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by dave4270 59 days ago
New Orleans drops mic... I'm from River Ridge in the Jefferson Parish suburbs ( within the city area ) and if I meet a stranger somewhere else in the country they, after one or two sentences, usually think I'm from New York. But slipping into one of the many dialects we have here is never far away, depending on who you are conversing with. Only locals will understand, but my wife used to tell me that after 2 sentences my dad and I would start talking like we were "from Kenner" and she couldn't follow the conversation. To non-locals, Kenner is directly next to River Ridge.
3 comments
brianleb 59 days ago
Ha, grew up in Harahan. When I left the LA for college, people were shocked to find out where I was from based on how I talked. I would hear areas of New England, 'no discernible accent,' and also Canadian. Apparently the Canadian comes out when I say words like out, about, and house. I can't hear it but my friends all swore up and down they could.

There are so many unique dialects hyperlocal to New Orleans, it's amazing.

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ghaff 59 days ago
Yeah, when I lived there, a lot of native New Orleans dialect had a lot in common with Brooklyn to my ears.

Started work there at the same time as a school classmate who grew up in Jacksonville. Spent a lot of time doing engineering work on offshore drilling rigs. Told my friend I really had trouble understanding people a lot of the time. He said he did as well :-)

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selimthegrim 59 days ago
Also a lot of Chalmatians still possess a strongly related 'yat accent. Is there a "River Ridge, brah" joke too?
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dave4270 59 days ago
No, that would be a union violation. "Kenna, brah" is an institution. And I can't believe I just read "Chalmatians" on HN. Full disclosure, I went to Holy Cross when it was still in the Ninth Ward. Chalmatian has been part of my vocabulary since the 80's. I'm sure every big city has its neighborhoods with individual cultures, but our heavily mixed population combined with insular land masses tend to create very distinct niches that all have the common thread of "The City that Care Forgot".
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selimthegrim 58 days ago
I lived across from where the old Patton’s plant used to be until a couple years ago and then I moved to Mid-City.
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