Question of The Day. Saturday 19th of November

Norachan

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Good morning. Happy Saturday.

Do you have an accent? What kind? Do people ever comment on it or misunderstand you because of it?

I have a slight West Country accent. My family moved around a lot until I was about 12 and my father is from Cumbria, so I grew up with a Lancashire accent without even realising I had one. Then my family moved South and I suddenly noticed that no one else spoke that way.

Being sent to a comprehensive school in Bristol was a powerful incentive to fit in. I think I started trying to talk with a different accent on my first day there. 

These days I try to keep my accent as neutral as possible because I teach English as a second language. My West Country accent comes back if I talk to my brother or sister. Particularly my sister. There are a few words I still pronounce with a Lancashire accent though. People think it's hilarious when I say "Stroke the cat" or "Tooth"  because I can't say without sounding like a sheep farmer from The Lake District.



How about you? What kind of accent do you have?
 

jcat

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Though it's lost its edge, I have a recognizable Philadelphia accent when I speak English. I speak German with an American accent, which is virtually indistinguishable from British-accented German, oddly enough.
 

artiemom

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Of course I have an accent! I am from Boston!! While not as prominent as what you would consider a Boston Accent, it is still there. 

I discovered that I have an ability to pick up accents from other people. When I was working in Boston, at a major teaching hospital, a lot of people thought I was from Florida.. or they could not figure out where I was from....I guess I pick things up and mimic them...

But just ask me to say: "Park the car in Harvard Yard"... and it will come out!!

I do pronounce my r's.......
 

verna davies

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I have a Welsh accent having lived here all my life. It is not as strong an accent as other parts of Wales as I live in the south and am not from the valley's. It tends to get more Welshy when I am talking to people with a strong accent.
 

blueyedgirl5946

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Yes, I have a southern accent. Nobody comments because they all sound like me. I don't travel or I probably would get comments. :lol3:
 

neely

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Midwest accent here growing up in Chicago.  Some people think midwesterners talk with a nasal accent but I don't, maybe I'm in denial, lol.
 

cassiopea

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It's a long long story, but for the most part I have a Canadian accent. Not the stereotypical version of course 
 I've also been told that I apparently have a small Irish or British twing to it.

When I speak French I have a European French accent. When I speak Russian or Swedish there is a slight Finnish accent. When I speak Finnish it's a Finnish accent, though I am sure I also sound a tad Anglo. I am currently learning Polish, and I think I sound reasonably close, but I haven't spoken in front of other people yet so definitely not certain. I'm sure there is an obvious accent somewhere in there!


 
 

Willowy

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I used to have a fairly neutral accent. Born in Southern California, grew up overseas on a base with people from all over the world. Maybe as much of an accent as Southern Californians have? But I've lived here for 21 years and I think I've picked up a slight Minn-eh-soh-tn accent :D. I've caught myself saying "aboat" for about. I don't know why it's usually described as being pronounced "aboot", nope, it's aboat. All Os in a Minnesotan accent are said like that, a very round ohh. That's the only accent I've recognized in my own speech but of course it's hard to figure out your own accent! :lol3:
 

Mamanyt1953

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Oh, yes.  I have a pronounced South Georgia drawl.  Now, most people think that there is just a "southern drawl," but anybody from the south can pretty much tell where in the south you are from just by your accent.  And oddly, both south Georgia and North Alabama are very similar...they are soft accents.  North Georgia and south Alabama are far more "twangy," and have some things in common with Arkansas and the Carolinas.  And Savannah, Georgia has an accent unlike any other,  I can tell a Savannah native within one or two sentences.

But, yes...I'm from Gowhgah, and I can DRAWL, ya'll.

Be advised..."ya'll" is ALWAYS plural, "all ya'll" is an inclusive plural indicating a degree of emphasis, as in "Are ALL ye'll going in that one little ol' car?" or, "If you don't hush, I'm gonna beat ALL YA"LL"S fannies!"

