I'm manually forwarding this message which was trapped by the list
filters - John, could you link to your attachment rather than send it to
the list?
On 03-Jun-12 7:28 AM, silklist-ow...@lists.hserus.net wrote:
> Subject:
> Re: [silk] How the Woosters captured Delhi
> From:
> John Sundman <j...@wetmachine.com>
> Date:
> 03-Jun-12 7:27 AM
>
> To:
> silklist@lists.hserus.net
>
>
> "Water" is a word that is pronounced in many different ways in Americanese.
> Even in these days of homogenization of speech, regional differences still
> exist.
>
> As do class distinctions.
>
> For example, when people first meet me they generally can't tell where in
> America I'm from unless I happen to utter a few "tell" words in the regional
> accent of the place I grew up. ( One such word is "coffee.") My home town
> was my father's home town; he was one of the few among his classmates who
> went to college and aspired to learn "high culture". My father was very
> particular with his seven children, correcting our grammar and diction when
> he thought they were "low class". He wasn't (isn't) a snob; he just didn't
> want to seem stupid or uneducated, or more precisely, I guess, boorish. He
> speaks with an accent markedly different from that of his childhood
> companions.
>
> I grew up in a place called North Caldwell, New Jersey, a borough that covers
> an area of 3 square miles or so. When I was a lad the area still had farms
> and wooded areas; now it's all houses. I grew up in a modest farmhouse on a
> small farm (2 cows, 8 sheep, 60 chickens. . .). My father was a farmer from
> 4:30 to 6:30 AM and from 7 to 8 at night. During the day he worked in
> Manhattan, climbing up the corporate ladder.
>
> I only mention this because I suspect that most members of this list are at
> least marginally familiar with the accent most associated with the little
> borough of North Caldwell: that of Tony Soprano ("Tony Fuckin' Soprano") and
> his wife Carmella. Tony and Carmella are fictional, but their North Caldwell
> is quite real; Carmella attends Notre Dame Church, where I was an altar boy;
> their daughter Meadow attends West Essex Regional High School, which was
> build on the farm taken from my family by eminent domain for that purpose,
> and so forth. The actors who portray Tony and Carmella do a very convincing
> job of speaking in a northeastern New Jersey accent.:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9oY7zpan18
>
> By contrast, here's what I sound like in my normal speaking voice (attached).
> For an extra bonus, if you listen to this short sample of me in my normal
> speaking voice you get to hear me in Tony Soprano mode at the end, including
> the word "coffee".
>
> Regards,
>
> jrs
>
> P.S. Would be delighted to hear what y'all sound like too-also.
>
>
>
--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
