What about your regional accent?

Yup. Russian accent for those who don't speak russian, some weird russian accent for those who do.

I don't have an accent. I speak pure American.

Being away from the south I've think I've lost most of my accent but others in foreign countries my think otherwise!

>>>I'm from the northwest, where we claim we don't have accents<<<

Hey Peg, you have an accent to us down here!
(p.s. Loved Seville! Lucky gal.)

I'm mixed up. I was born in Oregon and have lived on the west coast all my life, but my mom lived mostly on the east coast growing up, and my dad was born and raised in Portland, Maine as was his mother, grand mother etc. He and my mom lived in New York City for quite a few years after they were married, and my SO is from Poughkeepsie. I must be influenced by all these people because in the past I have had people ask me if I was from the east.

Years ago we had a British tenant renting a house from us. One day we got on the subject of accents and she said she can't tell a Texan from a New Yorker. She said, "It all sounds American to me." I thought this was kind of funny, especially since she had lived here for about 15 years.

As for me, I most certainly can spot a Texan and I can usually tell what part of Texas they are from. Texas is such a large state that accents vary from one part of the state to another. People often tell me I don't sound like at Texan. Actually I do, but I sound like an Austinite which is very different from the accent you hear in other parts of the state.

But Northwesterners *don't* have accents. Neither do Arizonans, I've noticed.

I grew up in the South, lived over 30 years in NY and now live in South America.
God knows what I sound like !!
But there are people who say they hear the Southern ... amazes me ..

My husband sounds exactly like what he is ... a soft spoken well educated NYer

Scarlett, I didn't hear the Southern accent when we met. Of course now you live further south than any of us so maybe the drawl will return.

No one believes I hail from Michigan. We moved to NJ when I was 6 years old. Not may people mistake me as being from any other place other then "the NY area". Now living in Virginia, most just think of me as a "Yankee". I'm cool with that.

mellifluous...nuthin wrong with sounding like a Yankee

P_M, did I sound like I was from anywhere? I wonder sometimes if I have any accent at all.. but then I say things like Bless your heart or Get outtahere

Scarlett, I don't recall any accent that stood out. That means you sound normal--like me.

I'm from Boston but I don't have an accent. Whenever I'm traveling and I tell people where I'm from, they say "but you don't have an accent!"

I had a former coworker who was Welsh, she had the best accent. Anyway, I transferred a phone call from a woman from Alabama to her and the woman said, "you have such a great accent, are you from Texas?" Um, no.

I'm from Colorado. I don't have an accent.

I've lived outside of the US for 12 years. Here in Australia most people ask if I'm Canadian, but seem unsure since I don't don a maple leaf. One British friend told me I have a California accent, whatever the heck that is. And not long ago a fellow asked if I was Irish. WTF?

When I lived in Texas years ago, I was called a Yankee and "the girl from the north". Go figure.

Scarlett, one of my new friends here in Virginia has been teaching me how to speak like a proper southern lady, bless her heart.

My accent can vary from day to day..I have European accent of course but is a mix of few languages.Certains days some people can recognize my Italian accent,other days is like a guessing game, French, German, Russian etc.., etc..,

The strangest thing is that I speak English with A European accent, however, when I go back to Europe and speak Italian or French, I then have a slight American accent.
Cant win..

My southern friends say I have lost my accent and talk like a yankee.

My northern friends constantly kid me about my southern accent.

I was born and raised in Tennessee, and I definitely have a southern accent; we moved to the Atlanta area when our kids were in elementary and middle schools, and their southern accent isn't nearly as strong, I think because most of the people at school and in our neighborhoods weren't born here.

There is a difference between a southern accent, and a really country, uneducated accent. When I go back home and sometimes when I go to family reunions, I can't understand the country accent sometimes.

My accent isn't as strong as it used to be, but people tell me I definitely have a southern accent. And that's okay with me!

"There is a difference between a southern accent, and a really country, uneducated accent."

Thank you Samsaf, that is SO true!! I only wish everyone could hear that difference.

There is also an uneducated, rural northern accent.

