I have spent my childhood in a few different places. Not a lot, but enough to not let people identify where I am from just by my style of speaking.
At present, my parents and brother live in City A and I work in City B, shuttling to City A almost every weekend.
A few times, not more than 3 or 4, people have asked me if I am from City A or another city near to it. This comes as a mild surprise.
But today, I was in City A, and a person I was talking to asked me if I am from City B!
This totally blew me off. Not that I will actually try and calculate it, but what are the odds?
At present, my parents and brother live in City A and I work in City B, shuttling to City A almost every weekend.
A few times, not more than 3 or 4, people have asked me if I am from City A or another city near to it. This comes as a mild surprise.
But today, I was in City A, and a person I was talking to asked me if I am from City B!
This totally blew me off. Not that I will actually try and calculate it, but what are the odds?
The odds are pretty small. But it is not impossible. People may detect where you from through your accent. I do not know about any other state in India. I know about Tamil Nadu. The Chennai Tamil is completely different from Trichy Tamil. The distance between Chennai and Trichy is about 6 hours only by train.
ReplyDeleteIt is very easy to detect where one is from in USA. For example, in South, people use words like “How Yall” (How are you all). In New Jersey area, many people use “you” as a singular. Plural for you is “yous”. In Dallas, “retell” is pronounced “retail”.
After I wrote the above comment, I was browsing thru the web. I found “yous” (plural for you) is used in Ireland, South Africa, and New Zealand also. In Pittsburgh, plural for “you” is “yinz”.
ReplyDeleteThey may find out where you from not only thru your accent but also from the words you use.
Americans say “gas” while British and Indians say “petrol”. Canadians end every sentence with an “eh”. I will stop here eh. I have bored you enough eh.
Not boring at all. You seem to be at the cusp of a new understand of Sociology, eh!
DeleteSometimes people can just tell, other times, not so much
ReplyDeleteYes. What confuses me is the unexpected but right telling :-)
DeleteWorking and socializing in a different area can have a subtle effect on our speech patterns that we might not even notice in ourselves, but someone else may hear a regional dialect and ask about it. I have experienced this too.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about the effect on speech patterns. Now that I think of it, working and socializing in different areas as in regions, areas of work, and groups of people as well can lead to subtle changes.
DeleteHad it about different places, probably geographically more far apart then may be they could tell. If it's just about cities, well then the are just...mmm... what are the odds??
ReplyDeleteP.S i happened to ask the same question to many people, less out of curiosity and more out of the urgent need to kill time and boredom.
So :P
In the coming days, I will try asking people the same too. Thank you for sharing.
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