Accents

[Freya]

Let's talk about them again. The Ma'am thread started this.

I live in Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plains in the form of tornadoes. I was born in texas but primarily grew up in wyoming. Wyoming has a neutral accent. I've been living in oklahoma about 4 years now though and the stupid accent has been creeping into my own for a bit now.

So now i have this weird mix of northern-southern-western blah.

What accent do you have and what are some phrases that are normal for you but not for others?

[Unbreakable Will]

I've been suppressing my southern accent for years, but lately it's been coming out more and more so I figured "Eh just go with it".

As for phrases, I tend to say "Much obliged.", "Y'all" and other such southern-isms quite often. :shoot:

[Araciel]

If you live near Toronto, you pronounce it 'Torono'.

[Freya]

Oh people from south dakota say Beg not Bag.

[Faris]

Sure, I have an accent. What aboot it, eh?

[Pheesh]

Crikey, not this bloomin' thread again, mates!

[Tasura]

Sure, I have an accent. What aboot it, eh?

[noxious.sunshine]

I used to have a horrible Southern accent that is actually indigenous to my area South Eastern Tennessee (where I'm from. Ya know.. In Iron Man 3 when he's with that kid? My hometown is about 45 min north of there). My parents and siblings, all being from Ohio, ended up with the accent. And of course me, 'cuz I was born there. My parents still have it, as does my brother, but my sister & I lost ours and we both speak in a neutral/northern accent. I actually worked relatively hard to get rid of mine 'cuz the kids @ the Christian school made fun of me over it.

I still say things like "I used to could do that" and I still say "eyeball" and a precious few other words in a Southern accent. But what's funny, you'd think once you've lost it, you'd be able to at least speak in that accent again. I cannot. Unless I'm impersonating my dad or being sarcastic. In no way can I ever do it in my normal voice. Although I will say, I'm pretty dam good @ sounding like Sarah Palin. XD

One of my sister's friends is from Chattanooga, moved to Wisconsin, moved back down to Nashville. She has an odd Wisconsin-Southern accent mix. It's quite funny to listen to.

[Shorty]

Utahns don't pronounce t's. Or enunciate at all, rilly.

[Pike]

Oh people from south dakota say Beg not Bag.

The Pacific Northwest says bayg. So does Northern Ireland actually. And probably Ireland as a whole.

I consider my accent to be pretty neutral and "Standard American" but according to Wikipedia there are some moderate differences between the Pacific NW/Rocky Mountains accent and the standard accent. Nothing really noticeable unless you're a linguist or you really dig, I'm sure.

[Laddy]

I have no Southern accent and I am proud of this fact.

[noxious.sunshine]

High Five, Laddy. lulz

My sister's GF is from NE TN (Bristol, actually) and she says "toad" instead of "told". It's very subtle though.

I will say though, I could listen to Paula Deen & Dr. Phil talk all day long. I love their accents.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

I imagine I have at least a mild Southern accent. Apparently I like to do lots of voices and impersonations, and don't really notice when I do them.

Apparently not as thick as people from other areas hope for when I visit them and they know where I'm from. :shrug:

[Iceglow]

I am an accent. Well ok not really. I have a typically British accent. I know a few people will claim I sound cockney but generally speaking that would be me dumbing my usual accent down.

[Psychotic]

I have a typically British accent.No, you don't. London and Britain are not the same thing. I have a generic British accent, and you don't sound a smurfing lick like me you common pigherder. No-one on TV sounds like you. Have you never noticed that? ;)
I know a few people will claim I sound cockneyNot even that. You are a mixture of cockney and Estuary English. Either way, if someone heard you talk they'd know exactly what part of the country you were from. I've heard your posh voice and you still say words like "with" as "wiv" and "now" as "naaah", and spray that liberally with glottal stops.

[Shauna]

I speak the Queen's English.

[Night Fury]

Howay man....

[escobert]

If you live near Toronto, you pronounce it 'Torono'.

Or if you live in Vermont as well! :p


I speak with a New England accent but that doesn't mean I sound like a stupid masshole. I guess you could say we do sound a bit like Bostonian's and such but much closer to neutral than them.

