Do you have an accent?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

I, of course, do not.

[mstrsplinter326]

1. The only accent in Indiana is

the 'lazy tongue.' Weall jusslur ourwords together, y'allspeakway to concise, ifyaknowhatimean.

[Philostopher]

118. Pretty much same tale for SW Ohio, I think.

Although I was told by someone from St. Louis that I had a southern accent, I don't really think that's true all the time. I mean, when I'm hanging around with people whose families are 'up from Appalachia' (like many people with whom I grew up), I probably pick up a little twang; thankfully, it wears off. Mostly, just like you say about Indiana, I tend to smudge words together and leave off 'ing' endings when I speak informally -- like talkin' and walkin' -- but if it 'matters' I think my accent is pretty flat.

[LDS Jock]

2. so called standard American accent

If you think Tom Brokaw has an accent, you would think I do too.

[southpaw]

Wow... a puppy with two asses!!!

[nuxvomica]

127. Tom Brokaw has a very noticeable accent

Midwestern filtered through Ivy League. Sometimes he sounds like he's got a "Locust Valley lockjaw."

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. yup...

[redqueen]

4. Yes, people can tell I'm from Texas. n/t

[eyesroll]

5. I have a chameleon-type accent

If I talk to you for long enough, I'll start taking on elements of your accent.

I assume some people get offended by it, but there's not a lot I can do.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

12. Is there much of a Wisconsin accent?

[eyesroll]

21. It's basically American Standard Newscaster with slight

"Fargo" elements.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

91. Heck yeah!

[alarcojon]

110. You betcha!

[Ellen Forradalom]

124. Up north, it's a variety of Northwoods accent

Similar to Minnesota. I've heard the Green Bay area accent enough to recognize it.

[Nikia]

128. Yes and it is horrible

Except that is how I talk now after being here for 8 years.
It really annoyed me when I first came to Wisconsin. I wished that everyone would stop talking so oddly.
In anthropology we watched a video about American accents and dialects. When asked what part of the country has a funny accent, the woman from Ohio said "Wisconsin" and I laughed since I was from Ohio and thought that too.

[redqueen]

15. Wow

that's interesting!

What happens if you're in a room with a few people with heavy accents?

[eyesroll]

If they all have different accents, and I'm talking to all...

I'll probably end up adopting an element or two from each for a few minutes, or nothing at all.

It's at its most pronounced when I'm having a long, one-on-one conversation with someone who's a native English speaker from a different part of the U.S. than I am.

NOTE: This doesn't happen with all accents -- I'm not going to take on the accent of someone who's just learned English, for instance. Mostly southern U.S., Mexican (and a few other Spanish-speaking-country accents), and British.

[brainshrub]

32. Wow! So do I!

I thought I was the only one. :D

[eyesroll]

34. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and I knew a few other people who did this...but I haven't really met anyone since...

(Oh, and Byron -- Wisconsin has a different accent from Chicago, but I'd like to think I've shed most of my North Shore nasality...maybe...)

[brainshrub]

60. South Florida (Ft Lauderdale & Miami)

I grew up listening to many accents. I also speak three languages, so my tongue knows how to roll r's and pronounce n's.

[tigereye]

64. Hi Brainshrub

what languages do you speak? How are ya?

[brainshrub]

78. French, Spanish & English.

And I'm doing great! Thanks for asking. You?

[tigereye]

83. not bad

some work, some pool time with my son. I love summer since it is very low key and I don't have to work as much. Some extended family illness was a little scary, but is improving. My mother-in-law was pretty ill.

Otherwise good.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

93. I have the same problem - but it takes me a few hours to pick it up.

n/t

[LynzM]

39. Me too....

Being originally from northeastern CT, I didn't imagine myself to have much of an accent. Having lived in Indiana for a couple years, I know that my speech is slowly changing, and I DON'T LIKE IT. The 'lazy tongue' thing is dead on.

[Xipe Totec]

80. South Texas Tex-Mex Sing-Song

With a wicked heavy Boston influence.

[Donkeyboy75]

84. I do the same thing.

But it's because I like to mock their funnnny talkingggg

[LynneSin]

6. I don't think I do, but I do have a funny twang....

...many Pennsylvania Dutch

[Magrittes Pipe]

7. I have several.

Depends to whom I am speaking.

If I am speaking with someone from the southern Ohio/Kentucky region, I have a pronounced southern OH accent.

If I am speaking with Wisconsinites, I have a WI accent.

