My name's kind of funny, because Blake, which is derived from Old English, can mean either "dark" or "pale," depending on which word you think it was derived from. My middle name Richard is pretty basic, meaning "brave power," and my last name translates roughly as "priest." So am I a dark brave powerful priest or a light brave powerful priest?

...I must confess, I've been asked repeatedly if I'm from Canada, because I do have that bad "oo" for "ou" habit.

ShatteredMirror wrote:

has a smexy name

What a surprise! A smexy boy with a smexy name!

angelicreation wrote:

Perhaps the accent is stonger in eastern Canada, the only areas of Cananda I've been.  Or maybe that's just Ontario.  *shrugs* 

I totally understand that whole picking up accents thing.  The longer I spend around a person, the more I end up talking like them.  I can't do an accent on command, other than a terribly back Irish/Scotish accent and an Appalacian accent, but I'll pick up the more subtle muances of an area.  Except Pittsburgh.  I never picked up the Pittsburgh accent.  It drives me nuts.  No one should be using the word "y'ins" or "warsh" their clothes or root for the "Picksburgh Stillers".  *shudders*

It is stronger in the east, by a lot. Come out to Alberta, and you'll hear basically what you'd hear in Montana. Basically.

The only accent that bothers me is actually... Maine, I think. Where people say 'ayup' instead of 'yeah'. That irritates the hell out of me.

Edit: Actually, I've decided to include my analysis of Canadian accents here. British Columbia is mostly like Alberta, only slower and a bit more... Californian. That's the only way I can describe it. Alberta has a pretty rapid speech pattern, but in parts of the province, we tend to do the hick thing a lot more, pronouncing 'e' as 'ay' and running consonants together. That carries over into Saskatchewan, but they have different slang, like calling hoodies 'bunnyhugs'. Manitoba starts to run into the the Ontarian accent, it's the middle ground between saying 'eh' and 'aboot' and whatever the hell it is Albertans do. Ontarians are the classic Canadian accent. Strangely, even though they have arguably the most British influence, their accent doesn't sound much more British than mine. Quebec is where the frenchies are, and although I've never been there, I would imagine that the Quebecois accent reflects that. I can't separate out the Atlantic provinces, so anyone from there will have to forgive me. All I have to say about Newfoundland is 'Wow, it sounds like a drunken Scotsman imitating a hick'.

Or actually... I can do a phonetic transcript of a song I can sing in a Newfie accent. Here you are:

Eyesda byedat buildsda bote
an eyesda byedat sailzit
Eyesda byedat ketchizda fish
and bringzerome ta Laiza

Actual song, best rendering of the language I can guess at. Some is due to rhythm, and some is just Newfiespeak.

Last edited by Yasha (01-28-2007 02:31:44 AM)

Midwesterners are very attached to their accents. Like one I know who kept her accent (even though she normally picks them up very quickly) despite living for years in California. It's a point of pride for them to take forever to say anything. Correct me if I'm wrong, though.

Yasha wrote:

The only accent that bothers me is actually... Maine, I think. Where people say 'ayup' instead of 'yeah'. That irritates the hell out of me.

Every now and then you'll get an "ayup" out of me.  tell you what, no Aboots from you and no ayups from me and we'll be golden. 

*chuckles*  Thinking about your Canadian accent analysis made me think back to my trip to the Upper Penninsula of Michigan years ago.  I made the 11 hour trip by car to meet a guy, but that's a story for another day.  I swear crossing that damn suspension bridge was like driving into Canada.  They've got the accents and the lingo.  And these things called pasties, which we kept seeing advertised on billboards (without pictures) and me and my friends kept wondering what they really were, because they couldn't have been the same as the pasties for nipples.  As far as I'm concerned, Canada can have the UP of Michigan.  I don't want to ever hear another "yupper" again.

Yeah it is a type of meat pie.  This was discovered hours after the first sign advertising it and we asked our gracious host what they were.

Imagine two 22 year old women and one 18 year old boy on an 11 hour roadtrip to the UP where the last 3 hours of this trip (in early March during rather snowy weather) had pastie advertisments everywhere.  We were mighty bored by then.

