Gangsta and other vocabulary styles

Sitting on my back porch one day, watching it rain I was listening to my 12 year old trying to talk"gangsta." She was playing 'kick the ball over the fence' with her friend and they were both trying out a new vocabluary. It was so funny!

They're so "white", they can't even pull off an accent. Of any kind. Both of my girls have gone through a "gangsta" phase. It cracks me up to no end and I'm going to try to give you a visual. Picture a skinny little girl with her hair in pigtails, wearing an Aeropostale t-shirt and cute little capri pants. She's got porcelain skin and weighs about 95 pounds soaking wet and she's trying to talk the talk. It's crazy!

Seeing as how I was raised in the country, I developed something of a Texas twang and I hated it. When I moved up to the wicked city, I tried my best not to sound so hick. I ended up sounding like a yankee according to my dad. Mr. Manchild sounds really country but that's because he's lived in the country for the past 52 years. We have a running battle over the pronunciation of certain words.

Here are a few: 

I say "oil" and I pronounce it like "oyl" (2 syllables). He pronounces it "oul" (1 syllable). I say tire like "tyre" (2 syllables)and he says "tar" (1 syllable). I say fire like "fyre" (again, 2 syllables) and he says a one syllable - "far." We go around and around over these words. 

He also has some crazy sayings. How about this one...'that's hotter than two rats in a wool sock?' I have never ever heard that one. One day I said the saying "the early bird gets the worm". His reply? "Yeah but the second rat gets the cheese".

I find language fascinating. Even people who live in the same state within the same country will talk differently. That's pretty evident when you hear Mr. Man and me talking. Throw two young girls who are speaking "gangsta" into the mix and you've got a whole other dynamic. Try this...sit quietly and just listen to people talking. You'll be amazed at how many dialects you'll hear even if all of the people are speaking English.

See ya' later, sayonara, adios, a-reeva-dirchee!