# How to speak as a Trad?



## gardel (Jul 23, 2008)

I think most of you would agree that being a gentleman isn't just about the clothes. We are also judged by other things including as our manner of speaking.

As a Trad, do you find yourself speaking any differently than non-Trads or yourself before becoming Trad?

Thank you very much for your comments.


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

mmm ... a huge topic, deserving of its own forum, which it doubtless has, in many forms. More subtle than dress, but not unrelated. I will content myself with attempting to quote Rare Ben Jonson's Journals from memory:

No glass [mirror] renders a man's likeness as true as does his speech: speake, that I may see thee!


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## Quay (Mar 29, 2008)

If your mouth is tied to your clothing, you're already doomed in that you'll never express anything that doesn't sound like satire.

Just have a look at other clothing forums should you need copious evidence.


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## Youngster (Jun 5, 2008)

It's best not to over think this one. You may dress in mid-century clothing, but you don't want to talk that way. 
Speak well and without pretension.
Practice an economy of speech. 
In short, don't talk like a jerk.


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## bd79cc (Dec 20, 2006)

See the Tom Wolfe essay, "Honks and Wonks."


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

:icon_smile_big:


Youngster said:


> It's best not to over think this one. You may dress in mid-century clothing, but you don't want to talk that way.
> Speak well and without pretension.
> Practice an economy of speech.
> In short, don't talk like a jerk.


Yeah, kid, mid what century? It don't change much :icon_smile_big:.


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## TMMKC (Aug 2, 2007)

Sigh...the threads in this forum get more and more inane by the day. Come now, Gardel, you're REALLY worried about how to speak like a Trad? Quay nailed it...take his advice, go and sin no more. 

My simple answer to your question (and most of the other recent threads on the TF) is: If you worry about every little detail of your clothes and your manner, then you are NOT a Trad. It is what it is. You got it or you don't (no sin if you do, no sin if you don't).

If you prefer more conservative clothes, by all means wear them. If you obsess over all the other stuff, stop and realize that you're trying too hard. Be yourself. Trust me, you're just fine the way God made you.


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## P Hudson (Jul 19, 2008)

Avoid the word "like". "Like" in place of "ummm" sounds moronic, while excessive ummm sounds merely sophmoric. "Like" and "as" are not interchangeable.

Avoid similes; offer a metaphor instead. Eschew adjectives--use dynamic verbs. 

Drop obscenity from your speech. Think before you speak and then state your thoughts concisely and vigorously. 

Remove fork, toothpick, cigarette and/or marbles from mouth before speaking.

Don't speak with food in your mouth.

Don't observe other people's bad manners: that is bad manners.

Listen more than you speak by a meaningful ratio.

Encourage. Don't harangue, and don't drink and talk.

In short, all that stuff mom taught us.


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## GBR (Aug 10, 2005)

What utter nonsense. 

We live in the twenty first century and to communictae we need to live in that century.

WE cannot live as something from a history book


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## vwguy (Jul 23, 2004)

What comes next in "How to _____ as a Trad?" series?

Brian


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

GBR said:


> What utter nonsense.
> 
> We live in the twenty first century and to communictae we need to live in that century.
> 
> WE cannot live as something from a history book


Oh, bullcrap: it's what education is all about, IMHO. Not that you can do much about it.


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## Quay (Mar 29, 2008)

vwguy said:


> What comes next in "How to _____ as a Trad?" series?
> 
> Brian


I shudder to think, unless it's practical, like putting "die" into that blank. Some will insist that being run down by a vintage Morgan or MG is the only way, others will say that one must go in a hospital that still has unformed nurses wearing paper hats, while some will speak of things to do with gin, tartan plaid coffin liners and perhaps even being shot by a Biddle or a Cabot while (whilst?) hunting pheasant in the Right Sort of Place.


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## Quay (Mar 29, 2008)

P Hudson said:


> Avoid the word "like". "Like" in place of "ummm" sounds moronic, while excessive ummm sounds merely sophmoric. "Like" and "as" are not interchangeable.
> 
> Avoid similes; offer a metaphor instead. Eschew adjectives--use dynamic verbs.
> 
> ...


I think that's a pretty good list, assuming of course, that one's mother is not Joan Collins or Courtney Love.


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## ecox (Oct 25, 2009)

gardel said:


> I think most of you would agree that being a gentleman isn't just about the clothes. We are also judged by other things including as our manner of speaking.
> 
> As a Trad, do you find yourself speaking any differently than non-Trads or yourself before becoming Trad?
> 
> Thank you very much for your comments.


