How would you classify your accent?

[NewWaveChick1981]

My father is Pennsylvanian and my mother is South Carolinian, and I was born in Atlanta and lived there until I was 12. I have lived in NC the rest of the time. I have what I call an "educated Southern accent" because although I say "y'all" a lot, I don't sound like I'm from the backwoods. I picked up a lot of my father's speech patterns, but I'm defintely a Southern girl. :)

You?

[billyskank]

1. English

Although not Hugh Grant english - tjwmason speaks like that, but I do not. My accent is flatter and more neutral than that.

Ask yivver gurl and u4ic, both of whom have spoken with me at length.

[Writer]

14. Can I ask you a question?

I have a friend of mine who is originally from Manchester. His accent is a bit harsher - it has more of a "growl" to it, if one can call it that. Could that be a Welsh influence?

[billyskank]

17. Slightly

The cities go in a line, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield, with Liverpool closest to Wales. The Liverpudlian accent is definitely influenced by Welsh, Mancunian less so. The generic northern english accent - a sort of faux-Yorkshire accent just as 'estuary english' is to cockney - is generally 'harder' than what you would typically think of as english, which will be heavily southern-influenced.

[trof]

19. Liverpudlian...scouse?

Got some brit friends who did med school there.
That's what they called the local accent.

[billyskank]

20. Yes, Scouse == Liverpudlian

I didn't say Scouse because I could not assume Writer would know what that meant.

[trof]

48. Our brit buds have educated us.

I now speak lifts and loos and torches and spanners and offside wings and boots and Boots and so forth and so on.
I am bi, possibly tri-lingual.
If you count French.
OK, quadri-lingual if you count southern.
;-)

[Writer]

25. I can only discern a few "English" accents to my ear...

And my aunt married a Welshman about 15 years ago (they are long since divorced) whose accent was rather harsh and who couldn't cook worth SHITE! Anyhow, I can tell the difference between a more generic English accent and London... which I hear a bit too much of when I watch an episode of the current Dr. Who and listen to Rose's cockney.

But my friend's accent is general English but just a bit more guttural.

Thanks for the primer. I find accents fascinating! :hi:

[T_i_B]

108. Sheffield accent reporting for duty!

with a small bit of Essex thrown in, but even after living "darn sarf" all my adult life I still have my Yorkshire accent nor or less.

[u4ic]

24. I thought I was the one

who did all the talking? :rofl:



:loveya: :hug:

[billyskank]

30. You did a fair amount of that

Gesticulating, too. :P

:hi:

:hug: :loveya:

[u4ic]

37. People keep asking me if I'm French

Maybe I should only be talking to people while wearing handcuffs. :rofl:


How are you, hon? :loveya:

[billyskank]

40. You are like my friend Marcus

who is Scouse, funnily enough. His mannerisms are very similar to yours.

I am ok, sweets. Happy to see you. How are you? :hug:

[u4ic]

60. But he's most likely drunk

:hide:

(now I've got to watch out for angry head-butting Scousers)



I'm okay - thought I was getting over a cold, but it's starting back again. On the next sneeze, my head may just pop off. :silly:

[billyskank]

65. This guy never head butted anybody

He's short, quite thin and hardly ever says "eh". :P

Sorry you're under the weather. I'll hold your head and make sure it doesn't pop off. :hug:

[u4ic]

95. You're a true friend

:* :hug:



Don't worry, if my head does explode, they'll only be enough brain tissue for a cracker. (or at least that's the way I've been feeling lately...):silly:

[BarenakedLady]

2. I used to have the worst RI accent

dropped R's, added R's.

Pahk the cah in the Hahvahd yahd and all that. or What's the big idear?

I moved to NY. Now I'm pretty generic. If I spend a lot of time with my family I fall back into it, but if I try to do it normally, it sounds fake.

[buddhamama]

3. i don't have one

at least that's what i've been told. i was born in NY and lived in New England my entire life and i don't have an accent, can you believe it? :shrug:

[Karenca]

11. I believe you

as I've been told that as well.

[Guava Jelly]

18. you have a warm sweet voice and I would agree with you on the no accent

Having been blessed enough to hear it :hi:

[MrCoffee]

4. when i get tired, i get a fierce drawl.

or...

when eye ghet tarred, eye ghet a feyerce draaawwwll.

