New York Talk - Part 2

When in Rome...is my motto, most of the time. I tend to adopt regional pronunciations and expressions while I am in the area, and I do it for several reasons: 1) To be understood; 2) To avoid being marked as an outsider; 3) To avoid being seen as a pretentious twiddle poop. Soooo.....

-- When in Colorado, I never say "ColoRAHdo"

-- When in Appalachia, I say "AppaLATCHa" not AppaLAYcha

--When in the Himalayas, I say "HiMAHLya"

Now I'm in New York, and I'm quite willing to say HAIRass instead of haRASS, ask for eggs "over lite," and refer to a little concrete stump of a porch as a "stoop." I can say frappe, dungarees and jimmies without blinking.

But I *do* have my limits, as any self-respecting speaker of the English language would. I will not say that I am "on line" at the market when I mean "in line." Online means something else -- something to do with computers, no? Why confuse the issue?

And I refuse to say "steereo" when I mean stereo, or bed when I mean bad or said when I mean sad.

But as I overheard recently, "With some words, if you don't pronounce them correctly you sound stupid, and if you *do* pronounce them correctly, you sound pretentious. Whaddayagonnado?"