Words/Phrases You're Sick Of Hearing?

[Harry P.]

Acting!!!!

Thank You!!!

[Harry Joy]

 Unfortunately, regional dialects are are slowly dying off. They are being replaced by the flat, accent-neutral Midwestern news anchorese.

 I am cursed with such an accent. My family is country through and through, from rural West TN, and everyone in it (except my mom. who has a strong old NC tidal accent) talks like it. But from childhood I have talked like Walter Cronkite. No one in my family can explain it. We didn't have a TV when I was a kid. But I remember being about five years old and my grandmother making fun calling me a Yankee. All my life, folks ask where I'm from. People get it into their head that I'm from the north, the west, the east, whatever. Every time my company moves me to a new store or job in Memphis, I have to explain all over again I'm born and raised here. But when I worked in IL an WI, folks there thought I was from somewhere on the other side of the Midwest.

Funny thing is, with my generic accent and all, I recognize accents very well. I used to be able to tell what county in TN you were from, or if you were MS, or AL, or GA or TX. But accents everywhere have changed in my lifetime. Heck, I had friends when I was a teen who talked sorta like me, but when Dukes of Hazzard became a hit, they all started talking like Cooter - and still do. But what I hate more than anything is that the old North Carolina accent is disappearing. I've always loved it, but rarely hear it unless I'm seeing some old documentary on Youtube.

[blunc]

"Hey Mike, you're an electronic technician, right?" means "I want you to install my car stereo for free."

close enough 

[iamsuperdan]

Last night on Jimmy Kimmel, that country guy Chris Stapleton did a bit about words we hate. It made me laugh.

 

 

 

 

[10thumbs]

I think accents are important, it's part of your life.  Be proud of it.  I like New Yorkers way of talking, all the you-ses in PA. too.  What I can't stand is the way more and more American women speak.  The squeaky high pitched shrill voices make me cringe.   I like European women.

My father spoke well, no one could ever figure where he came from, must be similar to Tom Geiger in a couple of posts back.  He was born and raised in Florida and spent lots of time in Ohio.

I do think though, if your speech is strongly influenced from the area you live, lets say the deep south, that you should be at least able to make yourself clear so that others can understand what you say.

[sjordan2]

I always thought that, with the influence of TV to homogenize accents, regional accents would fade away. But clearly, Americans don't watch enough TV.

Edited February 18, 2016 by sjordan2

[2002p51]

My wife and I moved to East Tennessee ten years ago and I have allowed myself to pick up some of the lingo and accent. I use y'all all the time and I have a decided twang in much of my speech now.  There are also some parts of the language here that you hear all the time. For instance if someone thinks it would be possible to do something they will say; "you might could", or "I might could". If you have a choice of routes to your destination they will tell you; "Ever which way you want."  I let those slip out of me once in a while too. One thing I have not been able to do is to drop the beginning of the second word in a phrase like they do here. For instance instead of saying; "I'm going over there." You hear; "I'm going over aire." I just can't say it like that. 

They have a popular soft drink here called "Co-Cola" instead of Coca Cola, and most here drink sweet tea, not iced tea. Super markets don't have shopping carts, they have buggys. When somebody wants to know what year your car is they will ask you; "What model is it?" And those cars don't have manual transmissions, they have a "straight drive".  

There is a wide range of accents here in this part of Tennessee, in part because we are also very close to southwest Virginia. Some are mild and some are very strong.

Not long after we got here my wife and I were at a local car show and this good ol' boy walked up to us and was talking to us about our car. He talked for about 3 or 4 minutes and after he left, I turned to my wife and almost together we both said "I have no idea what he just said!"  

[Kit Basher]

 

I do think though, if your speech is strongly influenced from the area you live, lets say the deep south, that you should be at least able to make yourself clear so that others can understand what you say.

Ef y'all wud jes slow dayown a leetle, yewd unnerstan us jes fine. (Read aloud, slowly)

[10thumbs]

Ef y'all wud jes slow dayown a leetle, yewd unnerstan us jes fine. (Read aloud, slowly)

I read you loud and clear.  The problem is though, this language elsewhere may be out of place.  In this case, making yourself understandable is important.  Our language is a great one, but no one would understand this in Tokio.  Speak a clear English and you can get anything you want.  Same goes in Europe as well.