[bleedingheart]

5. hey yinz guys, jeet? how about grabbin a beer dahntahn n-at

that is Pittsburghese...

However I don't speak it very often.

Most people who meet me, do not believe I am from the area. I have a generic way of speaking.

[AlCzervik]

6. masshole. i left almost 10 years ago but the accent remains.

my kid was 3 when we moved and has no accent at all, it's kind of weird.

[fizzgig]

7. don't have one

but i tend to pick up other people's accents, very badly in some cases. i think it's accent envy

[Writer]

8. I am an odd blend of Yankee and... middle America.

Both of my parents are from New Orleans, and if you listen to them, they actually sound Northeastern ("Croah-dads.") I never lived there, but I lived in Maine from age two to age seven (I was born in Georgia). I did pick up some Down East: "Fah-mer" and "Cah." I moved to Texas, of all places and lived there for 18 years. But I never picked up a Texas accent. I don't even say "ya'll," I say "y'guys," which is more northern, I think.

So I have a fairly general American accent with flecks of New England. But I have no idea why I never picked up any Texas.

[trof]

9. cultured southern

Wah uhv coh-uhse.

[Mrs. Venation]

10. Southern Appalachian

I grew up in east Tennessee. My accent hasn't changed much even though I moved to the D.C. area more than 20 years ago.

[Phillycat]

12. Philly.

Thank god.

[trof]

13. Oh, and you're a GRITS.

Girl Raised In The South

[NewWaveChick1981]

82. Yep...

:hi: I seem to remember seeing that saying at Cracker Barrel....:P

[ceile]

15. Don't have one.

Born and raised in Houston. I do say y'all A LOT, but not with a drawl. But living in Austin, I do find myself mimicking the person I'm talking to. People in Austin have soft southern drawls.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

22. Everyone has an accent.

:P

[ceile]

27. ummm....

Well, let's say southern with out the drawl. :P

[Guava Jelly]

16. white boy

:)

[buddhamama]

21. don't you mean

white and nerdy :)

you have a pleasant voice and a nice midwestern accent, bud. :) :hi:

[Guava Jelly]

35. white and nerdy you got that right my friend

:hi: :loveya:

[u4ic]

28. Kansas, huh? Is this you?

http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/usa/kansas/kansas4.mp3 :P

[Guava Jelly]

33. gawd i hope not

:hi:

[u4ic]

23. Boring, bland southern Ontario accent

:D

[av8rdave]

26. I was born in western NY, then lived in Ohio, Maryland, Colorado, Arizona, Michigan and now Tx

not sure if I have an accent...if I do, it's way too mixed to recognize

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

29. North Jersey.

Sometimes people pin it down to Hudson County, which is where I lived as a kid.

I obviously think I have no accent, but I was informed otherwise last night.

[LostinVA]

36. You totally have a middle-class NONJ accent n/t

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

42. Makes sense. nt

[LostinVA]

44. I know n/t

[johnnie]

31. I'm from Cleveland

We don't have an accent.

[mtnester]

71. To other Clevelandites maybe, but central Ohio picks you out

like a sore thumb...baby Bronx accent. No offense, we can just hear it and usually correctly identify you as being from the Cleveland area....and also usually to your utter amazement! :)

Now, if I tell you I am going down to the crick to warsh off then come back to the house to get a pop, and you rightly identified Midwest Indiana/Ohio...you have my accent

[doc03]

75. Are you serious, I can pick out a Cleveland accent

in a few seconds. I live in SE Ohio and you would probably accuse me of being from Pittsburgh.

[johnnie]

107. You can pick us out, only because you are in Ohio

I can go to the mountain tops of Tennessee and watch their local newscast, and they sound like they are from Cleveland.

[enigmatic]

76. I've still got my Westside Clevo accent

But some Canuck has slipped thru since I've been up here....

[gemdem]

80. Hell, I have a southwest Ohio drawl

People from south of the Ohio think I'm a Yank, those from north of I-70 think I'm from the South. And, yeah, Clevelanders have an accent.

[redqueen]

32. I don't know really...

I didn't used to think I had an accent, and certainly don't have anything like some of the thick Texas drawls that are very common around here... but according to some people I do have what they have referred to as a "Texas twang". I say y'all, didint, wudint, fixin, tahm (time), etc. I fear it may actually be a bit thicker than I thought...

