Utah is the Rill Dill

[falafel]

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.

Not a Heber peculiarity. That one is heard all over the state, except probably by Jacob, who has heard Nelson pronounced properly, without a "t" in all of his 10 years in Utah.

[Donuthole]

One thing they didn't mention was the drop of the nasal with ing

My father in law takes this a step further--he drops the ing for almost all words, but he adds it to words that don't have it. Prime example: He like to go "fishin' near Evingston" (Evanston).

[SCcoug]

I've heard plenty of kids called Cheltsea or been served chips and saltsa.

[LiveCoug]

I've heard plenty of kids called Cheltsea or been served chips and saltsa.

Yup. I hate it. Our daughter has a name that certainly does not have a t in it, but people throw a t in there all the time. It bugs.

[Pheidippides]

The other obvious one is the use of dipthongish sounds. "Layton" is a good example of that and the loss t ("Lay'un" - although I'd use the upside down shwe thingy instead of a u if I knew how to do it on my iPhone).

In the same vein as the addition of T sounds, a regional variation in my area was to add a k to the end of the ing form (i.e. "nothink" instead of "nothing").

[TripletDaddy]

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.

Round about my neck of the woods, I hear the opposite....people remove the hard T sometimes. Instead of "mounTain," people say, "mou'in" or something similar. I can't event really phonetically spell it.

Also, like Jacob, I haven't really noticed much of the AF "fark."

[falafel]

Round about my neck of the woods, I hear the opposite....people remove the hard T sometimes. Instead of "mounTain," people say, "mou'in" or something similar. I can't event really phonetically spell it.

Also, like Jacob, I haven't really noticed much of the AF "fark."

These days, you really need to get out into the hinterlands to hear it. The wasatch front is too diluted with Southern California transplants to notice it anymore.

[cougjunkie]

My mother in law calls the days of the week:

Mon-DEE Tues-DEE Wedne-Dee, etc. She also uses Melk (Milk), Crick (Creek), Pellow (Pillow) and so on.

[Pheidippides]

These days, you really need to get out into the hinterlands to hear it. The wasatch front is too diluted with Southern California transplants to notice it anymore.

I think that's right. There are small variations on the wasatch front, especially among older generations, but it's different than 20 years ago.

In the early 90s you had the strong Utah accent blending with antiquated Valley Girl speak because of the migration. That was fun.

[SCcoug]

Along with the melk you might also eat some scrambled aggs.

[falafel]

Along with the melk you might also eat some scrambled aggs.

I say "aiggs." I also say "Laigs." I don't like the sound of "ehggs." Sounds weird.

I know a guy from North Dakota who pronounces Las Vegas "Las Vehgas," just like the sound in "ehgg." It sounds weird to me.

[New Mexican Disaster]

Yup. I hate it. Our daughter has a name that certainly does not have a t in it, but people throw a t in there all the time. It bugs.

A "t" is also sometimes thrown in to end a word that ends in an "s", like "Judast priest". This was expecially popular up ta Spanish when I grown up ther.

[statman]

Round about my neck of the woods, I hear the opposite....people remove the hard T sometimes. Instead of "mounTain," people say, "mou'in" or something similar. I can't event really phonetically spell it.

Also, like Jacob, I haven't really noticed much of the AF "fark."

The "Fark" thing has always been more prevalent in Spanish Fark than American Fark. As the last farmers in AF moved out, the 'Fark' moved with them.

For Southern Utah dialect purposes, the Mason-Dixon line is approximately Center Street in Provo. Southern Utahn, is also prevalent in the 'Wasatch Back' (with the exception of Park City), over to Heber, 'Castle Dell' area, out to Vernal, and everything south of there...

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

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.

How cute was the girl?

[Donuthole]

How cute was the girl?

Hot and dumb. She got knocked up in 9th grade.