Talk:Pacific Northwest English/Archive 1

Warshintun

I expected to find this here, unless I've missed it; the Washington State affectation which results in the state's name being "Warshintun"; other words also have this ah -> ar change (I don't know how to write it in IPA). It's the most distinctive marker of someone really from Washington, or older families thereof, and you don't hear it from Oregonians or BCers (a few miles away in some cases). Also a lot of people in WA and OR have a real "Okie" accent, which apparently came to the region in the Depression. Comments?Skookum1 08:02, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm from Washington and have never heard this pronunciation used before, but I have heard that people from the South do use this pronunciation sometimes. My guess is that the children of people from the South that moved to Washington during the Depression probably lost this pronunciation and acquired the current pronunciation [wɑʃiŋtən]. Redtitan 22:18, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

I grew up in Seattle & spent many many years in the Northwest, & I have literally hundreds of friends and family members from all over the Northwest, and this page is the biggest load of crap I've ever seen in my entire life. Nobody uses any of those words.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.196.60.42 (talk • contribs) 20:33, August 29, 2006

I've heard 'Warshingtun' said a few times, but only when it's used to make fun of East Coast accents. Much like 'Idear' instead of 'Idea'. I have lived in Western Washington almost all of my life, and if someone says 'Warshingtun', then I wouldn't believe they were from Washington. --209.166.75.105 08:50, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

I have a friend, born in Portland, who has always said "Warshington" & "warsh" -- but he's the only native northwesterner I know who uses this pronunication. I remember seeing an article published in the late 1940s, which documents this uncommon practice; I'll try to see if I have the cite at home. (IIRC, this pronunication is documented for at most 25% of all speakers in the area with no clear locus where it is the majority practice.) Along the same lines is the faint but unmistakable drawl of some upper-Willamette valley speakers reminiscent of southern American English: these speakers tend to be descendants of Southerners who came to settle in the area. -- llywrch 19:06, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't think this page is the biggest load of crap, I too am from Seattle, and I've tended to associate 'Warshingtun' with Eastern Wash and/or Washingtonians of mid-western origins; it may be a historical artifact, but I assure you it's quite authentic. Less so (and here I agree with the comment above) is the list of chinook words, maybe this is rampant in B.C., but other than in the rituals of the Univ of Wash booster clubs, these words just arent in use.

I've lived in Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon all my life, and I have never heard any local people call it 'Warshingtun', unless it was a child with a speech impediment. I agree with the person who said this page is a huge load of crap. I'm obsessed with dialects, and this page is full of nothing but nonsense. I hate it when people insist on things that aren't patently not the case to anyone who's actually lived here. Maybe they should start banning any non-northwesterners from modifying this page. :-) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.20.174.196 (talk) 00:32, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

I'm wondering if anyone has noticed the peculiar local pronunciation of the word 'Buoy'? Elsewhere (Australia and Maine, I've noticed) is pronounced something like 'Bwoy' but in the Puget Sound is more like 'Bew' ee'.Hrmph! 20:24, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

Regarding "buoy", where I come from (suburban Vancouver), it is pronounced exactly the same as "boy". I vaguely recall a local newscaster (who wasn't really local, I think) being criticised about 20 years ago for pronouncing it wrong on the air. As for that other list of words, I'm fairly familiar with the word "skookum", which I've always understood to mean "screwed up" or "defective" or something similar. The other words, not so much.Djob (talk) 14:44, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Well, I grew up in Portland & the only problem I see with this page is that most of the Chinook words here have fallen out of common usage. Years ago, when I was more interested in the local dialect, I learned from my mother's mother (who had been born & lived her entire life in Portland) that "skookum" was fairly common in colloquial usage in the city, but fell out of use by WWII. The other Chinook words that are still in use tend to belong to the general US vocabulary, for example "high muckimuck" (=hyas muckamuck) or Siwash (in "Siwash college", to describe a small, provincial college). I'd say that the likelihood for any NW resident hearing many of these words is directly proportional to the number of loggers who are friends or relatives, who learned these words from their family or co-workers in the deep woods. -- llywrch 19:06, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

