(no subject)

[conuly]

Them: Go look at any official communication from a company. Have you ever received a ConEd bill that says, “Ya should of paid ya bill on time, now we gonna haveta cut off ya powa”? Of course not. Why? Because that is not standard English, and it would reflect poorly on the company.

Me: I take it you've never called ConEd on the phone in NYC? Because, whew, that'd disabuse you of this fiction pretty quick. Them and National Grid, wow. And I'm not even talking about their representatives, I'm talking about their recordings! Never heard such a thick NYC accent in my life, and I grew up here!

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Aye Lassie, an' Scottish powerrr is just as bad, ye ken?!

[conuly]

Seriously, every time I have to call the gas company I'm left wondering where exactly they got the lady to make the recording. Who even talks like that nowadays? Maybe she came in from Jersey for it?

[buttonsbeadslace]

At my job in DC, I occasionally had to call the DMVs of DC, Maryland and Virginia, and it was always funny to me that Virginia's pre-recorded phone message sounded significantly more Southern.

[redbird]

Yeah, Con Ed may have a slightly more formal or legalistic script, like "this means we will have to cut off your power unless you pay by $date" but that's not the difference between "should of" and "should have" or an accent that drops final R's *waving from Boston, where some of the print ads say things like "chowda." That irritates me, in a low-key way, and I'm not sure why; it isn't because people are pronouncing the word the same way they would if it didn't have an R.

[silveradept]

Sure, not in writing, because writing allows you to strip out tone and regionalisms and make it sound like a broadcaster. Audio, not so much, unless you're specifically looking for someone who doesn't sound like they're from here to record your messages and make your calls.

(And of you do that, the locals will probably ask why you got someone who isn't from around these parts to do the recording.)