BS: The Maine Accent

Subject: BS: The Maine Accent
From: J-boy
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 02:40 AM

I've heard that the Maine(USA) accent is quite similiar to a very old Cornwall accent,including an Elizabethian phrase or two that Shakespeare himself would have recognized. I'm a Mainer. I don't have much of a "Maine"accent myself but I know plenty who do. Is there any truth to this?

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 08:18 AM

J-Bay-

As someone who was born in Maine I'm always amazed that people "from away" think that we have an accent!

In our part of the Midcoast when I was growing up some form of old Scots-Irish dialect held forth.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: kendall
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 08:42 AM

I only have an accent when I leave Maine.Jacqui and I understand each other perfectly.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Smokey.
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 01:42 PM

Does Gordon Bok have a Maine accent? I met him once, but he just sounded American to me - not a trace of Cornish.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: gnu
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 02:08 PM

I dare say, given "just sounded American", he doesn't have a true Maine accent, on accounta you probably would have noticed. It is highly regarded in "The Northeast" as one of the finest accents known. When we here a Maineiac around here, we know we are in good company.

Same thing applies fer yer Newfs and Capers and Blue Rockers and Labradorians and... in Atlantic Canada.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: artbrooks
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 02:10 PM

Yu peeple all tawk funny.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: maeve
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 02:26 PM

As for Gordon...y'all need to listen more carefully. Gordon wasn't born in Maine, remember. However, if you'll listen to him speak and to many of his songs, you'll indeed hear some time-honored Maine dialect honestly picked up during his lifetime here. As in the Appalachian region, Maine and New Hampshire backcountry dialects include many pronunciations and terminology that can be traced back to Scotland, England, Ireland, as well as other Mother countries.

I agree, gnu...I love many dialects, but the Northeast accents are among those most dear to my heart. Couldn't be due to my TL's N' Hampsha' lingo, or friend Gordon's high-toid tales, or the sound of my Northeast Canadian friends, eh.

Maeve

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Smokey.
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 03:46 PM

Gordon wasn't born in Maine, remember.

Ah - I didn't know that, I just happen to know a friend of his over here and met him after a gig. Thoroughly nice chap, and well worth seeing at work.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: maeve
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 03:53 PM

Yes indeed, Smokey.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: gnu
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 04:25 PM

m... "...you'll indeed hear some time-honored Maine dialect honestly picked up during his lifetime here."

Indeed, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

However, if ye are a mainlander from The Dominion, don't imitate Newfie accents in a pub late at night in an outport. Ye jus moight get a moutful a fives.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: maeve
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 04:31 PM

There's a fair few tides between picking up local language and imitation. Gordon imitates no one. He is his own real self, with the weathering you'd expect from a wandering life well lived. Ask his many friends around the world, including more than a few Newfoundlanders.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: gnu
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 04:35 PM

But, it's imitation, whether intentional or unintentional. Mine was not to say it was deliberate. Such would not be flattery at all. It would be quite the opposite... rude. Sorry for the confusion on my part.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: maeve
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 04:36 PM

I think we're on the same page, gnu.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: gnu
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 06:48 PM

Someone else is confused? Oh, good. I thought it was just me, again. >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Naemanson
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 07:02 PM

I've heard a lot of "Maine lingo" spoken by Gordon and others. I don't think it's the accent so much as the turn of phrase that comes out of their mouths. I was helping Gordon load out after an evening at the Side Door Coffeehouse. He turned to me and said, "That kind of evening will give a fellow a goofy grin for a week."

You don't hear that kind of thing while just walking around. Kendall has a whole mess of things like that. They would sound good in almost any accent but there is an outlook that can only come from the coast of Maine. Ya gotta love it.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: gnu
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 07:11 PM

Check out Bob Marley on You Tube (raunchy humour alert). His Maine accent shines through, especially when he talks about his family, friends and Maine. I think he's a treasure, even though some of it is pretty raunchy and childish. (But, he has to cover all the markets and audiences to make money... unfortunate, but there it is.)

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Amos
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 09:29 PM

Places that keep to themselves tend to presevre the legacy accents of their ancestors; I ran across a town on the coast of North Carolina, a fishing village, that hadn't had much truck with modern things and was off the beaten path--and the goofers at the general store there all sounded like Yorkshire men! I asked one where he was from, and he said "What d'ye mean?? Oi'm fum roighht 'ere, ahn't oi???!!" in a very peeved tone of voice.




