What kind of accent do you have?

RadishRose said:
I cannot "hear" my accent. People in CA thought I might be from NYC. But that's a real exaggeration. My state being southern New England does not drop the R like northern New England. So I don't know how to describe it other than "no accent", LOL
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My wife's from Vermont, so I have an 'ear' for New England accents, particularly VT, CT and NH.

My parents and all ancestors were born / are from NC, SC, Virginia and Georgia, so I'm pretty well tuned into the various Southern accents.
 
I probably have a bit of a regional accent but being a transplanted mid-westerner living in Florida no one comments on my speech so it must not be distinctive. Since I live in a retirement community my friends and neighbors are transplants from all over the country. Although I recognize New England and Southern accents I have no problem comprehending.

Years ago I worked for an international company and it was not unusual to get together with groups of co-workers from foreign countries. I never will forget the time I spent an evening in some bars with co-workers from Great Britain. I think I remember they were from Manchester and York offices. We were having a really good time but I really had a difficult time following their conversations. Reminded me of the old saying two countries separated by a common language.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
Ferr shurre, we all have accents. No, you only think you don't. If you don't think you have an accent, that means your speech is exactly like all the people, who surround you. So, when you leave that area, low and behold, you have an accent. As a kid from Massachusetts, I had a "Boston" accent. Now I live in N.E. Pennsylvania, I talk like the locals. For "coffee", I say "cough-fee". Right across the river is New Jersey, they say "caw -fee", and they don't think they have an accent, either. I love accents. What kind of accent do you have? Got some favorites?
BTW, one of the weird things about accents is that we don't pick up the accents of our parents, or adults, we pick up the accent of the kids in our neighborhood. How they talk, we copy.
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As a fellow kid who grew up in Massachusetts I have some accent left but I live with a southerner in NC so when I go up north they tell me I have a southern accent.
 
Accent is variations in pronunciation of the same words: toh-may-to, toh-mah-to (tomato)

Dialect refers to differences in broad language features (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary): pop, soda or coke, hero or sub

I majored in speech, so I have an interest in regional dialects. You'd be hard pressed to pin down where I'm from. I've done several voiceovers where I had to use a regional accent.

In the videos below, dialect coach Erik Singer takes us on a tour of different accents across English-speaking North America. Erik, along with a host of other linguists and language experts, takes a look at some of the most interesting and distinct accents around the United States, Mexico, and Canada.





Bella✌️
 
Although I don't think I have an accent, since people say everyone does, so I must have one:LOL:. All I can say is maybe a NE Ohio and a bit of Southerner accent since I lived with someone from the south and kind of picked it up. :p
 
Tom52 said:
I probably have a bit of a regional accent but being a transplanted mid-westerner living in Florida no one comments on my speech so it must not be distinctive. Since I live in a retirement community my friends and neighbors are transplants from all over the country. Although I recognize New England and Southern accents I have no problem comprehending.

Years ago I worked for an international company and it was not unusual to get together with groups of co-workers from foreign countries. I never will forget the time I spent an evening in some bars with co-workers from Great Britain. I think I remember they were from Manchester and York offices. We were having a really good time but I really had a difficult time following their conversations. Reminded me of the old saying two countries separated by a common language.
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never mind 2 countries separated by a common language... we here in the South of England can't understand people from Manchester or York.... we're only separated Counties.. :ROFLMAO:
 
hollydolly said:
never mind 2 countries separated by a common language... we here in the South of England can't understand people from Manchester or York.... we're only separated Counties.. :ROFLMAO:
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Friends that I lost track of, a gay couple from Toronto, went on a working/teaching sabbatical in the North or Midlands of England.......said that, when the kids got excited about an event/piece of news, whatever, they'd run up to them, babbling away in dialect.

My friends told them to take it easy, slow down, and speak English, which they were capable of but didn't do amongst themselves.
 
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I grew up in a "southern household" on Long Island. My parents were from the Carolinas, one north and one south. During a couple of years in the Navy I acquired some sailor expressions which I still use today. For 24 years I worked, in the states, for a British company. A number of my coworkers were Brits. Florida where I have lived for 35 years has accents from everywhere. My speech can be quite mixed.
 
I have a New Jersey accent. When I moved to work in Pennsylvania, I got the “You’re not from around here, are ‘ya?” comments. Of course, I there heard the word “piano” sometimes pronounced as “pie-an-ah.” 🎹

What’s freaky is that some people suffering certain kinds of strokes or other neurological insults come out of it speaking with accents for areas they’ve never lived in…. 🙀
 
Nemo2 said:
Friends that I lost track of, a gay couple from Toronto, went on a working/teaching sabbatical in the North or Midlands of England.......said that, when the kids got excited about an event/piece of news, whatever, they'd run up to them, babbling away in dialect.

My friends told them to take it easy, slow down, and speak English, which they were capable of but didn't do amongst themselves.
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I had an Oxford tutor who spoke all the dialects in England and her specialty was Cornish. These languages are rooted in ancient past.
 
This is my accent -

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But y'all might think I have a twang,
iffen ya heard me speak. I don't know.
 
I couldn't even understand one word this guy was saying from the outset. First of all, he talks so fast, it's a wonder he even knows what he is speaking. Secondly, I turned him off after a few attempt as listening to him.
 
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