Regional Accents

[querelle]

Do you speak with an accent that is unique to where you live? I find that Americans are very diverse in their regional accents and lexicons. Myself? I was born in Paris and raised in Montreal, but have managed to maintain my European accent when speaking French in Canada (thanks MOM!) But my English is a bland sort of north american type. When I speak English, I sound like every TV news anchor. But when I speak French, other fracophones in Canada identify me as a European.

Why is that?

BTW, what is your own accent?

Q

[Madspirit]

1. Texan ya'll n/t

[querelle]

3. I Just Love A Texas Accent.........

Y'all indeed. Music to my ears.

Q

[Madspirit]

18. Thank-you

It's funny. I've had Northern friends move down here and they always say they will NEVER say "y'all" and it's always the first thing they pick up.

It IS a perfect contraction, all encompassing, non-gender specific...just perfect...<g>
Lee

[conscious evolution]

48. Ain't is another one nt

[Madspirit]

50. I never say "ain't".

"Ain't" sounds ugly. "Y'all" just rolls softly off the tongue.
Lee

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. North Jersey.

A mix of Hudson and Morris counties.

[querelle]

7. Joisey?

No offense my dear..........

Q

[JackBeck]

11. I knew it was coming!

I know you're kidding, but a lot of us don't talk like that in New Jersey. My sister, on the other hand, still lives in South Jersey and has that South Philly/Italian girl/ballsy accent. Me, I never had an accent. A lot of people thought I was from California because of my laid back/long haired look. Now, I've got a mix of Brooklyn/NYC.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

13. No one in Jersey says "Joisey."

[querelle]

19. Didn't Mean To Offend You

And if I did, please forgive me. I guess I just rely on stereotypes. Am I forgiven?

Q

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

20. I wasn't offended.

I was just saying that we don't say that.

[querelle]

23. Cool

You are quite the revolutionary woman. You remind me of Camille Paglia in many ways. I always love your posts and your "take no prisoners" attitude. Have you ever considered a career in politics?

Q

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

24. Not really.

Anyway, I have too many skeletons in my closet.

[Left Is Write]

4. I am from Minnesota, but I do not speak like the characters in Fargo.

Their accents were exaggerated for entertainment purposes.

Most people can tell I'm from Minnesota, but my accent has been tempered by the last six years in Idaho.

[KitchenWitch]

5. I still have that overpronounced O that Minnesotans have

Of course I have only been here for six months, dontcha know!

:rofl:

[Left Is Write]

8. Keep your Minnesotan! Don't become a Californian!

[KitchenWitch]

10. I agree

Actually the California accent seems to be a mixture of "surfer dude" lingo with all of the other accents in the country.

[Shell Beau]

6. Deep southern drawl!

[querelle]

12. I Just Love A Southern Accent

It's so alien to us euro-canadians. It's very musical sounding to people who don't speak it.

Q

[Shell Beau]

33. I did have an English guy say it sounded so romantic!!

He was so tickled at how I talked!! :P

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. A lot of our pronunciation tends to be formed by age three or so.

The way we pronounce vowel sounds, consonants, and so on. So it makes sense that your French is more Parisian than Quebecois.

My own accent is more or less "General American"...the sort of non-accented accent that's supposedly ideal for a career in radio/television broadcasting. (My father was in the Navy, and we moved between the East and West coasts of the US when I was young..California probably had the most effect on my speech patterns).

[Redstone]

15. Not always. I grew up in Vermont, but I couldn't do a "Vermont accent" now, no matter

how hard I tried. I can tell you how Vermonters pronounce specific words (mashed puh-DAY-duhs), but talk like that? I just can't.

Redstone

[trof]

14. I'm a chameleon.

I tend to mimic speech patterns wherever I live.
Now that I'm back in my home state, my southern accent is back in spades.

[querelle]

17. You Are Correct

I lived in London for four years and adopted an English accent while there. My mother (Parisian) was horrified (she hates the English with a passion). She got over it...........

Q

[Esra Star]

31. Did you fool anybody? Or were they just too polite to ask you

to stop? Affecting accents is so hard.

[AlCzervik]

16. Massachusetts.

we moved out of Ma. when my daughter was 3 so she has no accent at all which is kind of amusing to me.

[sniffa]

26. i remember hearing your voice

and it was Like you stiLL Lived here. it was wicked pissah.

[AlCzervik]

28. ayup, no matter how long i'm gone i will always sound like the female Cliff clavin.

some say it's a curse, i say to them "fuck you".
:evilgrin:

[sniffa]

44. eh, they're just douchebags

wicked douchebags.

[Nicole]

21. No accent here.

I'm told I have an Okie drawl though. :rofl:

My California relatives love to hear me talk. They constantly ask me to "say y'all". :eyes:

[greendog]

22. Indianapolis midwestern

If you head north from Indy you'll start hearing the subtle rounding of the "o" that's associated with the upper midwest. If you head south you'll start hearing a bit of hillbilly twang. I grew up just south of Indy so my accent is neutral american with the littlest bit of twang.

I don't think it's changed at all since I've moved to Montana.

