What is a Yankee?

>>I would agree with you, because I think that outside the South and New England, all other regional variations are more minor and tend to blend into a gradient across the country.<<

Here in the Midwest, though, we do have features such as the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, Canadian Raising (most prominently for /aI/, but there are also dialects here which also raise /aU/ to some degree or another), and various substratum features (such as more backed and rounded (tense) back vowels, interdental hardening, word-final devoicing, and certain grammatical constructs and expressions such as the use of "with" in phrasal verb constructions) in dialects here. Such features may not be as prominent in the consciousness of the overall population of the US (most people seem to not really be all too aware of them except in the case of more marked dialects in the Upper Midwest) as features of Southern or Northeastern dialects. However, many of them are still marked in relation to General American and are still noticed by people from without the Midwest, as shown by things like "Wiscaansin" (indicating that people are aware of the use of [a] or even [{] in the place of GA [A]) and there being a clear consciousness in California of the difference between dialects there and those in the Midwest despite many Californian and Midwestern dialects really being removed from each other in time by about only 50 years.

Here in the Midwest, though, we do have features such as the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, Canadian Raising (most prominently for /aI/, but there are also dialects here which also raise /aU/ to some degree or another), and various substratum features (such as more backed and rounded (tense) back vowels, interdental hardening, word-final devoicing, and certain grammatical constructs and expressions such as the use of "with" in phrasal verb constructions) in dialects here.


Such features may not be as prominent in the consciousness of the overall population of the US (most people seem to not really be all too aware of them except in the case of more marked dialects in the Upper Midwest) as features of Southern or Northeastern dialects


However, many of them are still marked in relation to General American and are still noticed by people from without the Midwest, as shown by things like "Wiscaansin" (indicating that people are aware of the use of [a] or even [{] in the place of GA [A]) and there being a clear consciousness in California of the difference between dialects there and those in the Midwest despite many Californian and Midwestern dialects really being removed from each other in time by about only 50 years.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, however, we speak pure, unadulterated, General American with no nonstandard features.

<< Here in the Pacific Northwest, however, we speak pure, unadulterated, General American with no nonstandard features.<<

Except win yer giddeen yer melk and pawp in baygs and ketcheen yer bawdoles of ketchup with great stringth and giveen them to yer guists.

"Except win yer giddeen yer melk and pawp in baygs and ketcheen yer bawdoles of ketchup with great stringth and giveen them to yer guists. "

Whoa! Guest, is that how you really think we talk? I had to read that twice before I understood it. I think I'd have an easier time reading Scots English or something. What you wrote is just plain trippy.

One more thing, I almost forgot: It's soda, not pop or pawp in this part of the country.

>>Whoa! Guest, is that how you really think we talk? I had to read that twice before I understood it. I think I'd have an easier time reading Scots English or something. What you wrote is just plain trippy.<<

From what I have heard about dialects in the Pacific Northwest, it is easy to perceive such as such if one is from without there; however, you probably are not used to reading something resembling your own dialect written in a pseudophonetic fashion and thus it probably seems really weird. However, this applies to probably most NAE dialects (or English dialects in general at that), and at least for me, my dialect (that of the west side of Milwaukee, WI) would probably look much stranger if one tried to write it out pseudophonetically like that.

"Except win yer giddeen yer melk and pawp in baygs and ketcheen yer bawdoles of ketchup with great stringth and giveen them to yer guists."

If you translate for us what you actually said (considering I can only understand half of it) then I would happily tell you how it would sound phonetically if a North-Westerner were speaking. But from looking at it right now, it looks more Southern than Northern.

>> One more thing, I almost forgot: It's soda, not pop or pawp in this part of the country. <<

It's "pop". At least in Washington. "Soda" is a transplant from California, and is, like most things Californian, unfortunately gaining ground here. I've even heard many natives switch to "soda".

>> Except win yer giddeen yer melk and pawp in baygs and ketcheen yer bawdoles of ketchup with great stringth and giveen them to yer guists. <<

>> I had to read that twice before I understood it. I think I'd have an easier time reading Scots English or something. What you wrote is just plain trippy. <<

It does look like Scots, and is quite awkward to read. However, I would say that lots of people do pronounce "your" like "yer"; aw is the same as "o"; t's are sometimes d's: like bawdoles obviously is "bottles". Stringth is just respelling "strength" more phonetically, and "ketcheen" is obviously "catching"--although I pronounce it more with an "a" sound, but I've heard "ketcheen" as well.