An Actual New Orleans 911 Call - per a weblog called Dash

[dick_nyc]

An Actual New Orleans 911 Call

(caller to 911) "My friend just had a heart attack and he's unconscious! Please send an ambulance immediately!"

 

(operator) "Ok sir, just calm down now and we'll have an ambulance on the way. What is the address?"

 

(caller) "456 Tchoupitoulas Street!"

 

(operator) "Could you spell that for me sir?"

 

(caller) ... long pause ... "How about if I drag him over to Camp Street and you pick him up there?!"

 

posted by Dash | 6:03 PM | Comments (3) |

[noviceny]

That is fucken awesome :-) :-) :-) :-)

[trilingual]

For those not familiar with the finer points of "Yat," the unique New Orleans dialect, Tchoupitoulas is pronounced "chop-it-TOO-luss." Now you're "in the know."

 

"Yat" comes from the charming local greeting, "Whey-YAT, dollin'?" (Yat rhymes with fat, BTW, not yacht!)

 

I'll stop now, because a thread about N.O. dialect would never end. . .

[kjun]

And, just how would you pronounce it correctly? Ma Dahlin.

:9

 

the Cajun

[Guest zipperzone]

This joke has been around in several versions for years now.

 

I think it's called An Urban Legend

[trilingual]

>And, just how would you pronounce it correctly? Ma Dahlin.

>:9

>

>the Cajun

 

The pronunciation of many of the old French and other foreign names of streets in New Orleans have been hilariously Americanized, and the current pronunciation of Tchoupitoulas is an example. In this case, it's the name of an Indian tribe, apparently as transcribed by the French. Properly pronounced, it would be "tchoo-pit-too-lahs."

 

Pronunciation of the French Quarter streets "Burgundy" and "Chartres" set New Orleanians and ordinary Americans apart. In N.O. they're pronounced "bur-GUN-dy" and "charters."

 

New Orleans has a group of streets named after the Greek muses and goddesses (Calliope, Melpomene, Clio, Persephone, etc.) whose names you really should hear pronounced by a native New Orleanian for an aural treat!

 

With the demise of the great old-line department stores like D.H. Holmes and Maison Blanche (and their ever-popular cafeterias and coffee shops) the inimitable New Orleans equivalent for "May I help you?" is less often heard these days. Those of us of a certain age miss the motherly ladies in hairnets, asking customers "Soive-you, deah?" (The New Orleans "oi" is softer than Brooklyn's, with which it's often confused. In N.O. the "o" is pronounced "uh", so the whole glorious combination comes out sort of like "uhy," a difficult sound to represent in English.)