PORTSMOUTH — Is it Warwick or Wawwick, Rhode Island? According to professor Roberta Humble, that depends on whom you ask. Ms. Humble had her audience in stitches at the Portsmouth Free Library during a program that taught them how to speak "Rhode Islandese." The seminar got to the root of words, slang and the enigma of Rhode Island linguistics.

"'Pitcha' — Is it picture or pitcher? Well, you don't know," Ms. Humble explained to a crowd of 75.

Ms. Humble's parents — originally from Taunton, Mass. — settled in Westerly. The professor of oral communication at the Community College of Rhode Island said accents are often learned through imitation.

"It's interesting. You do learn your language from whoever raised you the most," Ms. Humble said.

A "Wawwick" resident and University of Rhode Island alumnus, Ms. Humble said mispronunciation can be blamed on laziness, informality or ignorance. "A lot of it's just lazy mouth and we're all guilty of it."

Before leading the group through speech exercises and pop quizzes Ms. Humble said accents are often generated through geography.

For example, those of British descent are accused of dropping the letter 'r' from English words. Countries are typically divided by language variations between their northern and southern regions. Others, like Britain and France, prefer squabbling over pronunciation and proper speech etiquette. And when others talk in a language we don't understand, we assume the worst — that they are obviously talking about us.

Despite its small package, Rhode Island is home to a diverse range of dialect thanks partly to a strong military and naval presence.

The Rhode Island accent recently gained some harmless national criticism through the hit television series "Family Guy" — a cartoon that mocks the oddities of a family in Quahog, R.I.

"As much fun as we're making of Rhode Island accents and Rhode Island people I think we have one of the best states bar none," she said. Ms. Humble — who also works to restore deteriorating armories — called the state one of the national leaders in historic preservation.

And for speech solutions?

Ms. Humble compares mispronunciation to dieting — you cannot make a person do something that the person doesn't want to do. She rarely corrects others unless it is for the purpose of sparing them future embarrassment.

And bad habits are hard to nix.

Ms. Humble said psychologists say breaking a habit is a trying three-week process. But she also said accents are nothing to be ashamed about and that no one speaks "perfek" English.

"You're all getting a hang of the [Rhode Islandese] language. Now I want you all to proudly represent us when you go out of the state," Ms. Humble said.

R.I. mispronunciations

According to CCRI Professor Roberta Humble, the following is a list of common speech errors made by Rhode Island natives and their corrected version in standard English. Which are you guilty of?

* trote — throat

* blinka — blinker

* pawh — pour

* lodge — large

* guvamit — government

* fiya — fire

* pacific — specific

* canadate — candidate

* idear — idea

* feecha — feature

* distrik — district

* Richet — Richard

* potty — party

* innerduce — introduce

* wid — with

* hospil — hospital

* grinda — grinder

* ba il — bottle

* sangwich — sandwich

* excape — escape

What causes state slang?

* Long words are shortened

* Two or three words are combined

* Consonants are dropped

* Endings are dropped

* Words are over-Americanized

* Letters are interchanged

* Words are mispronounced

BY JASON TURCOTTE

jturcotte@eastbaynewspapers.com