|
Accents
Hey everybody - or is it "ya'll?" - actually, that's kinda what this thread is about. After a conversation with my friends, who come from several different places in the US, I was thinking about what accents people have, different ways they speak, and all those nice little inflections that make out conversations different from anyone else.
I grew up in rural Virginia, and my family is largely from that area or the mountains of North Carolina, so I inherited a bit of southern twang that I still have to this day. The thing is, I never would have even known I had this particular accent until I went to college - up until that point, everyone just spoke the same as me! Apparently I say things differently too: "Didn't it" becomes "diddinit", "pillow" becomes "pilla", etc. Not to mention throwing contractions every which-way without even knowing it. If you live in an English-speaking country, or speak English regularly, do you have an accent that differs from your region? Does it make you self-conscious? Do you speak or say things differently from anyone else? |
I honestly can't distinguish American accents from one another unless they're extremely heavy or overladen with slang. I'd imagine I have a pretty classic California accent to me, but fuck if I'd ever be able to notice. As soon as I leave the state everyone automatically knows I'm from California.
|
I've somehow avoided picking up on the "Utah accent" which, I believe, is actually fairly exclusive to Utah. Probably extends to Colorado and Idaho, maybe some parts of Arizona. I don't really know what kind of an accent I have, but it definitely doesn't make me self-conscious. Makes me quite happy that I don't have a Utah accent.
I hope to be able to pick up an Irish accent while in Ireland. That would be awesome. |
I have your classic Bostonian accent. Not the Kennedy accent (which is typically attributed to the more affluent of the Massachusetts region), but the Boston Hahbah accent.
I can repress it in most cases, but when I get angry or flustered, there it is, glaring you in the place, leaving you thinking "what the hell did she just say?" My father has a thick French accent which some people can't identify or understand sometimes. I don't even hear it, but apparently some folks can't understand a word he says. |
Being Canadian, I have the classic 'eh.!?'. It is used for everything. Sometimes to get someones attention as in "Eh!, Johnny", or when asking for confirmation as in "So boss, we gonna kill Johnny, eh?". Sometimes it's used to ask if others agree with your statement as in "That's a crazy car, eh!?". Lastly it can be thrown into any statement randomly and actually have no defined meaning except that the sentence wouldn't sound right to us without it.
As for accents. Sometimes in conversation, I tend to accentuate my d's and t's. Kind of a 'dar dir dar' sound. |
I'm from Indiana. Here we basically have a 3-syllable rule. If something takes more than 3 syllables to pronounce, slur it down to 3. That's why nobody here can correctly enunciate "Indianapolis." It ends up being "inny-ap-lis" and yes the "inny" part is slurred so bad that it's one syllable. Some people just use "Indy" but w/e.
I never really noticed it recently until it was brought to my attention, now I notice it everywhere. I rarely ever speak a word that is 4 syllables, it just gets slurred together. |
The thread should be renamed to "US accents", or someone like me might start a discussion about bavarian or saxon accentss in Germany. ;)
|
I have a tremendously thick southern accent. It is so bad that other southerners cannot understand half of what I say. Southerners, being the xenophobic people that they are, regularly suggest to me that "in America, we speak English" just before they suggest I go back to where I came from. People who aren't from the south, but who speak English natively, regularly ask me what language I am speaking. Okay, that is all an exaggeration. I have been told that I have a light, but noticeable southern accent. That is what I get for growing up in a small southern town. If I had grown up even in Birmingham, which is still the same state, I would be blessed with a neutral accent. I can only dream.
However, I do not use a lot of the typical southern words and phrases, such as "yall" or "aint". I think that using "fixin to" in place of "about to" is also a southern thing, but I cannot be sure; I don't use it either. |
I have a slight Scottish accent but it's totally unnoticeable until I point it out. Little things like I extend the "oo" in words like book, look etc. and I have harders 'Rs" then most people.
I can also do most accents pretty well, it's essentially the only thing I'm good at in my work :/ |
People from up north tell me that I have a noticeable southern accent. People from the south sometimes have a hard time believing I'm from here because they cannot hear any accent at all. So it's probably somewhere in-between.
|
I lived in the USA for five years. I lived in Germany for two. My father is Austrian. My mother is Scottish and Welsh.
