Three weeks ago, our Christian Mind class covered the topic of language. Somehow, as we were talking about it, the conversation turned to dialects of English, with Dr. Green pointing out that we all speak different dialects. I was amazed when, in the next few minutes, the room came alive with students sharing their different types of speech and the words they grew up with. There were Western, Southern, Eastern, and my own Northern dialects.
As a child, I thought adults were absolutely boring, but now that I am here at college, meeting different people, I honestly find it so amazing to discover the uniqueness about each person, and these dialects bring it out more. What’s more is you don’t get to know someone just by looking at them - you have to dig a little deeper than that.
Within the next thirty minutes, I gleaned so much information about the individuals around me and the way we could bond over our differences. I shared my experience coming as a New Englander to a Southern college and having Southern roommates. There are many times my roommates laugh at a pronunciation or phrase I will use that is completely normal to me, and I’m not sure why I sound so foreign to them. If you heard me, perhaps you’d be confused as well, when I use phrases like, “That’s wicked cool,” “It’ll be a riot,” or “sneakers” instead of “tennis shoes.”
I’m not sure if “It’ll be a riot” is really a New England thing, but it’s a phrase I use that my roommates claim to have never heard before. With this also comes my pronunciation of “syrup” and then “roof,” maybe not among my Southern friends, but definitely among the Western ones. My grandfather is more Western, and it comes out in how he talks - it even comes out in how he says my name: “Emly” with no i. As for “wicked cool,” I am not using wicked as in “bad,” but as an emphasis on how cool something is. You basically swap it with the word “really.” For example, “wicked awesome,” “wicked nice,” and so on and so forth.
And yet, I love the differences so much, because it gives each of us a distinguished uniqueness. While down here in the South I sound Northern, up in the North, I sound a little more Southern. I use the word “y’all” all the time, and when I’m tired, my words come out with a Southern ring even when I’m not trying.
Just quickly, I want to remind us to be careful how we respond to the different ways someone may say or phrase something. It is a huge struggle for me to not respond in confusion or amusement when someone talks in a way I am not used to, but I know that is also how some people feel when I speak in my dialect. We are tempted to laugh or think they sound really weird, or ask them why they’re talking the “wrong” way. Whether the person may show it or not, this can be incredibly hurtful. It is someone’s “comfort zone,” the language they speak with loved ones and family, and we have to be careful not to laugh at that. It’s part of who they are, and we need to really just enjoy getting to know and understand it.
It is also a great ice breaker when having a conversation, because it is something you and the other person have in common.
I loved sitting and listening to the stories of my classmates, reminding me just how different we all are, and yet how amazing it is that we can bond over this. We need to be careful in how we respond to someone’s different speech, but making a list of the differences can also be such a fun activity.
One last fun note, in the North, when you say “Barbeque,” we think of the whole grilling process and eating together - that’s a barbeque. Down South when you say barbeque, you think of the sauce or the meat. They are interesting distinctions using the same word, but both are great.