Jana 6: What's in Store for 2018?

[LegHumperBibleThumper]

12 minutes ago, MayMay1123 said:

not in philadelphia

Really? That's basically where I am from (just over the bridge in jersey) and that's how I say it. Although to be fair, I also think it sounds like Anna, banana, fofanna and mimymomanna.

[SapphireSlytherin]

Here. Straight from the horse's mouth:

 

 

 

 

[MayMay1123]

jana rhymes with anna and banana, man can fan, rhymes with jam. don't know if that helps or not LOL

[obiwanfreak]

1 hour ago, bekkah said:

Haha....Northern MN and Canada have more similarities than the south. I kinda wish that Canada would just annex Minnesota and call it good. 

No, no, no...Minnesota is the only blue island in a sea of red.  It needs to stay!

[singsingsing]

3 minutes ago, obiwanfreak said:

No, no, no...Minnesota is the only blue island in a sea of red.  It needs to stay!

Ellen DeGeneres on Americans moving to Canada:

(Seriously, though, I feel for you guys, but if all the sane and good people leave the U.S. we'll all be in big trouble!)

[JordynDarby5]

2 hours ago, bekkah said:

And then, I travel to the southern part of the USA. They all think that Minnesotans speak using the words like hoser, eh?, and other things.  The only words I feel like I routinely sound Canadian are out and about. 

Yes, I do say uffda, yeah sure you betcha and other things that make me a stereotypical MN. Not as much but it does slip out. 

My dad's family is from Minnesota. We always laugh because he and his sister never ever say 'uffda' unless their in Minnesota. Suddenly everything is 'uffad' this and 'uffad' that. Once they leave Minnesota it immediately disappears. Its like the Minnesota border turns it on and off for them.   

[bekkah]

12 minutes ago, JordynDarby5 said:

My dad's family is from Minnesota. We always laugh because he and his sister never ever say 'uffda' unless their in Minnesota. Suddenly everything is 'uffad' this and 'uffad' that. Once they leave Minnesota it immediately disappears. Its like the Minnesota border turns it on and off for them.   

Interesting. Maybe, there should be a study about it done. I definitely say it more when I'm with my family than my non-family. 

23 minutes ago, obiwanfreak said:

No, no, no...Minnesota is the only blue island in a sea of red.  It needs to stay!

I get that. But it's hard to be surrounded by red. 

[HarleyQuinn]

Minnesota needs to let some of that blue rub off on its red neighbors. 

[MakeItSo]

I add "hey?" at the end of sentences when I talk (ex: "pretty cold today, hey?"), but in writing I'm more likely to use "eh?" That one was really hard for me to stop doing when I moved to the States for my undergrad and after a while I just gave up haha. It's just part of my speech, and that's ok. 

 

ETA: at the same time though, I can very quickly take on new habits when I'm around a bunch of people who do things differently, without noticing it (this is the worst part). We will not talk about the time I took on the little head wiggle my friend (East Indian) and his family always do...I was mortified when they pointed it out that I was doing it. Glad it amused them LOL. Usually it's more harmless things like expressions or words, so I'm usually ok. 

[seraaa]

35 minutes ago, bekkah said:

Interesting. Maybe, there should be a study about it done. I definitely say it more when I'm with my family than my non-family. 

I'm sure there must have been! We know that people adopt certain ways of speaking with different people and in different contexts. If they were habituated to speaking that way to and with those people or in that place, it makes total sense that it switches on again as soon as they go back. Its very interesting. 

[MakeItSo]

Just now, seraaa said:

I'm sure there must have been! We know that people adopt certain ways of speaking with different people and in different contexts. If they were habituated to speaking that way to and with those people or in that place, it makes total sense that it switches on again as soon as they go back. Its very interesting. 

Yup, code-switching is extremely common, especially for those of us whose parents are from different countries. 

[Carm_88]

3 hours ago, bekkah said:

And then, I travel to the southern part of the USA. They all think that Minnesotans speak using the words like hoser, eh?, and other things.  The only words I feel like I routinely sound Canadian are out and about. 

Yes, I do say uffda, yeah sure you betcha and other things that make me a stereotypical MN. Not as much but it does slip out. 

You betcha is so Alberta. Every time I hear that I think of my cousin saying that everything in Alberta is "You betcha." 

