Fine-Tuning 15, British English/American English

Interesting to learn of the differences in accents formerly between Brooklyn, Queens and other parts of NYC

It may surprise Americans to know that around the fair city of Manchester, UK we have towns (all part of the same conurbation now) within six or eight miles of each other (Salford, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Oldham, Wigan) and they all have distinctive accents, and different local dialect words and phrases.

McT

Ok sorry, Salford's a city.

[Eight boroughs and two cities: Bolton, Bury, Oldham. Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan and Manchester and Salford.]

What I find hilarious is when people do not realise that they have an accent - that is, that they have not moved outside themselves/their milieu enough to recognize that they speak with a distinct accent to those who do not use the same accent!

It happens, even amongst educated folk - when I was little I told a friend's father - a professor of musicology from Oxford university - who was laughing at my accent, that his sounded very odd too - he was genuinely stunned - he had actually (his accent was very strong Oxford uni accent) never considered the thought! I was stunned when the same had never occurred to some very intelligent and well-read US women of my acquaintance.

My ex used to always correct me when I described someone as having an accent, no such thing as accent, the word is dialect. I couldn't win that one, he had an mfa in drama.

But, for me, someone might have a southern accent and speak in (with?) a Georgia dialect. Or a Manchester accent, speaking in an Oldham dialect.

You all..uh, y'all. here seem to use accent the way I do.

Y'all's plural is "all y'all"

alls yall that ends yall.

I don't believe i've ever met a southerner who uses y'all when addressing an individual--in the singular. Timber is sort of correct, although the southerners with whom i grew up and have lived would use "all y'all" as an intensifier, to underline the fact that it is inclusive of everyone within hearing.

Southerners also pronounce "y'all" differently from one locale to another--or, at least did before so many Yankees moved south and diluted the traditional patterns of speech. In coastal North Carolina, the pronunciation is "yoh-wall," in southside Virginia, it is 'Yuh-all," in many parts of Kentucky, and of southern Illinois (a good deal of which is south of the Mason-Dixon line, were that line extended to the Mississippi), the common usage is "you-uns"--all of these with the caveat that this has changed with mass media and Yankee settlement. It becomes more and more a simple "y'all."

Set, I've heard 'you-uns' in Kentucky as well. And its 1st person counterpart -- 'we-uns."

Oh, wait. You said Kentucky and So. Ill. Ok, nemind.

MA, among the less well educated in those regions, i've also heard "us-uns."

Have there been any German settlers in Kentucky???
Hi,

it was mentioned that there is a use of "uns" for "we" in Kentucky.

Interesting: as to German language

we = wir (1st person, plural), in German 'uns' means "us" (1st plural) in English - a personal pronoun!

Could be that this is pure coincidence that in Kentucky such a use of 'uns' has somehow developed. The other suggestion of mine is: Could be that there have been German settlers who influenced the use of language in some way

Best regards,
Rainer Petersen
aka
51Days

51 days, welcome to A2K and this thread! That's an interesting observation you make. There was, in fact, a German minority that helped settle Kentucky. However, I doubt that the we-uns and us-uns derives from the German uns. It is more likely a mispronunciation of 'ones.'

Hiya 51, I'm glad you showed up on this thread. I agree with Andy that your observation is an interesting one, but that the source is probably "ones."

However, we'll have to wait and see if others on this thread have a different opinion.

I agree with Andrew too.

That one = that 'un

Those ones = them 'uns

But what about "buddy"? Does it come from "body" as in nobody, anybody, everybody?
In Scotland, we say "a wee body" meaning, a small person.
Hence, the Paisley Buddies, a well-known phrase, and a travel club from the town of that name, and also coincidentally borrowing from the American meaning of "friend", to give a feeling of kindred spirits.

So where does the American word buddy come from?

McT

From Merriam Webster online:

bud·dy
Pronunciation: 'b&-dE
Function: noun

Etymology: probably baby talk alteration of brother

That makes sense, most of the more erudite Southerners i know believe that Bubba derives from the sounds a suckling babe makes. By the by, most Yankees will use the term "a bubba" as though it were a substantive, but it is not, it is a form of address. It it used derisively for those whom one holds in contempt (such as most Yankees) and affectionately for one's friends.

You say it's used derisively, Set, and I'll take your word for it because you've spent a lot more time in the American South than I have. But I've never run into it as anything but an affectionate nickname, almost like a variant of 'brotha' or the shorter 'bro.'

It is used derisively on those occasions upon which a Southerner would bother to reply to a stranger who had been aggravating . . . by and large, though, it is used as a term of regard . . .

Almost every Southern family in these parts has one Bubba. We had one in our family. The story was the older sister (at age four) couldn't properly pronounce Brother, and he was then deemed Bubba.

This guy wasn't Bubba-like. He was a snappy dresser, and an architect. You don't have to be fat and stupid in order to be called Bubba, though it helps.

I despise the term: young-uns. Get them young-uns out the road, Maybelline!