[ceile]

38. Yeah, once you spell them phonetically

it takes on a whole new meaning. "Do I really sound like that?";)

[LostinVA]

34. I have an amalgam of an NC Piedmont accent and a SONJ accent

People in Virginia think I'm from the Eastern Shore of VA. In Canada and Maine, they think I'm from Ontario. My NJ relatives think I sound southern, my friends from NC think I sound like a Yankee, my ex thinks I sound occasionally from NC, and my accent basically freaks Haruka out.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

41. Only at first. I mean, you sounded like you were from NC w/a bit of SONJ thrown in.

I'm not used to that. I'm used to NONJ/NYC/EastCT/RI accents. That's what I'm always around.

[LostinVA]

43. As I said, you're broadening your horizons n/t

[sakabatou]

39. I don't think I have an accent

I could just have the General American accent.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

45. "Man from Nowhere" accent.

I've lived in Mississippi, Texas, California and New York, but I sound like I came from nowhere. :D

[Deja Q]

46. Half Scottish, half British, and have Mason-Dixon line

:)

I'agine hearing "Y'all must think I'm a good guy, aye?" and wince.

[femmocrat]

47. A trace of Pittsburghese.

[Call Me Wesley]

49. Swiss German accent.

Sounds 'somewhat' like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ2k_AgKfJU , although my accent is mixed up anyway.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

50. northern-influenced Received Pronunciation

I spoke in a strong Durham dialect and accent in my childhood (north east England). Now I speak in a non-estuary influenced but northern-influenced English accent. There is a little bit of Texan in there but my wife is to blame for that :)

Sometimes when speaking to my family, the old accent comes back.

[u4ic]

58. Are you near Newcastle?

I love Geordie accents. :loveya:

[Anarcho-Socialist]

97. Yes, 30 miles south

Durham and other north eastern accents are often mistaken for Geordie.

:loveya: :*

[u4ic]

98. Uh oh...

:loveya: :*

[Anarcho-Socialist]

111. ...

:blush: :* :loveya:

[leftofthedial]

51. somewhat southern

I love southern women.





and northern women.



and western women.




and eastern women.



and city women.



and country women.



and, well, I think you get my drift.

I'm easy.

but I really do like Southern women.




:evilgrin:

[NewWaveChick1981]

52. Why, thank y'all kindly, suh...

:hi: :* :evilgrin:

[Left Is Write]

53. I hope I still have a Minnesota accent. It would break my heart to have lost it.

[Oeditpus Rex]

54. I speak Dude

[NewWaveChick1981]

81. Duuuuuuuude...

:hi:

[Orsino]

55. Army Southern

'Bammy-born, Virginia-bred, Army-trained and currently Georgian. Yeah, it's like that.

[lizziegrace]

56. I don't know

you tell me. :)

(Finally got the last document to financial aid. Keep your fingers crossed...)

:hi:

[NewWaveChick1981]

62. Yay! I'm sending you good FA vibes...

:hi: :bounce:

You've got a slight Midwestern accent, but it's very similar to my dad's. He's from Northwest PA.

[TheBaldyMan]

57. very broad scots accent - almost impenetrable

[Blue-Jay]

59. I have the type of accent that newspeople would kill for.

Midwestern neutral.

[Rob H.]

61. Nonexistent

One of the consequences/benefits of growing up a military brat--we never stayed anywhere long enough for me to pick one up. :P

[Aristus]

63. Well, I live in Washington State, where we say: 'I don't have an accent;

YOU have an accent!"

But, being born and raised in Texas, I still say "y'all", and always will. I used to say "Howdy", but not anymore. I'll tell you the reason why sometime. B-)

[NewWaveChick1981]

83. I like a good Dem Texas accent...

:hi: :* Not the fake kind you find in the White House... :rofl:

:D

[Aristus]

102. God, I just want to cringe when I hear that idiot try to do a Texas accent.

He can't even do THAT right. :banghead:

[NewWaveChick1981]

110. You and me both.

:yoiks: He's such an idiot. :grr:

[LeftyMom]

64. I sound normal. Everybody else sounds wrong.

:)

[BlueJazz]

66. Australian ..Born in Sydney n/t

[Karatist Preacher]

67. Rural Midwest

Wish I could change it but it's too late...I've moved onward and upward but I can't shake it. I even type that way. Doesn't bother in the slightest when someone brings it up.