And many others.

[LynneSin]

11. And what if you're speaking to a Bush supporter?

Do...............You.............Speak...............real..................slow?

[Kellanved]

8. Yup

Zee acczent of all acczents :evilgrin:

[Karenina]

47. My ears hear Volk

from Hamburg or Hannover as having "no accent." Aber Berliners... ick, ich? Ich hab' meine Ami ish korregiert! Üben, üben. :evilgrin:

Tongue muscle training! :D

[Kellanved]

107. all a matter of perspective

Han(g)over OK, hardly an accent. But Hamburg? Were I a Hamburger I'd terrified by the notion of not having an accent- the Hamburg accent is IMHO by far the most beautiful German accent.

Well, I don't really have a Berlin accent (although I'm developing one); rather Hessian with a little Swiss and Westphalian thrown in.

As to my English: I spend about three weeks each year trying to get myself understood in English-speaking countries. (and one week in France, but that does involve more gesticulating and less speaking) By the time I'm leaving, my English is usually approaching something like "understandable". One week later - *poof*.

[Karenina]

9. Depends upon

to whom I'm speaking...

[rucky]

10. Shays... boat eye rrrrrarely type whwith whwan. n/t

[demnan]

13. Yes

I have a southern accent as befits my Virginia heritage. One time I was trying to book a conference room at a snooty hotel in D.C. and the rude woman (who happened to be hispanic and whose English was quite poor) asked where I was born, as if I was right off the turnip truck. My answer, "Alexandria, Virginia - five miles from where you are right now. And where were you born?"

The woman didn't realize I had an accent that was native to this area.

[flamingyouth]

14. I've been told I talk really, really fast

I don't know, you tell me, do people from the Northwest have accents? :shrug:

[Screaming Lord Byron]

18. No. Same with people from the Canadian South-West ;).

Vancouver doesn't have much of an accent.

[tigereye]

66. everyone has an accent, I think

I don't think you can avoid it. (I guess due to regionalism and ethnic origins)


Having lived in Pittsburgh for more than 20 years, I have picked up some yinzer talk, although I do not say yinz. I grew up in another part of SW PA, but my parents are from upstate NY and outside Boston, respectively. My brothers have more of a yinzer accent than I do, but I catch myself drawing out those schwa vowels a bit. ( like saying dahntahn instead of downtown)

I love accents. I love to guess where people are from based on their accents. I also love Midwest accents, for some reason and Boston accents.

[Donkeyboy75]

85. I come from a family of yinzes (we call it yunzes)

As a boy, I was told to "red up" my room and to root for the Stillers.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

94. Yes they do. Wisconsin, Chicago, Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana especially.

Upper Michigan - they sound like Canadians. The rest of Michigan doesn't seem to have much of an accent. Ohio - I'm not sure - it might depend on what area you're from. I have the feeling that Ohioans near Indiana might have a bit of their accent and the ones near Pennsylvania might have a bit of that states accent.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

101. People who speak really fast are normally quite intelligent..

It has something to do with them having a rapid thought process.

[HippieCowgirl]

16. Only the one I was born with.

Nobody ever has to ask me where I'm from. Southerners know I'm a Texan. Everyone else knows I'm from the south.

But if I want to be heard as an intellectual, or taken a little more seriously, I can speak without the Texas accent.

[redqueen]

19. I call that my 'professional' voice

My relatives & friends sometimes call me at work and ask for me. :)

[southpaw]

17. Non-southerners may think I do...

But compared to the Billy-Joe-Jim-Bobs I live among, my pronunciation is downright genteel.

[terrya]

20. I pronounce "Washington" Warshington.

Does that count?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

24. I guess. Is there much of a Chicago accent?

[terrya]

31. No. It's more of an Central Illinois accent.

I've only lived in Chicago for 10 years. I was born and raised downstate. I suppose you could call my accent "flat"

[kerry-is-my-prez]

97. Yes - Chicago has an accent. I'm constantly asked if I'm from Chicago.

I only lived there for 11 years.

[Ellen Forradalom]

125. Oh, hell yes.

Not everyone has it, though. To hear a good parody of it, listen to WXRT's feature "Going to the Show with The Regular Guy" the next time you're in Chicago.

[miss_kitty]

30. yes...we all here in the nw wonder where the 'r' came from...

i, BTW, have a slight canadian accent, because they are so near to seattle and a cultural juggernaut that overshadows us all....