[dropkickpa]

25. I had a Texan accent

which still peeks out now and then (lived there for 8 years between 4 and almost 12, Houston and then just north of Dallas, but now I have a slight Pittsburgh accent. I got so much shit when I moved to pgh that I made a conscious effort to get rid of as much as possible. But I still say ya'll.

Funny thing - The first time I heard Owen Wilson talk I was like "Holy shit, he has to be from Fort Worth!!"

edited to add - If I hear someone speak with a texas accent, be it in a movie or in person, I instantly revert to the Texan accent.

[Alexander]

27. A Connecticut-Michigan hybrid.

My parents, and entire family, is from Detroit. I am the only one born and raised in Connecticut.

So my accent is mostly a bland, generalized newscaster-type US accent, although I have caught myself saying some words in a Kerrylike fashion, like "hahf-hour".

In CT, the big thing about accents is that everything is slurred, and extra "e"s are added.

Therefore "New Britain" is pronounced "New Bri'ain". "Canton" is "Ceeanton".

The CT accent actually sounds a bit like Lois Griffin from Family Guy - very nasal. Not surprising, since creator Seth McFarlane is from Kent, Connecticut.

[querelle]

29. Are People From Connecticut Such Snobs?

Sheesh............I thought my mother was a snob.

Q

[Alexander]

30. I beg your pardon?

Your last post has confused me - were you saying my post was somehow snobbish, or that your mother from Connecticut was a snob?

:shrug:

[YankeyMCC]

32. South Eastern Mass

People tend to lump all Mass speakers into one group which certainly annoys people from Western Mass who don't sound at all like people from Boston. But even around Boston there's noticeable difference between North Shore and South Shore.

I speak with the South Shore variant of the Boston area accent. And while I was in the Air Force where the large majority of the people I worked with were from the south or midwest they never let me forget my accent was nearly unique among us. ;)

My time in the Air Force softened it a bit but it had more of an effect on my ear because I remember coming home usually once a year and noticing the accents in others that I of course never noticed growing up.

But I've been back for many years now I'm sure I sound like everyone else again and I don't notice it much anymore (although if I think about it at all I do still notice).

BTW: The Kennedy family accent is one of it's own not typical Mass or even Boston. And don't get me started on Cliff Clavin :)

[dben88]

36. Absolutely correct...

I have the Cape Cod accent. Completely distinguishable from the rest of Massachusetts but closer to the Kennedys - I still say "baahhthroom" much to the entertainment, and ridicule, of others.

[hellbound-liberal]

34. I was born in CT, moved to Florida when I was 10. When I visited CA when I was 17,

a friend of my cousins asked me why I had a Morthern accent in the morning and I sounded like I was from the South in the afternoon. I told her that it must have been because I loosened up as the day went on. I live in Virginia now so I guess the yankee part of my accent will be gone before too long. I actually said Y'all the other day and it didn't feel weird.

[MsKandice01]

35. I'm from California...we don't have accents...

:P

[Kutjara]

37. Part generic Limey, part generic Yank, part generic Mick.

Neither one thing nor t'other.

[Reverend_Smitty]

38. Cental Jersey...

which despite what haruka says is a real place and our accent is a mixture of North Jersey and Philadelphian and is quite distinct to my ears. I can definitely tell if someone is from North Jersey or South Jersey and we don't sound like either of them.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

40. You're from South Jersey. Just admit it.

[Reverend_Smitty]

42. Nooooooo

they say house and phone funny...it's almost like a Canadian accent...strange

[S n o w b a l l]

39. I wonder why....

half of the people in this city speak without a southern accent and the other half do...Southern Indiana....even within our family. I've never had an accent but my brother speaks exactly like his friend, Jim Bob.

I think it's interesting how some develop an accent and others don't. Please don't flame me, but in my experience here, it directly relates to education and intelligence. Just my experience here..not everywhere.

[mainegreen]

41. When around the right people, I can get a western Maine accent.

Which is not like the 'downeast accent' most people associate with Maine. Maine in fact has at least 3 distinct accents.

[Lady Effingbroke]

43. Texan.

[Arugula Latte]

45. I have very generic newscaster pan-American accent

but with maybe a few slight hints of Valley Girl left over from my California youth :blush:

[baldguy]

46. I speak Buffalonian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_English

[Lost-in-FL]

47. Am I the only one with a hispanic accent here?

You can notice my accent when I type. I'm series!!11!!

[CBHagman]

49. Probably the remains of a northern New Jersey accent.

When I was around 12, I had the complete non-rhotic accent (e.g., "wonder" pronounced as "wundah," etc.). We moved too much for my accent to stay put, however, and it might be hard to place me now. To this day, though, it still feels odd to say the R in LaGuardia!

Like Haruka and all the other current and former Garden Staters here, the only people I ever heard say "Joisey" non-Jerseyans teasing Jerseyans. Most of my relatives were born and brought up in New York and New Jersey, and some were immigrants, so there you have it. I always wanted to be one of those people who could tell by an accent which borough the person came from and even which neighborhood!

When I lived in Europe, I had an Irish neighbor and managed to pick up a slight lilt before it was time to go back to the States. My American accent sounded harsh even to my own ears when I was traveling in the U.K. and Ireland, so I must have adapted.