I sound brain-damaged. |
I'm considered to have quite a posh English accent even by people who have lived in this area of England for as long as I have. I also have an untraceable Scottish/Irish twang when I get drunk.
|
My accent is a mess. It's so incredibly inconsistent. The New York accent is creeping in more and more, and there's an occasional smattering of some New England. But overall I think it's pretty obvious that I'm from the middle of Long Island.
|
To Westerns I have Korean accent. To Koreans I have Western's accent. ~_~
|
I come from Newfoundland so we definetely have an accent. It is so recognizable to some people they don't even have to ask where your from because they know your automatically from Newfoundland just by how you talk.
The accent is actually so peculiar we even have our own Newfoundland English dictionary. Its a lot of fun using Newfie words with people who aren't from Newfoundland, because a lot of times they don't know what your saying. |
I have a definite Southern accent. I was born in Texas and have lived here my whole life except one year I spent in Michigan where, the moment three words came out of my mouth, people would immediately ask me where I was from. Here's a few things that were apparently dead giveaways:
-I'm not "about to" go to the store. I'm "fixin' to" go to the store. -I don't think the words "you guys" has ever come out of my mouth. "Y'all" is all I've ever said. Note the positioning of the apostrophe. You + all = Y'all, not Ya'll. -"Ain't" comes out of my mouth more often than I'd like it to. -Words like "tire" come out sounding more like "ta-err" to Northerners. My r's sound really emphasized to the non-Southern ears (according to my friend from Michigan). -I do not enunciate. My words run into each other very badly. This is something I really would like to fix in the near future. No one wants a doctor that sounds like some backwoods redneck. It would be really neat if people attached a clip of themselves talking (if they feel comfortable with it, of course). I have no idea what a "Utah" or "Newfoundland" accent sounds like. |
I lucked out and didn't get stuck with my mom's Lawrence accent. "What's the Lawrence accent" you say? It's like a retarded Bostonian accent. Lawrence is located about 25 miles north of Boston. The Lawrence accent still has the traditional Bostonian "Cahh, pahhking, bahhgin" nonsense, but it's taken one step further.
Hard R's become V's. For example: Lawvence. Ridiculous is still ridiculous. But you can bet your ass you'll be eating vaw eggs aren't votten. In rare cases, L's become V's as well, turning Lawrence into Vawvence. My dad says it's the same way down in south Boston, except "much more hideous." |
Being from Connecticut, I'm supposed to have the 'accent' that is as close to perfect English as possible. We pronounce everything as its supposed to be... with a few exceptions. I'd have to say the only thing I've noticed is that we merge a couple words together... for instance, instead of "what do you want", it would turn into "Whaddya want?" That might be a bit of the New York coming through, though.
|
Quote:
|
I sound like some bizarre mix of British, Singaporean and American, so, my accent sounds out of place wherever I go!
|
I was once told that I sound French when I'm speaking english.
Well, I'm asian, and most of the time Americans can understand what I'm saying. |
I have been told that I have slight accent when I talk but people can't really pin point it.. I usually just explain to them that I wasn't born in US and they blame it on me having a "foreign" accent.
Yet a lot of people say that I don't have an accent.. |
I've got m'self a good Texas drawl of sorts. I speak slower and sound half-asleep at times :( But it's part of my philosophy of speaking clearly so I can get my points across. I'm also big on "howdy" (sup Aggies~), "ya'll" and what-not.
Quote:
|
I sound just like your regular neighbourhood FOB.
|
My accent changes depending on who I'm talking to. I have a very clear public school British accent when I'm talking on the phone at work (A result of being on our school's public speaking team and my mum's convent school upbringing rather than going to a public school, my school was pretty scummy) but when I'm chatting to chavs in the pub I acquire a horrible chav twang and all the stupid phraseology that comes with it, know what I mean bruv?
