Local dialects

My accent has got broader Sue! My husband has a strong accent though. My children are all really well spoken for some reason!

I 'ave a Zummerset accent and Dave a Cornish one.  A few years ago when we went to Cornwall we met an old man who remembered Dave's family.  When Dave introduced me this man said "Oi'd shek yer 'and me 'ansom but oi've just had it up a cow's a...e"

A penpal in Chicago a few years back who came to visit said all English accents sounded the same to her - just like the Queen!  Can you imagine the Queen talking with all the various dialects?

I like all the way people talk, accents, and "proper" english..it adds to the personality...I can remeber the first one of our newly arrived teachers had to pronounce the "Willamette River"....we say.".will..lam..it"....and she was saying "will..am.it.tee"...our Native American names are at times hard to pronounce unless you hear them. Over the years family-wise we kind of had our own wordage for things also...for instance my little dog I use to take with me everywhere, was my "upper camper pupper dogger"..she liked the queen sized bed in the upper part of our camper. My dad's black cocker spaniel we had growing up with was his "boo-boo dog" as she had an favorite playtime rubber ball that had the words of "Boo boo" printed on it. It went with the both of them everywhere also. We use to do an weid sign language also in High School, we didn't  have texting back then you know. So if we wanted to talk to someone from an distance while the teacher was writing lessons on the board, we'd look at each other and curve our hands like like an question mark top, and point from should to the other, over our heads...which meant..What are you doing over the "weekend"..laughs* Or you hold your nose for "pewy" which meant "no good..the idea stinks!" Now we have computers and talking backwards, and spelling "710"..for "oil" backwards...meaning it might be an "slippery" issue to tackle...all the cute littile abreviations like LOL...(lot's of laughs) ..and let us not forget our "icons" of the day.  

I still can't pronounce Willamette, and have to ask my friend every time I'm up there how to say it.

The town I live in has a native American name, and it's fun to hear others try to pronounce it. I of course have no problems with it after 16 years.

Lots of the towns in Australia have Aboriginal names and some are very hard to pronounce, here's just a few.

* Canberra (ACT) - The name 'Canberra' actually comes from an Aboriginal word, which means 'meeting place'. Quite interesting, considering Canberra is actually the 'meeting place' of Australia's Government.
* Kooyong (VIC) - The name 'Kooyong' is Aboriginal for camp or resting place.
* Kurri Kurri (NSW) - 'Kurri Kurri' is Aboriginal for 'to hurry along' or 'to go very quickly'.
* Wagga Wagga (NSW) - In many Aboriginal languages, Wagga Wagga means 'place of many crows'. Perhaps it has lots of crows!!
* Moree (NSW) - 'Moree' means 'long waterhole' or 'rising sun'.

My own accent is neither American nor English but a sort of blend of the two that a friend once christened a Transatlantic Accent.  Most people think I'm Irish; a few opt for the West country regions, and none ever opt for where I come from; Lancashire.

Willamette I would have pronounced as will-a-met.  Choowoomba would seem to be a great name for a beach. And there's one brand name that seems to defeat people as to i'ts correct pronounciation; the simple word  Nikon--that seems to have 3 variations between English, Americans, and Japanese all opting for something different.

That is a funny story Jo!

It would be great to hear everyone speak! I thought of this one because I have noticed we all sometimes use our own local expressions when we are typing on the site without thinking! I stop and change them sometimes when I realise people might not know what I'm talking about!