[blunc]

I read you loud and clear.  The problem is though, this language elsewhere may be out of place.  In this case, making yourself understandable is important.  Our language is a great one, but no one would understand this in Tokio.  Speak a clear English and you can get anything you want.  Same goes in Europe as well.

they may not grok it in Tokyo either. 

[Kit Basher]

I read you loud and clear.  The problem is though, this language elsewhere may be out of place.  In this case, making yourself understandable is important.  Our language is a great one, but no one would understand this in Tokio.  Speak a clear English and you can get anything you want.  Same goes in Europe as well.

I understand your point and it is a valid one. Unfortunately, changing the way one speaks is not so easy. I can't just flip a switch and sound like Walter Cronkite. The way I talk is clear and grammatically correct (at least for the region I live in), but the inflections and pace are very different from generic English. Accents are very powerful, they may be absorbed, as Drew mentions above, or very resistant to change. I know Russian and German speakers who have lived in America for 40 years, and still have a pronounced accents.

I guess I'll have to stay out of Tokyo and Europe.

[10thumbs]

@blunc, "they might not grok what in Tokio either" ?....if you can't speak a language properly, it's possible you won't be understood anywhere other than your local 7-11.  I've never had a problem in Japan with proper English.  But it might help to write so that folks understand what you mean too.

Hugh , Tokio was just an example.  Europe too.  English is still the language of understanding throughout the whole earth's population.  Speaking here of a majority of folks. 

If Russian and German immigrants still have an accent, that's wonderful.  Can these folks be understood outside of your community?  Probably.  I've been living in Europe for more than 40 years.  I speak several languages fluently.  None of these can hide my origin.  Still, I'm able to communicate in most regions of our world.  But if I'm in Italy, and the market woman understands German, and I talk to her in a German obscure dialect, she won't get it.  If I talk to her in a neutral German, she will.

That's my point.  Being able to speak, or write, in clear English when you're not filling gas at Red's Gas Station up yonder on the hill, but choose to ask how you can discretely take a dump in the ladies room because the men's room is overflowing and you already have a problem with wet feet.

Wet feet....

 

[Kit Basher]

@blunc, "they might not grok what in Tokio either" ?....if you can't speak a language properly, it's possible you won't be understood anywhere other than your local 7-11.  I've never had a problem in Japan with proper English.  But it might help to write so that folks understand what you mean too.

Hugh , Tokio was just an example.  Europe too.  English is still the language of understanding throughout the whole earth's population.  Speaking here of a majority of folks. 

If Russian and German immigrants still have an accent, that's wonderful.  Can these folks be understood outside of your community?  Probably.  I've been living in Europe for more than 40 years.  I speak several languages fluently.  None of these can hide my origin.  Still, I'm able to communicate in most regions of our world.  But if I'm in Italy, and the market woman understands German, and I talk to her in a German obscure dialect, she won't get it.  If I talk to her in a neutral German, she will.

That's my point.  Being able to speak, or write, in clear English when you're not filling gas at Red's Gas Station up yonder on the hill, but choose to ask how you can discretely take a dump in the ladies room because the men's room is overflowing and you already have a problem with wet feet.

Wet feet....

 

Which brings us full circle to the title of this thread.... Here's one: What-ever!

[martinfan5]

"Game Changing"  Some builders like to throw this one around too much when they still have yet to get the basic's of clean building down

"Inspired By"   Used to defend themselves when they are building a replica of a subject that is not being built anywhere near the subject

"I build For Myself"   I think we all know how that one is used.

"Scratch-Built" ,  one of the most overused phrases  when people modify parts and like to say "scratch - built" , or clearly did no such thing as scratch building anything

Edited February 19, 2016 by martinfan5

[Lizard Racing]

People who interview themselves:

Am I sick of this?

Yes, I am.

[SfanGoch]

"Based on" -  Sneaky qualifier tossed into the opening title credits of movies which are purportedly biographical or historical in nature. It's the producers' CYA because the person/event depicted wasn't that interesting to begin with and the resulting film is 100% pure bulltwinkies. Think Abe Lincoln using steampunk-inspired weaponry and Star Trek-style hand-to-hand combat tactics to fend off vampires who were sent to prevent him from delivering the Gettysburg Address in a remake of "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" starring Zach Galifianakis.

"Results may vary" - It won't work for you.

Using "well" as an adverb in ads to describe a person's qualifications for a product or service.

"Let's run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes it" - Using that line should earn the skevose fifteen minutes to clear out his desk and getting frogmarched out of the building by security.