[Iceglow]

I have a typically British accent.No, you don't. London and Britain are not the same thing. I have a generic British accent, and you don't sound a smurfing lick like me you common pigherder. No-one on TV sounds like you. Have you never noticed that? ;)
I know a few people will claim I sound cockneyNot even that. You are a mixture of cockney and Estuary English. Either way, if someone heard you talk they'd know exactly what part of the country you were from. I've heard your posh voice and you still say words like "with" as "wiv" and "now" as "naaah", and spray that liberally with glottal stops.

The irony of no fucker even in my own area not knowing where my accent is from. To the point of utter disbelief when I actually say I'm a local.


With being pronounced as "wiv" as you put it is more than likely a problem resulting in my shall we say, less than organized facial surgery.

[Inferno]

I speak with a french canadian accent, so pretty much everything I say in english sounds weird. People here struggle when saying "the", you know with the tongue... they say "de"

[fire_of_avalon]

Oh hey, people in this thread, collect colloquialisms. No, really I do. I have a whole list of things people say and mostly it's things people around here say.

So give me some.

[DownDiagonalLeftA]

From New York and tawk like it.

My boss has a THICK Albanian accent, its hilarious when customers joke about it to me. Sometimes on the phone I have to pretend like I can't hear him just to get him to repeat what he's saying because I can't understand it.

In particular, the phrase I make fun of most by him, when he sees me doing something right, he says "there you go" but it sounds like he's saying "ergo".

[Rebellious Eagle]

Utahns don't pronounce t's. Or enunciate at all, rilly.

We New Jerseyans don't pronounce our T's, either. It's Tren'on, not Trenton. Also my dad is from Philadelphia so I picked up a few things from him, such as pronouncing water like "worter".

[Unbreakable Will]

Oh hey, people in this thread, collect colloquialisms. No, really I do. I have a whole list of things people say and mostly it's things people around here say.

So give me some.
I do tend to sound like many cultures these days, I get odd stares because I say bollocks quite a bit on top of other things said around the site.

:monster:

[Loony BoB]

I have a New Zealand accent. Despite living in Scotland for ten years, I can't do a Scottish accent for the life of me. I have picked up on a few phrases, though. As for simple words like 'Aye', I was already saying them in NZ, so that doesn't count. :p

There are too many phrases over here to even attempt to list them. Same for NZ, really. I wouldn't know where to begin, and I know that there are a lot of sayings that are new in NZ that I don't know personally because I wasn't around when they became popular (eg. nek minit).

[Aulayna]

Aw'right meight, yeah, 'ows it goin'? 'ere, you 'ear about ol' Bob daaaaan in the garage - he's only gone an' bloody done 'is knee in again! Muppet.

[Loony BoB]

Are we also talking favourite accents in here? If so: My favourite accents are 'sing-song' accents like Irish (my favourite), Geordie, Southern (as in Southern USA). Some other Americans have a big of a sing-song to their accent too, which I really like. Beyond that, I also love the Jamaican accent and the Kent accent (near London, not to be confused with Kent's Australian accent ;)). Some Brits may chastise me for this, but I also like girls with Scouse accents a little... not as much as Kent or Geordie, though. And Yorkshire is often kinda funny.

My least liked accent is, sadly, Indian. I used to love it (http://home.eyesonff.com/general-chat/72670-accents-make-me-smile-post1368933.html#post1368933) when I was younger but erk, it's grating after being around so many of them on the bus now. :( It doesn't flow in any way whatsoever. I liken it to someone getting a stick and dragging it along metal bars. Di-di-di-di-di-di-di-di-di-di. Every syllable is so hard. I'm assuming it's a culture thing for Indians to consider it perfectly okay to sit next to someone on the bus, take out their phone and talk really loudly without stopping (seriously, is the person at the other end saying anything? o_o)... for an hour. I don't like that kind of culture thing. :( I know some much softer spoken Indian people, too, but the frequency of the more obnoxiously loud phonecallers on my bus is insaaaane.

[Sephex]

CHICAGA.

