zompist bboard

I was thinking about funny grammatical or phonetical patterns which kids make up. I'm not talking about "he was like, so duh", but a bit more creative things than that. And I'm not talking about babies, more like teenagers. Or childish adults.

I have a group of friends who have developed what seems to be a simplification of clusters, so that for example /sk/ or /st/ becomes /s/. Like:
"That looks like a rissy idea".
"You need to whiss those eggs."
"Eww, that's discussing!"

It's kind of like a linguistic inside joke, but I wouldn't be surprised if such a joke can turn into something used more seriously. (Some say that's how the sort R of French and English came about.)

Another peculiar example, slightly fictional, is Buffy-speak:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BuffySpeak
http://langavitleysa.blogspot.com/2005/ ... speak.html

Got any more?

The Swedish word for "play" is "spela". The people I know that hang at a certain forum, more or less always say "sepla" (and "epsikt" for "episkt", "släms" for "skäms", "snigel" for "singel" and probably more). I think many of these might be my fault. "släms" came from a dyslectic, and "snigel" was an honest mistake by a guy, but it has survived for years now. Many in jokes.

Chuma wrote:I have a group of friends who have developed what seems to be a simplification of clusters, so that for example /sk/ or /st/ becomes /s/.

For some reason, /s/ in /sC/ clusters was often realised [S] in the dialect of my high school, e.g. "shtuff" (a common euphemism for "shit"), "shmart", "Shteve" (further altered by expressive pronunciation to ['St@iv_o]).

I just graduated highschool, and I can say this is super common among the young folk here, and can get pretty elaborate. In my area, or maybe just my school (who knows how widespread these things are), the most common change was /l/→/r/. I'm sure that one started as an stereotyped imitation of Japanese speakers' English accents, but it soon lost that pejorative meaning and became a bit more complex, adding sound changes like /j/→/r/, /j/→/tʃ or dʒ/, inserting /l/ and /b or p/ willy nilly, and some unpredictable changes in names.

Ex:
Why hello → /ʍ:aɪ hɛɹo/
I love you → /aɪ ɹʌb dʒu/ or /aɪ ɹʌb ɹu/
Yes! → /tʃɛs:/
Of course → /ʌv cloɹb/
Erin Allie Daniel → /lɛɹɪn ʌɹi: dɹænjəw dɹɛɪvdʒ/
Peter Elizabeth Steven → /plitlɚ ɹiɹɪzablɪp stɹɛfɨn/

Sometimes there are many versions of names, some of which are pretty goofy:
David → /dɹɛɪvɨdʒ dlæbɪb dɨvɪw dɹɑbɑb dɛɪvlɑg dɪwg dlæpt dɹɪg dəbɹɑvɨdi/

This word play occurs only in short bursts and generally conveys excitement or sarcasm. It's more common among girls. It is sometimes accompanied with an accent that is sort of between Japanese and Swedish, but is usually spoken in a normal voice.

linguoboy wrote:

Chuma wrote:I have a group of friends who have developed what seems to be a simplification of clusters, so that for example /sk/ or /st/ becomes /s/.

For some reason, /s/ in /sC/ clusters was often realised [S] in the dialect of my high school, e.g. "shtuff" (a common euphemism for "shit"), "shmart", "Shteve" (further altered by expressive pronunciation to ['St@iv_o]).

I at least am used to* /s/ in /sC/ clusters being changeable to [ɕ]** from the usual [s̻] found in those clusters, both sporadically and for effect. The usual folk explanation would be the influence of High German varieties, Yiddish varieties included, upon North American English with regard to /SC/ clusters, where /S/ is a fortis sibilant. However, the (relatlvely weak) palatalization of sibilants in such positions***, associated with their being realized as laminal, might also predispose them to being retracted and thus being alveolo-palatal outside of any High German influence.

* in my dialect, that is.

** aside from just the cases where /C/ has become [t̠̻͡ɕ], from historical /t͡ʃ/ or /t/, where less conservative speech very often has [ɕt̠̻͡ɕ] across the board.

*** except in the notable cases of /sk/ or /sg/, where I am used to an apical, non-palatalized [s] being preserved, and where I never hear the realization of /s/ as anything like [ʃ] and [ɕ]; this does not rule out the possibility of High German influence, as High German changed /s̻k/ to /ʃ/ before the later changes of /s̻/ in clusters to /ʃ/ and of /s̺/ to /s/, with /sk/ being later reintroduced through morphology and through loans.

1. Girls in the school I used to go to in El Salvador would often change final /o/ and /a/ to /u/ and /is/, in an attempt to sound "cute":

¡Qué lindu! ("¡Qué lindo!": "It's so cute!")
No seás tan dundis. ("No seás tan dunda": "Don't be so stupid". "seás" is voseo)

2. They would often change the /e/ in "te" to /i/ and the /ie/ diphthong in the conjugations of "querer" to /e/ as well:

¡Ti amu!
¿La queres? ("¿La quieres?": "Do you like/love her?". "quieres" is tuteo, using voseo the form would be "querés", so not allowing for "cute" sound changes to happen)

Me and one if my friends do this thing to the word love. Depending on how much we like you well say either "lub", "wub" or "wubs" ([lʌb], [wʌb], [wʌbz])
Wubs is pretty much saying you love the person like family, wub is like a best friend, lub is for just any friend, and love is everything else. This slang is pretty much limited to me and my friend Courtney though.

na'oolkili wrote:David → /dɹɛɪvɨdʒ dlæbɪb dɨvɪw dɹɑbɑb dɛɪvlɑg dɪwg dlæpt dɹɪg dəbɹɑvɨdi/

Initial /dl/ clusters and /ɪw/? Interesting.