A

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Becca72
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 09:09 AM

Bob Marley is a favorite of mine. Keep in mind, though, that Bob is from southern Maine and his accent is MUCH different than what you'll find in other parts. My ex used to complain whenever I spent too much time around my father's Machias family because I'd come home and he had a difficult time understanding me. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: kendall
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 09:22 AM

I had a wife like that and we both had the same accent.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Becca72
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 10:11 AM

Dad, that weren't because of the accent..... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: jacqui.c
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 10:25 AM

I love a true Maine accent - can't stand the parodied ones as done by the idiot who does the Marden's adverts or Tim Sample. They just make me want to throw something at the TV. I cannot understand why people prefer those exaggerated accents to the real thing.

There is no a strong resemblance between the Maine Downeast accent and the Cornish accent of today. Some of the words still in use in Maine are redolent of older English and the accent will have its roots in that area. However, if places were named after the town that the first settlers came from, they originated from many different parts of the UK.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Becca72
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 11:51 AM

Bob Marley

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: curmudgeon
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 12:01 PM

"...if places were named after the town that the first settlers came from, they originated from many different parts of the UK."

You mean like Paris, Calais, Norway. Mexico, China, et al?

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Becca72
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 12:08 PM

Where the hell are we?

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: kendall
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 01:27 PM

I'm sorry to disagree Becca but he aint funny to me. Take out all those 4 letter words and he might as well be reading the phone book.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Becca72
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 01:46 PM

S'ok, We often disagree about such things. One small sample of his work isn't a fair judge, either.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: gnu
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 02:57 PM

I agree Becca. The man tells some funny stories, but, as i said, he does get raunchy and childish at times, playing to a broad audience... which is how the money is made. It is VERY rare to find a comic like Red Skelton these days BECAUSE of the money factor and the change in venues. The days of Ed Sullivan are long gone so you gotta take the bad with the good.

Take Jeff Foxworthy for instance. He was offered $5000 per hour of tape to play at truck stops years ago. He was told by the studio to raunch it up and he did in order to get paid. He made $7500 from 90 minutes of tape and the studio made $$$$$$$$. But, his mother was pissed when she heard the material. He regrets it, but he had to pay the bills. It's the audience, or at least the "marketing" that makes a lot of the calls.

So, Kendall, don't be put off by the cussing and childish "filler". Ignore it, IF you can and give the man a fair listen. The You Tube stuff is scant. I hear him on Serius a fair bit and his stuff is 51% great.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: MAG
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 05:22 PM

My Dad was from "The County" and never lost his accent. I used to love visiting Down East and listening to my many relatives talk.

I don't think it's imitation when you just pick up a lilt. You might just as well say babies learn a way of speaking by imitating their parents -- true, but hardly deliberate imitation in the usual sense.

"allright Rogah, hop in the cah ..."

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 06:41 PM

I think there's a PhD for someone to do a study of how and/or why some cultures don't use the final 'R'...and others accent and rrrroll the 'R's.
To me, NON-accented speech is that which comes closest to that used on TV news programs in the US. UK announcers on BBC have quite a bit of variety...and many correspondents have quite pronounced ones.

ME? I still have a bit of Mid-Western twang mixed with remnants from my years in the South..

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Ed T
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 07:23 PM

I find that the South'Western Nova Scotia, Canada, accent... from around Cape Sable Island to Shelburne...sounds quite similar to the Maine UAA accent. Both, I suspect come from British accents, (not the one's the British Royals, and their hang-ons, have).

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: gnu
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 09:01 PM

Ed T... Yah mean them theyah fellahhs aroun yah Bluuuue Rocks and such like thayat? Down from Mahone Bay and even out to the Eastohn Shohah?

I dated a gal in Lunenburg when I was a lad and working down that way. That was a great summer.

Sorry for the poor imitation of the accent in my prose but I can still remember it like it was yesterday. An rr too... she was a foo'in treasure that one.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 09:27 PM

I do recall my delight when I was returning from my Peace Corps tour in Ethiopia back in the 1960's and heard some Maine people speaking in Logan Airport while waiting for their flight back to Maine.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Ed T
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 09:36 PM

Gnu,
South shore Nova Scotia accent is different, though I suspect related, somewhat. That accent (from Mahone Bay, to Lunenburg, Bridgewater, and up to Liverpool), is mostly impacted by the many German immigrants. Down farther, it is more old English, until you get a bit past Argyle, where the Acadian accent creeps in.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: J-boy
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 11:46 PM

Yeah, those Marden ads are the pits. Tami and I always scramble to hit the mute button on the remote whenever they appear. No one in Maine really talks like that.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Naemanson
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 04:17 AM

MAG, there is a huge difference between the Downeast accent and The County's. I grew up in The County starting in Van Buren and ending up in New Limerick, outside of Houlton. I lived for almost 20 years on the coast. I heard everything from the French up in The Valley to the potato farmers in the Shiretown. I can kind of imitate the Downeast accent and Valley French but I was never able to get the southern County accent.

