Fourth Wall

Thursday, December 29, 2005

On Language

Apparently, it takes about two weeks for my word choice, slang, and enunciation to devolve back to a California level. It's a high California level (I reject all uses of "hella"), but it is distressing.

A certain correspondent (okay, it was Worthen) accused me of writing sentences that sounded "like something Camus would write if he had the giggles." That is not the California level of which I speak. I, in fact, had the giggles.

posted by Alice Teresa at 1:08 PM

6 Comments:

  • Yeah.... I apparently said layg today. That's "leg" like a true Minnesotan: pronounced like "lay" with a g. But I have never in my life normally pronounced it like that! :-/ lol

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:51 PM  

  • I talk like that, too. Worst part: beg and bag get pronounced the same, as does flag. Oddly enough, nobody else in my elementary school did that, leading to schoolyard mockery. I've never recovered.
    mr. thompson

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:57 PM  

  • Weren't you the one to tell me what 'hella' was in the first place? And how you are a "California girl who is not afraid to speak like one."

    By Blogger Andy R. Terrel, at 9:31 AM  

  • Except "bag" is more wide and exaggerated (bayyg). It's a long vowel. Beg is just a long short vowel that's almost closer to beeg than behg. So like... Baeyg? I hate how you can't really spell English without some serious phonetic symbols.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:21 AM  

  • Andy: Point. I do use California slang in Chicago, although I don't rememeber that conversatin, and I find the uses of "hella" fascinating both linguistically and culturally. But, that said, I just can't say "hella"- I sound like I'm trying to be someone I'm not.

    By Blogger Alice Teresa, at 11:30 AM  

  • Stephanie: So you say, but not, manifestly, as I say, which is, indeed, the subject of my comment. Hence the stings and arrows of outrageous mockery on the four-square court.
    mr. thompson
    ps I'm sure IPA symbols are do-able in ASCII, you just need to know how.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:26 PM  

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