Do you have an accent?

When you're out of state or out of the country maybe can people tell where you're from by your accent?

I think I have a non-accent. We had a neighbor who swore I was from Canada....in freshman year some people thought I was from Germany/western Europe

What about you?

EDIT: I ALWAYS read The_Bird's posts with a wicked awesome Boston accent.....I'm probubly wrong though

I can lay a western PA/Pittsburghese accent on so heavy you won't know what I'm saying, but I don't think I show at all in my everyday speech. If it's anything, though, that's it.

Alamo_Beer said:

EDIT: I ALWAYS read The_Bird's posts with a wicked awesome Boston accent.....I'm probubly wrong though

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I always hear Tommy Heinson talking.

'DJ top of the key, swings it...Schisting for three...and it's down!'

I used to have a very strong NY/Brooklyn accent, having grown up in Staten Island. When I got to college I decided to drop it and now my speech is pretty neutral.

Today when I tell people I'm from SI I usually get, "What? Where's your accent?"

-Joe

I am from the DC Metro/suburban MD area, and have no accent whatsoever. I did pick up a little southern drawl when I went to college in North Carolina, but it's gone now.

I have noticed lately, I sound a little like Bobby's mom from Bobby's World when I said certain words with a hard "o" in them. Weird.

Of course...every time I leave the area, folks always ask if I am from the Phila region due to my accent and phrasing.

Us midwesterners are the only ones with no accent. All you other guys talk with crazy outlandish tones and pronunciations. Doncha know, eh.

Man, I was at a wedding last weekend and there were some THICK NJ accents going on. My wife's friend married a guy originally from NJ. He had mostly lost it, but some of his high school buddies sounded just like Goodfellas, Sopranos, all that stuff.

blacklab said:

Man, I was at a wedding last weekend and there were some THICK NJ accents going on. My wife's friend married a guy originally from NJ. He had mostly lost it, but some of his high school buddies sounded just like Goodfellas, Sopranos, all that stuff.

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Those are NY accents. Northern NJ has some NY accents and southern NJ has some Philly accents. I have none...

Not that I know of. Is there an Ohio accent?

When I was out in Tennessee a couple week ago, I had a guy ask where I was from because of my accent.

yeah a pretty bad one or so im told. My whole Family lives in MI, so when im up there people are always asking where im from. I kind of like it, its an easy way to meet chicks. I always get **** up north for using terms like "Fixin to", and yall.

Everyone's got an accent compared to somewhere else. even midwesterners have an accent when they go to England.

Brewtopia said:

When I was out in Tennessee a couple week ago, I had a guy ask where I was from because of my accent.

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I've lived in Tennessee for 11 years, when we first moved down everyone asked me "are you from Canada?" I was born and raised in lower Michigan. I thought they were nuts because I know what a Canadian accent sounds like, eh. Funny thing, we went back to Michigan last fall, and a lot of my friends sounded slightly Canadian.

americans with no accent? i don't think so old chap.

my english accent gets stronger when i'm talking to fellow englanders. most of the time people can understand me - but "water" and "butter" are a constant issue in NJ. i have to affect a jersey accent if i need to order either of those items

ps: my jersey native wife has the accent, but she was laughing almost out loud at the new england accents in providence the other weekend. bit cheeky, i thought.

Soulive said:

Those are NY accents. Northern NJ has some NY accents and southern NJ has some Philly accents. I have none...

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How come? Is there a point where NY/NJ kids decide, 'Hey I'm going with this accent thing', or 'screw this accent, I'm dropping it'?

EDIT - Not trying to be a jackass, just curious as a lifelong leftcoaster.

I've lost mine, but it comes out when I get angry. Whenever I go back to NJ it comes back for about 2-3 weeks.

blacklab said:

How come? Is there a point where NY/NJ kids decide, 'Hey I'm going with this accent thing', or 'screw this accent, I'm dropping it'?

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I think it depends on your up-bringing and your awareness. My cousin, for example, is from the Trenton area (close to Philly) and he had the accent when he was young. Once he got to college, he realized it and started getting rid of it...

CptMyCpt said:

I've lost mine, but it comes out when I get angry.

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I had a friend in high school who's Boston accent would come out hardcore when she was drunk/mad. The funniest thing was she didn't know she did it when she was drunk and would get super mad...just making it worse...

Special Hops said:

Everyone's got an accent compared to somewhere else. even midwesterners have an accent when they go to England.

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The people that I spoke to when I was in England disagreed. They didn't think I had an accent. They said that they were the ones who spoke english with an accent.