I have been told that Michiganders do not have accents. Then again, I was asked on a few occasions by fellow Michiganders where I am from, even though I've lived here all my life. Go figure.

What accent?

My grandmother had a San Francisco Mission District accent. Yes, even a city as small as San Francisco used to have discernible accents. My mother used to sometimes be mistaken as being from Ireland although we didn't think she sounded at all Irish.

I am sometimes mistaken as being from the east coast as apparently I talk quickly and I'm told that is an eastern trait. I do not, however, sound at all like a New Yorker or a Bostonian.

One of the most precious accents I heard was when I was visiting friends in the Region of Molise in Italy. They had some relatives return to the village from Australia where they had lived for some 20 years. So these delightful people had a combination of an Italian and an Australian accent when talking English to us.

A very good friend in BC, Canada claimed he could always tell where Americans where from in the US due to their accents. But he was one that always had "big" stories so I don't know if that was true or not. But he claimed we Californians had an accent. Who knew?

I grew up in the New York borough of Staten Island but I don't have an accent. My sister on the other hand has an incredibly think New York accent. She called my office and the person who picked up couldn't believe we were related and grew up in the same house.

I grew up in Joisey and moved to California as a VERY young woman(1000 years ago)so I suppose I have a California accent...but give me a week in Joisey or New Yawk and I am soundin' like a native

Peg

First the accent in that part of Spain is different than other parts. They clip the ends of many words and it is not considered highly educated.

I grew up in Brooklyn and have a Masters in English (not in spelling) and very often my Brooklyn accent will fight through. Some times I sound like one of rhe Bowery Boys uttering a polysyllabic word in a certain tone. I have mentioned this before and I often say "I bunked into some one," unless I catch myslef.

Accent? yinz mean whenever we speak picksburgese, n'at? woll it's not an accent, it's jest da way we like to talk to each other in da burgh.

I understood you perfectly, Steelerfan!

I was born and raised in South Jersey--right outside of Philly. I can spot that accent a mile away. I've lived in Ohio 38 years and thought I had really lost my SJ accent, but some people say they can still hear it, especially with certain words like "cherry" and "quarter." But I do NOT say "wooder" for water anymore

When I go home to SJ to visit family I fall immediately back into the accent full blast. It's so much easier, I guess.

My dear friend in Edinburgh used to own a guest house and she liked to tell a story about a Texan who couldn't figure out how to flush the toilet. She would mimic his accent and thought she had it dead on. NOT! You want to hear funny, ask a Scot to say "the lever on the commode won't flush" with their version of a Texas accent! LOL

'...she said she can't tell a Texan from a New Yorker. She said, "It all sounds American to me."'

Some people just have a tin ear. By the same token an American poster recently admitted that she couldn't tell one British accent from another, apart from Cockney - Scots, Welsh and Yorkshiremen presumably sounding all the same.

On my first visit to the US I, an Australian, was variously taken to be from (a) England, (b) South Africa, (c) Georgia and (d) "up No'th - Y'all sound like a Yankee to me!".

“Here in Australia most people ask if I'm Canadian, but seem unsure since I don't don a maple leaf.”

Mel, when in doubt I’ve found it safer to ask whether the North American in question is Canadian, on the grounds that if they’re American they won’t get too upset with me - whereas the converse can’t be assumed

When I was a child in grade school in Tennessee, my brothers and I were taken to the speech therapist who then called my mother to come in for a conference. The therapist talked to my mother for a few minutes and then said to her, "Why you have the same speech problem that your children have." My mother answered her indignantly, " That's not a speech problem. That's a Virginia accent!"

Now I am back in the Shenandoah Valley close to where my mother grew up, and I sometimes hear the lovely old, almost English sounding, Virginia accent that she has. However, so many people have moved into the area that it is getting pretty rare.

When we were in England several years ago, a number of English people thought I was from some part of England, but they weren't quite sure where. We enjoyed riding on the train there and in the car where we were sitting, we could hear six different English accents.

I used to be a Valley Girl (Los Angeles), and people would ask if I had a New York accent.

I think it's from saying "like" a lot.

