Accents

Originally Posted by Nall

Hey everybody - or is it "ya'll?"

It isn't; ya'll is a contraction of ya will. What you mean is y'all, a contraction of you all.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Shin

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.

Yeah, I get that, and I'd say I have a fairly generic southern English accent. But of course, the fact that it's an English accent means it confuses Americans anyways (and for some reason makes them feel compelled to point out that, hey, I'm English).

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).

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Originally Posted by OmagnusPrime

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).

Yeah, you sound pretty much like everyone in the south of England. If you knew the area I imagine you could tell you and me weren't quite from the same place but I'd have thought it would be the actual language used rather than the accent that distinguished us. The rural areas of Sussex have as much of a bumpkin accent as you get in the west country only slightly different and with different odd words thrown in. It's also all frightfully middle class round here though so everyone naturally speaks pretty well. There's quite a lot of local variation though. I reckon I could tell between someone who was brought up in Lewes and someone raised in Newhaven and that's only about 8 miles down the road (And full of scummers).

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

I thought you guys were supposed to do things like pronounce "milk" as "melk" and change around some vowel sounds, no?

My mom's accent does that. Milk = Malk.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

I thought you guys were supposed to do things like pronounce "milk" as "melk" and change around some vowel sounds, no?

My grandma is from Connecticut and she pronounces it "melk". She also says "draw" instead of "drawer".

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.

FELIPE NO

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.

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Originally Posted by Sassafrass

I thought you guys were supposed to do things like pronounce "milk" as "melk" and change around some vowel sounds, no?

I've never heard anyone pronounce it that way. Haha. At least I've never noticed it. Another thing we might do is say 'Idear' instead of 'Idea'.

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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"... :\

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

There's nothing too flavorful with the accents around here, at least down south people usually talked with some sort of gusto.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Angel Of Light

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 hate you.

Honestly though, I genuinly dislike all accents north of Lancashire, and south of Scotland.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Cameo

I hate you.

Honestly though, I genuinly dislike all accents north of Lancashire, and south of Scotland.

North of Lancashire? More like north of Watford...

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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.

FELIPE NO

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.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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!)

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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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I have british combined with vietnamese/chinese accent... I really hate it

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by SenorKaffee

The thread should be renamed to "US accents", or someone like me might start a discussion about bavarian or saxon accentss in Germany.

Being American, US accents are about all I"m exposed to. I'd be interested to hear about accents in other countries, too.

Originally Posted by gaming

I have british combined with vietnamese/chinese accent... I really hate it

Aw, don't say that. When I made the thread, I was interested to see if other people were self-conscious about their accents like me. I don't hate my speech at all, but sometimes I feel like that's what people are hearing more than my words. Southerners tend to have the stereotype of being dumb hicks, and it always kinda stayed in the back of my mind when I spoke to someone who wasn't from my area. I'm definitely in a different 'mode' when I'm not around my family, placing other words in my speech to sound less like a yokel.

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 am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Nall

Being American, US accents are about all I"m exposed to. I'd be interested to hear about accents in other countries, too.



Aw, don't say that. When I made the thread, I was interested to see if other people were self-conscious about their accents like me. I don't hate my speech at all, but sometimes I feel like that's what people are hearing more than my words. Southerners tend to have the stereotype of being dumb hicks, and it always kinda stayed in the back of my mind when I spoke to someone who wasn't from my area. I'm definitely in a different 'mode' when I'm not around my family, placing other words in my speech to sound less like a yokel.

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.

Someone told me I sounded like a typical american. But I think he lied... :O

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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. :/

FELIPE NO

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.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.