So - have you been told that you have an accent?

*after giggling and staring for two minutes while I'm helping her with her homework my niece decides to respond to me...*

Me: "What's wrong sweetie?"
Niece: "Nothin'. I'm just laughing. Where do you live again?"
Me: "Birmingham, Alabama."
Niece: "Ooooh, That's why...Uncle Jon, you sound so country!"
Me: "Is that so?"
My niece: "Uh-huh. We (her and my nephews) think you sound just like Huckleberry Hound"
*At this point my big brother proceeds to burst into peals of laughter*
Me: "That's...cute sweetie, now go in the other room and play with your brother."

So...apparently I'm frequently told that I have an accent, but for the life of me I can't hear it. Do any of you guys have an accent, and if so, what kind is it? Can you recognize it when you talk and do you often pick up on others?

How ya doing, buddy?

I've got a Texan drawl to the way I speak. To be honest, I haven't really noticed it until recently. One day someone told me that I sounded like a true Texan, and following that, I started to listen to how I sounded when I spoke. Came to the conclusion that I've got a decent accent. Only took me about 20 years to notice it... =U

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I did a few commercials in my youth. In one of them I was supposed to actually speak, but the owner of the company didn't like the spot because he said I sounded like a "hick" and the producer dubbed over my voice. Then it just looked like a bad kung fu movie. I guess that was more to the advertiser's liking.

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

Heh. Accents. Quite a funny thing actually. I've been told that when I perform my Japanese songs and stuffs, I sound very..umm.. American? Lol. Its weird. I don't even have a single non-Asian bone in my body, heh.

Though when I speak...no one makes any comment whatsoever, though I've been told I look like so many OTHER races other than my own, lol.

How ya doing, buddy?

I've got a Texan drawl (like Gechmir), though I never noticed it until I moved to Michigan for a while. It was really funny because all I had to say was a few words and people would ask me where I was from. The words y'all, fixin' to, and Coke (in the place of "pop") seemed to be dead giveaways. Most people thought that my accent was cute, though I really got the impression that some folks assumed that I wasn't as smart as they were because of my accent.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Apparently, us people from CT are supposed to have 'the closest thing to proper English' for our accent... I don't know if that's right, but I've been told that my accent consists of actually pronouncing all of my words, especially letters that can be slurred... like 'T's. Rather than saying 'Wanna go here?' I unconsciously take the time to say 'Want to go here?'

Though since going to school, I've been known to mimic some of my friend's Boston accents... "I'm gonna go paaaaak the caaaaa."

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

My sorta Boston accent slips out from time to time, but it's generally clean.

FELIPE NO

Apparently I've been told I have a "posh london" accent. >_> I'm "well spoken" apparently and someone from the US who I spoke to thinks my English accent is awesome. @_@

I don't know where I got it from or how it stayed because I've been pretty much all over england while my father was in the RAF. >_> And my mother's from London and my father is from Shrewsbury. >_>

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

I don't know if I have an accent (not a terrible one anyway), but I'm pretty quite sure I often mix BrE and NAmE pronunciations, which might sound weird to native British and American speakers. I want to learn speaking with an Australian accent (how queer, I know). Most accents are actually pretty cool, I think. Since Latvian is a quite monotonous-sounding language, I always love listening to people with interesting accents.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I apparently have a recognizable Canadian accent, but I really don't hear it which, I guess, makes me similar to everyone else who has an accent and insists that they don't. Go dig up the voices of GFF thread.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I have the typical Californian accent. It's really nothing special, and I don't notice it because it's what you typically hear in movies and on television.

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

Yeah. I have been told that by Americans who travel to my area. They especially make fun and pay very close attention to me saying "eh" all the time. They laugh....

Oh well. But many say that my Canadian accent isn't very strong and that I have a very neutral voice making it hard for people to pinpoint where I am from.

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

I have a neutral accent, basically however people generally sound on American TV is how I sound. Though I remember someone said I sounded like I was from Colorado. I was never aware that Coloradians had an accent and I have a friend from there and he doesn't have one. Nope, no funny accents for me.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'm British, so it's always a conversation topic when I'm in an English-speaking country that isn't Britain. However, even when I'm on home turf people apparently have trouble placing my accent - I've been asked if I'm German, South African, American, Canadian, and on one bizarre day Spanish. I think it's due to my varied upbringing; I lived in Germany for two years, the USA for five, and my father is Austrian, so...

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I don't know what kind of an accent I have (perhaps Canadian?), but when people tell me I have one, it seems pointless. I mean, they say I have a Canadian accent? Okay? I don't know what a Canadian accent sounds like. Is it an insult or a compliment? Sometimes I don't know.