I don't think Canadian has much of an accent.......well, not people in Ontario anyway.  But then Canada is so multicultural, so almost everyone has some kind of accent from where they were born.  Who says "about" as in "boot"??  It is supposed to be American or Canadian?  Everyone here says it as in "out".
Watch this if you haven't seen it before

My name is in Chinese.  I don't know what exactly it is supposed to mean.  It doesn't always have to have meaning.  I suppose my name might mean something like "gentle/proper" and "happy".

Last edited by Rushita (01-28-2007 01:10:28 PM)

Lady Chani wrote:

OMFG Alithea, marry me now. No one ever knows that! *calms down* Here's your prize of cookies, shaped in sexy Utena-character shapes.
If I had to pronounce your name, it would either be rather phonetically, or like 'aleetheah'. Which, I guess, properly spelled would be more like Alethia. Which also rings bells of books I've read and loved.....

I second the motion from angelicreation that you get to live a long and happy prosperous life.

Much like Yasha people seem to forget a letter whenever thry try to pronouce my name so I end up as Althea instead of Alithea. The traditional greek spelling is Alethea, but Alithea is also acceptable. I know an Alethea but her name is spelled Alitheia. It's funny because our parents pretty much got our names from the same place.

Unfortunately I'm taken so I can't marry you. I am surprised more people don't know where your name comes from, but I grew up watching the original movie. And most of the women in those stories get totally jacked. I think it's highly unfair.

When talking to people my age, Alithea, I get blank stares. 'Huh? What's that from?' Of course, I also had one online dick ask me if he could be my Paul. He was none too pleased with my response. Shame about you being taken, though....

I'm glad I can pronounce your name right, though. Makes me happy.

And, hey, stop bashing us midwesterners. I'm a Michiganian and I trip over my words sometimes, I talk that speedy. Texans, they're the ones who make a killing at slow-speech drawls.

I'm also terrible at picking up accents. A guy I know is from Scotland (born and raised there) and I always pick up his accent when I talk to him. I always feel like he'll think I'm mocking him.

This is an excerpt of most conversations I've had when I first meet people, older people especially, back before I left Louisiana to move out to Texas.

THEM: "Oh, you sound so nice when you talk, you can't be from here."

ME: "I was born and raised here."

THEM: "And you never lived anywhere else?"

ME: "No."

THEM: "Then, where are your parents from?"

ME: "Here, just like I am."

THEM: "Are you sure?"

ME: "Yes, I'm sure. Where do you think I might be from?"

THEM: "I don't know, but not here."

Raven Nightshade wrote:

PEOPLE ASK HER WHY SHE SOUNDS BETTER THAN HER CONTEMPARIES

Maybe you sound different due to being exposed to people who did come from elsewhere when you were younger and you picked up some of their speech patterns?  I know that's why I sound somewhat unusual, because of all the different homes of people I stayed over with while mum was at work, I had been exposed to Indian-Jewish accents, Scottish accents, Hungrian accents and even German accents when I was between the ages of 3-8 years of age and its 'currupted' my Aussie accent majorly.

I've had people ask if I'm from Virginia and at other times if I'm from Wisconsin. Keep in mind, I've never been to Wisconsin and I've only been to Virginia once for a couple of days.

PREPARE!

THE GREAT MYSTERY SURROUNDING THE NAME HYACINTH BLACK WILL BE DISPELLED!!! OOHOOO!!

My own name is Kristeva Daniel Revey-Atkins.  Impressive, heh?  My friends call me either Yuki, Hyacinth, Hamster, or Daniel.  My first name means 'the eve of Christ's death' in Hungarian or maybe German have to ask my mom on that one.  Daniel was my father's mother's maiden name.  Actually, my middle name being Daniel is a most odd coincidence as it was also the name of my dead husband's lover. (who is also dead)

As far as nicknames and explanations go... eh.  I have too many.  They change so often.  My closest friends (& my on-again off-again girlfriend) call me Yuki.  That comes from the anime Gravitation.  Most people say that I look like that Yuki.  Only I don't smoke.  Hyacinth Black, being also my forum name, is a pen name that I chose for myself out of the blue.  I don't know how I thought of it, but now that I have it, I love it.  Then again, there was this nanny I had when I was two & her name was Hyacinth.  She was black.  Hmm... who knows.  Hamster comes from... well... hamsters.  I like hamsters so much & people say I act a lot like one.  My parents call me Hamster as well as some friends.  Daniel... well you already know where that came from.

SO!

THE MYSTERY IS DISPELLED!

... fun...