[MrSlayer]

68. South Philly.

Yo! You aite cuz?

[crim son]

69. I'm often told I still have traces of my Canadian accent.

But my Canadian mother makes fun of my eastern U.S. "tomorrah" and "ayuh". :shrug:

[Throd]

70. Redneck surfer

Raised by Hoosiers in California

[Book Lover]

72. My Queens accent comes back occasionally, but overall

I find that I've lost the ability to say "earl" for "oil".

[Crabby Appleton]

73. what accent? nt

[SPKrazy]

74. I Have A Southern Accent- But I Ain't No Hick!

although I admit I no doubt have a southern accent more than anything else.

but I like the "educated southern accent", that is me. I'm not some hick from the backwoods eitre but I talk like the people I'm around to some extent.

[bikebloke]

77. Global mish-mash

There's British influence. With a good dose of Swedish. Sometimes German. The Aussie accent that grew on me downundah rises up when I start talking with Aussies. My everyday english is peppered with words I've picked up and incorporated through my prolonged world wanderings. Especially swearing and cursing.

[doc03]

78. Why is it you go 10 -15 miles south of where I live

you start to pick up a Southern accent, you go around 100 miles north and you start getting a Cleveland accent and go east to Pittsburgh 60 miles from here they have a slightly different accent? Then as couple days ago I am watching this show done in Alaska thousands of miles from here and they sound like local people? Why don't Alaskans have a noticeable accent?

[eyesroll]

79. Generic midwest, with a hint of the accent of whoever I'm talking to. nt

[doc03]

84. Do dogs have regional accents?

[Rosco T.]

85. Which One?

I spent too many years on the radio and have this NASTY habit of picking up accents when I hear them. I don't even realize I'm talking in someone's accent till I notice their funny looks... from Maine to Texas to New Yark to the Deep South to Canadian (various) to Aussie to Afrikaner to oh-kerist-his-balls-are-in-a-vice-Liverpudlian, I slip in without noticing...

[Spider Jerusalem]

86. General American...

I don't really have an accent (father was in the Navy, so I lived on both coasts when I was young, which I suppose influenced my speech patterns).

[reyd reid reed]

87. Accent? What accent?

I ain't got no accent.

[whatsername]

88. Mainah heah

Apparently we don't annunciate our R's properly!

[WritingIsMyReligion]

100. Ayuh.

That's wikked true.

:P

:hi:

[XemaSab]

89. California

dude

[VelmaD]

90. I have a real Texas drawl...

northeast Texas to be exact. Some people say I sound kinda like Ross Perot if you get me all wound up. *snort*

[ZombieNixon]

91. I don't know.

I was born and partially raised in Maryland, completed my raising in New Mexico and have lived in Chicago for lightly over a year now. :shrug:

[Arger68]

92. Classic Minnesotan - think of the movie Fargo

toned down about 90%.;)

[Kutjara]

93. Mid-Atlantic.

Half Brit, half Yank. An occasional bit of Irish when I've had a Guinness or two.

[Blue_In_AK]

94. Northern -- FAR northern. LOL.

[Redstone]

96. Leftover Southern from when I lived there long ago. Only comes out

when I'm tired.

Grew up in Vermont, with a Boston Irish mother, but couldn't fake a Northern New England, or a Boston accent to save my life.

Redstone

[WritingIsMyReligion]

99. General northeast, with a bit of Maine thrown in ("wicked.")

Unless you're down at the docks, there isn't really a Maine accent anymore, or perhaps I'm just far too adjusted. :P

[Reverend_Smitty]

101. I don't think I have an accent...I just speak very quickly

as a direct result of that internal consonants tend to get dropped. For example I was born in Trenton yet I would pronounce it Tren'in...so make of that what you will

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

112. I say Tren'in, too. I think that's a NJ accent thing.

Although you're SONJ and I'm NONJ. We shall never be at peace.

[Lady Effingbroke]

103. Kinda southern.

[bluedogyellowdog]

104. A cross between

well let's see. The rules for speaking:

Y'all and y'uns used about equally.
Creek is pronounced "crick", wash is pronounced "worsh"
Down and Dan sound alike
Cot and Caught sound alike
Your is pronounced "yer"
Slight drawl
That fizzy drink can be either a "Coke", a "soda", or a "pop" and all three are used interchangably.