Generally though, I have a pretty standard south east England middle class accent. I do find some Americans on Xbox Live can't understand a word I say but that's probably as much to do with being drunk as my accent. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
I imagine a load of the #xblive crew I've played with would say I have quite a strong accent, but in terms of England it's a fairly standard accent I'd say. Thankfully I've avoided picking up the accents of the local areas I've lived. When I was younger I lived in an area with a horribly common and chavy accent, and now live in an area known for having a bit of a country-bumpkin accent (though it's a student heavy town and so it's a real mix of accents really). |
Quote:
|
1 Attachment(s)
I think there was already a thread like this made, but it was a while ago. I talks with a newfie accent, seeing as I am from Newfoundland. There is a old joke here that we always said that the mainlanders have a accent, until you go there and realize that it is you that have the accent.
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
I've got the very common Southern California accent. I say "dude" and "awesome" way too often. I'm not sure if this is a Southern CA or Northern CA thing, but I picked up "for sure" (or, more often, "fo sho") once I got to college. I also say "y'all" but that's only after I talk to my family that lives in Texas and I stop saying it after a week or so. |
Having been born in a french family and spoken mainly french for most of my life, I can imagine that to a person who's first language is english I must have a french accent when speaking english.
However, I did have many english friends growing up so I learned to speak english fairly early, so that probably helped to not have as heavy an accent as my dad (born in Quebec) or my brothers who didn't have as many english friends as I did. Still, I think the time when it's most evident that english isn't my first language is when I have to pronounce the word three. That 'th' I just can't seem to get right. Either it sounds like tree or alternatively the 'th' sounds really thick. Besides that, I believe my accent is not too bad. |
Quote:
|
I'm confused by what's the proper way of saying "aunt". I heard "Auntie Em" from Wizard of Oz I believe. But some people say "Aunt" as in "ant"... :\
|
I have a standard California accent. When I was much younger it was horrible because I did sound a lot like "omigod, like totally fer sure" annoying. I spent a year on the east coast and it seemed to help tone it down a bit, and now I try really hard not to slip into that accent. I STILL say "like" way too much, but as hard as I try I cannot shake it.
|
There's nothing too flavorful with the accents around here, at least down south people usually talked with some sort of gusto.
|
Quote:
Honestly though, I genuinly dislike all accents north of Lancashire, and south of Scotland. :mad: |
Quote:
|
I'm from North Carolina and there are plenty of people who do or don't sound like bumpkins (I swear to god they find the most retarded sounding people they can in tv interviews). Fortunately, I have what I like to call a television accent, which is none.
|
Although I've lived in Massachusetts for the majority of my life, my accent is lighter and doesn't have much in common with a typical Boston-area accent (though I'm sure there are some things I just don't think about that would identify me as being from the area). I think I'm closer to a neutral accent than anything else.
|
I'm from South Carolina, and I have a horrible accent. It seems to get worse as I get older, when I was a kid, people thought I was from up north, now, no one would ever make that mistake. I'd even go as far as to say I sound like hick white trash. Think Joy on My Name is Earl. :) (let's scare everyone away from the hick newbie!)
|
For me, the weirdest thing is thirty minutes away from my town people speak with an accent. It was crazy too. I had a friend who moved there, and within months picked up that accent.
As for me, no accent that i know of. Pretty standard speech in my opinion. |
I have british combined with vietnamese/chinese accent... I really hate it :(
|
Quote:
Quote:
But you know what? I'm unique. We're unique. I have an accent that you don't hear every day on TV or radio (unless it's John Boy, but, who listens to him who isn't southern?), and I've learned to live with it. I work with some Vietnamese, and I don't find their accents bad. They're a little shaky around some consonant sounds, but they can speak and express themselves just as well as anyone else. If you're articulate enough, people won't care what you sound like anyway. That goes for anyone else, too. |
I have a kiwi accent. People mistake me for an Australian because they forget NZ exists.