[RubyDuby in GA]

22. Yes sir

I most certainly do, darlin'. You would definitely know I'm a Georgia Peach.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

26. (blushes)

[Misunderestimator]

23. Nope.... used to though

Had a Texas accent growing up, but got rid of it posthaste when I moved to the Northeast.

[UrbScotty]

25. Maybe a slight German accent

I am part German.

[GingerSnaps]

27. I don't but everyone else does

:hi:

[Screaming Lord Byron]

29. Same with me.

Aren't we great?

[tigereye]

68. c'mon Byron

don't you have an accent? I bet it is an interesting one.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

72. It drifts. I've never lived in the same place for more than five years.

[tigereye]

79. see those transient accents are really fun

for we amateur accent investigators.

[rogerashton]

28. Wah, Hayul yayus.

But (as I learned in my linguistic anthropolgy class) speakers of some dialects mave the mistaken impression that they do not speak in dialect. That varies from dialect to dialect.

[shraby]

38. I never realized there was such a thing

as a Michigan accent till I moved to Wash. state for a couple of years and they asked me where I was from..they didn't recognize the accent. ????????

[rogerashton]

54. I was in Ediburgh, seated next to an Englishman,

and recalled what I was taught in my linguistic anthropology class -- "Everyone speaks in dialect." Meaning: every human being speaks in dialect. He said, "Yes, most people over here do, too."

I guess folks from Oxfordshire ain't humans.

[blue neen]

33. Accent? What are yinz guyz tawking ahbaht?

Pittsburghese

[Beware the Beast Man]

44. I lived in Pittsburgh my first 26 years...

Never once in a serious context have I said "yinz" "haas" "n'at" "warsh", "dahn" or "tahn".

But I have been known to pump an 'Arn every now and then! :toast:

[blue neen]

45. Did you root for the Stillers?

and listen to Donnieiris?

[Beware the Beast Man]

48. Dawnie Ars

Yes, and I shopped at Pants n'At. :)

[Happy Eddie]

58. Is Pittsburgh that strange? I'm really scared now!

I read your post about "yinz" and "dahn", and I have no idea what you're talking about. What's a "tahn"?

And who in hell is Donnieiris? This sounds like something they'd come up with in Noopaht, Ruddilan (east of C'neddicut, where we speak the best English on earth).

[tigereye]

69. dahntahn equals downtown

and I have never said, n'at. I wonder if there is some Slavic origin to our famed Pitts. accent.

[Beware the Beast Man]

77. I think it's a number of ethnicities

Since Pgh is one of the last major cities north of the Mason-Dixon line, there is a bit of the southern element to it. Also, you have Italians, Irish, English, German, Slavic, and French who have all settled in the area.

[tigereye]

81. true I remember seeing a program a year or two ago

about a Pitt linguist who had done a study about Pgh. accents. Fascinating.

where did you live when you were here?

[Beware the Beast Man]

82. I lived in Leetsdale.

Which was near Sewickley, Moon, that area. And you?

[tigereye]

103. I have lived all over the city - Shadyside, Bloomfield, Oakland

mostly East End - since I moved here to go to college. I'm originally from Butler County. I now live east of the city, you can see Kennywood from very near my house.

[Beware the Beast Man]

74. A short guide to Pittsburghese:

yinz- you, you all
dahn - down
tahn- town
haas- a structure with four walls and a roof
Stillers- Pittsburgh Steelers football organization
Cahr- William Laird Cowher, head coach of the Pittsburgh steelers
Igloo- Mellon Arena, home of the Pittsburgh Penguins
still- steel, once Pittsburgh's main industry and export
Donnie Iris- bespectacled rock musician who had a minor hit in 1981 with "Ah, Leah."
Arn- Iron City beer, a gross concoction brewed by the Pittsburgh Brewing company
warsh- to clean or cleanse
Ahia- river formed by the Allegheny and Monongahela, also a neighboring state of PA
Jagoff- fool, idiot

Here's a good link:
http://www.pittsburghese.com/

[PittPoliSci]

109. Yeah! Yinz friggin' jagoffs are the one's with the accents!

Here in da 'Burgh, we aren't the ones with the accents!

Although, I do find it strange that 15 minutes east of Pittsburgh you'll find southern accents.

