Do you have a strong regional accent?

[Cin]

Originally Posted by Daniela

Right...we tend to forget that, here in the States. I also have a "generic" American accent.

Can you usually detect regional accents on Americans? I can't distinguish between different types of British accents. Sometimes it takes me a little while to tell whether it's Australian, South African or British.

That's an interesting question. I know here in Montreal, Anglophones can tell immediately I'm from Boston while Francophones mostly cannot.

[Daniela]

Originally Posted by Gráinne

I grew up in Ohio, now live in Arkansas for several years. I get people guessing I'm from Michigan or Wisconsin, never the South. I did one of those linguistic tests once and obviously came out "Upper Midwest". However, if I'm very tired, a few picked-up Southernisms come out and I sound like a muted Scarlett O'Hara from Cleveland.

Scarlett O'Hara from Cleveland... hah

I'm going to look up linguistic tests - good idea!

Originally Posted by Daniela

Right...we tend to forget that, here in the States. I also have a "generic" American accent.

Can you usually detect regional accents on Americans? I can't distinguish between different types of British accents. Sometimes it takes me a little while to tell whether it's Australian, South African or British.

I can only really detect general areas of some accents. Mainly due to tv and fillums.

I can usually tell the difference between a Canadian and American accent.

There are just as many regional accents and lingo here as there are there. I'd say more folks sound Downtown Alley than Downton Abbey, but then I would say that, I'm a "...up t'back ginnel" northerner!

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/de...english/ginnel

[Daniela]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

That's an interesting question. I know here in Montreal, Anglophones can tell immediately I'm from Boston while Francophones mostly cannot.

i guess it would make sense that a native English speaker of any kind would be better at distinguishing differences, although perhaps that's not the reason...who knows?! I can always tell when someone speaking Spanish has an Argentinian accent (they sound like my parents!), although I'm a little lost at picking up Cuban vs. Puerto Rican, for example.

[LOQUI]

Living in California but...made, born and raised in Puerto Rico...hmmm yes I definitively have an accent!

[Femmadian]

Do I have a regional accent? Of course. Everyone does (even my American friends who try to say they don't).

Whether it's strong or not depends on who you ask I suppose. Most Americans tend to be able to pick up on it as just generally Canadian. People from the UK often assume I'm American () and most other Canadians can tell I'm from somewhere on the East Coast.

In casual conversations I also tend to talk at a fast clip which I'm told is a fairly regional thing. Americans often tell me to slow down, especially those from the deep South. Out here "our" sounds like "are" and "right" sounds like "rate." The D's and G's in words like "old" and "going" are usually dropped. R's towards the end of words like "car" and "dart" sound a bit hard and I have a friend originally from BC who says all Maritimers sound like pirates, especially when drunk. I guess?

I think it would be neat if people were to include a little video clip of an example of their regional accent. Mine would probably be closest to Sarah McLachlan in the early days before she started really sounding like a Vancouverite.



I've had a couple people from Toronto ask me if I was originally from Newfoundland. (cue jokes about Toronto )

For those not familiar with that regional accent, here is an example:


Not. Me.
(though I really like it!)

I love this thread! I often wonder what the voices of the people I'm talking to here actually sound like!

[imperfect_cupcake]

I have a mess of an accent. Several places.

But, I have a low, husky tone, FM radio announcer type voice (one of my exes said it's similar to Kathleen Turner's) with punctuated upper middle class articulate pronunciations (theatric, I suppose) and a soft hint of London that floats in and out as I speak.

When I had been in the UK for ten years my accent was so baffling to people they could not tell where the hell I was from. I got asked if I was scottish, australian, welsh, New Zealand.... ?

Amused the hell out of me.

[Kelt]

I remember conversations in the seventies about how broadcast news and the increased watching of television was ruining the regional differences in the US, and homogenizing the country culturally. I think it's happening, the differences are fading more all the time. I like it when I hear dialects and differing word usages, mostly folks from other countries. Helps me get out of my own little box.

I sound west coast/PNW/Canadian (western), at least that's what I'm told.

*Really glad I didn't end up sounding like Walter Cronkite*

[Corkey]

Not generally, but I do pick them up depending on where I live. Hawaii was a freeking trip... in a good way. Now I don't say y'ouse but I hear it a lot.

[stargazingboi]

OK...sooo I've been told I have an accent. I've been told it's abrasive *shrugs* I don't see it...do you?

