Wash or Warsh?

[Jbondmonroe]

My dad does it to. What drives me crazy is when he calls it "The Wal-Marts"

 

[Fletch]

My dad's whole side of the family does it. No idea why. 42 years old, still working up the courage to correct him.

 

[indiucky]

"Warsh" here....It is my understanding that it is a carry over from Great Britain...That was the pronunciation in Elizabethan times of the word "wash" and many people in Southern Indiana are decended from Scots-Irish/Welsh/Northern English stock (that left during Elizabethan times) and have managed to maintain some of the language quirks from that time.


I notice that diversity is something to be celebrated unless that diversity comes from rural people of Western European ancestry at which point is is okay to ridicule it or say "that drives me nuts".

It's a source of pride to me being part of the last class of folks that can be openly ridiculed for their culture with no PC backlash...Down here on the river we "worsh ar cars", "light ar fars", and complain about cell phone "tars" going up everywhere we look...Ofcourse my Dad still pays for someone to change the "arl" in his car...

As a side note my Mother in law is Argentine and speaks Castillian Spanish...She can not say "Warsh" to save her soul and my pronounciation has become a little joke between us...She keeps trying but it something in the way they use their "r's that she can not quite grasp..

 

[indiucky]

My dad does it to. What drives me crazy is when he calls it "The Wal-Marts"

According to my mamaw the correct pronunciation is "Wal- Market" but it's best to have a job at "Fords" due to rising costs and the fact that "K Mark" is out of business...

Ofcourse here at the gun shop I get many requests for "clips"...I usually say my wife gets those at "Claire's Boutique" at the Greentree mall...

 

[JokerGirl]

My Mother can't pronounce Afghanistan to save her life. It always comes out as "Afeeghanstan" or "Afghanstan"


Drives me nuts, but it's just a stupidity thing and not connected with dialect.

Another mispronunciation that drives me nuts is "Acrossed" and not "Across" grrrrrr

 

[Lonestar6]

My husband is from southern Maryland. They say warsh. They stole the 'r' from Boston.

 

[rbhargan]

Anyone who grew up around Washington, DC knows that there is an invisible "r" in the name. Similar to how natives of Baltimore know that the "t" is silent and it is pronounced "Ball-mer"

 

[Dj15802]

I was told that so many "r"s are left out in the northeast ( in words such as Caa instead of car) that they had to go somewhere. The southern US found them a home in many words such as warsh.

 

[sepe]

Its a dialect idiosyncrasy. My GF laughs at me when I say napkin as nakkin and orange as oinch.

She should.

Whoever was saying something about the warsh thing coming from England, that would make sense from talking to a couple of my friends that were born and raised over there. Thought is thorght. There are many other examples but if I thought about them enough I'd probably end up punching them in the throat next time I talk to them. I know some people that purposely screw up pronunciations because they think it sounds cute. It makes me want to drop an elbow off the top rope before slapping on a Camel Clutch.

 

[armedindy]

my dad is from Warshington D.C.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

"Warsh" here....It is my understanding that it is a carry over from Great Britain...That was the pronunciation in Elizabethan times of the word "wash" and many people in Southern Indiana are decended from Scots-Irish/Welsh/Northern English stock (that left during Elizabethan times) and have managed to maintain some of the language quirks from that time.


I notice that diversity is something to be celebrated unless that diversity comes from rural people of Western European ancestry at which point is is okay to ridicule it or say "that drives me nuts".

It's a source of pride to me being part of the last class of folks that can be openly ridiculed for their culture with no PC backlash...Down here on the river we "worsh ar cars", "light ar fars", and complain about cell phone "tars" going up everywhere we look...Ofcourse my Dad still pays for someone to change the "arl" in his car...

As a side note my Mother in law is Argentine and speaks Castillian Spanish...She can not say "Warsh" to save her soul and my pronounciation has become a little joke between us...She keeps trying but it something in the way they use their "r's that she can not quite grasp..

A few more:

Finger = fanger
Tired = tar'd
You guys = y'all but pronounced "yaw"
Getting ready to = Fixin' to
Instead of driving you to town, I'll carry you to town.

 

[sepe]

A few more:

Finger = fanger
Tired = tar'd
You guys = y'all but pronounced "yaw"
Getting ready to = Fixin' to
Instead of driving you to town, I'll carry you to town.

I know a girl that was born in Korea and raised not all that far from me that uses carry you instead of take or drive you. At first, I thought she had some super human strength because she is a tiny, little thing but I was drunk at the time.

 

[$mooth]

A few more:

Finger = fanger
Tired = tar'd
You guys = y'all but pronounced "yaw"
Getting ready to = Fixin' to
Instead of driving you to town, I'll carry you to town.

I don't have a problem with Y'all or Fixin' to. That's more of a dialect thing than a mispronunciation. Same with the "carry you", although I don't recall hearing someone say that.

On a side note, I mispronounce "pronunciation". I say it "Pro-NOUN-See-A-Shun", not "Pro-NUN-See-A-Shun". I have a hard time correcting myself on that.
I used to pronounce "gauge" as "gaw-je", but I was able to correct that. It came from learning the word in books. I knew the spoken word gauge, but didn't know it was the same as the written one.

 

[ar15]

I think it may be going out of style with the generation. As with most other things, it tends to take awhile to leave the generations of the south though ;-)

 

[gungirl65]

warsh just sounds uneducated...

I completely agree with this. It is wash.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

I completely agree with this. It is wash.

OK... come clean. That was a pun, wasn't it?

 

[Joe G]

I do remember hearing a few chimleys though.

Yep.... father-in-law is famous for that one too.

And "Chevyville" (Shelbyville)

'maters (tomatoes)

'taters (potatoes)



I think he does it just to **** me off more than he usually does.

 

[sepe]

Yep.... father-in-law is famous for that one too.

And "Chevyville" (Shelbyville)

'maters (tomatoes)

'taters (potatoes)



I think he does it just to **** me off more than he usually does.

If he is doing it to **** you off, I'd say BRAVO!!!. Even if he isn't it wouldn't be as bad as the idiot kids that call their parents, rents. Every single time I hear that I have to resist the urge to employ enhanced interrogation techniques to figure out why they're such an idiot.

 

[Joe G]

If he is doing it to **** you off, I'd say BRAVO!!!. Even if he isn't it wouldn't be as bad as the idiot kids that call their parents, rents. Every single time I hear that I have to resist the urge to employ enhanced interrogation techniques to figure out why they're such an idiot.

Nah. He's just a redneck.

 

[REWSTER]

i voted bacon, because i use them both.

I wash the dishes, warsh the truck and throw my clothes in the worsher.

saying stuff like, yer,ya'll, overder, and the like.ive been told i have an Arky slang.