I can't really think of much stuff like this, apart from our apparently random interspersions of Welsh words and phrases into our everyday English, 'bobol bach', 'hoffi panad?' etc. It kind of turned into a jargon, actually - 'school' was 'ysgol', all the sciences used their Welsh names... also, for some things, what began as an affectedly Welsh pronunciation (the typical 'Welsh accent' is not really prevalent around here) became typical, like [bɫə'di] for 'bloody', [sku'wɛl] for 'school', etc.

Also, switching into faux, semi-mocking [o: mɑi gɑ:ʃ] high school american cheerleader accents was relatively common amongst, ironically, the girls who would've been cheerleaders had they lived in Hollywood America...

Edit: Also, for no apparent reason, calling someone called James ['xamɛz]. The only possible explanation for this I can think of is that he studied Spanish.

na'oolkili wrote:David → /dɹɛɪvɨdʒ dlæbɪb dɨvɪw dɹɑbɑb dɛɪvlɑg dɪwg dlæpt dɹɪg dəbɹɑvɨdi/

Draividge, Dlabbib, Divill, Drahbob, Davelog, Dilg, Dlapt, Drig, and Dobrovity? And all those are David? Wow!

Aid'os wrote:

na'oolkili wrote:David → /dɹɛɪvɨdʒ dlæbɪb dɨvɪw dɹɑbɑb dɛɪvlɑg dɪwg dlæpt dɹɪg dəbɹɑvɨdi/

Draividge, Dlabbib, Divill, Drahbob, Davelog, Dilg, Dlapt, Drig, and Dobrovity? And all those are David? Wow!

For some people we would make up a new pronunciation every time we said their name, so yes. The more you knew someone the more mangled their name could become.
To be clear, above /ɪw/ was actually [ɪw], not [ɰ] or [ɫ̞] or however you write the allophone of /l/ without coronal contact.

YngNghymru wrote:Also, for no apparent reason, calling someone called James ['xamɛz]. The only possible explanation for this I can think of is that he studied Spanish.

Pronouncing words as if they were Spanish was somewhat common among my friends too.

YngNghymru wrote:Edit: Also, for no apparent reason, calling someone called James ['xamɛz]. The only possible explanation for this I can think of is that he studied Spanish.

We have very similar at my college, where a guy whose surname is Edwardes-Jones gets it pronounced /EdwAr\dEz xonEz/. For no adequately explained reason. I think he's reading Geography.

Chuma wrote:Another peculiar example, slightly fictional, is Buffy-speak:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BuffySpeak
http://langavitleysa.blogspot.com/2005/ ... speak.html

This is funny because I'm in the process of making my way through Buffy. In fact I just watched the episode last night where she says "How do you get renowned? Do you have to be nowned first?"

na'oolkili wrote:

YngNghymru wrote:Also, for no apparent reason, calling someone called James ['xamɛz]. The only possible explanation for this I can think of is that he studied Spanish.

Pronouncing words as if they were Spanish was somewhat common among my friends too.

There's a whole subculture full of it, not to mention Spanglish is super easy to make. It goes something like:

"Hola! I needo some chipso por favor.
Qué!?"

The addition of a final -o is an instant "Spanishifier" in the USA as are the use of Hola, Adiós, Sí, Por Favor, Qué, Por qué, Fabulosa, and other Spanish words in English.

Viktor77 wrote:[I just watched the episode last night where she says "How do you get renowned? Do you have to be nowned first?"

Yes, actually.

na'oolkili wrote:

YngNghymru wrote:Also, for no apparent reason, calling someone called James ['xamɛz]. The only possible explanation for this I can think of is that he studied Spanish.

Pronouncing words as if they were Spanish was somewhat common among my friends too.

Yeah, but it's not like Spanish was widely studied here or anything - it's far from the most popular language in the UK (although I'm pretty sure it's gaining on French, inch by inch, day by day ).

There's a whole subculture full of it, not to mention Spanglish is super easy to make. It goes something like:

"Hola! I needo some chipso por favor.
Qué!?"

Oh! That's another thing other people used to do, but with Welsh. -iau, -au, and -io are instant Welshifiers, after all. Chip(s)iau. Sigh.

In my neck of the woods, kids tend to do use "shall" for "will", replace /k/ with /t/ (e.g. ''otay'' for okay, "tute'' for cute), affricate prevocalic /t/ and /d/ to [ts] and [dz], and turn intervocalic /l/ into /w/.

Would turning everything into a Yo Momma joke count?

Adding plural markers all over the place? Like "lots of loves".

Can't think of any other ones, although I know a lot of people who say internet memes a lot, like OMNOMNOM or big cat is big.

äreo wrote:In my neck of the woods, kids tend to do use "shall" for "will", replace /k/ with /t/ (e.g. ''otay'' for okay, "tute'' for cute), affricate prevocalic /t/ and /d/ to [ts] and [dz], and turn intervocalic /l/ into /w/.

Nice, I like that one, I also have the prevocalic /t/ to /ts/ , but I don't have /d/ to /dz/. Personally I tend to shorten "okay" to "oka".