How Do You Say...

In the office, we have quite a hodge-podge of accents both globally and from the USA. Here in the IP section, I continually get re-educated on regional dialects in the USA especially, and I find it amazing.

For example, my friend Stephanie is from Kentucky, and she moved back to Louisville a few years ago. My friend Kristen and I planned a weekend excursion to visit her, and when I told my co-worker Dena about my trip, she hastily corrected me on the correct pronounciation of Louisville.

“Not Louey-vill, Mel. It’s Loo-ih-vull.”

Now Dena is from Tennessee, and so I trusted her advice, and after a few day of intense phonetic training, I finally got my Midwestern tongue to say it as she suggested. The silly thing is that once I got the pronounciation down, I had to say the word extremely fast so that I wouldn’t screw it up. It quickly became a one-and-a-half syllable word for me. Dena joked that she was tempted to say Gesundheit each time I said the city since my pronounciation was more like a sneeze than a word. HA!

Well, fast forward a couple of years, and we get a new attorney in the office from Louisville, and being the Southern gentleman that he is, it takes him a while to finally correct my pronounciation and that of Dena’s for his beloved hometown.

“Slow it down, Mel. It’s Loo-uh-vull. It should just roll off your tongue.”

So I’ve been practicing the correct recitation ever since, but it has brought up a couple more questions in my mind. Does that mean that Nashville should be Nash-vull? Knoxville be Knox-vull? Asheville be Ash-vull? And what about Greenville? I lived there for 4 years, and I don’t recall anyone correcting my speech and suggesting that I call it Green-vull. Or does it depend upon which of the Carolina Greenville’s you are referring? Now, I’m confused.

I’m a Midwest girl. It is what it is. I grew up with that nasal Michigan thing going for me, but then I went to college in South Carolina and have now lived in Indiana for 12+ years. Honestly I’m not sure where I sound like I’m from. When I’m tired, the Michigan comes out in me. Words like car become different, and it’s a dead give-away. But ordinarily under proper resting conditions, I’m not sure what a linguistic expert would say of my speech. Would he pinpoint the Michigan thing instantly? Would he sense the Carolina influence? Would he detect the Hoosier-isms?

Oh well! I don’t know any Professor Higgins types to investigate it further, and let’s face it, I’m no Eliza Doolittle either. I just think it’s fascinating to study how people say the same word from location to location. I love the differences which make up this melting pot I am pleased to call home.