[ronnykmarshall]

35. Chit no!

[DU GrovelBot]

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[ronnykmarshall]

37. Oh chut up!

[Misunderestimator]

41. Was that a yes? I bet you sound like C3P0

[Hoping4Change]

40. Born and bred in Toronto but people say I sound Southern.

I always get asked where I'm from. Go figure.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

42. I get southern, maritime Canadian, dutch, Aussie, Irish, Kiwi, English.

[tigereye]

70. neat now I wish I could hear you talk

I love those polyglot accents!

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

43. Dem a say so, but I cyant tell! Tings sound normahl t'me

'Nuff peeple here I tink hav de accent. But I mon na gwan neeme neemes, seen?

[Karenina]

49. An "accent" is in the ears

of the listener. As kids my sisters and I entertained ourselves, when mom was out, calling restaurants on the Eastern Seaboard we knew were segregated and making reservations.

I was regularly physically assaulted in H.S. for an "accent" that ran counter to my "appearance."

[Rob H.]

46. I'm an ex-military brat...

...which means I never stayed in one place long enough to develop one. I've been living in the South for years, barring an 8-year detour to Idaho of all places, and I don't sound like other people do here. When I lived in Idaho and told people I'd moved there from Memphis they didn't believe me, if that tells you anything.

[AlCzervik]

50. yup

[mrboba1]

51. No -

but everyone else does...
:evilgrin:

[Tom_Foolery]

52. I have a soft southern accent that gets deeper when I'm very tired. n/t

[mwdem]

116. Me, too..

It's not that pronounced anymore, but when I'm winding down, it's definitely Southern.

[Spider Jerusalem]

53. So-called "General American Dialect"...

a product of spending most of my linguistically formative years in California, I suspect. I've lived in Georgia since I was nine, but haven't picked up a Southern accent. I still have gas station clerks and random people who hear me talk ask where I'm from if I venture out of the Atlanta metro area (where more people are non-native than native, so it's not noticed or commented upon).

[johnnie]

55. Nope

40 years in Cleveland, Oh.

[Endangered Specie]

56. Bit of a southern drab.

[baldguy]

57. Noe, eyee don hayev en eyaksent.

http://www.geocities.com/libmary/bfloslang.htm

[truthbetold]

122. Haha!

I really enjoyed that, living in the Niagara Falls region. I actually do say most of the stuff mentioned.

[patricia92243]

59. Southern accent that you could cut with a knife!

[dolo amber]

61. If I may paint a word picture of my accent...

I'd say it's something like a haughty Southern Belle in a flimsy sundress drinking rum in the garden while making high-brow lascivious remarks to the lawn boy.


Or something. :evilgrin:

[Screaming Lord Byron]

62. I knew it!

:evilgrin:

[Tom_Foolery]

63. Have you lived in Owensboro, KY?

I think I've cut your lawn!!

[dolo amber]

65. Right...that's what we're calling it...

"Cut my lawn"... ;)

:D

[Tom_Foolery]

73. Yes...

and I think my mower ran out of gas pretty fast. :)

[WoodrowFan]

114. is that why he kept yanking it?

to get it restarted??? :evilgrin:

[sniffa]

67. boston accent

it's not as thick as it used to be. some DUers who have taLked to me couLd say better than i, how thick it is.

"it's hahd for me to pronounce my ahs"

[Carson]

71. Kentucky accent, and dayum proud of it!

[vron57]

75. I do

I have a nice genteel southern belle accent and I am quite proud of this fact........

[eleny]

76. Brooklyn!

Got a problem with that?

[RebelOne]

86. I have a Philadelphia accent.

I was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in Miami, FL and am now living in the Atlanta, GA area, but I have never lost that northern accent.

[Padraig18]

87. Aye, I do.

It's far less noticeable than it was when I first came to America, but it's still there.:)

[ceile]

105. Ahhh, the Irish accent

I just split with my fiance of four years (he was from Dublin) and boy do I miss the accent!

[VOX]

88. I have a tiny bit of West Texas twang, which I picked up from my Dad...

Who was from El Paso.

I imagine if I were in London, or Sydney, or Hong Kong, I would be perceived as having quite an accent!

[Lisa]

89. hah -- a lot of Canadians think I'm American, and start dissing me!

And it's not because I hang out with Yankees face-to-face (only on the internet).

People from the Niagara Peninsula seem to be distinct from Canada and the US (because folks from Buffalo and Rochester know I'm not one of them). We're usually pretty good at spotting each other, though. I've been away from Ontario for more than a decade, but still recognized a fellow Hamiltonian a few minutes after hearing her.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

90. A Heinz 57 accent. Part Chicago, part East Coast, a little Southern.

Or so I've been told. I don't think I sound any different from everyone else. It's quite frustrating to hear people say "Oh you're from Chicago aren't you?"