I was born and raised in the Jet City (Seattle's nickname before someone needed it changed to The Emerald City), as was my father. I believe it was in the 50s that somebody somewhere worked really hard to eradicate the R from Warshingtun, as well as the extra syllable from Snoqualamie so that Washingtonians wouldn't sounds so provincial; born in the late 50s, I grew up hearing older people using these problematic pronunciations. And it's different from the east coast accents; I had neighbors who had relocated from Boston.

As for the Chinook words, the Chinook Trade Jargon was used by Native Peoples before the European traders ever made the west coast scene. Place names like the Pilchuck (red water) and Skookumchuck (strong water) Rivers come from the Chinook Trade Jargon. Tillicum Village on Blake Island is another, as are some of the names of the Washington state Ferries. Whether one hears these "odd" words regularly, or at all, depends greatly upon the age of the people to whom one talks. One of my great grandfathers moved between Idaho, California, and north-western Washington in the late 1800s and he spoke fluent Chinook Trade Jargon. The earliest non-Native people in the area were Fur Trappers, whose first language was French; one of my great great grandfathers came west from Quebec in the 1820s. The French influence can be seen in place name like La Push, which drifted just a tad, phonetically, from French for "the mouth"; La Push in located, oddly enough, at the mouth of the Hoh River. And for what it's worth, not too very long ago, a variation of the Chinook Trade Jargon was elevated to language status by some folks down on the Grand Ronde Reservation in Oregon.

Honestly, it all depends upon who you associate with, the age of your associates, and how long their families have been in the Great Pacific North-wet. Of course, if one knows people in the Historic Re-enactment community, one hears words like skookum, kloshe, klahowya, muckamuck on a regular basis.

Anyone who calls it the "Pacific North-wet" clearly has not been here very long. Either that, or he's never crossed the Cascades. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.20.174.196 (talk) 21:07, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

Just my two cents worth. Lisapeppan 01:23, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

My family's been here since the 1880s and I'm familiar with all the Chinook words cited in the article, particularly potlatch (and of course high muckamuck is part of General American now). However, I agree that those words are rapidly disappearing -- I'm willing to bet my nieces and nephews don't know them at all, and of course there are so many immigrants (from elsewhere in the US or the world) to the PNW these days who don't know them. So I think they belong in the article, but a note could be made that in Western Washington, at least, they are rapidly becoming merely ferry and housing development names, with the real meanings dying out. As the previous post mentioned, it's the older folks who remember this stuff. I'm not that old but I know a lot of older folks. :)

Regarding "Warshintun", that's not Seattle speech in my experience. It marked one as a hick, probably from back east, maybe just from Eastern Washington. When I hear it I know someone's not from "around here", but since around here is one very specific place, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist elsewhere in the PNW. My grandparents didn't use it... but they did say "crick" for "creek". :) Speaking of interesting things, I'm hearing a lot more Canadian raising in this area among younger people, but don't have any data to back it up yet. ManekiNeko | Talk 14:06, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

I've lived in eastern Washington and Oregon my whole life and I have never heard anyone ever say "Warshington" before, except as a joke making fun of people who aren't from the Northwest. On a side note, has anyone else noted that the term "jojos" (for fried potato wedges) seems to be only know in the northwest?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.20.174.196 (talk • contribs) 16:51, June 29, 2007

indeed, I have noticed that jojo's seem to only be used in the northwest. I've asked for them in another state and have just gotten blank stares, where I've had to say, "Uh...potato wedges, potato logs?" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.169.238.42 (talk) 04:45, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

