‘Like’ is definitely over used out here but not the same as the Cali one, I can usually pick out Californians in Washington… partially because as a southerner they recognize another person who is aggressively talkative to strangers.
I actually do agree with your take that PNW accent a restrained Midwest accent which actually tracks pretty well. And just to be clear I don’t mean “dontcha know” or “don’t ya know” that is Midwestern as hell, what I mean specifically is y’all tend to add “ya know” to the end a lot of sentences”. When I first pointed out to my best friend, who grew up out here, she sent me a text later that night saying, “Fuck you I hear it everywhere now, ya know”
The other big one that comes to mind is “pre-funk” which is apparently just slang for pre-gaming but I’d never heard it in the south or northeast
PNW is kind of notoriously ‘way too online’ and we suck at / hate talking to people we don’t know already, in person.
I think the ‘ya know’ thing that you are talking about, I think that was basically a tiktok thing for a while, basically a meme.
So… that’s my guess there: its essentially a meme that worked its way into the vernacular of the ‘way too online’ zoomers/alphas of the PNW.
‘Pre-funk’… yeah I remember that starting to catch on, and being annoyed by it, lol, because it literally just is ‘pre-game’… I don’t use that phrase, but yeah, a lot PNW people do.
Also, its funny: I’m in the Midwest now… and because I am actually capable of striking up a conversation with people I don’t already know, in person, yeah, people do seem to guess that I’m from Cali, more than they guess Seattle.
So if you’re saying people assume 'talkative = Californian"… I guess that would mean that I actually have something resembling ‘normal’ social skills, at least in comparison to the PNW hikkikomori, hahaha!
I was talking with some older dude recently, with an accent … I think he said Kentucky… but goddamn it, after we got to be a bit friendly, he started rambling off … I literally could not understand a word he was saying, for like 30 seconds of him talking.
Sorry I didn’t have time to completely respond to your whole comment earlier, got pinged and had to wrap it up.
I’ve literally had a conversation with a stranger at a bar in Cap Hill when I first moved here, and my accent makes me stick out like a sore thumb here so I get asked where I’m from all the time, after she asked and I told her where, she said “cool I’m from California and that’s why I’m speaking to you right now”. Which was hyperbolic but it does ring true coming from Atlanta to Seattle in that regard.
You my friend are an anomaly as far as my experience with the PNW if you can hang with a midwesterner in idle chit chat, they give us a run for our money in the south. Congratulations on the social skills lol!
You do gotta be careful with southern folks that ain’t from the big city, once we get comfortable we drop the fake accent and start speaking “proper”
See that also tracks with why we hate Californians…
Cap Hill used to be affordable, and considerably more weird.
Yes, its weird, it used to be more weird.
Like uh, I remember one time about 15 years ago now (rent in Cap Hill was roughly 1/3 of what it is now), I saw an actual freak on a leash, like just full BDSM gear dude walking another BDSM dude down the street.
They were going to QFC, to get groceries, just normal stuff, most people were like ‘huh. sure. neat.’ and just went on as normal.
Then the California hipster trust fund babies moved in, followed by the techbros, raised the rent, the Seattle natives moved out, now Cap Hill is basically a tourist area, masquerading as ‘the most coolest Seattleist part of the city’.
Like, I’m in the midwest now in large part because of the real estate bubble caused by rich transplant gentrifiers.
But yeah, anyway, I did interperet the uh, full blast accent drop as a sign he was uh… comfortable talking to me, so i was genuienly happy, but also very confused, hahah!
Yeah I could tell it wasn’t what it was, even Atlantas midtown and lil 5 were much more wild than cap hill when I rolled in. I still like it but Fremont is still pretty dope thankfully.
Tech bros and VC ruin everything.
It gets easier to pickup the more you hear it but in your position if you just smile and nod you’ll be good. Just don’t drink any clear liquid offered of go to a second location
‘Like’ is definitely over used out here but not the same as the Cali one, I can usually pick out Californians in Washington… partially because as a southerner they recognize another person who is aggressively talkative to strangers.
