Saturday, March 24, 2007

my soapbox

Everyone I meet in Arizona, upon finding out that I am from Alabama says the same thing. "you don't sound like you're from Alabama." Which could be read a number of ways.
- you don't sound barefoot and illiterate
- you don't have an enormous southern accent that I think is funny.
- and on along those lines. there may also be positive spins on this, but I haven't discovered them yet.

And thus my soapbox.
- Could it be possible that not everyone in Alabama sounds like Gomer Pyle? And even if they do, they could still be way smarter than you?
- Could it be possible that there are other people in Alabama who sound like me? Thus, I would sound like I was from Alabama.

But it is progress, from being blamed for all the racism in the world. (that's another blogpost)

1 comment:

Hanley Family said...

You don' write like you're from Alabama.

(Sorry, couldn't resist).

Apparently, according to the nifty linguistic test I got off some other blog, I sound like I'm from where I'm from and have that enviable Midwestern accent so desired by reporters and movie stars.

The only "character" I have is a propensity for saying "y'all" which I did not get from where I grew up, when I hated the word. I actually adopted it after returning from Germany. German has a nice pronoun we do not have in standard English (ihr) which is the plural form of you. I desperately seemed to need a plural form of you all of a sudden, and stole "y'all" from the south.

I'm sure you were dying to know that.

(I also somehow escaped saying things like "warsh" although everyone in my family says it...igitt.)