FELIPE NO

According to a lot of people now I have a very posh english accent; I don't understand why though because I think I sound scouse most of the time (and sometimes I even slip into a cockney accent without meaning to). I've been told this by people who live in my city and by people at other ends of the country. I guess it's because I tend to pronounce my words as best as I can when I'm nervous for some reason.

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

I have. many times on the phone at my job, I've been told I have a thick new york/bronx accent.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I like to think I have a remarkably neutral accent, given my suburban upbringing, but in one instance someone noted that I have a slight drawl to my voice (Texas). This may be the case because I can dive right into a Texas drawl when I am either: drinking, lazy, or under emotional duress.

It may also be the case when I use words like: reckon, y'all, fixing to, feeder road, and Coke in my vocabulary.

But fancy that, a second generation Asian-American born in Texas with an unforced Texas accent.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

People are actually surprised to learn I grew up in North Carolina, because I don't have a southern accent. Sure, there are a few southern idioms in my speech (like "I'm fixin' to do something"), but for the most part I have a neutral accent. Sometimes when I'm visiting family in NC, and I'm out in public, I find myself slipping a bit of an accent into what I say, just to blend in I guess. Growing up I conciously tried to avoid getting an accent because I didn't like how southerners sound. Listening to the local politicians and used car dealers on TV, not to mention most of my redneck classmates, I didn't want to sound like them.

I've had a couple of people ask if I'm Canadian, and the rest usually can't place where I'm from on first meeting.

Edit: Dullenplain, y'all isn't really a southern thing anymore. I've heard plenty of people say it here in MD, and they don't have southern accents. Just don't be like my high school Latin teacher, who taught us that verbs are conjugated as such:

I am
You are
He/She/It is
We are
Y'all are
They are

If we didn't write "y'all" on the test, it was counted wrong.

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

I've been told I sound "white", if that makes any sense. In fact, most people who meet me don't even think I'm Mexican and immediately assume I'm just a Californian suburban white boy. Even more interesting is that the ONLY two people I've ever spoken to who said I have a slight hispanic accent are ava and Alice. Now THAT'S some sad shit.

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

People who aren't from the south tell me I have a southern accent, and yet people who live down here have asked me "you're not from around here are you". Sorry that I'm not totally unsophisticated like the majority of Alabamians geez

I was speaking idiomatically.

In Texas, the Greek and Canadian* people I know tell me that I have an accent. Hell, I was told by several of my old High School friends in California that me, my mom and my grandma all have a slight accent of some sort -- apparently something from my great-grandparents (one was from Tenessee, the other was from Oklahoma). My grandma often uses 'Okie-isms' in her speech. It's also something of a Central Valley accent, what with the glossing over of consonants; it's hard to write down, but there's like a stop and a missing consonant in some words, like Mountain is more like "Mao'en" (no clearly defined "t" sound).

*I was annoyed that a Canadian told me that she had to most neutral accent ... I have nothing against Canadians, but she had an accent too. It was just different.

Originally Posted by Dullenplain

I like to think I have a remarkably neutral accent, given my suburban upbringing, but in one instance someone noted that I have a slight drawl to my voice (Texas). This may be the case because I can dive right into a Texas drawl when I am either: drinking, lazy, or under emotional duress.

I didn't notice any particular accent to your speech... and the ya'll thing is extremely pervasive even in people who otherwise have absolutely nothing of a drawl. I get mad at myself if I use it. Also, nobody in California says "ya'll" yet...it's still more of a southern/eastern thing.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Arkhangelsk

I didn't notice any particular accent to your speech... and the ya'll thing is extremely pervasive even in people who otherwise have absolutely nothing of a drawl. I get mad at myself if I use it. Also, nobody in California says "ya'll" yet...it's still more of a southern/eastern thing.

That's because it's the result of a suburban upbringing, being raised on listening to numerous news anchors, and a pervasive and conscious effort on my part to render my voice regionless in most normal circumstances (in public). I'll admit the regional influence is not strong, but this sort of thing allegedly comes out like a subconscious slip.

FELIPE NO

My fellow southerners tell me that I have no accent at all. People from up north tell me I have a noticable accent. I like to think that I have a fairly neutral accent, although occasionally I let it slip. Sometimes, I'll say something like "Sahlent Hill" instead of "Silent Hill". I try to catch myself before doing things like that, though. I also use a lot of regional words like "coke" and "y'all".

Most amazing jew boots

Well I'm from newfoundland so we kind of have an newfie accent within a canadian accent. Supposedly when we have tourists come up to our area especially when it comes to the small little bay communities practically everyone has an accent. We don't personally notice because I suppose its how everyone talks.

Its kind of funny, I work out in alberta and albertans can tell your from newfoundland without any problems whatsoever. Its kind of funny as well that when I worked out in a larger city I practically have no accent at all from what people tell me. When it comes to me being in a little community in a place I'm more comfortable my accent comes out in full force.

Jam it back in, in the dark.