 

 

 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

And speaking of CYA, the whole blame-avoidance lexicon makes me cringe: officials scrambling to create "plausible deniability", or trying to "distance themselves" from a stink that would otherwise stick to their careers for life.

Then there's "gifting". How, exactly, does "gifting" differ from giving? (This one ought to chap Harry's posterior too; "gift" is usually a noun, "give" is what one does with it...kinda reminiscent of the whole "build" controversy).

And another trying-to-sound-smart noun-as-verb word..."tasked". Example: so-and-so was "tasked" with researching the effect on wool production of force-feeding BS to sheep. Nah, he was TOLD to do it, but it sounded so lame it had to be relabeled as "tasked".

"Tasked", when used in a military or equally appropriate context doesn't bother me; it's a useful word. But when applied to the mundane or insignificant, I just think it sounds like trying too hard to sound important.

Edited February 21, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[sjordan2]

A new pop song turns a proper noun into a verb...

"Let's Marvin Gaye and get it on..."

Of course, back in 1970,  Buckminster Fuller wrote a book called "I Seem To Be A Verb."

[Snake45]

"Game Changing"  Some builders like to throw this one around too much when they still have yet to get the basic's of clean building down

"Inspired By"   Used to defend themselves when they are building a replica of a subject that is not being built anywhere near the subject

"I build For Myself"   I think we all know how that one is used.

"Scratch-Built" ,  one of the most overused phrases  when people modify parts and like to say "scratch - built" , or clearly did no such thing as scratch building anything

And in similar vein, "It was built strictly out of the box except (then lists six aftermarket additions, nine parts from other kits and four scratchbuilt mods)." In other words, not out of the box at all.

[Snake45]

A new pop song turns a proper noun into a verb...

"Let's Marvin Gaye and get it on..."

Of course, back in 1970,  Buckminster Fuller wrote a book called "I Seem To Be A Verb."

https://bellsiebooks.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/verbing_weirds_language.gif

[Ace-Garageguy]

 

Of course, back in 1970,  Buckminster Fuller wrote a book called "I Seem To Be A Verb."

My comment is off-topic, but Fuller was an interesting fella. Had a particular type of carbon molecule named for him, too, C_60, 'cause it looks like his geodesic dome design.

Buckminsterfullerene 

[SfanGoch]

If that putz Robert Moses would've approved Fuller's design for a domed stadium at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues in 1956, my old man could've still watched his beloved Bums in Downtown Brooklyn instead of cursing the Mets for 54 years.

[Harry P.]

Then there's "gifting". How, exactly, does "gifting" differ from giving? (This one ought to chap Harry's posterior too; "gift" is usually a noun, "give" is what one does with it...kinda reminiscent of the whole "build" controversy).

Yessir.

You give a gift. Give is a verb. Gift is a noun. There is no such thing as "gifting." It's another of those made up nonsense words that modern society seems to adore for some reason that escapes me completely.

[SfanGoch]

"Haters", "hate/hating on" - Sounds like something four year olds say to each other

"Hate crime" - The commission of any criminal act is predicated on the fact that the perpetrator doesn't do it because he likes the victim. 

"Po-Po" - Slang for police. I wish I had a nine iron, or a two foot piece of lead pipe wrapped in a newspaper, handy whenever I hear an adult use this term. 

"It's touch and go" - Ask the person who says this exactly what does he mean and, more often than not, you get a blank stare in return. 

Anybody saying "It's copacetic" and can't define "copacetic". Just shut up and stop wasting oxygen.

 

.

 

[Danno]

"Haters", "hate/hating on" - Sounds like something four year olds say to each other

"Hate crime" - The commission of any criminal act is predicated on the fact that the perpetrator doesn't do it because he likes the victim. 

"Po-Po" - Slang for police. I wish I had a nine iron, or a two foot piece of lead pipe wrapped in a newspaper, handy whenever I hear an adult use this term. 

"It's touch and go" - Ask the person who says this exactly what does he mean and, more often than not, you get a blank stare in return. 

Anybody saying "It's copacetic" and can't define "copacetic". Just shut up and stop wasting oxygen.

 

.

 

Amen.  Bozos throw that around these days like cheap confetti at a ticker-tape parade.  Talk about over-used BS.

Amen.

AMEN.  10-4!

True.

Yessir.

 

 

Another:   "Meh."   What?  You can't compose a coherent thought to express your feelings about a given topic?  Really?