I'm Austin born but having grown up in a military family and lived abroad for many years, most people can't tell I'm a Texan unless I use phrases such as ya'll. When people try to guess where I am from they generally choose California and I have never lived there.

I grew up in the South but moved to South Florida in my 20's, then on to San Jose, California, then to Rancho Cucamonga (yes, there really is a place named that) and now in NE Indiana, and everywhere I've lived they've claimed I had an accent. Here in Indiana they even have different words for things, like a moth is a miller, and there are "R's" in wash and squash, and they have carmel corn and I say caramel corn, and even though I haven't lived in the South in many years, they claim I still have an accent. My southern relatives claim I talk like a yankee.

I have also been asked about being English, but none of that in my accent that I can tell.

I'm sure there are words and phrases and inflections that reflect my original accent, but I've picked up a lot of regional words from moving around so much, too. I kind of like that.

I was raised in Minnesota by people who all sounded just like the characters in "Fargo." We moved to California and we all thought that Californians had an accent.

I used to work with a woman who was raised in Trinidad by British parents and then she spent many years in Boston. She had a very unusual accent.

When I return to Chicago or am among Chicagoans, I speak pure Chicagoese. It's my ultra-dry, understated, reverse sense of humor that gets me in trouble. Some people just don't get it.

Kailani ... I used to be a Valley Girl (Los Angeles), and people would ask if I had a New York accent. I think it's from saying "like" a lot.

LOL ! funny

I speak Philadelphian, a recognized regional dialect. But there are variations within even this, so sometimes I get asked if I'm British. Srsly.

I have an Atlanta accent -- people from other parts of the country hear just a slight trace of a southern accent. People from other parts of Georgia think I'm from the north.

I'm a true Yank (from Connecticut) but have lived in NYC for 9 years. I do NOT have a NY accent (like Ryan's sister) but I used to talk really fast. 4 years in Nashville (where I picked up a huge southern accent) and 8 years in Chicago (where my As became flat) turned things around. So now I guess I have a mix. I love when I go to Australia and everyone wants me to keep talking because they love my accent, unlike when I'm at home!

It's very weird but I LOVE Philadelphia accents. I've had 2 boyfriends from Philly and it's a great mix between North and South.

I also tend to pick up the accent/voice wherever I am. When I go back to Nashville it's immediately y'all and fixin. Very scary sometimes!

When I was on an army post in Germany, my good friend was a girl from Memphis. She'd call her mother, who'd wail, "Sugah, you sound just lahk a Ya-an-kee!" (Three syllables in "Yankee.")

My favorites to hear are anyone from Scotland or Ireland, and this woman who was a friend of my mother. She had come from Denmark but lived her adult life in The Bronx. What an interesting way of speaking she had!

I knew Celiaanne would understand the Pittsburghese.
(GO STEELERS, WE WON AGAIN TONIGHT!)

I once dated a fellow from Dallas, TX.
When he'd call it took six minutes for him to say hello, and I swear he made "hi" into a three syllable word.

I am so very Californian and yes, Californians do have an accent, especially if someone grew up in Southern California.

I was eating on the terrace of a restaurant in Toulouse and a couple next to me was speaking English, so I asked them where they were from and told them I live in Massachusetts. After about five minutes the man said to me, "You didn't come from Massachusetts originally, did you?"

I can't hide my New York roots.

But the regional accents around our area are dying out. I am especially sorry to miss the northwestern Rhode Island pronunciation of potatoes as "badaydas".

I was born in MA and moved to southern NH when I was young but lived in a town without many natives. I didn't hear any 'ayuhs' until I met my future husband's family. During my 20s, my co-workers said I didn't have any accent. Now, however, mid-westerners in our public speaking club, catch my 'mispronunciations' such as gonna instead of going, are'er instead of area. We attend bean suppahs and love lobstah. A NH humorist does a funny story about how different parts of NH have certain words/phrases that other parts of the state don't understand like 'goin hornpoutin'. I suppose my FIL had a uneducated New England accent. He used many regional phrases that are disappearing. The state is becoming populated with transplants, so I imagine the old Yankee accent will disappear eventually. When DS was in grade school he got very upset with his teacher because she said 'here' was only one syllable and he was sure it had two.

