Utah Accents crack me up

[pellegrino]

I'm sure you've all seen/read the parody blog "So seriously blessed" that makes fun of the Utah Mormon girl and goes to great lengths to imitate her speech with appropriate spellings (deal becomes dill, so a really good deal is a rill good dill). I've always thought that was funny, but part of that is because I am very interested in speech patterns and accents.

So today I'm looking at facebook, and all of my Utah friends are complaining about the snow. One of them, who moved from Utah to Arizona, posted the following on her status update:

I bought really cute red highhill shoes for Grandmas 90th bday....crap now im going to have to wear my boots!

I probably shouldn't think that is so funny but I almost fell out of my chair. It's one thing for people to talk like that, it's a completely different thing for them to spell like that. I don't have a problem with either, I just think it's "rill" funny.

[CardiacCoug]

I'm sure you've all seen/read the parody blog "So seriously blessed" that makes fun of the Utah Mormon girl and goes to great lengths to imitate her speech with appropriate spellings (deal becomes dill, so a really good deal is a rill good dill). I've always thought that was funny, but part of that is because I am very interested in speech patterns and accents.

So today I'm looking at facebook, and all of my Utah friends are complaining about the snow. One of them, who moved from Utah to Arizona, posted the following on her status update:



I probably shouldn't think that is so funny but I almost fell out of my chair. It's one thing for people to talk like that, it's a completely different thing for them to spell like that. I don't have a problem with either, I just think it's "rill" funny.

That is very funny.

The interesting thing about the Utah accent (to which I am prone but have tried to suppress as much as possible, assisted by my ridiculing wife) is that when they actually should say the "ill" sound, it's often pronounced "ell".

So in Utah, "milk" has become "melk" and "pillow" has become "pellow".

[Jeff Lebowski]

That is very funny.

The interesting thing about the Utah accent (to which I am prone but have tried to suppress as much as possible, assisted by my ridiculing wife) is that when they actually should say the "ill" sound, it's often pronounced "ell".

So in Utah, "milk" has become "melk" and "pillow" has become "pellow".

yesterday --> "yisterdee"
wash --> "warsh"
chimney --> "chimlee"
Spanish Fork --> "Spaneesh Fark"
ambulance --> "ambliance"
drowned --> "drowneded"
mountain --> "mout 'en" (soft on the "t")

[PaloAltoCougar]

At BYU Law, I had Reese Hansen for Contracts. Reese, a good guy from southern Utah, started telling us a case about a "stirrel harse." We honestly had no idea what he was talkkng about, until somebody shouted out, "Ohhhhhh, a sterile horse!" Reese had a look of confusion, noting, "Yes, that's what I said." No it wasn't.

[kccougar]

I see it surprisingly often on the KSL.com classifieds ads. "For sell" is a common one. So is "good dill".

[pellegrino]

That is very funny.

The interesting thing about the Utah accent (to which I am prone but have tried to suppress as much as possible, assisted by my ridiculing wife) is that when they actually should say the "ill" sound, it's often pronounced "ell".

So in Utah, "milk" has become "melk" and "pillow" has become "pellow".

My wife often says melk. She doesn't have a strong Utah accent, but sometimes her vowels give her away. I'm fortunate I guess because although I was raised in UT, I never got much of the accent because my father was from NC and my maternal grandmother was a very educated woman and wouldn't tolerate improper diction, so none of her children were allowed to pick up uneducated accents. If I want to I can speak a very passable southern and a good Utahn too.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I enjoy the unique grammar of Utah.

"We was driving by your house and we seen you working on your car."

[Mrs. Funk]

My mother-in-law (born and raised in Sandy, Utar) says "mini" instead of "many." Thus, when she says "many," it sounds like she is making everything diminutive instead of expressing a large quantity.

She also says "aspar-grus" instead of "asparagus." I have observed the heel/hill, feel/fill, deal/dill phenomenon many times.

[smokymountainrain]

I have spent very little time east of Colorado, but I can say that the examples I've read in this thread are examples that could pulled from anywhere in the western United States.

But it's fun to pretend people only speak/spell that way in Utah.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

wash --> "warsh"

I don't think this is a Utah one, at least far from exclusively. I hear this from people from the north east a lot. Last year I had a camp host from Pennsylvania, who every time I saw him told me how much he was enjoying the "Warshington summer."

[wuapinmon]

drowned --> "drowneded"

My wife, a Washington County native, says this one....she also says "acrosst."

Things I noticed in my time in Utah:

Coo-pawn >>>>>> key-ewe-pawn

root >>>>>> rut, as in rut beer

creek >>>>>>> crick

"I want two leeters a rut beer."

I send them a 2-liter bottle. They call back and said "I wanted 2 leeters a rut beer." I say to them, "I sent you a 2-liter bottle."

This happened at least once a day. I got where I would just say, "when you say a 2 liters of Pepsi, you mean two 2-liter bottles, right?"

And then there's the classic:

"Playzhure" "Mayzhure" and "Trayzhure"

My wife's uncle from St. Jarge, said "my son's serving a mission in Boarbados, we're going to send him some candy boars."

[CardiacCoug]

I don't think this is a Utah one, at least far from exclusively. I hear this from people from the north east a lot. Last year I had a camp host from Pennsylvania, who every time I saw him told me how much he was enjoying the "Warshington summer."

I agree completely.

People from rural Missouri refer to Washington University in St. Louis as "Warsh U."

[pellegrino]

I have spent very little time east of Colorado, but I can say that the examples I've read in this thread are examples that could pulled from anywhere in the western United States.

But it's fun to pretend people only speak/spell that way in Utah.

You could say that those are common anywhere in the intermountain west (Colorado, UT, Idaho Wyoming, Montana and parts of Arizona and New Mexico), but you'd have a hard time finding that in any of the coastal states. Plus, the Mormon Corridor covers a large swath of that region.

I'm not making fun or disparaging the UT accent, as all places have accents and quirks. I just laugh when an accent becomes so ingrained into a person's language that they unintentionally transcribe the spoken to the written. It's a funny, human trait, that's all.

[Mrs. Funk]

Accents/grammar differences definitely aren't just a Utah thing. I lived in the south as a kid and heard my teachers say wary for weary, weeeeul for will, not to mention peecan for pecan. I was told to "wash them hands" and "clean them crayons up."

"I was fixin' to" was a common phrase as well, meaning "I was going to." "Cut the lights" for "turn off the lights."

[Babs]

"yisterdee"

I'm trying to imagine Paul McCartney singing this.