Being in the Navy was an awful confusing mess of accents. Working with guys from NC, TX, MI, NY, AL, MT, MN, and myself from CA, resulted in some pretty strange mixed accents, and really confusing conversations.

I don't have an accent - everyone else does.

I'm married to a Filipina and I say, "What?" about a hundred times a day.

Im from NY so I think my accent is fairly neutral, at least if neutral is what you hear most commonly on the tv and radio. accents also change not just form one area to another but fairly quickly within one area, the classic NY bronx accent barely exists compared to 20 or more years ago. I still hear middle to old aged people with that accent but no more young people.

I have a very slight "Minnesota" accent. But I am very mindful of it and generally keep it pretty neutral. There are definitely some people in the area who make the accents from the movie Fargo look neutral.

Ryanh1801 said:

I always get **** up north for using terms like "Fixin to", and yall.

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Maybe you're saying them wrong. It's "fixina" and "yaaaal".

I think for the most part I don't have a strong TX accent since I've moved around so much, but certain things still come through. fixina's oneubem.

I suppose I do, though I didn't realize it until about a year ago. I'm from the Cincinnati area but my grandma's from down in KY and my wife's from Nashville, so I guess I've let those southern roots come out a little more lately. I'd call the accent "Southern Light."

When I was in high school taking German classes, I developed such an accent that one of women at our church complimented me on my English! Since then, I've reverted to mid-western broadcast American, which is the accent baseline for the US.

every body has an accent.

Round here 10 miles makes a difference and is detectable, 20 miles is a massive difference.

Listen to this. These two are around 30 miles apart. These are quite mild it gets much broader.

http://web.ku.edu/idea/europe/england/england18.mp3

http://web.ku.edu/idea/europe/england/england60.mp3


More.

http://web.ku.edu/idea/europe/england/england.htm


This to me is different but you may not be able to tell the difference between this and myself.
http://web.ku.edu/idea/europe/england/england71.mp3

orfy said:

every body has an accent.

Round here 10 miles makes a difference and is detectable, 20 miles is a massive difference.

Listen to this. These two are around 30 miles apart. These are quite mild it gets much broader.

http://web.ku.edu/idea/europe/england/england18.mp3

http://web.ku.edu/idea/europe/england/england60.mp3


More.

http://web.ku.edu/idea/europe/england/england.htm

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Is the 2nd one someone near Manchester?

Soulive said:

Is the 2nd one someone near Manchester?

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It's Wigan 20 miles North and Very different ) to the "Manc" accent which is very Nasal.

Wigan is pronounce Wigin.

orfy said:

It Wigan 20 miles North and Very different ) to the "Manc" accent which is very Nasal.

Wigan is pronounce Wigin.

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That area's accents always sound very close to Scottish IMO...

LOL....

I have a mix of Manc, Wigan and Scouse (Liverpool) due to living in 2 towns 10 miles apart.

St Helens closer to Liverpool and Warrington closer to Manchester. Wigan is to the North of Warrington.

I'm in Ohio now, visiting family, and spent yesterday in Pittsburgh (Kennywood).

I'm a chatty person, and talked to everyone around me. While I do NOT have an accent, almost everyone thought I was Canadian.

Richbrewer told me I do have an accent when we met at the NHBC.

Thanks for those links, Orfy!!!

I absolutely adore Scottish accents, and now I can listen anytime (although I might get slightly sick of the cat story after a while).

10 years on from moving to AZ people can still detect a slight WI accent. Although now when I go home and/or listen to my sister on the phone I can't believe how much of an accent she has so I've obviously lost a fair amount of it.

Now I sound more like speedy with the occasional der hey.

[youtube]yhJPJZZfHak[/youtube]

I believe that I probably have one of the most southern accents in the Deep south, but when I lived in CO everyone thought I was from TX......

ohiobrewtus said:

Not that I know of. Is there an Ohio accent?

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Yep, it's called newscaster plain English.

Coastarine said:

I can lay a western PA/Pittsburghese accent on so heavy you won't know what I'm saying, but I don't think I show at all in my everyday speech. If it's anything, though, that's it.

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Younse from Narh sye or Sou sye,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and red up this place

It's been so many years I had to think about how they would sound phonetically

Occasionally at work I need to talk on the phone to a guy who was born and raised in Sicily and has spent the last 15 years in Alabama. You want to talk about an accent, wow!

Liquidicem said:

Occasionally at work I need to talk on the phone to a guy who was born and raised in Sicily and has spent the last 15 years in Alabama. You want to talk about an accent, wow!

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Hey Goomba, whatta ya'll talkin bout?