[Amulette]

I find it interesting how anyone outside "our" region sounds different, and that "ours" is normal. And how there can be layers of both cultural and region speech patterns that mix.Throw in the ability to speak more than one language and and the layers deepen. Such a varied field of flowers, us humans.

[randrum]

I've been told I have a Chicago accent. Personally, I don't think I do. But I think it's harder to recognize an accent in yourself than hearing it in other people. A good friend of mine always makes me repeat the word "quarter". Apparently I say it funny.

What I do notice more is the slang and colloquialisms I have a tendency to use. Like sitting in the "front room", wearing "gym shoes", and drinking "pop".

[Ginger]

Originally Posted by stargazingboi

OK...sooo I've been told I have an accent. I've been told it's abrasive *shrugs* I don't see it...do you?

To say someone's accent is "abrasive" seems oppressive to me. Maybe classist, definitely regionalist. Some accents are "deeper," in my opinion, than others—more thoroughly immersed in the way of speaking in a certain region. Why is that a bad thing? An "abrasive" thing?

My dad had a different accent than I do. He had a masculine, upbeat, Texan twang. He was the only person in my world with that accent. I can still hear it. I channel his encouraging words.

I went to an Ivy League graduate school and there, for the first time in my life, people corrected my pronunciation of certain words (for example, I would say IN-sur-ance, not in-SUR-ance) and grammar. Some constructions, like "lay" and "lie" will never come naturally to me, but I know how to do it right.

When I'm with my sister, I don't bother self-correcting.

[Trev]

One particular conversation comes to mind when I read the title of this thread. I was asked during this conversation, "can you repeat that without your accent?" I actually thought for a moment to Myself if that was possible. After I was finished laughing, because she was darn cute and serious about it, I did try. You'll never take the country out of this good ole boy.

So, I will defer to Ms. Candelion, who can answer this better than Myself.

[Daniela]

Originally Posted by randrum

I've been told I have a Chicago accent. Personally, I don't think I do. But I think it's harder to recognize an accent in yourself than hearing it in other people. A good friend of mine always makes me repeat the word "quarter". Apparently I say it funny.

What I do notice more is the slang and colloquialisms I have a tendency to use. Like sitting in the "front room", wearing "gym shoes", and drinking "pop".

It's interesting to hear the different colloquialisms people use.

People often say "cut the lights off," instead of "turn the lights off," in GA. I have a friend from St Louis who said she never heard someone say "shot a bird" instead of "flip a bird." Of course everyone drinks Coke, so there is no "pop."

[Candelion]

Originally Posted by Trev

One particular conversation comes to mind when I read the title of this thread. I was asked during this conversation, "can you repeat that without your accent?" I actually thought for a moment to Myself if that was possible. After I was finished laughing, because she was darn cute and serious about it, I did try. You'll never take the country out of this good ole boy.

So, I will defer to Ms. Candelion, who can answer this better than Myself.

It's slower and thicker than molasses in January. His accent, that is.

[Rockinonahigh]

I have a mix of Italian,cajun and southern drawl,understandable ??Ask Fever.

[homoe]

Being born and raised in Upper Michigan I never heard pop called Soda till I moved to the big city of Milwaukee

Another thing they said in the city that I'd never heard of "we're going to go by so and so's" I never understood why they said "by" instead of "to" so and so's I mean to me going by someone's place meant to just drive by not stop and visit!

[Ascot]

Regional, no. Pedantic, alas, yes.

[stargazingboi]

Originally Posted by homoe

Being born and raised in Upper Michigan I never heard pop called Soda till I moved to the big city of Milwaukee

Another thing they said in the city that I'd never heard of "we're going to go by so and so's" I never understood why they said "by" instead of "to" so and so's I mean to me going by someone's place meant to just drive by not stop and visit!

yes, different parts of the country have different words and wordings for things, like:

In Mass...we say: where is the bubblah?
translation: where is the water fountain/drinking fountain

In Mass...bang a left at the light
translation: take the next left

In Mass...I'm gonna swing by the packie, you want somethin?
translation: I'm heading to the liquor store, would you like me to pick you up something?

In Mass....that is wicked cool!
translation: That's great!

I could go on....but yeah...it's an interesting little thing to observe. Sometimes it's like we aren't even speaking the same language when I am talking to folks here in the midwest