Umm...no. Who I am is not defined by how I dress. Nor would how I dress define how I speak.


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

ecox said:


> Umm...no. Who I am is not defined by how I dress. Nor would how I dress define how I speak.


For whom? (no personal aspersions intended0


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## Youngster (Jun 5, 2008)

You should fake a long island lockjaw. Or affect some midlantic accent. And avoid admitting that you were born middle class at all costs.

One of the best things about America is that, as much as being well spoken matters, there is so much room to incorporate regional diction and all manner of folksines into your speech. Embrace this, and aspire to be more eloquent while maintaining the habits that give each persons style of speech a particular charm. This is not England, where everything you say is a marker of your class and place of birth. Enjoy the freedom of speech in America- it's dynamism is a blessing that we forget all to often.


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## P Hudson (Jul 19, 2008)

ecox said:


> Umm...no. Who I am is not defined by how I dress. Nor would how I dress define how I speak.


Did he suggest it was? I thought he said we are judged by those things. Who you are is not defined by how you dress, but people have (I think) the right to assume that how you dress is defined by who you are. Until you start speaking, how else could someone appraise you apart from your appearance (and smell)? You might reply that it is wrong for people to appraise you by appearance, or even by what you say, but that is the reality of human interaction.


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## Quay (Mar 29, 2008)

^ Indeed so, especially when you get past the appearance and start into speech. If someone is introduced and the reply is either:

"How do you do?"

or

"Dude! How's it hangin'?"

then one can expect a very different range of responses depending on the people and situation.


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## P Hudson (Jul 19, 2008)

I could offend some people with this, but when I was a postgrad student I had a job as a doorman at what was then part of America's 7th largest financial institution. It was probably then that my interest in clothes and style developed. After a year or two of watching people, I could tell you what floor a person worked on based on the way he or she walked. You could add to some degree the way the person dressed. It transcended race and gender. I guess the Ivy League grad CEO types just aren't as comfortable around the shuffling and disheveled types. This probably isn't an attack on the meritocracy: even the outsider will be influenced by a few years at a Yale or Harvard. I know my years in England had an affect on me.


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## Quay (Mar 29, 2008)

P Hudson, not offensive at all, at least to me. Although in America one is not supposed to notice these things, it happens and a person can learn a lot by such observations.  One can even win the odd bet or several by clever use of such knowledge.

As a corollary to the thread, it is also easy for some to "peg" a person by the way they talk or write. Back a thousand years ago when some kind people expected me to grade papers, I could tell all sorts of things about a person after only a page of their writing, and I'm not talking about whether it was on ivory laid cotton, wove or recycled paper. 

People are walking and talking billboards sometimes if you know how to read them.


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## Kila (Apr 29, 2010)

That's funny! Long Island lockjaw or perhaps West End of Richmond drawl. Tahl=towel. Ahl=oil. Rivah=river. Take a tahl with you when you head to the rivah and please check the ahl in the Rolls.


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## Mr. Mac (Mar 14, 2008)

Just as long as you don't sound like Bill Buckley. Good golly was he was hard to follow.


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## katon (Dec 25, 2006)

Be polite. Be honest. Speak precisely, but plainly. As long as it causes no difficulties in communicating, don't worry if you have an accent. Be proud of where you're from, admiring its strengths while recognizing its flaws.

If you imagine Trad as aping a Brahmin accent, you're only setting yourself up for sorrow, as each new "hurdle" cleared will only bring up a larger one. If you're really intent on traveling that path, eventually you'll run up against the wall of blood, and the fact that you can't change who your grandfather was. Besides, trying to misses the point of doing things this way anyhow. The goal isn't to transform yourself into a picture-perfect copy of some mid-60s Ivy Leaguer with a drinking problem and an old New England family, it's to understand the reasoning behind why those families believed that acting a certain way or talking a certain way, or dressing a certain way was good for them in the first place.

For instance, instead of defining Trad clothing as a certain copied look regardless of provenance, you might define it as buying clothes that date themselves slowly and are well-constructed by people paid a fair wage, because responsibility towards the community and environment are extensions of personal responsibility. Or considering a dartless, pleatless, natural shoulder suit as a practical one that forces some degree of bodily honesty, discourages vanity, and puts others at ease in the process.


