Thursday, January 19, 2006

Jawl Spake Anglesh??

Yesterday while having lunch with Eddie, I noticed we were sitting next to some foreigners. As I usually do when I hear an accent, I tuned my ear in a little sharper so I could hear what they were saying.

That's one of the many things I love about being on the road; I often come across people from other parts of the world. I find other languages very interesting and when I hear a foreign tongue, I usually try to listen closer and see if I can guess where they're from. This was also true of this group, but for the life of me, I couldn't make out one word they said. Not one.

So I really made a point to listen closer, even looking over at them thinking if I focused on their mouths, I'd catch something in the coversation. Imagine my surprise when I realized they weren't speaking another language at all, they were speaking English!!!

I finally heard one guy in the group say something like, "Ah weynt to mah howse aynd trayhed to fihnd mah wihf but shay wuz owtsihd faydin' the chickens in the yard whiyl ah wuz insihd yaylin' mah fool haid off."

I must have looked puzzled because Ed was looking at me funny and said, "What?"

I said, "Oh, nothing. I just thought those people were from another country. I couldn't understand anything they said."

It only took me a minute to realize why it all sounded so alien to me.

We were in Georgia.

7 comments:

Katie McKenna said...

LOL... too funny!

I simply get the " You're not from around here , are you? or "What country are you from?"
"Montana."
Where's that? "
"Near Canada."
"Ohhh, I see...that explains it."
"eh?"

Have a fabulous day!

Robin Alexa said...

You typed that accent very well by the way. Sounded like Forrest Gump to me. :)

Anonymous said...

OMG, that is so funny. My friend Mary's husband from Scotland was the same way, I never knew what he was saying. I got tired of saying "What'd you say".

Becky G said...

That is so funny! I am from Texas, and when I was in Navy boot camp, my bunkmate was from Minnesota. Neither of us could understand the other!

Anonymous said...

You'd think with everyone watching the same TV shows and such, that these regional accents would have disappeared by now. But things won't be as much fun when everyone sounds like a generic newscaster American.

alwswrite said...

Ha! That's rich. Dialects are endlessly amusing; Those people probably think New Yorkers are from another planet. Personally, I think a Queens accent sounds like home.

Anonymous said...

I so enjoyed how well you made the accent sound. You are brilliant. Where do you pull this stuff from? Your best fan. MAE