If I hadn't traveled so much I wouldn't believe one small state could have so many accents but I've seen more variations in smaller areas.

Ya gotta love it. Thinking about it or hearing it, as in Becca's Bob Marley link, makes me a little homesick. Never heard of Marley until now. I agree with Kendall. A few 'gawdams' don't hurt but beyond that and you're just pandering.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: kendall
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 09:44 AM

It's near impossible to write anything in the Maine vernacular but I'll try.

Potato farming is a back breaking stoop labor hell.
Many years ago an Aroostook farmer was on the coast looking for victims (laborers) to hoe potatoes.(Is Dan Quayle on here?)
He went into the employment office in a small Maine town, walked up to the woman behind the counter and said "I wanna hire some hoers."
When she got her breath back she said "You want to hire prostitutes?" Farmer says, "I don't care about their religion long as they can hoe potatoes."

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: MAG
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 03:09 PM

My Dad and all his cousins dug potatoes as kids. In fact, people my age did it when I was a kid. Schools shut down at harvest time so kids could go work. I thought they used equipment now.

Idaho potatoes were not allowed in our house.

I was always charmed by the Lobster Pot, a little food hut shaped like a lobster. We never ate there because my Dad did not like seafood.

Naemanson, my relatives were scattered all over Maine. Thanks for the tip on the accent; I confess I never picked up on a difference.

I never heard of YOUR Bob Marley; to me, Bob Marley will always be with the Wailers.

When I got into storytelling, Marshall Dodge was among the first recordings I heard. Is it true he wasn't really from Maine? Apparently he got some of those routines off an old wax cylinder. Michael Parent does some of them, too. My brother-in-law (lifelong Mainer born and bred) used to love the "Where are we? -- Ye're up in a ballone, ye damn fool" one.

Thanks for the memories, all.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: gnu
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 03:38 PM

The schools in northern New Bruswick, Canada still start two weeks early and let out for two weeks during potatoe harvest... I think.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Ed T
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 03:56 PM

Potato picking and planting was my first jobs....as a youngster in Prince Edward Island, Canada, which has the world's best spuds, of course. We indeed went back to school a couple of weeks early in September, to have the time to help in the later harvest.Farmers were King, and nobody complained.

I was paid $2.50 a day, and was glad to get it. It paid for my first bike at Canadian Tire, a CCM.

It was sure challenging on the back...real hard work. But, I am no worse for it.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Ed T
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 04:14 PM

Is it true that RC priests used to bless the Maine potatoes before they were shipped?

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: gnu
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 05:00 PM

Yes... it was "diddle dee potatoes".

(You Tube Danny Bhoy.)

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: kendall
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 07:03 PM

MAG, it's true; Marshall was born and raised in New York, but he never pretended to be a Mainer, as some do.

Idaho stole the title of russet potatoes.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: J-boy
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 12:32 AM

http://youtu.be/2VE2f-dg7ql

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: J-boy
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 12:49 AM

Crap. This link isn't working. Go to You Tube and type "roger mccord the fair" and you'll hear what we're talking about.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: gnu
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 08:10 AM

J... LOVED IT! Those suspenders are priceless!

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: kendall
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 09:33 AM

Great accents but they were all inlanders!

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Naemanson
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 05:51 PM

MAG, not your fault. People from Maine all know there is no Maine accent. It's the rest of the world has accents.

Valley French: How you could tole I was French? By my spoke or my h'accident?

Much better if you hear it.

Confession time, before I get too far into this conversation. Like Marshall Dodge I am "from away" but I don't have the talent that man had. My first introduction to the Downeast stories were from those records (big black shiny disks with a little hole in the center).

@@@@
Ezra, I understand you say I'm from away. My parents brought me to Maine as a baby but I've got children and grandchildren all born here. You got to admit they're from Maine!

