Art Is… by Bev Jackson Cotter

Several years ago, when I was in Toastmasters and responsible for Table Topics at one of our meetings, I pulled out my American English/British English dictionary and wrote several sentences using the British words. As the other members of the club tried to decipher their sentences, we had lots of laughs at the American interpretations, most of them wrong.

Prior to my visit to England, I hadn’t realized how far our language had traveled, and we’ve come a long way since that time.

Recently my husband brought a book to my attention called “The Language We Speak, Instead of English” by Dana Wall. Wall has taught English at every level from seventh grade through graduate school including a year in England. His book is a fun read. I hadn’t realized how creative (or lazy?) we have gotten with the American version of English. We might be spelling these words right, but we pronounce them differently depending on where we live in the U.S.

Have fun with these examples.

“My son goes to the Universiddy.”

“We stopped at a rest runt in I’wuh.”

“Iddle be over soon.”

“I enjoy reading the nooze paper.”

“He is so famus. He has a nash null reputation.”

“I thought jogger fee was boring.”

“What’s the tempacher?”

“I’m going to Yerp in the spring.”

“His famly dates back to the first pieneers.”

“I wish I had a bedder command of the English language.”

Now, I believe that I do not use any of these pronunciations, but I do have to wonder what people mean when they say that they know I am from Minnesota.

Several years ago, I was doing a program in southern Iowa. Afterwards, someone in the audience came up to me and said, “I love listening to you Minnesotans talk.” I didn’t know what she was referring to, but I did think she had a very strong accent.

I tie my boat to a dock and my Southern friend turns the lights on when it gets dock outside. My mother’s sister is Ont Manda and she has a friend in Texas called Aint Mabel. My car has an accelerator and a guy I know in Maine says his is an exchilerater.

If we cannot pronounce words right, and I haven’t figured out which pronunciation is right, how can we ever learn to spell them?

I pity English teachers today. With young people texting all of their messages, they must not have a clue about correct spellings.

Come to think of it, my husband, who is third generation, 100 percent Irish, has a whole different view of the language than my third generation, 100 percent German interpretation. Sometimes we say the same thing using entirely different words, and then have to translate.

When our founding fathers chose English for the national language, did they really know how complicated it would become or how creative Americans would be? (That’s Mare Kins according to Dana Wall.)

Oh, by the way, when was the last time you drove to the Twin Sihdeez?

 

Bev Jackson Cotter is a member of the Albert Lea Art Center.