Actually, only a very thin trace of it, according to those who have heard my voice (and who don't live near the Chicagoland area).

[Pumpkin]

I imagine I have at least a mild Southern accent. Apparently I like to do lots of voices and impersonations, and don't really notice when I do them.

Apparently not as thick as people from other areas hope for when I visit them and they know where I'm from. :shrug:

He really barely has a southern accent. I can't hear it unless I'm trying to hear it.

I have a mild Canadian accent. It comes out mostly in my 'o's, like in the word no. It comes out the most when I say Nova Scotia. When I speak french, my accent is very much the Canadian French accent, but iI was taught to speak with the France French accent if I choose to.

[noxious.sunshine]

This is gonna sound -really- bad... But I really can't deal with talking to customer support over the phone when it's based over in India and the person's name is "Bob" and he sounds like Apoo from the Quickie Mart. I have no patience for it.

I swear I'm not racist. I dated an Indian dude one time.

I really can't think of any sayings me or anyone else used to say other than "I used ta could", which was something -I- always said. I've heard/read several Georgians say things like "Any Southern woman worth her salt" (namely Paula Deen & Trisha Yearwood. Eva Longoria has it somewhere in her cook book, too, but she's from Tejas).

I will say, I'm not too fond of Puerto Rican Spanish accents (how they say their R's like "L"s ... Like instead of saying "Martar" (to kill), they say "Maltal"). No offense to anyone. I also can never get used to the lispy Spanish the Spaniards speak, even though it's the Spanish from which all Spanish originates.

[The Man]

I have what has been described as "a real Florida accent", although I'm not really sure how much that differs from the standard American accent. Florida's accents are pretty atypical of the South, really, at least in the parts where I've lived; there are certainly other parts of Florida where there is a very pronounced Southern accent.

[Cuchulainn]

I'm a sucker for accents meself. I foreign girl can simply ask directions and i'm hers.

[Pike]

I'm a sucker for accents meself. I foreign girl can simply ask directions and i'm hers.

Hey Cuch, can you point me to the nearest pub? (I figure if it's Belfast there's got to be at least one within sight already, but anyway)

[Madame Adequate]

22 Maps That Show The Deepest Linguistic Conflicts In America - Business Insider (http://www.businessinsider.com/22-maps-that-show-the-deepest-linguistic-conflicts-in-america-2013-6)

>bubbler

[Shoden]

I have a weird one. Its Geordie, yeah but there's a few things I say differently and oddly.
Before any dares try and suggest it, its not a mackem accent. Good god... I hate that accent so much. "wheese keys are theese keys" aaargh

[CimminyCricket]

My father is from Minnesota and my mother is from Tennessee. I've spent equal amounts of time in the north and south, so I have an accent that is a mix of the two. Which accent comes out more depends on the accent of the person I most recently talked to (or my mood). Jasmin laughs at me all the time when I say beg instead of bag or when the occasional aboot. I really only catch my southern accent when I talk to my mom and I don't do that very often.

[Cuchulainn]

I'm a sucker for accents meself. I foreign girl can simply ask directions and i'm hers.

Hey Cuch, can you point me to the nearest pub? (I figure if it's Belfast there's got to be at least one within sight already, but anyway)

Your accent is powerless on the internet.

[~*~Celes~*~]

I have the nasaly northwest ohioan accent :(

[noxious.sunshine]

My father is from Minnesota and my mother is from Tennessee. I've spent equal amounts of time in the north and south, so I have an accent that is a mix of the two. Which accent comes out more depends on the accent of the person I most recently talked to (or my mood). Jasmin laughs at me all the time when I say beg instead of bag or when the occasional aboot. I really only catch my southern accent when I talk to my mom and I don't do that very often.

WHERE in TN!? lulz

Does your dad talk like Marshall's mom? From How I Met Your Mother?

[Jinx]

I want to hear Cuch's accent.

