@Lustig Andrei,
Yes. I called any of my Tanten 'Tante' as well.
(Geographically narrowed down: Westphalia in Germany/Europe
)
i say ant (Noo Yawk).
but lately, thanx to living up heeyah almost 20 yeeahs, i've been throwing in the occasional ahnt,
without even thinking about it...
The older word for mother and father in Scandinavia is mor and far. Swedes say now mamma and pappa
So your maternal grandparents are mormor and morfar
your paternal grandparents are morfar and farfar
Your mother´s siblings are moster (mother´s sister) morbror (mother´s brother) The partners are also morbror and moster.
Father´s siblings are faster (father´s sister and farbror - fathers brother
I like that you can tell from which side you are related to somone. Even smaller children learn very fast how relatives belong together.
@Lustig Andrei,
Ahntie.
I'm South Australian, and we tend to use a long a in lots of words.
Like dahnce and chahnce. I'm trying to think if I've ever heard an Australian, even where they use the short a more, say ant, though. Don't think I have.
Except for the insects.
@saab,
It is interesting that 'tant' and 'onkel' have a different meaning in Swedish.
@Lustig Andrei,
I say "Ant." Only have two left...one is 87 the other 93...my mother's sisters. I take 'em shopping every Thursday. They do about 8 minutes of shopping and it only takes them 2 1/2 to 3 hours to do it.
I love 'em.
@Frank Apisa,
If I ever said "ahnt"...they'd probably wonder if I had finally fallen off the edge.
Quote:A genuine anteater
the pet man told my dad.
Turns out it was an aunteater
and now my uncle's mad.
This is one of my daughter's favorite Shel Silverstein poems. "Aunt" and "ant" sound exactly the same for us which I think makes it funnier.
@Walter Hinteler,
Tant is seldom used in Sweden. It was what you called a lady who was on first name basis with your parents - a nonrelative. You could also use it for your mother-in-law.
In Denmark tante and onkel was what you called your father and mother´s siblings before the moster and faster got to be popular.
@Region Philbis,
Quote: i say ant (Noo Yawk).
but lately, thanx to living up heeyah almost 20 yeeahs, i've been throwing in the occasional ahnt,
without even thinking about it...
Understand this completely. My early years have the distinct sound of the lower east side (1950s to 60s version) and I had various ants, then add a little Rutland, a few dashes of Staten Island and then more Noo Yawk and some Saratoga Springs and there was the occasional ahnt (often because of weird looks or giggles when I'd say 'ant' outside of the city). In general I drift back into a hard New York accent- it's on autoset.
chai2 wrote: I'd like to tag along Andy, as ask how people say insurance.
I grew up saying inSURance, but now I say INsurance.
For some reason when I voiced it just now it came out as
Ensurance. (no idea why or if this is normal anywhere in the continental U.S.)
To my people (southern New Hampshire), the word "drawer" rhymes with "blah". It took about 20 seconds for people in South Carolina to figure out where I was saying the scissors were.
They seem to think that drawer has two (very distinct) syllables. I could never figure out exactly how they pronounce the word.
Saw a very funny bit on (I think) Candid Camera...where folk from the deep South were asked to use the words "oil" and "all"...and to explain how they sound different.
I couldn't tell one from the other when they said 'em.
@Frank Apisa,
My husband's from Texas. There are actually THREE words that sound alike there:
All, Oil, and I'll
In Michigan we said "ant", then we moved to NJ for a few years, and I can't remember what we said, but it was long enough to make me stop calling soda "pop", and one of my good friends was named Harry, which I pronounced the same as "hairy" (he was), being from Michigan, which got me funny looks from our friends (in Michigan Mary, merry, and marry all sound the same--som US dialects have three pronunciations, some two, some one). Having spent decades in Boston, like Regis aunt now is almost always "ahnt", which in turn gets me strange looks if I go back to Michigan. And some of my "r"s have deserted me.
@MontereyJack,
Monterey Jack wrote:And some of my "r"s have deserted me.
But they come back in words like Cubar and Noxemar, don't they?
This discussion puts me in mind of an incident from my past. I was talking about "fuh." The person I was with was not a Noo Yawker. She said, "Huh? What's that?" I said, "Fuh. Fuh." She had no idea what I meant. "The skin of an animal with hair on it. f-u-r. Fuh."
I tell you. These furriners can drive a girl nuts.
Girl I knew in Brooklyn always corrected my English. Once she told me I could not call a quart of milk that, but must say "container of milk." I could never get the importance of that distinction.
@Roberta,
I had an interesting experience re: dialects and idiomatic English some years ago when the US State Dept. assigned me as escort-interpreter to a couple of visiting Latvian v.i.p.s. Turned out that most of the time they had no need for an interpreter; both spoke an accented but quite fluent standard English. Until I took them to a McDonald's in Detroit, that is. I had to order for them as they had no notion of what the counter person was saying or asking. None. The girl might as well have been speaking a totally foreign language to their ears. I don't know what the problem was: it was standard midwest American with a touch of the Deep South discernible.
@edgarblythe,
Neither do I. Must be those Brooklyn people.
Fascinating topic, Andy
Mind you, I'm none the wiser! I still mostly don't understand any of you. I mean - what's with drawer and blah? Really??
