The ‘New York Accent’ Is About To Become Extinct, And Linguists Think They Know Why

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And people are always 'fixin to' do something.

That 'fixin' thing has always interested me. I have tried to say it for fun, but I can't get away with it because I don't believe it. So it comes across as fake and stupid.

You have the basic fixin', which means preparing or getting ready to do a thing. I'm fixin to put up a shed.

Then there is 'fixinaa' for 'fixintaa', as in we's fixintaa go eat. Now in this case you could use the a'fixin because it does not mean preparing but rather indicates that an action is imminent. As in, we's a'fixintaa go eat, or he's a'fixinaa' go, meaning the person is about to leave.

Now in some dialects, mostly Black but Whites as well, they will say fissin' instead of fixing or fixin'. As in I'm a'fissintaa go. At least fixing or fixin' is based on a real actual word. When you get to fissintaa', you are on your own at that point. That is a completely new made up word, that everyone in the South would understand without a blink.

But I have to agree with the poster who said that eventually everyone will speak exactly like me. That is to say, they will all finally speak normally.

[PzLdr]

And then the are the "deze, dats, dems and doze" of Chicago.

I knew a guy from the city who would say, "toity tird and tird". Guys from Brooklyn called "oil" "earl". And the only southern inflection we used was pronouncing "rat bastard" as 'rat bastahd". 

[olde north church]

Funny stories.  I have found when I travel that my accent can become the topic of a conversation.  I remember we stayed at a quaint whaling captain's mansion in Bar Harbor, Maine.  There was a nice bar, and there we found ourselves conversing with several people from Maine and Massachusetts.  You can imagine what a room full of accents that was!  LOL!

But, whose "accent" do they focus on?  Mine!  They were fascinated, and kept asking me to "say that again".  Of course, you have to lay it on pretty thick when you are being examined like that!  I kept thinking, they are calling this place, "Bah Hahbah" - and I"M the one with the accent?

 :nometalk:

Four Marine recruits sitting eating chow.  One from northern Florida, one from Ohio, one from New Jersey and one from Massachusetts.  Three of them had no accent.  One did.