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

TMMKC said:


> Sigh...the threads in this forum get more and more inane by the day.
> 
> Sorry, there, tkc, i love the way you dress, and generally enjoy your posts, but the world-weariness is a bore (not just you): I think this thread goes right to the heart of things. [ducks for cover :icon_smile_wink:]


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## Joe Beamish (Mar 21, 2008)

Good post, katon. I have to admit that although my primary interest here is the clothes, I like the fact (and it's probably no coincidence) that people on this board are more polite than people on other boards for any topic. And whenever we verge on rudeness (getting carried away) we're pretty quick to retract and apologize, which, I think, is a very good thing in life.


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

cheers, bro :drunken_smilie:


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## Pink and Green (Jul 22, 2009)

To ape an old adage, there are no inane threads, only inane contributors.

Actually for every eye-rolling thread (some started by yours truly!) I always tend to learn something from those who post. Sure, it gets irritating to have a Trad contest every day, but perhaps this indicates a need for the OTH - Official Trad Handbook. Someone can make a few nickels off it and give those thirty years down the road something to argue about.

"Extra slim fit is the most trad to 2010!" 
"You're nuts, clearly the most trad thing back then was voluminous fit!"

That will be entertaining to watch, provided I am alive and still interested in clothing forums on the internet.


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## randomdude (Jun 4, 2007)

Oh man, Joe Tradly is gonna be PISSED when he finds out about this thread! Nobody say anything.


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## TMMKC (Aug 2, 2007)

The Rambler said:


> TMMKC said:
> 
> 
> > Sigh...the threads in this forum get more and more inane by the day.
> ...


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## Cruiser (Jul 21, 2006)

TMMKC said:


> [BTW...what is more Trad? Ketchup or mustard?


Are you saying that you can't use both?

Cruiser


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## P Hudson (Jul 19, 2008)

TMMKC said:


> The Rambler said:
> 
> 
> > BTW...what is more Trad? Ketchup or mustard?
> ...


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## boatshoe (Oct 30, 2008)

Paul: This is the way you must speak. Hear my accent. Hear my voice. Never say you're going horse back riding. You say you're going riding. And don't say couch. Say sofa. And you say bodd-ill. It's bottle. Say bottle of beer.

Rick: Bodd-ill a bee-ya.

Paul: Bottle of beer. And never be afraid of rich people. You know what they love? A fancy pot of jam. That's all.


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

TMMKC said:


> The Rambler said:
> 
> 
> > No offense intended to anyone, but you have to admit some of these "are these Trad?" threads have gotten a bit tedious.
> ...


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

What's a matter??

Ain't you got no culture??


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## EastVillageTrad (May 12, 2006)

Garn.


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## Youngster (Jun 5, 2008)

P Hudson said:


> TMMKC said:
> 
> 
> > Ketchup, from the Chinese kat tzup, referred originally to virtually any fermented dollop that was used as an aid to digestion. Mustard, on the other hand, is far more European. Thus I would say that mustard is more trad. In fact, the mustard that you get at a Chinese restaurant in the US is actually English.
> ...


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## Cavebear58 (Jan 31, 2010)

GBR said:


> What utter nonsense.
> 
> We live in the twenty first century and to communictae we need to live in that century.
> 
> WE cannot live as something from a history book


Thee cannot mean that, can thou?

In Friendship, Graham.


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## Larsd4 (Oct 14, 2005)

Eliminate the suffix "izzle" from your vocabulary. That and "bee-otch."


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## boatshoe (Oct 30, 2008)

I nominate Larsd4 as our Henry Higgins.


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## TMMKC (Aug 2, 2007)

When I was an AmJack, I spoke like an AmJack, think like an AmJack, reason like an Amjack; when I became a Trad, I did away with AmJackish things.:icon_smile_big:


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## Jovan (Mar 7, 2006)

I am assuming this thread is meant as a parody.


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## TMMKC (Aug 2, 2007)

Jovan said:


> I am assuming this thread is meant as a parody.


That point has never been clear from the start, though I honestly think it was a sincere question.


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

Jovan said:


> I am assuming this thread is meant as a parody.


I would say, more of a bagatelle !


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## Got Shell? (Jul 30, 2008)

TMMKC said:


> Sigh...the threads in this forum get more and more inane by the day. Come now, Gardel, you're REALLY worried about how to speak like a Trad? Quay nailed it...take his advice, go and sin no more.
> 
> My simple answer to your question (and most of the other recent threads on the TF) is: If you worry about every little detail of your clothes and your manner, then you are NOT a Trad. It is what it is. You got it or you don't (no sin if you do, no sin if you don't).
> 
> If you prefer more conservative clothes, by all means wear them. If you obsess over all the other stuff, stop and realize that you're trying too hard. Be yourself. Trust me, you're just fine the way God made you.


