I'm curious: Who here has a regional accent?

I don't have one, really. Just flecks of Maine here and there.

Do you?

pretty flat midwestern.

<Sniff> Those from the North side do not speak in such a vulgar manner. <Sniff>

:hi:

they're life-long Northsiders. :)

...seriously, I've never heard anyone who sounded like that who wasn't from Bridgeport. My MIL has such a thick Bridgeport accent she almost sounds like she's from New York.

Growing up in Jeff Park, no one says Da Bears or pronounces sausage or Chicago with open vowels like they do on the South side. We like to keep our vowels nicely tucked.

Cheers :toast:

I just came back from Conference Meeting, and heard that awful accent the whole time! And I don't think there is a UCC in Bridgeport.

Apparently I stand corrected.....

Cheers :toast:

Grew up in Houston w/ no accent. Since I've lived in Austin, I've found that I have a bit of a drawl now. My sis thinks it's very pronounced, but she lives in NYC and sounds like a Northerner, so I ignore her. :P

B-)

:evilgrin:

Can't get Zurich out of it. ;)

I have a drawl.

claims to be from Texas. (He also hates Shrubby's fake Texas bullshit accent.)

Like, y'know... huh?

i wish it was true southern and used to be but, since i have lived in these foothills it has become more nasal.

a couple of weeks ago. i will watch this cletus and let you know.
:hi:

what does that mean, just curious. My mother's side of the family are flatlanders (eastern NC), and I love their accent. My Dad's family is from WNC and their accent...not so much. My cousins live outside of Atlanta and I think the Georgia accent is very beautiful. I also really like the deep south accent. Mine is more hillbilly both in accent and word choice than ever, even though it's probably not as bad as I think it is.

down there they make fun of my accent. they sound more like paula deene and i guess i sound more like a cross between loretta lynne and dolly pardon:shrug:

does that make sense idge?

we prolly notice it but, when i am out of the south, people 'guess' that i am from texas:wtf:

when i was in dc and nyc the waitstaff could not understand me when i would place my order:blush:

it got so that i would just tell my firends what i wanted and let them order for me. one night out at the bars everybody hanging around overheard me talk and it was hysterical. i didn't mind cos i was getting tipsy but, everytime i opened my mouth you could tell it was a 'big-eyed' moment for some people.

the flatland and hill accents are sooooo different, kind of like Mass vs. New York or something. My relatives in WNC sound nothing at all like my relatives in eastern NC, the ones in eastern NC all sound like they are from the deep south, with a real serious drawl, which I wish I had. I can identify with your experiences too. :hi:

edit: I just realized the best way to describe the way the hillbilly accent sounds is that commercial for that diet product that everyone hates where the woman says "Mah huzzbin says I'm hawt", lol.

:blush:

i hate it when that happensx(

:hi:

I don't know if there's a true southern voice because there are so many variations. My voice is just the bland midwestern voice. Never thought of having any accent.

Appalachia Hillbilly mixed with some North Florida/Georgia Country resonance.

:shrug:

anywhea I want!! :P

Pinche accents are wicked contagious, y'all.

Redstone

'cept I revert to my Mexican accent.

My Houston accent comes out after a six-pack or so (hey 20 years in Houston marks a man for life).

:hi:

I discovered my R's when I moved from Rhode Island to NY state.

I only lapse back when I spend more than 4-5 days with my parents in RI.

Most Hoosiers are tired and drunk.

Go Fuck Yourself!

I am neither tired nor drunk.

I resent the broad brush that you use to denigrate and diminish the speech style of a Hoosier.

I'm proud to be a Hoosier, and to have a Hoosier accent.

I'm neither proud of nor ashamed of my accent, it's just the way I speak.

I never denigrated the speech style of Hoosiers.

As far as the tired and drunk comment, it was merely self-depricating humor.

Don't be so thin skinned.

Calling most Hoosiers tired and drunk it not self-deprecating.

It's offensive.

I generally keep my vowels and whatever where they belong, but I use "wicked" all the time--"That's wicked good," "That's wicked sweet," etc. Also, I don't really notice when someone says "Wheah's tha cah?" or something. :)

It's a bit Down Eastern... I just curl my "ah-ers" a bit more.

And I say wicked a lot, too. ;)

After 28 years in SoCal its only a trace.
But when I go back east and hang with my old friends, it comes right back as strong as ever.

However, the great rapidity of my speech is generally more noticeable.

I'm just sayin'.... :D

(The stereotype of an American is LOUD, in case you did not know)

:)

If I'm speaking formally, I speak perfect BBC-English!

(JK! LOL)

http://www.pbs.org/speak/ :hi:

:hug:

southern. And it's on the hillbilly side. I have noticed just some of the *words* I am saying as I get older I never would have been caught dead saying in the past, too; I wonder if any other southerners have this problem.

I never thought I did, but every once in awhile I'll say
the word "out" and someone will immediately know that I'm
from PA.

I can't hear how I'm saying it different, but some folks can!

I think I have no accent. My husband from New Jersey thinks I do and says it was the reason he came to my store. He wanted to put a face to the voice. (He was calling for directions.)

When I was in college, someone from Canada asked me what part of Canada I was from. I was like :wtf:? I'm from Minnesota! Eh!

I've got one of those ears. I can sound like "newscaster American" or "BBC English." I can mimic my redneck Georgia relatives with ease.

In daily conversation when I don't give it a second thought I blend in with middle America, prime time sit com drama speak.