As for typical Canadian, I have heard "That's a beauty eh?" come out of my mouth. 

My Newfoundland accent is so much worst with my parents. Goes from "Oh yeah, I can hear it" to "Holy hell are you speaking English?" 

[seraaa]

4 minutes ago, MakeItSo said:

Yup, code-switching is extremely common, especially for those of us whose parents are from different countries. 

I find it all super fascinating

[MakeItSo]

@Carm_88 One minute with my old buddy from secondary school who had moved to BC from NL and I'll say "car" his way. It fades once I'm around other people again but it's weird. I've never even been to NL hahaha

 

@seraaa I wonder if I'm taking on other people's expressions and mannerisms more because I've always had to code-switch at home? I'm sure there are studies lol but yeah it's fascinating for sure

[Carm_88]

3 minutes ago, MakeItSo said:

@Carm_88 One minute with my old buddy from secondary school who had moved to BC from NL and I'll say "car" his way. It fades once I'm around other people again but it's weird. I've never even been to NL hahaha

Hahaha I love that! People pick it up and keep it!  

[seraaa]

3 minutes ago, MakeItSo said:

@Carm_88 One minute with my old buddy from secondary school who had moved to BC from NL and I'll say "car" his way. It fades once I'm around other people again but it's weird. I've never even been to NL hahaha

 

@seraaa I wonder if I'm taking on other people's expressions and mannerisms more because I've always had to code-switch at home? I'm sure there are studies lol but yeah it's fascinating for sure

Ah, that's interesting - could be, maybe you're just more versed in it? Or maybe you're very socially empathetic 

[fraurosena]

I love linguistics, dialects, accents, just about everything language related. I think this poem by my countryman is appropriate in for this discussion. It's aptly named "Chaos".

 

Quote

THE CHAOS by Dr. Gerard Nolst Trenité (Netherlands, 1870-1946)

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
tranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

22

 

[adidas]

2 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

Here. Straight from the horse's mouth:

 

 

 

 

The way she pronounces it sounds like it should be spelt Jenna. 

I don’t know how to type the phonemes in terms of IPA, but if you look at the chart she says ‘e’ as in bed (or maybe even close to ‘air’ as in hair), rather than ‘a’ as in cat. 

[SapphireSlytherin]

No, Jenna is definitely pronounced differently than Jana. 

[onekidanddone]

19 hours ago, Bad Wolf said:

Someone once asked me how I could speak Spanish, because I have an English accent. I still haven't figured out a good response. If I tell them they have an American accent, they'd just laugh.

That is such a strange question. I'm complete snark and I'd want to answer by saying "Gee how do you speak English with such an American accent"?

I probably wouldn't say it out loud, I hope, but it should would be bouncing around in my brain.

[seraaa]

1 hour ago, adidas said:

The way she pronounces it sounds like it should be spelt Jenna. 

I don’t know how to type the phonemes in terms of IPA, but if you look at the chart she says ‘e’ as in bed (or maybe even close to ‘air’ as in hair), rather than ‘a’ as in cat. 

The problem I always had with learning the IPA is that the pronunciations (when you come across it in books) are based on an accent which is not mine, lol. Which is probably true for a lot of people - there are so many accents! e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet_chart_for_English_dialects#Chart

 

[fraurosena]

@singsingsing, as you might know, this is also apropos...

 

[seashell1025]

Accents have always been so fascinating to me.  I have lived all over Michigan growing up and man, quite a popular part of our accent is our Nasally sounding vowels, more so the further west I believe.  We also have a tendency to over pronunciate (is that even a word? most people I know say pronounciate anyways, so i know that's wrong as well) A classic one that I have that mostly more people I know the further north in MI you are is how we say Milk.  I say "Melk" and now that I live downstate, I am so self conscious of it I try to avoid saying it like the plague or else I sound awful trying to say it the right way! The struggle is so real!  

[HurricaneBells]

This brings back fond memories of a drunken night in Hawaii with our US staff (our aussie team) arguing exactly this out. Its aluminium! Who knew one language could be so amusing. Haha fun times!

[TheMustardCardigan]

The only way I could think Jenna and Jana could sound the same is if you were saying "Jenna" with a super super thick Southern accent.