Thursday, March 13, 2008

Kansas English

So some guys are working on a light by the bookstore. It's in a pretty inaccessible place and doesn't look like a lot of fun.

Anyway, one of them just said, "Probly ain't never been dealt with 'til now."

The question I have is, where do people learn how to talk that way? "Ain't never"? I mean, Kansas is known for having a very neutral dialect. With the possible exception of pin/pen and crayon/crown, we just don't deal with a lot of accent around here. (Also, among old people, "warsh.")

I think I'm going to blame Oklahoma and Missouri on this one. Somehow, all the blue collar folk from down and over there get imported to Kansas, where they seek to destroy our clean dialect.

Whether that is a bad thing, of course, is another issue. Language does change based on the efforts of the poor and the lower, middle class, so I guess I should just learn to accept that improper English is the wave of the future.

How do I show my support? I dont no! lolz! wut r u gunna do?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate it when people talk like they're stupid. I especially hate it when they actually aren't stupid, although even when they really are stupid I'm still fairly annoyed...Kay

Anonymous said...

Here's a movie for you, Idiocracy. Its one of those movies that isn't great, but has that shred of it could be in there. For instance the language has digressed to a mix of hillbilly, valley girl, inner-city slang, and various grunts...also lots of cursing too. I don't know but you were talking about language and that movie came to mind. Audrie

Anonymous said...

That movie is hilarious, although like you said, it's pretty bad, in terms of acting, etc. But the premise behind it is intriguing. Kay