mow-IN

Have noticed this habit in OP as well and assumed it was a Yankee thing as the people I've noticed doing it are not from around here. Doesn't bug me that much.

The teen girl / young woman upward inflection thing is maddening though. Drops your perceived IQ about 30 points in my book. I heard an interview on NPR one day about this very thing and this lady went on a rant over it. She could do a perfect mimicry of a girl talking like that and then lambasted all girls that talk that way as sounding like morons and no one is going to respect you talking like that. It was pretty awesome.

Having said all of that I think my East Texas accent is becoming prominent again the longer I'm out of the office. I sound like a complete hick on audio.

dmart90 said:

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Icecream_Ag said:

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BMX Bandit said:

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Cromagnum said:

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I challenge them to pronounce unemployed.

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It's pronounced "stim-U-lus check"


Paw paws out there can't pronounce Chipotle & thinks Kroger is plural.

Whines about how these crazy kids talk today

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my grandpa always called mozzarella cheese Maserati cheese

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That's racist!

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they're both Italian though

Vroo!

Fightin TX Aggie said:

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Vroo!

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You can't escape it!

redcrayon said:

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SpreadsheetAg said:

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Fightin TX Aggie said:

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I can't be the only person who has noticed this. Younger Americans routinely mispronounce words with certain double consonants in the middle. The best example of this is the word "important."

The youngs don't say important. They say impor'ant.

Button becomes buh'un.

Certain becomes ser'un.

I'm certain this is a sign of our downfall as a nation.

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I feel like this is a Texas colloquialism ... I am 40 and I say But'n, surt'n, and import' nt...

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This is different than what the OP is talking about.

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Yes, it is different. You hear it in British speech, too, in Cockney, Geordie, and other "lower class" accents. It's not necessary that they drop the "t" altogether, as sometimes they do pronounce it but sort of swallow it--rather, the real noticeable thing is that they shift it from the syllable in which it is supposed to appear to the preceding syllable. Instead of cer-tain it's cert-ain. Instead of im-por-tant, it's im-port-ant. Instead of Bri-tish it's Brit-ish.

YouBet said:

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Having said all of that I think my East Texas accent is becoming prominent again the longer I'm out of the office. I sound like a complete hick on audio.

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The isolation of living in Australia for 12 years made my American/Texas accent stronger.

I guess, without talking to Californians on a daily basis, my accent reverted to what it probably would be normally.

pagerman @ work said:

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fixer said:

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Regional dialects are good and cool with me, pretty much no matter what they are. Sometimes its cool to hear how others use the same words.

That is regional dialects.

The topic of this thread, butchery of easy to pronounce words, is irritating.

"Lemme axe you a question"

"impor-ant"

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In the age of social media and instant, worldwide communication regional dialects easily escape their regions.

I have a 16 year old daughter and she does this occasionally. I then tell her not to speak like an idiot yankee. Your manner of speech affects how people view you and I did not raise her to speak like an idiot New Jersey hood rat.

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It's not social media, it's media in general. Social media is mostly visual or textual, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc, so you aren't picking up speech patterns from it. The majority of content you're exposed to is also from your region because that's where your network is mostly tied to.

And it isn't so much that regional dialects escape their region, it's that they're blended and diluted. Kids shows are responsible for a lot of this. They are distributed nationally and lack regional accents to be mass appeal. They're bland when it comes to speech. Kids absorb that in their formative years, so regional accents get diluted more and more as time passes. Adult shows are similar. Everyone talks on the same way, and even attempts at regional accents are often diluted approximations for understanding and appeal. Nationally syndicated radio and music also plays a big part. Even as adults we adjust ourselves to our surroundings, including speech. I've met people and have family who have lived abroad for years and come back with a little bit of a foreign accent because they've been exposed to it for so long.



And let's not forget that language and speech change all the time, albeit slowly and imperceptibly. English as a language has changed considerably over the last few hundred years in word usage alone. We have no idea how dialects have changed because there's no audio recordings of most of human history. Go back a couple hundred years and English speakers might look at you like an uneducated idiot with your modern pronunciations and word usage. There's no way of knowing, but there's a solid chance. 1920's sports reporter guy is a perfect example. When he does his shtick, he sticks out like a sore thumb because no one talks like that anymore, yet he might have fit right in just 100 years ago.

Motracicletraficificker said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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This is a gen z thing and primarily in those born in the early 2000s and later. I don't ever hear anyone but teens talking like this.

But every generation has weird speech habits that transcend regional dialects. I've met boomers from everywhere who can't say "wash". I used to think it was just an Texas thing, but there are 55+ year olds from all over who say "worshington" and "throw it in the worsh". This generation also struggles with various consonants, particularly "didn't". It's always "did nit", dinnunt", "didnet", etc.

Millennials, primarily women, often finish their sentences with an upward inflection that makes everything sound like a question. A lot more people in this generation also speak unnecessarily loudly all the time.

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HAHAHAHAHAH!!! So true. This drives me literally insane. My wife watches all these instagram ladies and their channels talking about outfits/makeup/hair/style...Every single one of them speak exactly the same way. If you couldn't see their face, you wouldn't know the difference. plug & play with upward inflection.

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Statements that sound like questions are very Australian. Especially young Aussie females.

Dear diary?

C@LAg said:

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Texans of all age groups, in most locations, saying "fixing to"

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You're probably fixin' to have another city block get burned down in the People's Republic of Seattle.

C@LAg said:

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YouBet said:

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C@LAg said:

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Texans of all age groups, in most locations, saying "fixing to"

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You're probably fixin' to have another city block get burned down in the People's Republic of Seattle.

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please show me the first city block burned in Seattle. that is news to me.
windows trashed and litter on Capitol Hill? sure. Burned? No,

you are confusing us with Portland.

