Wicked is wicked catchy

Today my dad came back on a flight from Europe and brought a Dutchman home for a cup of coffee. This man was born in the Netherlands, but moved to New Hampshire in 1982, or some time around then. Even though he has lived here for quite a while, he still has a rather thick accent. I was baking some bread in the kitchen and just casually listening to their conversation. At one point, I heard this man use the word "wicked." It was used perfectly, like any other New Englander would use it. It was interesting that this man who has lived in this area for quite a while has picked up on the regional words and in what context they are used. It was also cool to hear wicked said in a thick accent. This man may stick out because of his accent, but he won't stick out for not knowing the regional words.

Like is umm, like cool

You don't notice it that much when you listen to someone talk just in a conversation, but when listening to something recorded, you notice things about spoken language much more. When listening to my recording of my friend and transcribing it, I hear all sorts of interesting things in the way that she talks. I picked up on these things because I wasn't listen to her sentences, but I was actually listen to her words. Two things that I noticed a lot while transcribing were her use of umm and her use of like. Sometimes people use like as a stale word when they do not know what to say. But my friend did not do that. She used the more traditional stale words like ummm, and yeah, and so. Like was only really used in place of says or something like that. She would be like I went to the mall with my friend because thats one of our favorite things to do. This isn't to say that she never used like as a stale word, but it was less often. It is interesting on how many different things that you hear when you are not listening to respond to what someone says, but are just listening to the words that they are speaking.

Is that something dirty???

Last we in class, we took a survey on language trends in the New Hampshire and Vermont area. One of the questions asked something about what I call soft ice cream (as in not the hard stuff that you scoop out, but the creamy stuff that comes out of the machine). Some of the answers were soft serve, soft ice cream, and things like that. The one that I picked (because that's what I call this kind of ice cream) was creemee.

I have known what a creemee is all my life. I spent my early childhood (from birth to about age six) in Vermont and my family would always go out for creemees during the summer. But apparently, no one from around here knows what a creemee is. I found this out a few summers ago. I was working outside with a bunch of other kids from my youth group. We had been working all day long, outside in the hot sun, and a few of us started saying things that would be just perfect right now. I said that I could really go for a creemee right now. And everyone just stared at me like I was crazy or something. It took me a few minutes to figure out why they were so confused, because in my mind, I hadn't said anything worthy of such shock and confusion. Once we figured out what the difference was, I was shocked that my friends from New Hampshire had no idea what a creemee was. Granted I hadn't lived in New Hampshire my whole life, but Vermont is in the same part of the country. I mean, the states are right next to each other. I would think that something as common as soft serve ice cream would have the same name. The rest of that summer, I asked all of my friends if they knew what a creemee was. The most common and most comical response I got was "is that something dirty?" It took me a while to figure out that creemee must just be a Vermont word. Now, all of my friends know what a creemee is, but if I go to an ice cream stand and ask for a small vanilla creemee, all I receive is a very confused look from the person taking my order.

With some lined paper and a pen...

Yesterday, I went to check my mailbox because I was walking through the MUB. I wasn't expecting anything, and when there were two letters in my mailbox I was really surprised and excited. One was a little note from my mom, and the other was a letter from my friend Karissa. Karissa is one of my oldest friends; we have known each other since first grade. It is always so exciting to get mail because seeing the words that someone wrote down on paper just for you to read is so touching. It can't be read on any computer screen, your cell phone where ever you happen to be, or heard where ever you happen to be. The words from this person can only be found on this one piece of paper. And this piece of paper was sent from where Karissa is to where I am. It's almost like a little tiny piece of her was sent to me in the mail. Letters and notes are so much more personal than any kind of electronic communication that we can use to keep in touch. It shows that someone cares enough for you that she actually took the time to find a piece of paper (a rare thing these days), get a pen, write words down, gather together an envelope and a stamp, find you address and put it in the mail. That is a lot of work compared to just writing an email. But getting a letter is so much more exciting and so much more personal. I can't wait to write Karissa back!

Understanding is easy... if you already know it

Almost everyone in this country, or most of the people we come into contact with everyday, speak English. But this does not mean that we can understand everybody just because they are speaking English. Regional dialects, accents, slang, vocabulary, and conditions can all make understanding someone speaking the same language as us easier or harder. Sometimes, there can be an accent, but because the vocabulary is familiar, the accent does not change our level of understanding. One excellent example of this is in my calculus class. The professor is Chinese and although he speaks English, he has an accent and his grammar and pronunciation are often not quite correct. But I understand perfectly what he says everyday in class. This is because I know the vocabulary that he is going to use. I expect him to use words like "derivative" and "integral." So, even if these words are not pronounced exactly as I say them or hear them, I know what he is trying to say, so I can understand him completely and correctly. It does not matter that he has a think accent and does not speak correct English all of the time, because I know the vocabulary and thus I understand his language.