I have a pretty flat non-accent Mid-West accent, in my opinion. Everyone in the East Coast tells me that I have a Southern accent (I really don't). I've only been back here for a day, though, and I'm already picking up some really harsh accent shifts. :shobon:

[Laddy]

Less typing, more talking. (http://vocaroo.com/i/s0OG9wOfvLAr)

If I sound like a suburban gay white kid, it's because I am one. :roll:

[noxious.sunshine]

Yeah no. I refuse. lmao. I hate the way my voice sounds. I think I sound girly, but then I actually like.. Hear myself sometimes whether it's via voicemail or whatever and I think I have a pretty deep voice.

Sometimes I oddly take on a SoCal accent. Or that's what I've been told a few times. I've also been told I look like Carrie Underwood & Kelly Clarkson and had to question the people's state of sobriety/sanity. Whatevs.

Lulz... BTDubs... Nice voice thurr Laddeh.

[Jinx]

Yeah no. I refuse. lmao. I hate the way my voice sounds. I think I sound girly, but then I actually like.. Hear myself sometimes whether it's via voicemail or whatever and I think I have a pretty deep voice.

Sometimes I oddly take on a SoCal accent. Or that's what I've been told a few times. I've also been told I look like Carrie Underwood & Kelly Clarkson and had to question the people's state of sobriety/sanity. Whatevs.

Lulz... BTDubs... Nice voice thurr Laddeh.

I'm the exact opposite! I think my voice sounds incredibly low, then sometimes I really stop and listen and...I have an extremely childish voice. Not even high pitched (which is sort of is) just I sound like a little kid. I hate it. >.>

[Laddy]

Boobs, you have an adorable voice. Stop that! I sounds like a gay barbarian.

[Jinx]

Boobs, you have an adorable voice. Stop that! I sounds like a gay barbarian.

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h299/Leelah_2006/Dave_300.gif (http://media.photobucket.com/user/Leelah_2006/media/Dave_300.gif.html)

[CimminyCricket]

My father is from Minnesota and my mother is from Tennessee. I've spent equal amounts of time in the north and south, so I have an accent that is a mix of the two. Which accent comes out more depends on the accent of the person I most recently talked to (or my mood). Jasmin laughs at me all the time when I say beg instead of bag or when the occasional aboot. I really only catch my southern accent when I talk to my mom and I don't do that very often.

WHERE in TN!? lulz

Does your dad talk like Marshall's mom? From How I Met Your Mother?

I've got no clue where in TN, maybe Memphis. Her dad's a racist, blind drunk and her mother is the most fantastic woman I've ever met. The two of them are divorced and have been for quite some time. Her mom lives in Reno, NV and her dad still lives in TN. I'm not sure where since his new wife made them move when a black man was seen walking in the neighborhood. I'm not sure if my dad talks like Marshall's mom, I haven't gotten that far in HIMYM. It isn't very obvious, if that's what you're asking. He spent nearly his entire adult life in the Army traveling and has probably lost his accent. He makes fun of my mother for her southern accent all the time.

[Shorty]

SLC Utah Accent Challenge (USA) - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECwgoRvctrk)

This chick is almost 100% correct on all accounts with pronunciation and she's super adorbs, but she totally missed a big one with "fountain" - most valley folks say "fow anne" and completely miss the T, and "sirrup", which she half got. As for words she chooses like "pill bug" or "shopping cart", I say "rolly polly" and "basket". And I call the remote "the buttons". Mostly accurate!

GO UTES

[Freya]

Laddy you're too formal xD That's probably why people say you sound british.

I recorded myself for you lot as well. (http://vocaroo.com/i/s12VtPwgfWHV)

[noxious.sunshine]

Lookit y'all. Sounding all proper and stuff. XD

[Shauna]

I also speak properly, as my mother brought me up to do so. (http://vocaroo.com/i/s1tzQNC0N7j8)

[Shoden]

Behold my voice, fresh from the rise of slumber. (http://vocaroo.com/i/s1ZVzqZA2o5J)

[Tasura]

Well, here's me jumping on the bandwagon. (http://vocaroo.com/i/s1UQJEwRgxvn)

[noxious.sunshine]

Whenever I hear Aussie/Whatever "foreign" accents in general, I automatically think "Wow.. That person's -really- good at faking that accent." heh.