Couldn't have said it better myself. Glad to see some wisdom; Some of these threads make me want to light myself on fire...is that trad?


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## TMMKC (Aug 2, 2007)

Got Shell? said:


> Couldn't have said it better myself. Glad to see some wisdom; Some of these threads make me want to light myself on fire...is that trad?


Only if you use a Zippo or Diamond Kitchen Matches.


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

Got Shell? said:


> Couldn't have said it better myself. Glad to see some wisdom; Some of these threads make me want to light myself on fire...is that trad?


No, it's more traditional to light others on fire.


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## P Hudson (Jul 19, 2008)

Youngster said:


> P Hudson said:
> 
> 
> > This thread is now about condiments.
> ...


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

just getting interesting PH, or maybe it's that the cocktail hour is well under way here in horse country. My war hero uncle, long deceased, and a graduate of Harvard, once told me that "your true Yankee doesn't eat any seafood but lobster and swordfish" and used to sprinkle sugar on salad, when forced to eat it :drunken_smilie::deadhorse-a:


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

and another quotation, from poor memory:

Time that is intolerant
Of the brave and innocent
And indifferent in a week
To a beautiful physique,
Worships language and forgives
Everyone by whom it lives


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## Portly_polar_bear (Oct 15, 2008)

The Rambler said:


> Yeah, kid, mid what century? It don't change much


Your ribbon belt and deck shoes are so 1850.


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## HistoryDoc (Dec 14, 2006)

Here is some good advice.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

The Rambler said:


> and another quotation, from poor memory:
> 
> Time that is intolerant
> Of the brave and innocent
> ...


While the logic of this entire thread continues to escape me, the poetry is getting pretty good. Thanks Rambler!


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## Lamarque (Oct 7, 2009)

HistoryDoc said:


> Here is some good advice.


I'll throw my support in for _The Elements of Style_. You'll all be writing Charles's instead of Charles' in no time.


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

eagle2250 said:


> While the logic of this entire thread continues to escape me, the poetry is getting pretty good. Thanks Rambler!


I'll give my rough logic a stab.I reframe the question thus: Is there a connection between a traditional style of dress, and a traditional way of speaking or writing? Some people say yes, both work with a traditional vocabulary, allusive, or at least aware of tradtions, while adapting it to the present we all live in. Others feel that their first amendment rights are under assault, or that a proper use of language detestablymeans speaking long island lockjaw, or victorian, or 18th century, or something other than their way of speaking. The suggestion that "no glasse renders a man's form or likeness so true as his speech: speake, that I may see thee" seemed apt for a group such as ours, who doubtless spend some time, at least a nanosecond, in front of a mirror, but its implication is clearly that if you dress like one thing and speak as another, language trumps dress. This is an unwelcome notion for many.

Others, of course, roll their eyes, say this what is trad stuff is too tedious for words, can we please get back to whatever: fine, but I found an interesting idea in the op, which may not itself be wellexpressed.

But the good news is that proper speech is in no way snobbish, is appreciated in any accent, and need not be at all formal. And, like a good trad outfit, can be original while stayng within the traditional vocabulary, and convey careless ease.

As for the last poem, it just popped into my head while I was thinking about close metaphorical assocation of speech and clothing in King Lear , and since it's little known, and not totally irrelevant [a deleted stanza from Auden's WB Yeats] and I knew some here would like it, I posted it. I'm here for fun, after all. So thanks, Eagle:icon_smile_wink:


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## Youngster (Jun 5, 2008)

Lamarque said:


> I'll throw my support in for _The Elements of Style_. You'll all be writing Charles's instead of Charles' in no time.


I've never met a linguist who didn't hate Strunk and White. Apparently they are awful and wrong. Who knew?


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

Youngster said:


> I've never met a linguist who didn't hate Strunk and White. Apparently they are awful and wrong. Who knew?


Well, linguisticists are cranks :icon_smile_big:. Few, and no linguisticists I'm aware of wrote as elegantly as E B White. My personal favorite is _Fowler_, with a dash of Kingsley Amis, _The King's English _to spice it up.


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## GBR (Aug 10, 2005)

More nonsense. 

