linda8 - my parents are both from (and still live in) the same general area that I am from - and they sound nothing like any of us! They have the more "usual" southern accents.

Susanna and SandyBrit,

Welcome to my world..it nice to know that i am not the only odd one when it comes to have various accents..

Susanna, I wish that I could hear you talking Italian..
Really a Napolitan accent is quite colorful, especiallylly coming from the mouth of an American..

You made my day...

Heather, where are you from?
I'm from South Alabama.
Doesn't get much more Southern than that!
(Florida doesn't count)

P.S. I now live in Virginia, and have "toned down" my accent so I don't sound too much like a Hillbilly!

Heather, that's so strange!
I wonder why you sound different?
(maybe more education?)

Heather, I didn't mean to insult your parents by that last comment. It just seems as the younger crowd becomes more educated and more well traveled, they can become a little more "worldly" than their parents. (sometimes)

Doesn't get much more Southern than that!
(Florida doesn't count)>>>>

Hey! Florida does count...it's a Southern state! Believe me, true natives have accents....you should hear my relatives...typical Florida cracker accents.

linda8 - I was born and raised in northeast arkansas - my mother is from there and my father from southern part of missouri. Not "technically" deep south, but still VERY southern!

I don't know if the education part really comes into play very much - we (meaning my parents and myself) are all college graduates or have higher degrees.

As far as travel goes - this will be my first trip to Europe (leaving for London in 9 days ), have only been to places like northern Africa before (exhusband was Morrocan) - my father hasn't travelled much out of the US and my mother goes only as far as the Bahamas. But, I have had the same accent all of my life.

Knoel998- maybe it is hard to tell what a native Floridan (is that a word? I think I spelled it wrong!) sounds like because there are so many transplanted citizens?

Have a great time in London!
I'm jealous!
(P.S. We lived in Pine Bluff, Arkansas 14 years ago, where my son was born.
Yes, VERY Southern!)

Knoel, what's a Florida "cracker"?

Baker & USNR...you are right! John Payne really was Marion Morrison born in Iowa same as my wife's Dad but he was a short bald guy!

Now then, I have found that I can't even understand English sometimes. Once I was standing next to a professor from India and realized I couldn't understand a word he was saying...in my own language. And I realize that I also have difficulty understanding many much younger than I talking in "youth speak" which is a combination of mumbling, clipped words, and unique vocabulary. Does anyone else have this trouble?

Bill in Missouri

While staying in a B&B in England and watching/timing the owner's kids having a swimming race, one of the young girls said to me "you have such a nice accent; I like to hear you speak." Now, I'm from California and don't think I have any accent. However, even a friend who grew up in Illinois said we Californians have an accent. I don't think there is a "definitive" American accent.

Ah, yes, "youthspeak".
To me (60s), many American youth today speak with VERY flat vowels and VERY softened consonants, with particular examples being ski bums from Colorado/Utah, and eastern Virginians.
Almost sounds like they are quite hard of hearing, and thus never learned what enunciated consonants sound like.

In our globalized world, are non-US Fodorites seeing/hearing this same type of generational speech change in their countries?

Years ago when i first came to America,I was able to tell the difference of various accent..From the Newyorkers to the Southerners etc..,

I remember one cartoon in particular, DEPUTY DAUGH?I used to watch it often , it was hilarious..I enjoyed to listen the way that Southern people talked..

Also another favourite's commercial was the one about the peanuts..It saidquot; I am a Southern Roasted Peanut dip in chocolate...."

Everyone has a certain amount of Regional accent...not matter in what a country or a State a person comes from.

i've always been interested in accents. being a native new yorker, who's parents are native new yorkers, i had a fairly thick accent until i started taking speech classes (i'm also an actor). Now whenever i meet people they're always surprised to hear i'm a native new yorkers and usually ask if i'm from North Carolina or Virginia..!

To: harzer

I too speak German, and not-so-fluent French. Checking my last email you'll see I didn't say I could pick all Australians. I was a more specific than that. I can pick with quite consistent accuracy:
- Western Australians
- Victorian males
- Sydneysiders
- Queenslanders (females better than males).
An interesting trend I am noting in the younger generation is that Australian females are developing an accent that is stunningly different from most of their male counterparts and from older generation Australians.

Twoflower: I was of course disputing whether you could pick any Australians by State of origin on the basis of accent; I certainly can't; and because the question is so often heard here: "where are you from?" I suspect that this is true for all Australians.

Harzer

To: Russ

Yes, I picked up that it wasn't your twaddle but the twaddle of some alleged linguists, so there was nowt personal in my remark! Oh, but isn't it rare to find research that is not so badly designed as to make the findings a farce? If we took these findings to their ultimate conclusion, we'd say the world in general has a negative attitude to schoolteachers because we all hate the sound of chalk being scraped across a blackboard!

Consider the following...
1. I am a patriotic - even parochial - person who loves my country and my countrymen (and women). I rate my compatriots extremely positively for their friendliness, hospitality and general all-round decency. Yet I rate their accent as one of the ugliest renditions of English on the planet. (I'll throw that one open for guesses!)
2. I've met few people anywhere who have a positive attitude toward the French. (I hasten to add that I do, but then I've spent a lot of time there). I've met equally few people who don't come over all gooey at the sound of the French language.

I could go on, and no doubt you can think of examples yourself, but I hope we can agree that no "thinking" person is likely to prejudge anybody by how melodic or harsh their accent sounds.

To: harzer

I understood what you were disputing, and I think I answered it. The answer is yes, I usually can, and have been able to do so for the last 30 years.