Well now, John, if your cat climbed into the oven and had kittens you wouldn't call them biscuits, would you?
@@@@

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: MAG
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 04:57 PM

refresh

at least once a summer my family would go across to Canada, that part of Maine being surrounded on 3 sides, and my mother would get one piece of Wedgewood, and some good wool (duty free); I remember log rolling on the Seaway, and poached salmon at Dad's fave restaurant (he did eat salmon -- )

    Dad noticed me playing the bones one time, and commented that the stable keeper played them when he (Dad) was a kid --

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: bbc
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 04:40 PM

People in Maine have accents?! I'll have to listen for that when I'm up they-ah this Christmas. ;)

best of the holidays to you all,

Barbara

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Becca72
Date: 22 Dec 10 - 08:29 AM

Naemanson,
I work with a woman from Van Buren and your line about the accent made me laugh out loud. :-) Sounds just like her and she's been in the Portland area over 30 years.

My sister worked for a time at Northern Maine Medical Center (my eldest nephew was born there but we don't hold it against him). The phrase that has stuck with me for over 25 years is " T'row me down the stairs my purse, eh?"

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Naemanson
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 02:01 AM

There are a few similarities in phrasing here in the Pacific islands. I once heard a Chamorro college professor tell a student to "...off the lights."

Also, nobody asks where you live. They ask where you "stay."

I have not yet heard anyone here say they were going "over his house" instead of "over to his house."

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: kendall
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 03:06 AM

Brett, I have a friend from the "County" who says that the expression "Outen the light" was common.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Becca72
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 09:32 AM

My coworker explained the "close the light" phrase - apparently the words for "close" and "shut off" are the same in French/Mainer. Either that or she was making an excuse for the mistake. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: GUEST,Stella
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 11:23 AM

Me an' Harvey don't got accents. We just talk like all th' other folks around here. It's th' folks from away who got accents. Some say I write like I talk, but you'd have t' read our blog t' decide on that f'r y'rself. harveyandstella.blogspot.com Happy Chris'mas, ev'rybody!

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 01:37 PM

YesahI'msomesick'ntiredafrigginwiththatsonofawhorenummathrasherratedown'tFodgragsafnoon.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: gnu
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 01:56 PM

That doesn't fit in any translation program I have.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Becca72
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 01:59 PM

Gnu, ya had ta be there. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: kendall
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 03:14 PM

Years ago I was going into the men's room at a restaurant on the Mass. turnpike. I met two guys coming out, and that was what one of them said to the other. I understood every word. Now I'll translate at normal speed and proper spelling.

Yes sir, I'm some sick and tired of frigging with that son of a whore, and I'm going to thrash her right down to the Ford garage this after noon.

I'm sure you have guessed that he was having car trouble.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Becca72
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 04:07 PM

The proper response is, of course, "Ayuh".

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Jeri
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 04:29 PM

I got most of it. Missed "numma" and "Fodgrag" as "grag" came out in my head as "gag" with an R. If you'd spelled it "graje", I might've got it.

Accents are funny things. My mom used to say I picked up a little bit of wherever I was. For a while it was Texas, and then the UK. I wasn't trying, and I couldn't hear it. Maybe it was more the language than the accent, but she swore it wasn't.

I took an economics course from a guy who was Greek by birth, and he had a pretty thick accent. Another adult student in my class complained that he couldn't understand most of what the teacher said. For the first 15 minutes or so, it was difficult to understand him. After that, I guess I got used to the was he spoke and he was perfectly clear to me. I guess the other student didn't have the same experience.

First time I heard Bob Marley, and he's great--thanks.

I don't know that I'd notice "close the light". I'd think the light was something with a shade, like some lanterns have.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: Naemanson
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 04:07 AM

Our friend, Fred Gosbee of Castlebay, has recorded the Night Before Christmas Downeast Version. Check it out.

I'm pretty sure I remember it as "off the light" but then it has been a while since I lived there. By my estimation it was 46 years ago we moved away.

I used to work with a guy who went to grade school with Kendall. You needed a knife to cut his accent. He also worked as a volunteer EMT. I sometimes wonder whether or not his accent caused any trouble for the other first responders or the victims.

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: gnu
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 06:03 AM

Thanks Naemanson. That was excellent!

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: kendall
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 08:38 AM

Do you remember his name, Brett?

Subject: RE: BS: The Maine Accent
From: kendall
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 08:43 AM

Back in 1990 when I was preparing for my tour of pubs and clubs in Scotland, I was concerned that they might not be able to understand me. I needn't have worried. Not only did they understand every word and every subtle nuance, they got ahead of me!
The only problem I ran into was in Glasgow.

I did a performance at the National storytellers gathering in El Paso Texas, and some of them didn't get it. Well, I have always liked Scotland better than I like Texas.