Something like an exact cross between Southern Appalachian and Pittsburghese. Which is to say that I grew up south of the Mason-Dixon line but too far north to be truly southern, and a couple hundred miles too far west to talk like a cultured east coaster.

[BrotherBuzz]

105. Fifth generation Californian

Seems everyone in California has an accent except me. I guess my idiot ancestors forgot to pack one.

:shrug:

[Odin2005]

106. Upper-Midwestern, like in the movie "Fargo"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English_regional_differences#North_Central_American_English


* As in most North American accents, <ɒ> is merged with <ɑ>, so that father rhymes with bother.

* Canadian raising: see section on Canada.

* "roof", "book", and "root" all use the same vowel <ʊ>); "root" may be pronounced as rhyming with "scoot," however

* Use of German/Scandinavian "ja", pronounced as either /jaː/ or /jæː/, as an affirmative filler or emphatic; Standard U.S. English "yes" is used in formal settings to answer questions and to start an explanation.

* The word "school" has two syllables, pronounced: "Skoo-ehl".

* Tendency towards a "sing-songy" intonation (the area's earliest European settlers were primarily Scandinavian, and this has influenced the local dialect). More recently, this has been reinforced by an influx of Asians, most of whom speak tonal languages. In urban Minnesota, this variation of NCAE is referred to as "Minnewegian," a portmanteau of Minnesota and Norwegian.

* For a stereotypical (although very overdone) example, refer to the movie Fargo. For a more normative example, Garrison Keillor speaks with a typical Minnesota accent.(Note: most southern, even rural, Minnesota accents sound more like the northern Iowan accent. More distinct accents up in the northern areas are still much less defined than in Fargo.) Accents in the Twin Cities will sound like other midwestern urban centers, and are similar to Milwaukee and Chicago (though the accent is more noticeable in Twin Cities residents born prior to 1950, which had more rural area influences, than those born in the 1980's, which had more influences via television, popular music, and other forms of popular culture). People from other parts of Wisconsin can usually recognize that a person is from the Milwaukee area and vice-versa.

* final /t/ is replaced in the speech of most individuals by /ʔ/, including after nasals, to the extent that a clearly enunciated "can" /kæːn/ in otherwise rapid speech is likely to be confused with "can't." ("Can" is normally pronounced as /kən/, or even with the vowel reduced to a syllabification of the /n/ itself, while "can't" is normally pronounced /kæ̃ːʔ/.)

* collapse of /ð/ with /d/ and /θ/ with /t/: a humorous example would be:
o
+ "Yozef? Are you done cleaning da barn?"
+ "No, but it's about two turds done."

* This phoneme collapse is far more prevalent in rural areas. This characteristic is likely due to the large immigrant population (in most cases notably less than a century removed from "the old country"), comprised in great part of speakers of Germanic, Slavic and Finnic languages. One notable exception, giving weight to this theory, is that it is peculiarly absent on Washington Island, in Wisconsin, in the very heart of the prevalence of this trait. Washington Island is home to the most homogeneous Icelander (over 90% of the population) immigrant community in the U.S., and unlike most non-English Germanic languages, the Icelandic language differentiates between the phonemes /ð/ and /d/ and between /θ/ and /t/.

* Older speakers in the region may merge /w/ and/v/ making well sound like vell.

* Perhaps to a greater degree than other parts of the United States, standard American English pronunciation is replacing the regional accent, probably because there is less cultural identity wrapped up in the language than elsewhere

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

109. Funny thing,

I learned my 'English' in rural NC, but didn't pick up the accent (thank jeebus). I've been told by a former professor of linguistics that I speak a fairly standard U.S. English, non-descript and non-regional, with a tinge of an indistinguishable foreign accent (I am Italian, btw). So far, no one has been able to figure out where I'm from. People have thought I was from Germany, Russia, France, etc., but Italy never came up (perhaps because I don't speak with the stereotypical Italian accent?). My sister, instead, used to have a more pronounced southern inflection, though she has been weaned off that by living in 'The O.C.'

[Kali]

113. I am one of those irritating people who pick up accents.

I start talking with a German accent when my friend from Germany is visiting, a Chihuahua accent around my friends there, that "rez" accent around Indian Friends, "cowboy" around the neighbors etc etc

Can't do it on purpose out of context, but I know I am doing it at the time and I can't control it.

:silly: :blush: