Friday, March 22, 2013

IS THIS REALLY ENGLISH?


Many of the years I taught high school at Granger High in West Valley City, Utah I would put up a list of the strange ways my students pronounced words or mashed together several words in a phrase into one word sentences. I always thought that a non-English speaker would have a great deal of difficulty understanding English because of this practice. I share with you some of the words I put on the board along with their translation:
cumear--Come here.              mahon--come on     
ackshulee--actually                goferit--Go for it. 
speshulee--especially             wanna--want to
pasificklee--specifically         gitcher--get your
nuhuh--"no"                             doncha--don't you 
elamentree--elementary       snot--It's not. 
ifyuh--if you                             cuz--because
hiztree--history                       ferill--for real
spelt--spelled                          oofer--oh for
interpet--interpret                 frood--for rude
dinnit--didn't it                      eye't--all right
importun--important           dood--dude
Ifollayew--I follow you.      soreduh--sort of   
I go--I said                            anuthern--another one
she goes--she said                kinda--kind of
whadahyuh--what do you   hunnert--one hundred 
cumon--come on                  zat--that 
haftahbe--half to be            fillings--feelings
eggzacklee--exactly             member--remember
jewluree--jewelry                dincha--didn't you
sokay--It's okay                   bob wire--barbed wire
innervu--interview              duck tape--duct tape
unso--and so                        perdy--pretty
newquler--nuclear               juskidden--just kidding
edjakayshun--education     eggzackly--exactly
Febyewairee--February      cumear--Come here.
intressting--interesting        sawree--sorry
yew-n-yer--you and your     lieberry--library
geetcher--did you eat your  fergot--forgot  
brannoo--brand new           samwitch--sandwich 
eggzit--exit                           lektrik--electric
squzme--excuse me             lemmee--let me
pome--poem                        owdahear--out of here
poztoo--suppose to              sep--except            
x-cape--escape                    hunner--hunter
acrost--across                     crik--creek
cabnut--cabinet                  gozintuh--goes into
herjah--I heard you            serp--syrup
innerseck--intersect           innerested--interested
urin--You are in                 problee--probably 
sallrite--It's all right.         I'munhuh--I'm going to.
m'allrite--I'm all right.      problee--probably
frum--from                         figger--figure
lowyer--lawyer                  seprut--seperate
zerenee--Is there any.        doanask--Don't ask.
punkshul--punctual          mountun--mountain
jahavyur--do you have your
s'whutcher--so, what is your
comefturbull--comfortable 
farzino--As far as I know. 
sss-goen--How is it going? 
presheate--appreciate 
herchurself--Did you hurt yourself? 
congradulayshuns--congratulations


 
This list could continue endlessly. It is a miracle we can understand anything a teenager says.

      
  

No comments:

Post a Comment