Ignore me. Klonopin is still working it's magic. Annnnd I need to go back to sleep.

[Mahad]

I have an accent. The world lives with it, although I don't have an idea of how bad it is. I don't try to speak so that people wont understand, but there's often a time or two where I'll have to repeat myself, more than once, to get my message across.

[Freya]

LISTEN TO ALL THE GLORIOUS ACCENTS! :D

[Citizen Bleys]

I'm actually a bit self-conscious about my accent; a bit over a year ago, I started making a conscious effort to enunciate the letter "t" correctly (around where I am, the letter T does not exist except at the beginning or ending of a word -- anywhere else, it's' pronounced like a D), so people from around here think I sound British. Now, I'm a confirmed xenophile, and I consume British television the way Americans consume spray-on cheese, so it gives the impression that I'm just a Brit-wanna-be.

The problem is, I don't actually sound British, at all. Yes, I enunciate the letter "T" clearly, unlike everyone else around me. Yes, I tend to use British diction as a result of prolonged and repeated exposure (Is there anything David Mitchell or Jimmy Carr has ever recorded that you haven't watched or listened to? Can't say the same). However, I do not pronounce a single solitary vowel sound the way anyone in England would in a billion years, I don't do glottal stops, and I pronounce the smurf out of the letter R.

An example of how the word "smartass" would be spelled if it were spelled the way it's pronounced:

Typical Canadian: smardass (http://vocaroo.com/i/s178gBFmZOTV)
Me: smartass (http://vocaroo.com/i/s19Ns0OFWZQc)
British: smoh'oss (http://vocaroo.com/i/s047DzBpANV8)

(yes, my mic is made entirely out of excrement. I am aware of this)

I am never going to say "smoh'oss." I don't mind if I slip and say "smardass," but "smoh'oss" is flat out of the question.

I even pronounce the letter a correctly (not the British way) when quoting Monty Python, even though the actors themselves pronounce it like an o. Furthermore, with Canadian-accented vowel sounds, I am able to say the word "can't" without sounding like I'm saying c**t, which is something the English c**t say.

I actually have absolutely no problem if someone says I sound Welsh, though.

[Shorty]

We don't consume spray-on cheese.

[Freya]

oh god your mic it's like you're a robot!

[Citizen Bleys]

We don't consume spray-on cheese.

Then what the devil do you do with it? Grout your bathroom tiles?

[Shorty]

We brush our teeth with it, of course. That's why it comes in those tubes, isn't it?

[noxious.sunshine]

Spray On cheese comes in a tube? Where? I've never seen this phenomenon.

[Jinx]

We don't consume spray-on cheese.


We brush our teeth with it, of course. That's why it comes in those tubes, isn't it?

I personally use it for hairspray. It just holds all day long, AND leaves a pleasant scent in your hair!

[Shauna]

oh god your mic it's like you're a robot!

I think he was eating it.

[Pike]

Ahahaha guys I looked at all of these Dialect Survey Results (http://spark-1590165977.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com/jkatz/SurveyMaps/)

Some of these things are SUCH Montana-isms xD Like "Crick" for Creek, or "That's expensive anymore" to mean "That's expensive these days". Ffffff I tried to hard not to start saying "anymore" like that but EVERYONE AROUND HERE DOES IT and I just picked up on it.

[Loony BoB]

If you want to hear my accent, you have to listen to the EoFF Podcasts.

[Cuchulainn]

If you want to hear my accent, you have to listen to the EoFF Podcasts.

Stop whoring your Podcast Robert.

[Unbreakable Will]

If you want to hear my accent, you have to listen to the EoFF Podcasts.

Stop whoring your Podcast Robert.
:cuch:

[Freya]

Today I caught myself.saying "i aint got no money." Oklahoma :argh:

[noxious.sunshine]

Uh Frey, dear, that's not just Oklahoma.... It's a Tennessee thang too!

[Citizen Bleys]

Today I caught myself.saying "i aint got no money." Oklahoma :argh:

That's neither accent nor dialect, it's just orally molesting the Queen's English.