I've always been a word freak. Can't help myself. I hear a new word, and want not just it's definition, but origin. If I can't find that out, I wonder about it forever. I know I can't be the only one like me with this peculiarity. Surely there is someone out there who is as curious about words and language as I am? There are so many variances in the English language. Whether it's another dialect or brand new slang term, there is always a new word to learn.
It was really good fun when I found several sites on English slang. It's amazing... one language, so many accents, so many dialects, but the slang?? It's endless! I've had a great time with these (especially reading up on the naughtier words and phrases! hee-hee!). Check them out to see how very differently we English speakers communicate.
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/links.htm#british
http://www.whoohoo.co.uk/
Some of the same words are used so differently in places you may one day visit that you will continually be saying, "Say that one more time?" Some instances are "rubbers", "bonnet" and "pavement". Look for references in the above links, if you wish.
I wonder if the brand of English we speak in the Southern U.S. might one day in the distant, distant future reach the status of dialect. I do know we have quite a few colloquialisms, like fixin' ta', (as in 'fixing to', about to or preparing to) and the well known y'all, contraction for 'you' and 'all'. On that subject, here is one site: http://netsquirrel.com/crispen/word.html. It isn't so much like we in Mississippi speak, but it is funny. The most noteworthy thing about our speech is how we speak SOOOO much slower than they do in other regions of the U.S.A. We also tend to drop the "g" sound in words ending in ing. We can take the simplest, one syllable word and make it two. I remember in German class that my instructor said the Germans think Southern Americans speak like we have potatoes in our mouths. That's probably true! But slurring along as we do, we understand each other perfectly. I had to actually learn to annunciate in my German class at the University of Mississippi. We all did!
Also, I can remember when I breifly lived in Central Texas that a Yankee instructor tried to teach me to speak "properly" in her theatre/drama class. I know now that what she really was doing was trying to make me speak as she spoke. I recall several instances when she made me stand in front of the class and say words that she thought I was saying incorrectly.... "dog" I pronounced as "dawg", "set" I pronounced as "se-yet", "on" I pronounced "awn" until she had me saying them differently. I think she saw herself in the role of Higgins and Pickering, and me as an American Liza Doolittle in the film "My Fair Lady". Did she think she was doing a good deed? All it really did was embarrass me, but at least now I speak fluent Yankee! Comes in handy sometimes, I reckon. With both good-natured teasing and diction criticism, I almost quit talking all together that last year of high school.
I once found an online poll that asked the question, 'what is the sexiest, most romantic sounding accent?' The results were not the French accent as you might expect. Most people think that the single sexiest accent is the Scot's, followed closely by the American Southern. I rather like that finding. I certainly like to listen to Scots folk talking, particularly when they are talking to one another in their full dialect, with all it's unique flavor. I've even managed to learn a good deal of it. What American girl wouldn't want a kilted Scotsman cooing sweet talk in her ear? or American fellow hearing the warm whisper of a Scots lass in his?
I also have enjoyed going up North on the occasional trip and watching the expression of a waiter at a restaurant...
"May I have another glass of water, please?" I ask innocently enough.
"What did you say?" he steps closer to hear me, though he may well have understood the first time.
"I said, may I have another glass of water."
"Oh, please say that one more time!" he requests with a silly grin.
"May I please have another glass of water?"
"Yes Ma'am. Right away."
He races back with a cold, sweaty glass and sets it before me. I somehow manage to resist the urge to flutter my lashes, smile and asked for extra sugar packets. Poor man would have melted like the ice in my tea glass- on a Mississippi afternoon in August!