I've lived in Seattle since the early 1970s, and the only person I know who says Warshington is my aunt who was born in Tacoma in the 30s and moved to Nevada in the 60s. But she may have picked it up from her husband because both my father and my uncle who grew up with her say Washington. Sluggoster (talk) 06:09, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

There were a large number of Southerners who migrated to Northwestern Washington during the Depression years, I'll try and dig up the specifics but I'm pretty sure they were concentrated in the Mount Vernon/Bellingham area, if I recall correctly it's the same area Loretta Lynn and her husband moved to post WWII because they had relatives there.Awotter (talk) 20:38, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Once I noticed my mom say Warshington and I immediately asked, "Do you say Warshington or Washington?", and she said "Washington" with an implied "of course". She didn't even believe that she had said Warshington! Sluggoster (talk) 07:13, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

According to Laurel J. Brinton and Leslie K. Arnovick in their book The English Language, the pronunciation of wash as warsh is characteristic of some speakers in the US Midland, but not of speakers in other regions. In other words, one is more likely to say "Warshington" if one is from, say, Indianapolis than if one is from Seattle, Spokane, Vancouver, or any other part of the Pacific Northwest. Brandon1978 (talk) 05:58, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Hendu71 (talk) 17:26, 16 December 2009 (UTC) The only thing I really agree with in this article aside from the colloquialisms is a definite cot/caught merger has occured. Other than that, I percieve it to be only negligibly different from General American overall. I am from the Seattle area, born there in the early `70s. I do not say "Warshington," cat sounds nothing like cot, and I do not exhibit a pin/pen merger. Also, I do not speak with any "Canadianisms" like "aboot" whatsoever. I have no doubt that California has a strong influence nowadays, but that is after my time so to speak. I do not believe the migration really had a chance to take root during my formative years.

I have since movied to the East Coast and have gotten used to different dialacts. The only difference I hear when I call my friends back in Washington is there seems to be a slight "sing-song" type of intonation to their voices. Not really a dialect difference, but it is not as flat or regular. Also, I hear (and occasionally catch myself saying) words like "hill" occasionally pronounced somewhat like "heel."

That's a good observation. As the article states (and as you've observed), Seattleites, etc., catch people from the Great Lakes saying cot like cat, not the other way around. 76.22.62.8 (talk) 09:00, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Linguocentrism

PNWers are often steadfast in their insistence that they "don't have an accent", as if such a thing were even possible. I suggest the article include some referenced mention of this phenomenon. - Keith D. Tyler ¶ 16:28, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

That's very interesting, and I think you're probably right that a lot of northwesterners have this attitude, as do some Canadians (who have a very similar sound system in the west of Canada).

Of course, everyone has an accent. It is impossible to speak without one, since it is basically the sound system of your speech. However, I do think it's true that it is extremely hard for most English speakers to identify a "northwestern" accent. Insofar as it is hard for outsiders to identify characteristically "northwestern" features, which might be identified with speakers from many other places, too, Pacific Northwest English could be considered in some sense "neutral". It's not necessarily neutral--it has its own features, of course--but it's just harder for people to identify it as unique.

I suspect this is because the Pacific Northwest is not very culturally influential, as is California. But the accents of the two regions are very similar, so outsiders who hear a Pacific Northwest accent are probably more likely to surmise that the speaker is from California (or Canada) than from the Pacific Northwest, which has very similar speech but less influence.

Not a lot of influence? But early major-name broadcasters like Eric Sevareid came out of Puget Sound, - Cronkite too, I think, and others - who's the gujy that did the 60 Minutes "Onthe Road" segment, and Connie Chung, no?; I'd heard it was because of the neutrality of the accent, the "clean" sound of it, though speaking as someone who lived a lot of his life within 6 miles of the border (in Mission BC) there is a different sound right way in Whatcom County; not as much of a drawl as California, and even without the Okie thing we hear "Warshintun"...but that's more working-class than broadcaster, and it's the broadcast English I mean; I think this is also true of recruitment from Minneapolis and Upstate New York; the avoidance of recognizable regional accents. I do agree that everybody thinks they don't have an accent; it's what an accent is; a way of sounding normal that's different form somebody else's. Anyway don't underestimate the region's influence; and remember that a lot of Hollywood' as accent culture is from New York and elsewhere, and often fake or put-on, too....Skookum1 (talk) 03:47, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