Right, Steelersfan. I can recognize a true Pittsburgh accent from a block away. I don't have one though

<<I'm from Boston but I don't have an accent. Whenever I'm traveling and I tell people where I'm from, they say "but you don't have an accent!">>

Substitute New Orleans for Boston and I get the same thing! But I spent my first 11 years living all over the country, before landing in NO. I don't really have an accent, altho I can do a great Mississippi one if the need arises!

DH is very good at pickout out accents. He's really good at spotting Pittsburgh accents.

Many New Orleaneans sound like they are from New York,and some from the South. It depends on the neighborhood. It all depends on "where your mama lives" and "dat you went to the right schools. Just ax anyone."

southeastern...you beat me to it. I was about to say the same thing about N.O. accents. When we moved there, I first thought there were an awful lot of New Yorkers living there! I'm originally from MA so pick up on a NY accent--I thought! LOL One of the areas with the regional NO accent is Old Metairie--or maybe it's just that most of Old Metairie is populated by old time New Orleanians.

My end of Massachusetts "has no accent", at least to my ears. When I started at UMass, I was constantly asking my fellow students from the Boston area what they were saying. Today I can still pick out that accent even in someone who has been out of the state for decades.

My husband was born and raised in MS. When he went to OCS in Rhode Island, no one could understand him, so he was determined that then and there, his accent would go. I met him 2 years later, and by that point any vestige of a southern accent was totally erased. He absolutely has no accent. Conversely, his brother who lived a decade in Australia and another decade in England, has as much of a MS accent as he ever did....AS does his wife, who is from a Massachusetts town 50 miles east of mine! (I know my MIL wondered where she went wrong with both her boys marrying damned Yankees )

Let's see... born in Denmark, raised in Michigan until I was 8, then in Miami, lived in Gainesville 8 years, now in WV. I've always taken care to enunciate my words, so I have been told on several occasions I have a slight British accent. Huh? While my mom lived in England and Scotland while she was pregnant, that certainly shouldn't have made it's way into my speech patterns. I suppose I have a midwest accent. I certainly don't hear it, but I can usually find other midwesterners by their lack (to me) of accent.

Being an anglophile, I watch LOTS of British TV, movies, listen to books-on-tape, etc. Therefore, some of my speech patterns are beginning to sound British or Irish or Scottish - my word choices, my vowel sounds. It's mostly unconscious, but I like it

Skiergirl, I grew up in Nashville (Bellemeade) and never heard "Y'all" and definitely not "fixin' to" until I moved to southern Mississippi.

From Virginia....have a Virginia accent. We say "y'all" but not "fixin". We also are liberal with the sirs and ma'ams.

I speak RP. So BBC English. Though I can still speak Middlesex if I want to. I speak Dutch with an English accent.
My husband has an Oldham accent, modified by living 40+ years away from the place, but still very audible. He speaks Dutch with an Oldham accent and mangles some words horribly. Most people can understand him, but he is a source of great amusement to our sons and their wives.
My eldest two sons speak English with a slight Oxfordshire accent and Dutch with our local accent. The youngest to our ears speaks English as his brothers do, but to outsiders he speaks with a Dutch accent. He has been here since he was 3, so I suppose that is not so surprising.

I liked the accent in the North West US. It was a very pleasant accent to listen to. I hate the SoCal accent adopted mainly by girls. A friend's daughter speaks that way and it is horrible. He is from Michigan and has a nice accent, modified by years in SoCal. Another friend from Floorda (that's how it sounds to me when he says it) has lived all over the place but still swears he has a Florida accent. I've never been to Florida so I can't say if that is true.
Some US accents are easy to identify but most are not to a foreign ear.
I can tell a Canadian by the way they say certain words - about for instance.

I don't know if Iowa even has an accent. I've always been told that we're pretty unaccented.

I feel left out now, I want a funky accent that nobody can understand!

