Best representation of your native accent

CinnamonSugar said:
I’m not sure I have a Native Accent.. born in S CA, moved to upstate NY / New England for several years, been living in S GA since.

Everyone here thinks I still ‘sound like a Yankee’ and my relatives in NY think I have a thick Southern accent 🤷‍♀️
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Is extremely easy to pick up a southern accent; my sisters who both have lived in Colorado for 30yrs, think I have a southern accent from 15 years in Texas and living with my DH; and I, too, can tell if someone is from Colorado or Tucson native. There is a Colorado accent, very nice accent with Colorado long timers.
 

I still can't believe what my voice sounds like. When I hear it taped, it doesn't sound like it does to my ears. It's like Speedy Alka-Seltzer, but he can sing better than I can. One time a person that worked in the same facility that I did said I sounded like Ethel Barrymore, but I can't say I've ever heard her.

;)
 
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AnnieA said:
I enjoy watching accent videos (esp Scottish @hollydolly and @Mike) but get frustrated that the ones about US Southern accents usually feature over-the-top hick speakers. Same with most portrayals in movies and TV. The Walking Dead got close with some of theirs, especially Maggie and Daryl.

That got me thinking of facebook friends who make videos that might best represent how I speak. These bead shop owners in Ridgeland MS in the video below come closest. I shop there and she's talking faster and more perky for the video than in person while the husband is definitely a little more "cornbread" and slower. My speed is closer to his and enunciation closer to hers.

Would love to hear the real deal from the rest of 'y'all' since we have so many geographic representations.


https://fb.watch/x2u8fdvIbn/
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All my family's from NC, SC and Georgia, so I'm no stranger to the cornbread accent, and will actually start to pick it up, when visiting. My favorite Aunt Betty from Clemson would tease me when I was a kid, she'd say that my initials stood for "'taint nothin' to it".

Having lived in Southern California most of my life, I really don't have much regional word pronunciation, my speech is pretty much neutral American English. Of course, my wife's family in Vermont would beg to differ. 😉
 
Nathan said:
Having lived in Southern California most of my life, I really don't have much regional word pronunciation, my speech is pretty much neutral American English. Of course, my wife's family in Vermont would beg to differ. 😉
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California accents are really HARD to gauge. I don't find many Californians that SPEAK at all so it is really hard to say what accent they have. They avoid eye contact like the plague. LOL It is like they have invisible BLINDERS on? Especially when they are driving. Like they are on a mission and no one else exists?

In Arizona you can tell if a car is from California. You know how? They are the ones ALWAYS speeding past you headed west. LOL.
 
When I enlisted in the USAF, back in 1960, and went to basic training in Texas, there were recruits from all over the nation, It was kind of entertaining to listen to some of them speak, If an individual from Massachusetts, for example, tried to communicate with someone from Louisiana, it was almost like they were speaking 2 different languages.
 
When I first arrived in the USA I could only understand the people close to me. With time, I was able to understand everybody. I love the different accents.
Mine was quite pronounced, much less now. I often had to repeat myself or use other words to make myself understood. It could be very frustrating at times.
I once met a German lady that had completely lost her accent. She told me she took diction classes to get rid of it. It fascinated me as I tried to get rid of mine.
I like a Southern accent as well as a Texan accent. I am also fond of the Melbourne accent as well as the French Canadian accent. It sounds like they are singing. It is light and pretty to my ears!
 
Rossana said:
I like a Southern accent as well as a Texan accent. I am also fond of the Melbourne accent as well as the French Canadian accent. It sounds like they are singing. It is light and pretty to my ears!
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@Rossana It is very interesting you said "it sounds like they are singing"! That is the FOURTH time I have heard someone say southern Americans (I guess FC and Melbourners, too?) sound as if we are "singing". My German and Russian exchange students expressed that to me as well as the Japanese people we spoke with on a train in Japan.
 
Want to know what I sound like ? Listen to Peter Jennings or Alex Trebec on TV. Both had long radio and then TV careers here in Canada before they went to work in the States. Alex was fluently bi-lingual with French being his first language that he learned at home before he went to elementary school in Sudbury, Ontario. Peter Jennings grew up in the Niagara peninsula close to Buffalo, New York. Both of them worked at CBC radio stations, and then transitioned into CBC tv programing. JIM.
 
debodun said:
I still can't believe what my voice sounds like. When I hear it taped, it doesn't sound like it does to my ears. It's like Speedy Alka-Seltzer, but he can sing better than I can. One time a person that worked in the same facility that I did said I sounded like Ethel Barrymore, but I can't say I've ever heard her.

;)
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scroll up to 20 minutes 50 seconds on thus video and hear EB"s voice
 
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