I did not say the Pacific Northwest has had no influence; I merely tried to show that it was relatively lacking in influence compared with California. The lack of influence is relative. Apparently, it's not enough of an influence for people to go around taking about "Pacific Northwest accents". What did Kurt Cobain sound like? I don't know. Probably just "western" to most people.

I was born and raised in Seattle, and I have only once heard a Washingtonian pronounce the word "Washington" as "Warshington". He was from Spokane. Also, I know a Californian who pronounces "wash" as "warsh". I grew up in Seattle finding this pronunciation odd and unlike the general speech of my surroundings. According to Laurel J. Brinton and Leslie K. Arnovick of the University of British Columbia, this pronunciation is characteristic of some speakers in the US Midland.

Also, parts of upstate New York, as in Buffalo and Rochester, do have a regional accent. It is part of the "Inland North" dialect region (the Rustbelt) and is characterised by what's called the "Northern Cities Vowel Shift". In this area some people tend to pronounce "hot" more as "hat" and "accent" as "eee-uhk-sent". A recent study suggests a pocket of people in Ballard with roots in this region (Scandinavian/Midwestern) have these features too. However, the study was entirely limited to fifteen subjects, all within Ballard; much more evidence suggests that Seattle vowels in general are moving in the opposite direction, as in the western and central US and Canada. (Interestingly, this shows a possible minority dialect within Seattle.) So to a Buffalonian, a Seattleite may say "hot" like "hawt", although the Seattleite would think this peculiar, since both spellings represent the same pronunciation--a back vowel--for the Seattleite. Both Seattleites and Torontonians might perceive Buffalonian "hot" as "hat". Canadians sometimes call this an "American" pronunciation, although this is inaccurate since it's limited to a particular region of the US. The Seattle pronunciation is very similar to that in Toronto, even though Toronto is far, far closer to Buffalo and has more interaction with that city. Inland North speech sounds different to both Torontonians and Seattleites, since these two groups sound more like each other than they do to Inland Northerners. Brandon1978 (talk) 05:59, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Identical? Yes, Identical

The sound system of Pacific Northwest English ... is identical to that of Western Canadian English....

Identical? Maybe today, but in my time anyone in Vancouver could hear that a western Washingtonian wasn't from Canada. And vice versa. Among other differences, you heard it as soon as someone said house or about. --Hordaland (talk) 14:28, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Yes, they are identical. Consult the source provided in the references list. It is a scholarly journal article on an investigation conducted by linguists in Montreal on the relevance of the U.S.-Canada border to diffusion of American English phonology into Canadian English. According to the authors, the sound system between western Canada and the Pacific Northwest is the same--the phonetics are not exactly the same. This means that the behaviour of sounds is the same, but the actual sounds themselves are not quite the same.

It's the difference between abstract (phonemic) and concrete (phonetic) sounds. You're talking about manifestation, not the overall behaviour of sounds. So yes, American "house" will be pronounced the same by Canadians in deliberate speech because they fulfil the same demands of the overall system, and it means that the same overarching processes are occurring; however, the actual manifestation might be different acoustically or perceptually. Think of it as the difference between an oval and a circle versus the difference between an oval and a square. The oval and circle both share the feature "round", and are following much more similar processes than the square is.

Sound systems are not the same as sounds. Two groups can have identical sound system patterns (phonologies) but slightly different manifestations (phonetics). This means that a Vancouverite and a Seattleite will be showing the same habits in pronunciation, but the actual manifestations may be slightly different acoustically or perceptually.