Not only an accent but word usage can also give clues to where one grew up. I grew up in Ohio near Ky/WV so I do on occasion have a bit of a 'twang, but we also tend to end sentences w/'at'. eg. "Where is the dog at ?" I drink pop, not soda or coke. It may not only be how you say something, but what you say as well.

Being a Midwesterner, I think of myself as having no accent. But, judging by the comments stw made here after our mini GTG a year and a half ago, she disagrees! Obviously, an accent is in the ear of the beholder.

southern California's don't have accents either

Canadians will say ah? at the end of a sentence. Love it. Whenever I'm at a store and I hear that I will ask the person "where in Canada are you from?" They can never guess how I knew!!

Many years ago I told my friends from NYC that I (raised in Ohio near the MI line) didn't have an accent. They said that accents are like ice cream flavors. Everyone has one and mine would be vanilla.

hetismij--the only problem with identifying Canadians by "about" is that Tidewater Virginians have that same unusual way of pronouncing that word. "House" is another word it shows up in.

< They said that accents are like ice cream flavors. Everyone has one and mine would be vanilla.>

Your friend is right,gomiki..everybody has a certain regional accent, even those that say that are accentless.
It is the same way in Italy..Every region have a different accent or different ways to call things, even when they dont speak their dialects and speak in Italian.

When I moved to Texas most everyone could spot my Minnesota accent. 16 years later I moved back to Minnesota and most everyone thought I was from Texas and some told me their was no way I went to high school here. I'm sure some of then thought I was lying! Now it is ten years later and I still hear some Texas in my speech. I can do a pretty mean impersonation of H. Ross Parrot!

CAPH, I can definitely hear a Midwestern accent when I meet someone from that part of the country. But it's very charming.

Say three words: any -- many -- penny. And I am told a trained ear for American linguistics can tell where you grew up. Three other words are giveaways: oil -- all -- chimney.

I once rode a train from London to York. A fellow passenger in our car, a British man, said he could listen to others and tell within 50 miles where they grew up. Sure enough, he could. Small island, many ways of talking.

Hopefully we have southern accents and not uneducated
country accents. In England the taxi driver asked us if
we were from Australia. Haven't had that happen again, but
quite often in various places in Europe have been asked
if we are from Texas. Well, Tennessee is not that far.

I grew up on Cape Cod in eastern Massachusetts but have lived in western Mass (5 miles from NY border) for over 40 years. My students and peers all tell me they can hear that Cape Cod speech even now. When I go "home" for a visit, my sibs tell me I have gotten a "western Mass" accent. Go figure.

When I was first in this part of the state, a fellow came to talk to us (teachers) at an inservice. I can't remember what the point was, but he was talking about regionalisms. He drew a picture of a coke bottle on the board and asked what came in the bottle. As he went around the table, everyone said "soda" but I said "tonic". Everyone looked at me strangely, and the fellow said, "I can tell where you come from within 50 miles or less." He drew a rough map of New England and drew a circle with a small radius and said only people from that part of Mass used the term "tonic" for soda.
Very soon I adopted the local term as I was apt to get something I didn't want if I asked for tonic. I also notice that few people at "home" say tonic any more. We are becoming a melting pot.

I worked in small breakfast/luncheonette during summers when I was in high school. We had a lot of tourists during the summer and when we had people from "away" we often had to make sure that our versions of some foods were the same as theirs when we took an order. For instance, for us a milkshake was milk and syrup whirled around in a blender, but from some places a milkshake was milk, syrup and icecream whirled in the blender. To us, when ice cream was added, it became a frappe.

irishface, one of my best friends in college called it "tonic" too, except it wasn't pronounced the way I did. I say "tahnic", she says "tawnic". My hometown by the way, is also 5 miles from the NY state border. Made for a dangerous time in high school/early college when the NY state drinking age was 18, and MA was 21. To make matters worse, it was a steep, two lane, winding road "over the hill"...as we called it , often treacherous in winter.

I meant to add, my tonic drinking friend was from Brockton.

OO, Brockton was within the circle for tonic.

