Discussion Forum (Archived)
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I have always wondered what "to drawl" means. The dictionaries say it means to lengthen the vowels. I tried to find samples of the southern accent on the internet and found great websites which offers almost all the accents throughout the entire America. I thought I could find the southern accent slower than the other accents but to my surprise, I saw more or less no difference in the way people speak.
When I asked a friend of mine about drawling the vowels, he told me like this :
"The more you approach the south, the slower things are. Everything gets slower. So when you go to a restaurant and order something, your order comes after an hour."
I am not 100% sure the last part has anything to do with drawling 🙂
The websites I found samples of accents are :
1. http://web.ku.edu/idea/index.htm
2. http://accent.gmu.edu/
I'm looking forward to what you have to say regarding the Texan American or southern accents.
Serkan
Hi, Serkan -- Interesting that it's difficult for you to hear the regional differences in American English. To native speakers, they're pretty dramatic. Then agian, I had the same experience distinguishing different varieties of Spanish until I became much more familiar with the language and also had native speakers point out differences that I just couldn't distinguish on my own.
Thanks for your comments Martha. Well, you may well be right. I had Grant listen to a podcast for my sake so that he would tell me what the man was saying in a particular sentence. He said he had no doubt the man says duh-duh-duh. His being a native speaker gives me enough confidence and reassures me. Maybe you can listen to the same podcast I mentioned in my posting in the title PoMemphians in the forum.
I know that the word "really" is not a one-syllable word so it must be hard to pronounce it quickly , well at least quickly AND properly.
So I am kindly asking you to drop me a bit of information regarding how Joseph Koury (guy in the podcast) pronounces the words "really into" so quickly.
I know "into" may change into "inno" when spoken too fast, but how about "really"?
Note: If what I said made no sense to you and you happen to find it a little too scattered, please take a look at my posting in the forum under the title Pomemphians. 🙂 Thanks and I love listening to you guys.
Serkan
"Rilly" as a pronunciation of "really" is quite common in the United States and is considered a feature of some dialects, especially where certain vowel mergers are taking place. Unfortunately, most mainstream English-language dictionaries do not include dialect pronunciations. They include just the one or two most common ones, usually the ones that belong to the prestige accents of the group they believe to represent the educated elite, and then they leave it at that. There's simply not enough room in their pages to do otherwise.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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