You heard them call it C Springs, not just The Springs and there is a difference since the C indicated Colorado. Also, how many of those cadets were born and raised in Colorado? Cody is maintaining that saying "The Springs" is an indication you are a long-time local and those that say Colorado Springs are not local and outsiders that haven't learned the local jargon. I call BS!!!
They said "the Springs". Same that we've heard before from locals who have lived here all of their lives. I don't know when you moved away from Colorado, but there have definitely been some changes, including people saying "the Springs" not Colorado Springs. Faye, you can say anything you want to about Colorado, but, you no longer live here and haven't lived here for how many years. IOW, girl, things change and there are those that don't like change. Not everyone who was born in Colorado has moved out.
I will also say this, don't talk "Southern" in So. California, of those folks will tease the heck out of you. If you say "y'all", "ma'am" (what all enlisted military personnel call a female officer), people in So. California will tease you about it...........and a female could possibly get mad for calling her "ma'am"
I just checked the thread 'What's for Dinner,' and something interesting occurred to me. I grew up in Southeastern Idaho, and 'dinner' is what you eat in the middle of the day. After work in the evening it's 'supper.; There are other things such as: groceries are put into a 'sack,' rather than a bag. I recall fairly recently during a visit that the appliance where one cooks or bakes food is a 'stove,' rather than a 'range.' I might also add something about Austria, my other homeland (Graduate degree, met and married wife, etc.), people are proud of their local dialect, in addition to ability to speak and write standard German. I just finished a novel by the son of a personal friend of wife's and mine who wrote it in a dialect that I was familiar with. I avoided using the dialect since seemed to me as invading personalities or something.
Interesting As an African American I have always been told that I speak like a white person as in 'very proper' even by family members. It never bothered me because I always thought 'they' didn't speak right at all but after living with my mother occasionally I find myself saying 'y'all' which is only a contraction of 'you all' but still I cringe after saying it. If I have an accent no one has ever said anything about it not even Johnny and he is from Arkansas and he definitely has an accent. I have worked with people not only from other states in the U.S. but around the world too.
There's a short thread on "lunch vs dinner vs supper." My father's parents were German, my mother was British, and I spent my early years in Indiana and then most of my life outside of DC, which has a highly transient population. So it's all interchangeable to me. The only thing I shall never accept is the use of the word "pop" as though it means something specific (I'm looking at you, Pennsylvania.) You may as well say "consumable carbonated liquid," assuming you're not referring to mom's spouse.
I've worked with multinationals as well (French, German, Japanese.) I always felt bad for the ones who traveled to different regions in this country. Can you imagine??? A friend's husband was from Arkansas. I couldn't understand a darned thing he said...it was all mumbling. I couldn't really tell if he had an accent or not. I communicated with the Japanese better than I could with that guy.
It depends on who I’m talking to I had to move around constantly when I was a kid and had to adapt to the environment or would’ve been stuck in a locker….I’ve lived in the southeast, I’ve lived in the northeast, I’ve lived on the west coast and I’ve lived in Europe so I’m familiar with the dialects from all over the place so if I’m talking with a southerner I probably have a slight southern accent if talking with a Bostonian I’ll have a slight Bostonian accent if I’m talking with a New Yorker I’ll have a New York accent, I should have parlayed this skill in some kind of capacity in the theater arts but didn’t think of it till now, maybe a new career is on the horizon….
During my first attempt at college (the failed one) I made a speech in speech class and afterwards the professor took me aside and told me that it would be in my best interest to not speak with an “anthracite brogue” as he called it which is typical here in the hard coal region. When I got out of the service after almost 6 years, I was told that I spoke like a TV announcer. Now I’m back to the anthracite brogue which is clear when I hear my recorded voice. I think we should all be proud of our regional background and what goes with it.
My mother was a WW2 bride. She belonged to a group of like-kind transplants here in the states called The TBPA (TransAtlantic Brides and Parents Association.) It was founded in 1946 in Great Britain by the parents of British girls who, during World War II, married American and Canadian servicemen, as my mother did (well, she only married one...an American.) One of her friends [Pat] was from "that part of London." Pat was a great lady. There were no airs about her.