The study also explains how Western American English diffuses more easily into Canada than does Rustbelt English because the "pronunciation habits" or sound patterning of Western American English is already so much more similar to Canadian English than is Rustbelt English. I moved to Vancouver from the U.S. north-west and have never been asked whether I was American or even where I was from. It's just very, very similar. It would truly be splitting hairs to insist on some fundamental difference between the two regions. For example, a person from Detroit might say "cot" more like "cat" to both a Canadian and a Seattleite, because this vowel-fronting is unusual in both places. Vancouver is the oval, Seattle the circle, and Chicago the square. Which two share a greater set of similarities? In Chicago, they're likely to say "hockey" like "hackey", whereas in both Seattle and Vancouver, it sounds like "hawkey" to a Chicagoan, which would be absurd to the Seattleite and Vancouverite, who don't discern between the two spellings anyway. Pacific Northwest English has characteristics of both California English and Canadian English without having the full vowel shift of either. For this reason, think of it as a sort of neutral interface between Canadian and Californian English. Listen to the sound clip provided in this article (the one that this is all about). Pay particular attention to the pronunciation of "Bob". Explore the website and compare that pronunciation to a Vancouver, or even Toronto, pronunciation, and then to a Chicago one.

Remember, also, the great differences in Canadian English, especially between east and west. A Vancouverite sounds more like a Seattleite than a person from Halifax (where the Canada vowel shift is not occurring), and certainly more so than a Newfoundlander. Brandon1978 (talk) 06:04, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

LOL a Montreal-based study huh? And phonology rather than phonetics? Technical distinctions or non-distinctions rather than actual dialect? It's not like they wanted to admit BC has a separate dialect-realm, and I can tell you (and somebody should have told themO) there ARE major differences between BC and thd Prairies, or were, until the Prairie money started buying up the Okanagan and Kootenays anyway......"a scholarly study based in Montreal" seems one of the few ever done on English-Canadian accents. There's a mythology in Quebec, and mamong acadmia also, that "all English Canadians are alike". This is because they've never studied them in their own terms; if it's only teh phonological system that's hte same then say ing "Pacific Northwest English" is identical with WEstern Canadian English" is a faslehood; all that can be said is that the phonologies are teh same. it's like saying Kwak'wala and Oowekyala or Lushootseed are the same because they share a phonology. All I know is Blaine and Lynden sound a lot different from Abbotsford or Surrey.....and Warshintonians "stick out" when they're in BC (as do Albertans, depending on their background). Halifax was a bad comparison too because of teh thick "Bluenoser" accent that's native here; it's very different from other types of Canadian English farther west, even in New Brunswick...not quite a s difrent as Caper or Newfie, but just as noticeable and identifiable. Anyway IMO the Canadian linguistic community ignored BC's peculair English until it was too late and a lot of local distinctive dialects were wiped out by TV/broadcasting.....and one citation by distant academicians does not make a local fact....Skookum1 (talk) 14:04, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

(1) No, what I said is not a falsehood. You just mis-quoted me. Scroll up. I did NOT say Pacific Northwest and Western Canadian English are the same. I said the sound systems of Pacific Northwest and Western Canadian English are the same. Therefore, I am NOT saying the dialects are the same; I am saying their sound systems are the same. How can you have missed this? I've already stated this in the very post you're replying to. Therefore, by admitting that we can say that the phonologies (or sound systems) are the same, you've just confirmed this initial claim by me.

(2) Speakers from Blaine and Lynden sound different from those in Abbotsford and Surrey in that speakers from Blaine and Lynden have different phonetic manifestations for a very small set of words, which include, for example, "about", "tomorrow", and, sometimes, "been" and "again". They sound the same in that the phonological processes which involve these words are the same. The phonetic manifestation of vowels in this set of words is different; the general movement and patterning of vowels in the two dialects are the same. The phonological processes are the same; even where there are phonetic differences, they are limited to a very small set of words as shown above. Can you understand this distinction?