Ironically, when I lived in Chicago, everyone told me I had an East Coast accent. You just can't win.

[SarahB]

92. A trace of mid-western dork.

:7

[MikeG]

95. Pittsburgh accent.

Sound like Dennis Hopper.

[daisygirl]

96. I probably have a funny accent

since I grew up in Boston and moved to southeastern Ohio about 7 years ago. I've definitely lost most of my Boston accent, and at least one friend back in Boston has commented that I talk like a hillbilly now, but people here can tell I'm not from around here, and I tend to slip back into the Boston accent if I spend time there.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

98. Depends on where I go nt

[maveric]

99. Born and raised in blue collar greater Boston.

I've been in SoCal for 25 years but I still maintain my accent.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

100. Why oh why can't I pick up some cool British accent?

Or, at least a nice little "Georgia Peach" accent?

[Skittles]

106. when Americans tell my mum they love her English accent

she tells them I'M SPEAKING ENGLISH; *YOU* HAVE AN ACCENT. :D

[Mrs. Venation]

102. Oh, Heck Yeah

I spent my first 30 years in east Tennessee. I'm a Tennessee hillbilly, and darn proud of it!

I've been in the Washington, DC metro area for more than 20 years, and many people here don't believe it. I talk to Mom and Dad every weekend, though, and that maintains my Appalachian accent. It's funny, though, that some folks down home think I have a "yankee" accent.

I have never tried to lose my accent. It's a part of who I am. I think mountain people are the among best people in the world!

[yvr girl]

104. Not me.

I actually knew someone who worked for a company that did English recordings for subways, telephone systems etc. He was based in Atlanta. They usually hired people from Western Canada, because we have the most neutral English accent.

That being said, I do tend to speak quickly. Tor-on-to comes
out Trahn-no.

The more formally I'm speaking, the more British I sound. I also argue with a slight British accent. I don't know why - I've never even been there. (Although I do qualify for a Brit passport, maybe heritage does win out.)

I too have a tendancy to pick up other accents when I'm speaking with someone, especially if they are from the South, California or England. Northeast accents are beyond me. When I've been in New York or Boston, I find myself saying, 'Pardon me?' quite often.

[Parrcrow]

108. Nope, but you ought to hear the way people born and raised here speak!

[TheCentepedeShoes]

111. TX/OK kind of accent

Used to live in Florida and dealt on the phone through work with folks all over the country. All I had to do was say "Hi" and everyone knew who it was.

[ChaoticSilly]

112. Southern...

...lived all of my life in Memphis.

[WoodrowFan]

113. you're from the Midwest?

Only Americans from the Midwest have no accent. Everybody else talks funny...

[tarkus]

115. Bit of a New England accent

[yellowcanine]

117. No but everyone around me seems to. They all look alike also. I

just don't understand it.

[Penndems]

119. Definitely - I've got a Southern accent

But it's a Virginia Southern accent. If you've ever listed to Earl Hamner Jr.'s narration on "The Waltons", THAT's a Virginia accent. (Hard on the pronunciation of the "ou" vowels.)

Anybody outside of the South would think I was from Canada. But, elsewhere in this region of the country, they know a Virginia accent when they hear one.

[ulysses]

120. several

:)

[AlFrankenFan]

121. Light southern one...

seeing as it's been seven years since I lived in Virginia.

[Downtown Hound]

123. I never thought so

until I met an army linguistics expert who could tell by my voice that I was from Wisconsin. Technically I was born in Illinois, but I moved to Wisconsin when I was six months old, so I learned to talk there. Amazing man, he could tell where everybody was from, and he was never wrong. So I guess I do have some kind of an accent.

[IronLionZion]

126. What! an accent? that's what OTHER people have!

I've been told I have a very thick American accent. (by non-Americans) um....I don't know. I grew up in the country but don't have a country accent somehow. I don't even have a West PA accent and you'll never catch me saying "hey yinz guys".

But everyone who talks has an accent.

I've been known to put on fake accents every now and then. :P

[Rhiannon12866]

129. Nope. I was told in speech class that we in Northern NY State

and Oregon do not. We speak "standard American speech." But that everybody else does have some sort of accent.:shrug:

[WindRavenX]

130. Boston + Jersey accent

"Wicked"
"Idear"
"wartah"
Wicked awesome.