The OP was asking about old fashioned idiom and usage and dressing that up as 'trad'. A child being educated today and from a good family background will speak corretly using proper grammar etc, but in a modern idiom.

We cannot turn the clock back to some uinspecified earlier era - change must be accepted in some areas unless one wants to be thought of as a fool. Presumably you will also suggest selling your car and getting a pony and trap - that was 'trad' at one time.


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

was he? you mean as in "I say, old boy, that tweed jacket is ripping!" I didn't get that, and it certainly isn't very interesting. I have some experience with having young (spoken charitably, I hope I'm not wrong) men from your country attempt to reduce an idea to absurdity, and then dismissively refute it with a platitude, but not for a while. So, thanks.

And I find the posters on this forum very well spoken, and frequently intelligible.


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## Bog (May 13, 2007)




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## HistoryDoc (Dec 14, 2006)

Youngster said:


> I've never met a linguist who didn't hate Strunk and White. Apparently they are awful and wrong. Who knew?


Yes, they are awful and wrong; I knew.


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

Bog said:


>


Wonderful, thanks for that Bog. I fear that that patrician accent is sadly about to disappear from the earth. Every older generation member of my wife's Rhode Island family spoke in a similar manner, but they've all died, and none of the younger generation sound at all like that. The gent on the left looks amazingly like e e cummings.


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## gordgekko (Nov 12, 2004)

gardel said:


> As a Trad, do you find yourself speaking any differently than non-Trads or yourself before becoming Trad?


Sir, I doff my hat to you. You have successfully managed to turn the Trad subforum into a parody of itself. This is even better than the Trad dog thread of a few years ago.

I eagerly await the next post "How to have a Trad marriage?":

_Gentlemen, I'm faced with a problem. I have a loving, caring wife and that's the problem! How do I turn her into the proper Trad wife: an icy, patrician woman who doesn't believe in sex and traffics in elegant gin-fueled personal attacks?_


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

self-parody is important.


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

gordgekko said:


> Sir, I doff my hat to you. You have successfully managed to turn the Trad subforum into a parody of itself. This is even better than the Trad dog thread of a few years ago.
> 
> I eagerly await the next post "How to have a Trad marriage?":
> 
> _Gentlemen, I'm faced with a problem. I have a loving, caring wife and that's the problem! How do I turn her into the proper Trad wife: an icy, patrician woman who doesn't believe in sex and traffics in elegant gin-fueled personal attacks?_


but, seriously, keep her well-supplied with gin.


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## Caesars0331 (Jun 23, 2009)

I find a little lock-jaw helps my tradly palaver.


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## Jovan (Mar 7, 2006)

gordgekko said:


> Sir, I doff my hat to you. You have successfully managed to turn the Trad subforum into a parody of itself. This is even better than the Trad dog thread of a few years ago.
> 
> I eagerly await the next post "How to have a Trad marriage?":
> 
> _Gentlemen, I'm faced with a problem. I have a loving, caring wife and that's the problem! How do I turn her into the proper Trad wife: an icy, patrician woman who doesn't believe in sex and traffics in elegant gin-fueled personal attacks?_


 Last I checked, you wore loud braces and contrast collar shirts with horizontal stripes. Nothing could be more the antithesis of trad. :icon_smile_big:


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## Steve Smith (Jan 12, 2008)

TMMKC said:


> When I was an AmJack, I spoke like an AmJack, think like an AmJack, reason like an Amjack; when I became a Trad, I did away with AmJackish things.:icon_smile_big:


Well done.


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## gordgekko (Nov 12, 2004)

Jovan said:


> Last I checked, you wore loud braces and contrast collar shirts with horizontal stripes. Nothing could be more the antithesis of trad. :icon_smile_big:


A few decades in prison has taught me many things.


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## gardel (Jul 23, 2008)

Thank you everyone! I learned a lot from this thread.


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## Cowtown (Aug 10, 2006)

gardel said:


> Thank you everyone! I learned a lot from this thread.


And what exactly is that?


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

Perhaps the value of the proper use of punctuation; or, perhaps, that it's been repealed, because it's too old-fashioned!


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## Bog (May 13, 2007)

The Rambler said:


> Wonderful, thanks for that Bog. I fear that that patrician accent is sadly about to disappear from the earth. Every older generation member of my wife's Rhode Island family spoke in a similar manner, but they've all died, and none of the younger generation sound at all like that. The gent on the left looks amazingly like e e cummings.


There are definitely a few young kids who speak like this.