(3) Moreover, "Warshington" is NOT a pronunciation used by Washingtonians; it is a pronunciation used by some speakers in what is called the "Midland" dialect, and even here it is rather limited in use. "Warshington" therefore does not distinguish U.S. Pacific Northwest English from western Canadian English. Your assumption that this pronunciation characterises U.S. Pacific Northwest English is false.

(4) How was Halifax a bad example to use? My claim was that Canada has multiple dialects. The accent of Maritimers differs from that of other Canadians. Therefore, I showed that Canada is phonologically heterogeneous. I don't see what the problem is?

(5) Indeed, just as you've asserted, I have also asserted that Canada has multiple phonologies. How do I explain this to you? Okay. Phonologies are not distributed lineally; there can be phonologies within phonologies--like those babooshka dolls. There is one large Canadian phonology, a western Canadian phonology within this, and a British Columbian phonology within this. They are not mutually exclusive--the larger phonology exists on top of (or perhaps underneath) the smaller one. Therefore, I can say both that there are different B.C. and Alberta phonologies on one hand, and a larger western Canadian English on the other hand which resembles Pacific Northwest English. The features that constitute these larger phonologies, not the smaller ones, are what are identical. Think about acoustic phonetics, and how one harmonic frequency resonates with another harmonic frequency, but not those between.

(6) Yes, scholarly research has been conducted on Canadian English. It is possible to distinguish several different dialects. Refer to the Canadian English Wikipedia page.

(7) Why do you dismiss the article I mentioned as unreliable? It is peer-reviewed, scholarly, and conducted by professional linguists. It meets the same standard of research required of sources used in academic writing. How should that instill doubt? If anything, it should instill confidence. You say one citation by "distant academicians" does not make a local fact. Well, yes, it does. It's been proved. That's the very point of science. They have demonstrated that the phonology of western Canadian English is identical to that of Pacific Northwest English. You challenge them, but attest to your own insight; well, why should I believe you over them? They are the scientists. The burden of proof is on you. I have more reason to take their painstaking scientific research seriously than your anecdotal impressions. Read it. Until then, you have no reason to assume that your opinion is more plausible than their data. Brandon1978 (talk) 06:00, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

POP VS. SODA

I am a native northwester, born in Portland but spent my childhood and teenage years in various suburbs in Washington (Woodinville, Vancouver [Wa, not BC]), and now living back in Portland. One minor dialect distinction between native nor-westers and Californians is the term "soda pop" for soft drink. In the Northwest, I remember as a kid it used to be that we said "Pop" but Californians said "Soda." Now that there's been such a huge influx of Californians, people have stopped saying "Pop" and saying "Soda" instead. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.160.174.24 (talk) 22:18, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Actually, it is not the case that Northwesterners have stopped saying 'pop' and started saying 'soda'; in fact, most--about three quarters--still say 'pop', as do most midwesterners (outside Milwaukee) and Canadians. There was an entire scholarly study done on this, and a very illustrative graph created to show the distribution of words for 'soft drink' across the US and Canada. Just search for the keywords 'pop', 'soda', 'dialect', and 'map' at images.google.com, and you should easily find it. Brandon1978 (talk) 06:17, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Huh. That's usually a Candian-American comparison, but it would explain why I never noticed the soda/pop thing when going across the border to BEllingham and Seattle (I'm from the Fraser Valley, or was).....Skookum1 (talk) 13:55, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

But it's not a Canadian-American difference. It is not a difference between nations. It is a difference between geographical/economic/socio-cultural regions. As before, with phonologies, the international boundary is largely irrelevant. Seattleites say pop, like Vancouverites, who live in a different nation, but unlike Californians, who say soda, and who live in the same nation. Brandon1978 (talk) 06:19, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

