Thread: Sloppy talk
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Old 05-29-2019, 03:04 PM   #4
NN5I
Carl, nn5i
 
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Tallahassee, FL
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Yes, you are right -- clear and correct enunciation always helps.

Many, however, are simply incapable; they might benefit from a good speech therapist, but most of them are blissfully unaware that they talk badly. I occasionally hear a ham, for example, who gives his callsign with a suffix that is approximately "appity" or maybe "appidy". I conjecture that his callsign suffix is either "ipd" or "apd", or maybe "ipt" or "apt". No way to know for sure. He speaks generally with a strong regional accent that I think is rural South Georgia or maybe rural Northeast Florida. Perhaps he is an example of the following definition from Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary:

Low-bred, adj.
"Raised" instead of brought up.


But maybe, if he talked more like William F. Buckley Jr and less like his family [I make an assumption, of course], his local friends would have the same trouble, figuring out what he said, that I have when I hear him now. So why should he change? If I want to understand, it's my responsibility to listen up as well as I can, or augment my equipment -- probably both.
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