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## R0ME0 (Feb 10, 2010)

vwguy said:


> What comes next in "How to _____ as a Trad?" series?
> 
> Brian


I was thinking the same think.


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

Well, I've been wondering what color tie goes with a gray suit?:deadhorse-a:


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## philidor (Nov 19, 2009)

P Hudson said:


> Avoid the word "like". "Like" in place of "ummm" sounds moronic, while excessive ummm sounds merely sophmoric. "Like" and "as" are not interchangeable.


Do people actually confuse like and as? Has anyone ever said something along the lines of: "It feels as..." or "He looks as a hippy"? "For instance" should take the place of like in many situations. Also avoid "Got" whenever possible.


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## philidor (Nov 19, 2009)

How do people here about the decline in Standard English in many places? In other places on the internet you might find modifying adjectives with adjectives (e.g.: "Real (sic) good") double negatives (e.g.: "Don't get none (sic)), badly managed grammatical number (e.g.: "I got mines"), being unaware of the subjunctive case (e.g.: "If I was..." instead of "If I were..." for the conditional future) and using "who" in place of "whom" (e.g.: "According to who?" is no different than "According to he?" because he and who are the same case. Him/her/whom are the objective case). I in part blame John Dewey for this downfall, especially since his theories inspired the whole language approach to reading instead of sounding out words.

I personally believe the public educational system needs to be nationalized because under the current system schools in poor neighborhoods naturally have smaller endowments than richer neighborhoods. After public education becomes nationalized to then model it after an excellent school such as Brillantmont over in Switzerland or Eton in England.


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## philidor (Nov 19, 2009)

Youngster said:


> You should fake a long island lockjaw. Or affect some midlantic accent. And avoid admitting that you were born middle class at all costs.
> 
> One of the best things about America is that, as much as being well spoken matters, there is so much room to incorporate regional diction and all manner of folksines into your speech. Embrace this, and aspire to be more eloquent while maintaining the habits that give each persons style of speech a particular charm. This is not England, where everything you say is a marker of your class and place of birth. Enjoy the freedom of speech in America- it's dynamism is a blessing that we forget all to often.


The meritocracy is actually, unfortunately a fake one. The most "talented" and "successful" have typically had the leisure time and inherited cultural capital to develop said talents. People on America's top floors do not like economic newcomers. Hence pejorative terms like parvenu, nouveau riche, and even middle-class. In the rare exception that one does economically "make it" one is better off starting their own social system instead of trying to appeal to individuals that complain about how the nouveau riche are taking over Nantucket, and how everyone in Nantucket used to be in the Social Register. The social system is one large matrix (i.e.: A collectively agreed upon subjective reality.) you are playing by rules other people have decided for you.


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## Jovan (Mar 7, 2006)

Youngster said:


> You should fake a long island lockjaw.


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## PeterSawatzky (Feb 20, 2009)

I've been trying to phase out "eh" in favour of "huh," as in, "Wicked nice weather, huh?" As opposed to "Beautiful day, eh?"


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## P Hudson (Jul 19, 2008)

philidor said:


> Do people actually confuse like and as? Has anyone ever said something along the lines of: "It feels as..." or "He looks as a hippy"?
> 
> After public education becomes nationalized to then model it after an excellent school such as Brillantmont over in Switzerland or Eton in England.


Yes. Every day, as in (if you're old enough to remember), "... tastes good. Like a cigarette should". Also, "Do like I do".

Imagine if England modeled their schools after Eton! They'd be bankrupt. Ok, I mean more bankrupt than they are now.


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## philidor (Nov 19, 2009)

> Imagine if England modeled their schools after Eton! They'd be bankrupt. Ok, I mean more bankrupt than they are now.


Although what the majority of Americans most envy about the Royal Family and Peerage are their being steeped in centuries of tradition and their lineage instead of their education, we should still nonetheless do what we can to improve education. The government over here has a penchant for wasting taxpayers' dollars; and because the government is going to waste tax-dollars, it may as well go into a beneficial venture.

Contrary to what certain people have suggested here do not affect accents. One wouldn't want to risk accusations of affectation; so speaking with a neutral accent and using Standard English would be the best, safest, and most natural solution.


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## rwaldron (Jun 22, 2012)

In the early 80's a documentary was made about the dialects used here in New Orleans. eventually, a couple of men from the Garden District are shown. They're accent is a dying old New Orleans Trad accent. you can see the first few minutes of the documentary here:


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