If I've been speaking to my relatives on the phone, imbiding too much alcohol or losing way too much sleep I start sounding like Scarlett O'Hara much to my Yankee husband's amusement.

Not quite as thick as Paula Deen, but I do turn one-syllable words into two or 3: Da-yate, Fa-ayvorite. "Ah" for "I"

I didn't think I did, until I visited California and people told me I talked funny.

:shrug:

Who knew? So ayup, I guess I do.

your standard mid-atlantic non accent.

Sometimes it's there, sometimes it isn't

:evilgrin:

In my mind, she sounds like Emily Proctor, North Carolinian actress on CSI: Miami and The West Wing.

Emily Procter is from Raleigh (I think she's a blasted republican, though, from what I hear).

Someone actually wrote into a newspaper columnist and asked if she has a speech impediment; they couldn't figure out why she is hard to understand (to them).

"It's Shake-n-Bake and I helped"

Not just California, no, but Bay Area.

People down here make fun of me for it. :(

Huh. I've lived in or near the Bay Area my entire life (born and raised Northern Californian) and I've never heard that before.

"Dude, my boss was HELLA late for the meeting."

:P

Also, it's not surfer, or stoner, or valley girl, but like, owes a debt to all three. :D

Odd, I just figured that was part of the west coast vocabulary, like dude.

And I do use "like" a lot. Like constantly.

Never thought about it before :)

n/t

I swore I would NEVER EVER EVER use the word "hella" when I first got up here. Now I find it slipping into my conversation every now and then and I'm like, "Where did THAT come from?"

Some days I sound like a kennedy. I envy women with soft southern accents sometimes.

If I get upset or pissed off?
My accent is thick, my voice rises high pitched and I talk wicked fast!! :P
But people in the southwest were fooled by me and a friend from Australia!
They thought we were sisters!! :rofl: They couldn't tell the difference in accents!

Interestingly enough, I don't get excited very often.

I talk too fast to sound like Gone With The Wind or something.
Used to-when I talked with people from North Carolina, they could tell what part of the state I was from but it's been a long time. Now I live in Virginia which I though was still Southern but people here notice my accent as soon as I say anything. I'm proud of it :)

I've been told I still have one.

So, I don't know. Call me, so YOU can tell ME!

I sound like Ben Stein without the charisma.

When I'm at home in Florida with my family, it gets thicker. When I'm in DC (where I live most of the time) it's hardly noticable.

Any questions, y'all?

I was born there, but grew up in Miami. I have never been able to shake the Philadelphia accent, though.

I was born and raised in Texas, U.S.A. by parents from Oklahoma and Arkansas. :-)

It freaked out Haruka the first time she heard me speak.

my native Italian accent (which pops up now and then) and a bit of a NC drawl due to my having lived in the Raleigh/Durham/Sanford, NC area for a very long time.

When I lived in NYC, people said I had no accent, except for a faint Italian one.

Alabama born and raised so I think I will always have one.

I have a hint of Houston, a dash of Dallas, a generous helping of bland Iowa, and the rest is Pittsburghese. When I get drunk it's hilarious, because the texan and pittsburgh accents try to fight it out, so I'll end up yelling down the bar "Ya'll goin aaht ta eat 'n 'at after?". ANd the slurring doesn't help it too much, either.

We worsh our clothes and hang them to dry by the crick. Our first president was George Worshington and each year we celebrate his birfday on President's day.

We do some crazy stuff with grammar too

until I went to Las Vegas a few years ago and started talking to some people from Washington state
They asked me where I was from and guessed the NE because alot of their neighbors came from here and I
sounded like them.... then they asked me to say hanger, water and coffee........
then they said them also and we were different!



lost

although i can slip in and out of two fairly easily depending on circumstances.

years now. My accent isn't as pronounced as some who have lived here since birth, but it has definitely gotten more "southern" as time goes by.

I have a slight west Texas twang.

'preciate ya! :hi:

I'm a born and bred Southerner! :)

grew up in Virginia with New York-born parents, so
sort of watered-down northern VA, I guess. But I
am stationed in Germany, und vee haff vays to
make you talk!!!

which has a dialect all its own. I really notice it with my family and friends back in PA now.

I just can't for the life of me place what part of California it is.........

Parents come from upstate NY, I grew up in West Virginia, I live in NYC (18yrs now)...so I've got a pretty standard American English voice, with just a touch of soft country/South and a dollop of New Yawk on top....

Which may be frightfully old-fashioned, nay archaic, these days.

That said, so ears attuned to American-English I'm sure my "accent" sounds very strong indeed.

It's not Dickensian diction, is it? ;)

I don't have any recordings of him. ;)

Seriously, though, why do you say it's archaic?

once in a while with certain words one might detect a northeast influence but for the most part, no. :)

I love regional dialects.....y'all. Texan here and yes, I have a strong accent though compared to some...not so much. It really depends on where in Texas a person is from. We have probably five different regional dialects.
Lee

But you're all welcome to give me a call and judge for yourselves! :hi:

Anybody who ever heard Irv Weinstein has it.

....boy am I lucky or what.

North side, closed vowels, flat mid-western Chicago accent and a southern, hot potatoes in the mouth Swedish accent.

As far as French, I think I sound like a weird mix of blended English/Swedish/French.
My Spanish sounds like Spanish with an American twist.

Cheers

I speak like a Porteño from Buenos Aires.

It drives Mexicans and Central Americans nuts.

I had to work with someone with a strong New England accent.

We couldn't undestand each other.:rofl:

n/t

reeeaal southernnn

once told me she loved my accent.

Bill