Most of my peers here tell about heading "over the hill" to drink when they were 18 (or younger) or finding a cornfield in which to have a good party. Were you from north county or south county? That road from here to NY state is as twisty and windy as ever, and I don't like that road that much even in daylight and in good weather.

That "short o" sound is hard for me even now. There are certain tests the speech teacher used to give when students were asked to listen to two words and tell if they were different or the same.

Here those words like caught and cot, Dawn and Don, taught and tot are pronounced differently and where I came from they were homophones (a la your roommate from Brockton.)

I met a fellow traveler in England and after a few sentences I asked him what part of Canada he was from. He was amazed that I asked him that and said he did not say "eh" to me. He didn't. I told him it was the "ou" sound and then he said that the whole "ou" thing in spotting a Canadian accent was a myth and insisted I had overheard him telling someone he was Canadian! Television news reporting and HGTV are filled with Canadians. Does anyone remember Kevin Newman who used to be a co-host on GMA? One morning his co-host "revealed" that he was Canadian and he lost his cool. He said he was going to duct tape here mouth shut! He actually thought that nobody could tell that he was Canadian. The incident got him and his co-host replaced within a month.

Well, as long as it's charming, P_M...!

"Small island, many ways of talking."

Same is true for Ireland.

violetduck, that's so funny! Several times when I heve been out of the United States I have been asked if I am from Australia, so somehow, the Southern accent and the Australian must be alike to non-U.S. residents.

I have a British accent and my regional accent is the west midlands (but not too droney Brummie!!! but you can tell i am from Birmingham UK!!) some people think i also have a cockney twang mix too?? gawd knows where that comes from.Maybe it's because i have lived with a Londoner for a long time.
When i was on Cape Cod a few years ago someone asked me if i was Irish?
I have also been mistaken for Australian in Caliornia!

You all speak AMERICAN and that itself is considered an accent in "ol' Europe"

SV

I'm from Texas, but most people don't think I have an accent. However I remember being in Colorado and asking a waitress, "May I have some corn please?" And she said, "You're from Texas; I'd know that accent anywhere!" So I guess there is a bit of one! I do say y'all so that's a dead giveaway.

I have to admit that New York, New Jersey, and Boston accents all sound the same to me. I know they're very different, but I can't discern the differences.

I get taken for an Australian all the time:

English:

a) A little bit Cockney
b) A little bit Hampshire
c) A little bit Posh

The Texan accent, and I'm not sure why, is a euphemism among many foreigners for "incomprehensible"

"Are you from Texas?" means "I don't understand a word you are saying"

Interesting to hear once more the notion of "no accent"

EVERYONE has an accent.

irishface, I live on the Cape now. When I arrived here my answer to what was in the Coke bottle would have been 'pop.'

Irishface...I'm from neither north nor south county, LOL. Our town was nicknamed "the heart of the Berkshires". Pittsfield, but as far south as you can go in Pittsfield and still be in the city limits. .

I can imagine the short o is, and will always be difficult for you. There is no way I can get my tongue around the eastern MA pronunciation of those same words. Trying to figure out how to spell tonic as it's pronounced in Brockton was even hard, as I really can't pronounce it "their way".

Hope you are enjoying life in the Berkshires! Growing up there, I never realized how pretty it was until I left.

Odds and ends about accents:

The first time I went to London--back in the late 60's--and heard someone say "wiv" instead of "with," I was thrilled. (I know, I thrill easily.) But it was like I'd met someone from all those Dickens books I'd read.

A young Australian guy I met at a Goethe Institute in Germany asked if I could tell he was Australian by his speech. I laughed pretty hard.

The British have odd names for accents. What's a "brummie" accent? How about "Geordie"?

do you say "shore", instead of "sure"?
do you say they were "Barn in a barn"
do you say "nope" when you mean "no"
do you say "where ya at?" ....hint: NO

do you say "actually" every other word? I think you have to be under 30?

Discussing with some friends from Virginy last night...

Americans have a notion of "correct" speech that the English are a lot more relaxed about.

Being "regional" has been popular since the sixties.

They even have Welsh people on Radio 4!

"EVERYONE has an accent."

