Utah is the Rill Dill

[Donuthole]

Consider this the official Utah pronunciation thread

[YOUTUBE]aMBYs8z8SkQ[/YOUTUBE]

[Pheidippides]

Consider this the official Utah pronunciation thread

[YOUTUBE]aMBYs8z8SkQ[/YOUTUBE]

That clip is awersome.

[Jacob]

I like how the narrator exaggerates the O and A swaps so that it sounds nothing like what most of the "locals" say. I'm sure there are a few people who speak very poorly, but very few would speak like the video is trying to portray. right? Or do I just not know enough people from St. George? Because none of those I've met speak like that.

[kccougar]

One of my favorite KSL articles ever about a foiled bank robbery...

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3058039

[Donuthole]

I like how the narrator exaggerates the O and A swaps so that it sounds nothing like what most of the "locals" say. I'm sure there are a few people who speak very poorly, but very few would speak like the video is trying to portray. right? Or do I just not know enough people from St. George? Because none of those I've met speak like that.

You nelled it. While the A and the O do switch in a number of words, it is not across the board like the guy portrays it.

[Pheidippides]

You nelled it. While the A and the O do switch in a number of words, it is not across the board like the guy portrays it.

The dialect is not the same, but rural
Utah (at least where I grew up) is very close. And I agree they overemphasized. Rather than swapping, it's often like the two have become the same, and not always at that. The younger college-age nikuman would have used his linguistic training to describe precisely when based on the prior or subsequent phonemes or some such thing, but the older nikuman has no chance in heck of caring.

[DU Ute]

One of my favorite KSL articles ever about a foiled bank robbery...

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3058039

My favorite part of that article is the last line. It's talking about the robber threatening employees with a hypodermic needle:

Witnesses say he was wearing brown gloves. Apparently he didn't want to get stuck with the needle but didn't care about the others.

[falafel]

I've heard lots of the "carn" pronunciations all over Utah, but very few of the "gorden" ones.

[Pheidippides]

I've heard lots of the "carn" pronunciations all over Utah, but very few of the "gorden" ones.

"Fark" is, of course, the usual example.

One thing they didn't mention was the drop of the nasal with ing, or, even more unique, the elipsis of the t sound after certain nasal sounds (i.e., "moun'un" for mountain).

[Jacob]

I've heard lots of the "carn" pronunciations all over Utah, but very few of the "gorden" ones.

I don't recall hearing corn with a hard A in my 10 years in Utah. I hear it pronounced properly, with an O, just about every time.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Why did they go all the way to St. George for this story? Have they never been to American Fork?

[LiveCoug]

"Fark" is, of course, the usual example.

One thing they didn't mention was the drop of the nasal with ing, or, even more unique, the elipsis of the t sound after certain nasal sounds (i.e., "moun'un" for mountain).

Or the addition of a t sound, like Lartson or Neltson.

[Donuthole]

An interesting tidbit about this video, Lyman Hafen, the guy who co-authored the book about Southern Utah slang, was my 7th grade English/Utah History teacher. Well, for the first two weeks of the year. One day a girl sitting directly behind me raised her hand and asked him "Mr. Hafen, how do you spell "gracias". I looked behind me and saw she was writing a note and was wanting to sign it "gracias" (Keep in mind, this was St. George in the early 90s--we didn't have many minorities living amongst us, so the idea of speaking spanish was pretty novel, i suppose). Mr. Hafen responded "it's spelled G-R-A-C-I-O-U-S".

Now, I was only in the 7th grade, but I was pretty sure I knew how to spell gracias, and I sure as hell knew that Mr. Hafen had spelled gracious, not gracias. So I raised my hand and said "I think that spells gracious." Mr. Hafen quickly barked at me very loudly "Don't tell me how to spell, I'm the teacher here!" At this point, I felt stupid (stupid for being smarter than the teacher. Go figure.) and I could feel the blood running to my face in embarrassment.

Two seconds later the girl leans forward and whispers in my ear, "How do you spell gracias"? So I whisper to her "G-R-A-C-I-A-S." Apparently Mr. Hafen saw her writing each letter as I was telling them to her, and he went ape-shit. He marched over, grabbed me by the collar and picked me up out of my desk while yelling "Don't come into my classroom and tell me how to spell words, you hear. If I say how a word is spelled, that's how it's spelled in my classroom, and don't you question it!" He took me into the hall and left me there for the remainder of the period.

To shorten the story, he ended up reporting me to the principal for misbehavior, which left my parents determined to get to the bottom of what had happened; they couldn't believe he would report me for misbehavior for correcting his spelling. When my dad and I went to talk to him, my dad asked him how to spell "gracias" as part of the conversation. When Hafen said "I believe it is spelled 'G-R-A-C-I-O-U-S" my dad and I exchanged a look that said "holy crap, this guy is an idiot". My Dad told him he didn't appreciate how he had treated me, and was pulling me from his class.

I think the story is particularly funny in light of the fact that Hafen co-authored a book about Southern Utah dialect. I can totally see some Southern Utah hick pronouncing "gracias" as "graw-shus" and therefore thinking it was spelled the same as "gracious.

I also like this story because it illustrates the fact that I've been correcting the spelling and grammar of idiots since I was young--this isn't a message board phenomenon. My earliest teacher correction actually came in 3rd grade when my teacher wrote our spelling list on the board and misspelled "shiny" as "shiney". But that's a story for another thread.

[Pheidippides]

Or the addition of a t sound, like Lartson or Neltson.

Is that just a Heber area peculiarity? I haven't paid attention in so long I can't remember, but I do remember it from high school.

[falafel]

I don't recall hearing corn with a hard A in my 10 years in Utah. I hear it pronounced properly, with an O, just about every time.

So what are you hearing on those few times you don't hear it pronounced properly?

"Carn" is probably getting much more difficult to hear. If you've got a grandparent that grew up in rural Utah, you'll probably hear it. My grandma, who is from Heber, says "carn" and "fark" 100% of the time, but she never says "core" for "car."