, and that's led me to wonder if there isn't some generic urban Texas accent that people in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio have. ...and I don't mean the real twangy folks you still run into. The speech has definitely changed over the years, particularly if you listen to the clips of Zindler on the Chronicle site they link to.
I was thinking about this when Ted Kennedy died, and hearing lots of snippets of his early speeches. He doesn't sound like he did in the 1960s. I would hazard to say that most Americans' speech has changed through the years, even individually.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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