It did used to be pop in the 70s and now soda is more common. It may be a California influence, but also "pop" began to feel like too much of a hick term. The expansion of drink varieties also made a difference. New gourmet sodas appeared with real cane sugar, while Coke and Pepsi switched to sickening corn syrup. Because Coke was always called "pop", the term went downhill with it. So "pop" now means what the cheap corn syrup dispensers have (Coke, 7-Up, RC Cola, Orange Crush, etc), although they can also be called "sodas". But you would generally not call the gourmet sodas "pop". Jones Soda is an interesting case because it was originally a gourmet cola from Seattle, but when it started expanding into the mass canned drink market, the recipe went downhill and it fell into the "pop" catgegory, even though it has soda in its name. (2010 update: I have seen pop in a few prestegious uses recently. There was also The Pop Shoppe on Mercer Island in the 80s that sold pop in multi-use bottles; i.e., you would buy a 12-pack and bring the bottles back in for a refill.) Sluggoster (talk) 21:05, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

That's interesting. To me, a native Seattleite, soda sounds hick and old-fashioned as compared with pop, which sounds more brief and contemporary. (I do not say that in any malicious or judgemental way; I'm just being honest.) "Soda" makes me think of a "soda-pop shop", or something like that. Well, at any rate, and more to the point, a huge swathe of the northern and central United States, as well as most of Canada, uses "pop" instead of "soda" most of the time, and this portion of the continent includes Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland. Brandon1978 (talk) 06:18, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Crick, Acrost, Ruff, Warsh.

Don't notice this in many other places. Creek = "Crick", Across = "Acrost", Roof = "Ruff", and Wash = "Warsh". X24actor (talk) 18:18, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Seems to me (on a totally anectodal basis) that these are "hick" or rural characteristics—or possibly Eastern Oregon/Washington and eastward. Ebolamunkee (talk) 08:04, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

I've heard "Crick" and "Ruff" a lot, from speakers from Eastern Oregon/Washington but long-since moved (since 1940s) as far west as Hillsboro (farther west than Portland). 78.240.11.120 (talk) 08:05, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

This doesn't exist...

This accent doesn't exist. I've been living in the PNW for a majority of my life, but I travel a heckuva lot and the PNW accent is the same as General American English. Yeah, there are a few vocabulary differences, but saying 'pop' instead of 'soda' (or vice versa) doesn't make a dialect. I'm definitely a bad example of an accent (mine's GAE-Alabaman-New Zealander with a bit of New York and RP thrown in), but all the people I know either speak with a GAE accent, or they speak like their parents. There are a ton of people in the PNW whose parents came from the Northeast U.S., though, and that might be why I keep hearing the Washington -> Warshington thing. --- cymru lass ^{(hit me up)}⁄_{(background check)} 07:27, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

This isn't true. I'm a native Northwesterner and there ARE differences, however slight. Probably the most noticeable are the o/ɔ distinction, which doesn't exist here—we pronounce "bought" and "pot" with the same vowel—and the diphthongization of words like "egg" and "leg". These aren't really things you notice unless you have a PNW speaker next to somebody else and you're looking for them. I will say, though, that the way east-coast folks say "bought" sounds damn funny to me. Ebolamunkee (talk) 08:03, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

Your brain is trained to not notice differences, especially if you've been exposed to a wide variety of dialects. The PNW dialect IS very similar to GA, but there are differences. The pre-velar-nasal raising is one easily noticeable indicator of this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.78.207.117 (talk) 01:18, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

There's a lot of glottalization, eg /paɹtnɚ/ -> /paɹnˀɚ/ in Cascadian English, and I've never met a native northwesterner who didn't pronounce Seattle as /si:æɾəl/. When I was on the east coast, people always pronounced the /t/ as a stop, rather than a flap, and people made fun of me for saying /mɛ:ʒɚ/ instead of /meʒɚ/. Of course, my history of English prof in Idaho was fascinated by my vowels... VI_WS ^talk 11:43, 17 July 2011 (UTC)