Just to clarify, when I say I don't feel I have an accent, I mean in terms of a regional American accent. Not meaning to exclude other English speakers, it's just that since the OP is American, when she mentioned regional accents, that's what came to mind.

I remember meeting some American pilots in Brighton, who were impressed by "our" accents, while insisting that they had none of their own.

When I pointed out that they sounded like Americans....they appeared confused.

Saraho-I learned all of that while at Vanderbilt! Plenty of southerners around from MS, AL, GA to teach me!

Since you folks spoke it first, I'd have to say you have dibs on the claim of speaking the non-accented version, J_R!

Not really, even a standard RP (received pronunciation) is an accent.

Brummie is an accent from Birmingham UK. Mine isn't particulary broad BUT you can tell i am from the Midlands.

"Canadians will say ah? at the end of a sentence."

North Queenslanders are also prone to tacking on an "eh", but it's pretty emphatic, more exclamation than question mark.

By way of example, friends of mine now live on a somewhat remote hilltop south of Cairns. Having no garbage collection service they save up their rubbish and take a load to town now and again for disposal in a suitable skip (dumpster). The last time this happened the lady of the house was disposing of a truly awesome load of beer and wine bottles for recycling, the result of a succession of well-attended parties over several weeks, when a passing Aboriginal bloke stopped, observed for a while and, clearly impressed, remarked “Top night, Missus, EH!”

My husband and I were both born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Unless I have a few drinks (or you piss me off) most people have no idea where I'm from. My husband usually sounds like one of the Bowery Boys. It's funny when people don't believe we're from the same place. There are a lot of different NYC accents. My parents were immigrants so I think that's why I never had a really harsh Brooklyn accent. Then, in college I took a phonetic speech class and it really helped.

OO, I love your Berkshires! I feel very lucky to have spent so much of my life here in "south county". I know Pittsfield well, as I go there for some shopping and other activities. Too bad that North St. is not what it was, though I think the mayor is doing his best to remedy the situation.

Of course, I don't think I have an accent.. But since I'm Canadian, I suppose I do have a way of saying about and house. And I probably do say the odd 'eh' at the end of a sentence.

How come newscasters don't have accents? and aren't they from all over the continent?
SO what accent is the 'no accent' way of talking in North America?

Samsaf, I am from Ga - close to Tenn. and when in the UK I have been asked if I were Australian. In the US, I am asked if I am from Texas.

When my husband was in middle school his family moved from Arkansas to California - this was the early '60's. When he enrolled in school they put him in the "slow" classes based solely on his accent. He was given no tests! Talk about prejudice! If he speaks slow, he must be slow!

People tell me I talk funny, ask where you from? I tell them I just got big 'adnoids'

Once a man heard me speaking to the clerk at a store. He said he could tell me where I had lived. I thought this will be fun cause I have lived all over. He was able to tell me 4 of the different areas/states where I had lived. He studied languages and sounds.

Oh! Before I am classified as uneducated, let me correct my last post! That should have been "If he speaks slowly..." or "If his speech is slow..."

"I am from Ga - close to Tenn. and when in the UK I have been asked if I were Australian..."

marlib1951, that's pretty weird. But then, on my first visit to the US I got chatting to an old lady from NJ, and after a few minutes she asked "Now is that a Georgia twang I hear in your voice?" Damned if can see a similarity, but there must be something there.

<He was able to tell me 4 of the different areas/states where I had lived. He studied languages and sounds.>

Interesting bratsandeer, I wonder if he was able to recognize
where I live or have lived in the US.
I have lived in NYState,Louisiana,Hawaii, California and Texas.
I dont count the foreign countries in which have lived.

I grew up in the Boston area. After college I moved to Wyoming. The first time I was out in a restaurant someone asked me what country I was from--I didn't even realize I had an accent.