I actually do agree with your take that PNW accent a restrained Midwest accent which actually tracks pretty well. And just to be clear I don’t mean “dontcha know” or “don’t ya know” that is Midwestern as hell, what I mean specifically is y’all tend to add “ya know” to the end a lot of sentences”. When I first pointed out to my best friend, who grew up out here, she sent me a text later that night saying, “Fuck you I hear it everywhere now, ya know”
The other big one that comes to mind is “pre-funk” which is apparently just slang for pre-gaming but I’d never heard it in the south or northeast
Huh.
Ok… I think I have an explanation for ‘ya know’.
Its a zoomer/alpha thing, not a millenial thing.
PNW is kind of notoriously ‘way too online’ and we suck at / hate talking to people we don’t know already, in person.
I think the ‘ya know’ thing that you are talking about, I think that was basically a tiktok thing for a while, basically a meme.
So… that’s my guess there: its essentially a meme that worked its way into the vernacular of the ‘way too online’ zoomers/alphas of the PNW.
‘Pre-funk’… yeah I remember that starting to catch on, and being annoyed by it, lol, because it literally just is ‘pre-game’… I don’t use that phrase, but yeah, a lot PNW people do.
Also, its funny: I’m in the Midwest now… and because I am actually capable of striking up a conversation with people I don’t already know, in person, yeah, people do seem to guess that I’m from Cali, more than they guess Seattle.
So if you’re saying people assume 'talkative = Californian"… I guess that would mean that I actually have something resembling ‘normal’ social skills, at least in comparison to the PNW hikkikomori, hahaha!
I was talking with some older dude recently, with an accent … I think he said Kentucky… but goddamn it, after we got to be a bit friendly, he started rambling off … I literally could not understand a word he was saying, for like 30 seconds of him talking.
Accent was waaaay too thick for me to decipher.
Sorry I didn’t have time to completely respond to your whole comment earlier, got pinged and had to wrap it up.
I’ve literally had a conversation with a stranger at a bar in Cap Hill when I first moved here, and my accent makes me stick out like a sore thumb here so I get asked where I’m from all the time, after she asked and I told her where, she said “cool I’m from California and that’s why I’m speaking to you right now”. Which was hyperbolic but it does ring true coming from Atlanta to Seattle in that regard.
You my friend are an anomaly as far as my experience with the PNW if you can hang with a midwesterner in idle chit chat, they give us a run for our money in the south. Congratulations on the social skills lol!
You do gotta be careful with southern folks that ain’t from the big city, once we get comfortable we drop the fake accent and start speaking “proper”
See that also tracks with why we hate Californians…
Cap Hill used to be affordable, and considerably more weird.
Yes, its weird, it used to be more weird.
Like uh, I remember one time about 15 years ago now (rent in Cap Hill was roughly 1/3 of what it is now), I saw an actual freak on a leash, like just full BDSM gear dude walking another BDSM dude down the street.
They were going to QFC, to get groceries, just normal stuff, most people were like ‘huh. sure. neat.’ and just went on as normal.
Then the California hipster trust fund babies moved in, followed by the techbros, raised the rent, the Seattle natives moved out, now Cap Hill is basically a tourist area, masquerading as ‘the most coolest Seattleist part of the city’.
Like, I’m in the midwest now in large part because of the real estate bubble caused by rich transplant gentrifiers.
But yeah, anyway, I did interperet the uh, full blast accent drop as a sign he was uh… comfortable talking to me, so i was genuienly happy, but also very confused, hahah!
Yeah I could tell it wasn’t what it was, even Atlantas midtown and lil 5 were much more wild than cap hill when I rolled in. I still like it but Fremont is still pretty dope thankfully.
Tech bros and VC ruin everything.
It gets easier to pickup the more you hear it but in your position if you just smile and nod you’ll be good. Just don’t drink any clear liquid offered of go to a second location
Hate to poke hole in your theory, but I don’t even know anyone Gen Z or alphas, these are all millennials and older
Well, I tried.
Maybe I just don’t/didn’t know people who commonly use ‘ya know’.
Yeah and it could easily still be a recent development, I’ve only been out here for 5ish years
Well that is about as long as I’ve been in the Midwest, so that tracks.