<p>I was referring to way you like to parody Bush, and/or people who speak with a southern accent.<br>
</p>
<p>Is someone trying to deny Southerners speak with accents?</p>
<p>Correct. Y’all have the accents.</p>
<p>I don’t understand what is wrong with an accent-
there are * accents*
<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_American_English[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_American_English</a>
and there are accents & I admit that it is a tossup when I call customer service- whether I can understand the rep better
if they are in Mobile or Mumbai.</p>
<p>I admit to having extreme frustration with the numbers of workers who have such a strong accent that I can’t tell what they are saying- and I thought I was fairly good at figuring that out- after my experience working with a lot of international students at the community college.
But I also give up asking them to repeat things after a while and just guess at what they are saying. :(</p>
<p>Since I grew up in South Texas, I have a very mild Spanish-inflected Texas twang. But I did spend almost 10 years in Cajun country in Louisiana…so every once in a while, I start sounding a little bit like a ‘coon a$$’.</p>
<p>Bush has spent enough years in Texas to earn the accent…it’s legit. He can never say he’s a Native Texan; but anyone who professes to love Texas will find that Texas loves 'em right back.</p>
<p>
Correct!
Oh, get a parody permit, willya? Nobody should be subjected to this kind of drek. What a maroon. Leave this sort of thing to people who know what they’re doing.</p>
<p>And Driver, of the Philly Main Line, will be just the one to do the southern parody.</p>
<p>We’re waiting!!</p>
<p>“Is someone trying to deny Southerners speak with accents?”</p>
<p>everyone speaks with an accent. according to southerners, northerns have “an accent.” according to texans, everyone else has an accent. According to the british, americans all sound like idiots.</p>
<p>In varying degrees, of course.</p>
<p>I lived in Colorado for a number of years…and my Colorado friends made big good-natured fun of the way I said ‘ColoRAHdo’…with a Spanish pronunciation. They laughed and laughed at my funny Texas accent and told
‘Texan on a ski-lift’ jokes to tease me. But, to me, they were the ones with the funny accents …and they didn’t even know how to properly pronounce the name of their own state. (It is a Spanish word after all…lol!) </p>
<p>So it’s really all in what the ears are used to hearing.</p>
<p>Accents are phonemic and have to do with the rules by which we put sounds together. They are rule-based, such as someone from NY saying idear for idea. These dialectical differences are developed primarily when one learns to speak but can change over the course of time, living consistently in an environment. For example, my college roomate was from Reston, Virginia…I am from southern Cal. By the end of 3 years living together, I had developed a slight “Reston drawl.” However, it disappeared after moving away. “Walter Cronkite speech” is known as General American English and is (theoretically) without dialect or accent. Anyone can learn to use GAE but it takes the effort to learn. Some areas of the country, particularly California and the NW are fairly close to GAE. </p>
<p>One’s choice of words (semantics), how one puts sentences together (syntax) or uses the proper endings or variations of word structure (morphology) are also learned and developed in early life. However phrases and usage of idioms or other expressions are cultural and result from living in an envirnonment and are fluid/can change. </p>
<p>There is no acceptable explanation for why the president of the US says Nu-que-lar for nuclear. It is simply wrong, a mispronunciation from interjecting a vowel where it does not belong. jWhile it sounds “folksy” to some, it sounds un-educated to me and like fingernails on a chalkboard each and every time!!!Sorry, the president of the most powerful country in the world should learn how to say such a powerful word. (PS, I am a Speech-Language Pathologistwith a MA and way too many years of experience :(</p>
<p>I honestly think George W. says NOO-cue-ler (nuclear) that way on purpose…kinda goofin’ on all the folks who made fun of him in the beginning. He’s a bit of prankster that way. (My uncle knows him… Secret Service for George HW many moons ago and got to know the boys quite well.)</p>
<p>I don’t give him nearly so much credit as to remember to mispronounce a word every single time. Once or twice he’d slip up, if he was funnin’ on us.</p>
<p>how does he pronounce water? or washing machine?</p>
<p>I may not agree with everything about George W., but one thing is certain. He loves it when people underestimate him. He is not an idiot. He may have chosen not to work hard and produce an impressive college GPA at Yale…but the guy has street smarts and he will kneecap ya if you get in his way. </p>
<p>Bush knows how history will remember him…as the President that kicked a** after 9-11. The rest of it, mistakes and all, will be noise that will become barely discernible before becoming completely inaudible. Clinton, as intellectually smart and capable as he is, will always be the BJ President. Carter will always be the one-termer that got his butt handed to him by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Reagan, with all his flaws, will always be revered. And so it goes…</p>
<p>To me, a President who has that figured out isn’t so stupid after all.</p>
<p>Idmom:
You forgot Big Bush I. Or will we all. And Shrub, will Iraq be so quickly forgotten. And Kicked A** how? Got Bin Laden, dead or alive? Arrested Jose Padilla?</p>
<p>I didn’t mention Bush the Elder because I do think he will be totally forgotten…poor guy. He is really a sweet man. And yes, 100 years from now, I doubt Iraq will be what first comes to mind when the name George W. Bush is mentioned. Not saying it’s right…or wrong.</p>
<p>He mispronounces nuclear every single time. It is not on purpose because he once commented that he has been criticized for doing so. It’s like a kid who says psghetti except kids outgrow with some gentle correction. Sorry.</p>
<p>Oh come on…lol! Bush can say the word (nuclear) right if he wants to. He has memorized the Latin name for just about every flora and fauna on his 1500 acre ranch and knows the geological history of all the various formations there…and he can’t say nuclear right? Nope…not buying it.</p>
<p>btw…his funny pronunciation didn’t originate in Texas. Never in my life heard even the most Native of Texans mispronounce it the way he does. So it’s got to be a Maine or Connecticut thing right?</p>
<p>No, its how he learned to say and chooses not to make the effort to say it correctly. Yes, he knows its incorrect, but it is habitual. This is what happens in speech/language development. Another example, fairly common is the word “larynx.” It is pronounced “lair-inks” but one of my colleagues (who clearly knew better) pronounced it “lair-nicks” every time because it was habitual. This was a trained speech-language pathologist mispronouncing a word used commonly in the profession, who could pronounce it correctly, but did not out of habit. Sorry, again…GWB is NOT pulling our legs. He has a “bad habit.”</p>