The singular of "ya'll" is "Darlin'," "Hon," "Sweetie," or "Sugah."
 

muffy

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I'm from Maryland and I don't have a accent. 

I answered the switchboard at work and the only accent that I really noticed was from people from Boston. When they said the word "father" it would really grate on my nerves. LOL.
 

margd

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I'm from Maryland and I don't have a accent. 

I answered the switchboard at work and the only accent that I really noticed was from people from Boston. When they said the word "father" it would really grate on my nerves. LOL.
I'm from Maryland, too and I was going to say the same thing:  that I don't have an accent.   However, to someone from England, I'm sure I've got one!
 
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muffy

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I'm from Maryland, too and I was going to say the same thing:  that I don't have an accent.   However, to someone from England, I'm sure I've got one!
I was just kidding. The people in the south probably think we have an accent.
 

swamplady

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I live in Avondale Louisiana. Cajun accents very from what part of Cajun Country you are from.
 

Winchester

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Central Pennsylvania; I don't think I have an accent, but how would I know?
 I don't live in the coal regions of PA. If I did and talked to you, you would definitely know! 

Many people around here will say "root" for "route" or "crick" for "creek". I really try not to do that. I always say "Route 15" pronounced like out. I never say "crick". Never. I try to be careful.
 
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Willowy

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I try not to say "them ___" when I should say "those". But I do sometimes :/. Hmph. I didn't grow up saying that either, I caught it just purely from bad local influences!

I think saying route as rowt vs root is largely situational, not necessarily due to an accent or colloquial speech. I would say "root 66" but "mail rowt" or "newspaper rowt".
 

moorspede

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I've been waiting to get this off my chest for years so apologies ahead of time if I offend anyone. I find this question crazy and it's always posed by Americans, I have no idea why. Of course, everyone has an accent, even American actors who "get rid of their accents" standardise it so that the majority of people will understand them, they will still have a discernible American accent to everyone else in the world. If you go to another country or perhaps another region of the country you will hear your own because everyone else speaks differently. 
 
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Norachan

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I've been waiting to get this off my chest for years so apologies ahead of time if I offend anyone. I find this question crazy and it's always posed by Americans, I have no idea why.
Do you mean me? I'm actually British.



I moved from one tiny island country to another and I've found the situation is pretty much the same in Japan as it was in the UK. Drive to a town 20 miles away and there is a noticeable difference in the way people speak.

How about in Australia? It's a huge place but to my untrained ear people speak with the same accent whichever part of Australia they're from. Do you notice any regional dialects?
 

Willowy

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Aren't the British rather obsessed with what kind of accent someone has? Or is that just from seeing My Fair Lady too often? :lol3: Anyway I don't think it's just Americans.
 

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I grew up in the DC area, so I guess you could say I have a Mid-Atlantic accent, along with those from Maryland. After I was married, though, we moved to Atlanta and lived there for a dozen years, and needless to say, I picked up quite a bit of their way of talking. I also honed my ears to the different regional Southern accents, and as already mentioned, they are very distinctive and from all over. I can also tell if someone is from Charlotte, NC, in a few sentences and also whether they are upper or middle class.

Then we moved up here to Illinois, and believe me, the voices sounded like fingernails on chalkboard. Screechy to say the least. Wanting to meet people, I joined a local organization and went along with them in their activities in our small town. A year or so later, a new person joined the group, and when I heard her speak, I tried to figure out where she was from. Definitely not Illinois, and definitely somewhere south of here. I went through every Southern accent I could think of - not Texas, not Alabama, or Georgia, or North Carolina. Frustrated. I finally asked her where she was from. "Arlington, Virginia," she said. My home town. I didn't recognize my own accent!

I've been in Illinois so long now that voices don't  screech anymore, and I believe I've reverted to my native Northern Virginia accent.

If you are really interested in accents, catch up with Alan Cumming sometime. He has the most awesome ability to speak in varied and spot-on accents. He's pure American in The Good Wife, standard British introducing Masterpiece Theater, and such authentic-sounding Scots that it's hard to understand him.
 
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