Differences in regional dialects and regional slang or vocab can make conversations slightly confusing. When speaking with someone from a different region with numerous differences in language, the phrase "Wait! What did you say?" might be heard quite often. It only slightly slows the conversation down, but it is always interesting to hear how people from other regions speak. I remember a few years ago when my cousins from Idaho were visiting. We were just talking about who knows what, when one of my cousins said "Roof." But she pronounced is like "ruff," like a dog barking noise. We then argued about the real pronunciation of roof. We then decided to figure out what other words we say differently or have different words for. Another difference that we found was that here we call a little river-type-of-water flowing in our backyard a stream, while my cousins from Idaho would call it a creek. Except, they pronounced it like "crick" like a cricket. When conversing with my cousins, we have more difficulty because of the differences in how we pronounce things and the vocabulary of words that we use, not because there is an accent. My cousins do not sound much different from me when I speak. It is much easier to understand when the vocabulary is known, even when there is an accent present.

Its all in a name... or a nickname

There are some people whose name just fits them. She just looks like a Danielle or a Sarah. I couldn't tell you what exactly a Danielle or Sarah should look like, but you know when someone looks like their name. It doesn't happen often, but when it does it is so noticeable, it is astounding. These names are always easy to remember because, for some reason or another, the face triggers the mind to remember the name. But there isn't an abundance of people who look like their name, so we need to come up with other ways or either remembering names, or other names. Often what does happen, is that a person is given a nickname based on what they look like.
Now, when someone gives us a nickname like this, we usually are completely unaware that this nickname for us even exists. It is usually used when someone's real name is not know, but for some reason or another, this someone needs to be spoken about. Today I was sitting at lunch with a few friends, and one of them said, "I almost ran into glasses-kid today." Another friend then asked who glasses-kid was. Clearly glasses-kid is a kid with glasses, but since lots of people have glasses, it does not seem that this nickname would be overly useful in figuring out who glasses-kid actually is. But this guy actually looks like glasses-kid. If you saw him or walked past him, you would know that this guy is the guy called glasses-kid. It is quite interesting how you could have never seen this person in your life, only heard stories of him in which he was called glasses-kid, and when you meet him or see him for the first time, you would know exactly who he was. You know him because the nickname glasses-kid is so perfect for him. Our language and the words we use and the names we give people can be so perfectly descriptive.
A few minutes later, still at lunch, a guy from my dorm walked by and one of my friends called him over. She then proceeded to ask if she could call him Frodo. I know that you can picture him right now. And yes this guy has dark hair that sits in these little curls that float like a little fuzzy helmet over his head. Frodo is the perfect name for him because it tells anyone and everyone who has ever seen anything related to The Lord of the Rings movies would be able to pick this guy out of a crowd if you ask to pick Frodo out. Nicknames can be so perfectly fitting to someone, that no confusion could ever be made as to what his or her name was, or at least nickname was.

Making a language your own

Recently for my linguistics course , I read and essay by Barbara Mellix titled "From Outside, In" which described her experiences in learning how to write and eventually think in "Standard English" as opposed to the "Black English" she grew up in. Now, I have grown up in "Standard English" and speaking, writing, and thinking in it are completely normal for me. I do not really have any other language that I could think in. But for much of my family this is not the case. Both of my parents were born in the Netherlands and moved to the US, each with their respective families when they were about 18. Both of my parents are completely fluent in English now and only a trace of an accent remains. For my grandparents this is not quite the case. All three of my remaining grandparents have a fairly thick accent and I often hear them reaching for the correct English word when they are speaking. It isn't that they do not speak English, most of the time I understand what they are trying to communicate to me, but it is easy to see that there are times where speaking English is just not natural for my grandparents.

Anyways, after reading this essay by Barbara Mellix, I was reminded of two things. I have heard my mom several times talking about this one question that other people have asked her. The question is: when you think, do you think in Dutch or English or a mixture. I have never heard my mom's answer to this question, for she is not entirely sure herself, but it is still an interesting question. Although my mother grew up speaking Dutch, she uses English much more now. The other thought that came to my mind after reading this essay was in regards to the card my grandfather gave me for my graduation in June. It was a simple but pretty card with well chosen words on the inside and a lovely quote. But it was not the quote that struck me. After I finished reading the card, my grandfather asked me how the writing in the card was. I carefully reread the words inside, marveled for a moment at the handwriting (I love the look of the older European handwriting that I have only seen in cards from my grandparents) and turned to my grandfather. I told him that he had written well and that I found no mistakes. He seemed almost surprised that he had written in correct English and not made a single mistake. It seemed odd to me that even after having lived in the United States for over 25 years, my grandfather still did not trust his writing of the language. But I guess that a new language, especially written language, is one thing that may never belong to someone.