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Yes, I am. But is it all that really different? Left wing gonna left wing.

BMX Bandit said:

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Cromagnum said:

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I challenge them to pronounce unemployed.

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It's pronounced "stim-U-lus check"


Paw paws out there can't pronounce Chipotle & thinks Kroger is plural.

Whines about how these crazy kids talk today

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Chi-POLE-ti

I always thought uptalking was a young girl phenomenon but then I started to listening to a range of podcasts and a lot of people talk that way now, including many who should know better. Just as bad, they start every sentence with the word "so."

My other pet peeve is when people in official capacities use phrases like "We gone" or "we here" as a signal they are hip. I understand why some 20-year might talk that way with his friends, but it's just ignorant.

Don't get me started on "finna."

Language, accents and vernacular are fascinating, especially as they relate to in-group signaling. But just like everything else in our world, we seem to be in a race to the bottom.

Every time I watch a Clint Eastwood movie or other old western, I'm tempted to answer every question with the phrase, "I reckon."

But then when I talk to people, I reckon I just forget.

RockTXAggie said:

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Accents also play a role in pronunciation and there's not much you can do about it. Hell, I probably sound like a hayseed to many on this board and I have an MBA from a top 40 B-School.

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Must not be Asian. Your father would be disappointed it was wasn't an A-school.

AggieRain said:

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Lol wut??

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It's "what"

I'mona ...as in I'mona stomp a mudhole in yor buht n wawkit dry.... an don't furgit isolboy n atolboy an the plural emolboys

Fightin TX Aggie said:

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I can't be the only person who has noticed this. Younger Americans routinely mispronounce words with certain double consonants in the middle. The best example of this is the word "important."

The youngs don't say important. They say impor'ant.

Button becomes buh'un.

Certain becomes ser'un.

I'm certain this is a sign of our downfall as a nation.

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Holy smoke I've done this my whole life!

AggieRain said:

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Lol wut??

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He does have a point, I notice this too but now it's going to drive me insane after being pointed out.

Smells like moth balls up in here

TexasAggiesWin said:

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Smells like moth balls up in here

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Some ba'els** must be fought.

**Youngspeak for battles.

I swear when the average age of millennials is 80, people will be saying "why do millennials do xyz?! I just saw a 16 year old doing xyz! Millennials are the worst!"

sleepybeagle said:

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Fightin TX Aggie said:

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I can't be the only person who has noticed this. Younger Americans routinely mispronounce words with certain double consonants in the middle. The best example of this is the word "important."

The youngs don't say important. They say impor'ant.

Button becomes buh'un.

Certain becomes ser'un.

I'm certain this is a sign of our downfall as a nation.

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Holy smoke I've done this my whole life!

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DOWNFALL-er!

Gigemags382 said:

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I swear when the average age of millennials is 80, people will be saying "why do millennials do xyz?! I just saw a 16 year old doing xyz! Millennials are the worst!"

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Will they still be living with their parents?

Fightin TX Aggie said:

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Gigemags382 said:

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I swear when the average age of millennials is 80, people will be saying "why do millennials do xyz?! I just saw a 16 year old doing xyz! Millennials are the worst!"

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Will they still be living with their parents?

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No, they will bleed government dry because they're "owed it"There are some good hard working conservative millennials, it's just the generation as a whole. Total sense of entitlement which is part of our generation's fault for rewarding losers by giving everyone a trophy, among other things.

In regards to my earlier post, most of the hardworking millennials I referenced just all happened to be outdoor, hunting types who grew up going to the deer lease.

Fightin TX Aggie said:

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I can't be the only person who has noticed this. Younger Americans routinely mispronounce words with certain double consonants in the middle. The best example of this is the word "important."

The youngs don't say important. They say impor'ant.

Button becomes buh'un.

Certain becomes ser'un.

I'm certain this is a sign of our downfall as a nation.

---

This definitely eminates from the Northeast, especially people from Queens, Brooklyn, the rest of Long Island or Philly/South Jersey. When I first moved to the NYC area in 1996, I noticed it in people from those areas, especially women and particularly women of Latin American ancestry. I think it's gotten out there a lot more nationally from area celebrities like J Lo and now Cardi B.

Fightin TX Aggie said:

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I can't be the only person who has noticed this. Younger Americans routinely mispronounce words with certain double consonants in the middle. The best example of this is the word "important."

The youngs don't say important. They say impor'ant.

Button becomes buh'un.

Certain becomes ser'un.

I'm certain this is a sign of our downfall as a nation.

---

It's a syllabic /n/ where you pronounce /n/ without a vowel. It's common in American English and often taught to TESOL students.

https://teflpedia.com/IPA_phonetic_symbol_%E3%80%9An%CC%A9%E3%80%9B#Common_words

All of your examples are in the above link or below.

Martin Q. Blank said:

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Fightin TX Aggie said:

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I can't be the only person who has noticed this. Younger Americans routinely mispronounce words with certain double consonants in the middle. The best example of this is the word "important."

The youngs don't say important. They say impor'ant.

Button becomes buh'un.

Certain becomes ser'un.

I'm certain this is a sign of our downfall as a nation.

---

It's a syllabic /n/ where you pronounce /n/ without a vowel. It's common in American English and often taught to TESOL students.

https://teflpedia.com/IPA_phonetic_symbol_%E3%80%9An%CC%A9%E3%80%9B#Common_words

All of your examples are in the above link or below.

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Look at you with your fancy learnin'.

Fightin TX Aggie said:

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fooz said:

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I could not even finish the video.

But at least she recognizes what is happening!

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Here's a video 2 minutes long. Uses all of your examples. It is a common, widely used American pronunciation.