Peg, I'm not ascared to reveal somethun about my ahcksent to you becuz I'm from Deetroit.

irishface...pretty sad to drive down North St now. It used to be alive..a couple of big department stores, 2 theaters, sporting goods, 5 and dime, Elise Farrar, 1888 Shop, both high end clothing, one on the Square and one right off it. It was a different era. Today's Mayor grew up about 5 doors from me on Spadina Pkwy...he was that skinny pesky little brother, and I can only think of him as "Jimmy", not the "James", and certainly not Mr. Mayor (!) as he is now addressed. Amazing place, our street especially, where kids grew up and many bought and are now living in their parents homes. My DH and I regret not having done the same with my parents' house...it'd be a great place to come back to in summer and fall, when it is miserable here.

Anyway...those roots go deep and I still get back every now and then. Love being home (provided it's summer ). ENJOY...you've really got a great place, providing you can get through the long winters. If you ski, even that is quite tolerable and summers are divine.

Brats, that is so interesting.

You should hear the way they talk in Buffalo, and that's only a stone's throw from me.
The radio announcers there have a really strong accent too. You should hear the way they say " Alan Jackson".

Skiergirl, I went to Vanderbilt, too.

What a civilised thread

jorr, I spent the first 21 yrs. of my life in MN & the past 30 years in Oklahoma so my accent experience is like yours. At least once a week someone asks me if I have just arrived here, but my MN H.S. friends always claim I have a tinge of Okla. accent.

chuckardk - Interesting. I was born in Minnesota and then my family moved to Oklahoma for a few years. In Oklahoma you need a sack, up north you need a bag for toting things. There was a big difference between speech in MN and Oklahoma.

"J_R_Hartley on Nov 10, 09 at 1:27pm
I remember meeting some American pilots in Brighton, who were impressed by "our" accents, while insisting that they had none of their own.
When I pointed out that they sounded like Americans....they appeared confused."

JR, Perhaps they knew they were in Brighton and were confused because you felt a necessity to point out that they were Americans! I would have been a bit confused by you as well.

No, they were aware that they were Americans before they met me and thought they had no accent.

bratsandbeer - interesting alright! In MN one waits for a bus; in OK one waits on a bus.

I think I must have a "standard" American accent (born in the Chicago area, with major stays in Seattle and Boston). Many years ago, I was having breakfast in the coffee shop of a hotel in Rio de Janeiro. The waiters had a few words of English (thank goodness because my Portuguese was weak). A man from Japan appeared and tried to arrange breakfast with my waiter for 20 people the next morning. They were both speaking English in very strong accents and could not understand each other well. I said, "Maybe I can help," and repeated what they said to each other in my standard American English. Worked perfectly. I often wondered whether I could have hung a shingle in Rio offering "English to English Translation Services" and made a fortune.

JR, no doubt they were playing you and you stepped right in it! Pilots are definitely a well traveled group. I'm sure you were not the first person they punked!

Chicago meets Minnesota.

With one exception (in rural Virginia) I've never had any trouble understanding Americans, which is more than I can say for some British accents. Some Americans have had trouble with mine, though.

Long ago Australian speech was classified for convenience into three streams - "educated" (a modified version of English RP), "broad" (think "professional Australians" like Paul Hogan and Steve Irwin) and something in the middle, which is about where I sit. Until the early 1970s most TV newsreaders and current affairs types fell into the "educated" category, whereas these days the middle ground is favoured.

I read somewhere that old American movie actors like Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn sound somewhat English because in those days the educated speech of New England was most esteemed - certainly in thespian circles, I imagine. The social and demographic changes associated with WW2 shifted the linguistic centre of gravity more towards a more (for kost Americans) neutral-sounding centre.

Like, oh my gosh, like do I have an accent? omg, that's totally awesome, so cool that I should chillax! I just love ending all my sentences with, like, upward inflections?!

btw, the other day someone came up to me and asked if I was "born in this country (USA)" -- I said "No, sir; I was born overseas, why do you ask?" He answered, "Wow that's amazing! Because you have no accent at all!"


Huh? Like, whatever?!

Having worked closely with the media for a number of years, my understanding is that Canadian broadcasters are often hired to work in the U.S. because they don't have regional accents like their American counterparts, e.g. Peter Jennings, Keith Morrison, John Roberts and Kevin Newman. But yes, the odd 'eh?' would give be a definite giveaway.