It really doesn't bother me though, I mean the accents are pretty close to each other. Then the conversation quickly turns to sheep. |
Quote:
|
I live in Florida, but I don't have that much of an accent, as far as I can tell. I say "y'all" an awful lot, but that's about it. :/
|
I have never really seen my accent out of its own context enough to know what I do that is at all abnormal relative to other regions, aside from when I went to Mexico and CLEARLY didn't fit in. After reading the thread, I guess I fall into the standard White Man's trap of saying "dude", "awesome", "killer" (as in good) and "like" far more often then I probably should, but aside from that I don't really know how I compare in terms of pronunciation.
|
Where I'm from, a lot of the natives around speak with a dutchy accent. (e.g. Packerton...the people say Packer'en), Scranton = Scrannen. Martin=Mar'en. etc etc. I've been living here for 7 years now, and I will never change to that accent. ugh.
|
I have a mixture of a Southern and Northern English accent. Ive spent half my life in the south of the UK and the other half In the Northern West.
Ive had several people swear Im from Australia even though Ive never actually been there. Maybe its too much TV. |
I don't have an accent. If I did, no one has pointed it out to me. Yeah pretty boring of me.
|
Even though I'm Canadian, I don't really have that Canadian accent. People I've spoken to from California have said I don't sound any different from them. But I've also had people on XBL think I'm British. So who knows.
|
I'll answer in this, even though my speaking language isn't English. It's Finnish.
I lived my childhood in a small bordertown (5 miles to the border of Russia) that has its own accent VERY distinguishable from every other region/city in Finland. Speaking it sounds like citing a poem, it's quite lyrical and practically every word is a slang version of its original. Everyone natively Finnish speaking understands it, though. The weirdest thing is: it's extremely contagious. Before you know it, you have your friends from the other side of the country speaking with that particular accent to me and to each other. It's quite frightening, actually. The "contamination" can be permanent, meaning I've created another person speaking like that for the rest of their lives. =D The power of words! If it's English I end up speaking in a conversation, I try to keep it without the American accent (preferably talking in some form of British) - sounds like what the language was meant to sound like. |
Quote:
I find that here in Western Australia, due to our extreme isolation, we speak differently to the classical Australian accent Queenslanders and other eastern states faggots have. There are few obvious differences, ie. those morons pronounce derby "darby" and they always call Albany something it's not. "Orll-banny" or something, it's like they're American or something over there. It's fucken Al-ban-ee. Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Oh good god, no. Newfie accents are a thing unto themselves. Not quite Irish, not quite Scottish, not quite East Coast Canadian. Just... newfie.
|
I think a sound clip thread would be interesting.
|
Quote:
I also agree with AngelWing we need another voice clip thread, the last one we had was fun! |
Quote:
Oddly enough, I've had quite a few people say that I have a Southern accent, and I'm not sure how that is possible. I'll admit that my grandma does say things with a certain twang, and she uses a lot of "okie-isms" (like "There ain't room t'cuss a cat in there!"). Probably comes from her dad, who was from Tennessee. Who knows, maybe the accent filtered down a couple generations :confused:. |
Quote:
I'd start a thread with my accent but I have a terrible cold right now and my voice sounds funny. |
Quote:
|
I have a Northern British twang to my accent, but I live in Preston where 'No' is pronounced 'Nooorr" and 'innit' is said after everything. I try my best to pronounce my t's too, another thing that the Prestonian accent seems to miss out. Since being in the South West, I find that people have a posh accent; or what Northerners would consider posh, where 'grass' is pronounced 'grahss' and 'dance' is 'dahnce'. I still say it phonetically, but I wouldn't be surprised if I picked it up. I've tried my hardest to not have a Prestonian accent though, it's so chavy and it sounds retarded and foul. My Mum and Sister have both succumbed to it however, nothing too drastic but I still find myself correcting them.
|
My speaking language is french... and I think that if I try to talk with someone who has been speaking English since he was born, I will not be able to be understood XD I must have a scary accent >_>
And even here in France, I was born in a region with a strong accent (and also where people sometimes have their own words, lol) I always find it quite fun to hear other people's accent, anyway :D |
I'm from New Jersey, but I don't have any sort of stereotypical Jersey accent at all (and besides, that's more of a North Jersey thing). There's a guy who goes to my school from Boston who at times has a heavy accent (the long a's). I just tend to slur words and mumble a lot.
|
I don't think I have much of an accent. Perhaps slightly southern in some ways, but I've also had a stuttering speech impediment since early childhood. Stuttering is what characterizes my speech more than anything else. :(
|
| All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:48 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.