Yup. :-)

I have a mixed accent. I'm always asked where I come from! 32 years Mn, 18 years southern Al. Only when I tell them, do they say " thought I detected Yankee or thats where the southern draw comes from "

Funny thing when I lived in Boston they all talked funny and had big time accents and believe it, the nerve, every chance my friends got they laughed at my accent...What accent...they were the ones with the accent.

One thing I do resent is when a southern girl/woman finds herself in an accent situation...like when she is asked "where are you from and what is that accent"? the accent automatically becomes 2 X thicker and more pronounced...instead of sounding more southern, she comes across sounding stupid......or like some backwoods hick...Paula Deen comes to mind.

I guess I have no accent, as I sound just like the national news anchors, like grmmahony mentioned. It is very interesting when traveling in the States because there is a much greater variety of accents to hear. People from some States seem to have no regional accents, while those from other States have very specific accents. When I worked in the tourist/entertainment buisness in Toronto, American customers were always shocked when I could very often guess correctly which State they were from after only a few sentences of conversation, unless they were from one of the 'non-accent' States. In Canada, we pretty much all sound the same and have the non accented speech of national newscasters, with the exception of native French Canadians (usually from Quebec) and some Newfoundlanders.

But there is one question I must ask my American forum friends. There is a popular myth that Canadians say 'aboot' instead of 'about.' Yet I, nor any of my friends in any province across Canada have ever actually heard anyone pronounce it like that. We all pronounce 'about' similar to 'shout' the same way as Americans. Yet somehow the myth persists. The only conclusion we Canadians can come up with is that perhaps an American visiting Canada was speaking to someone who was originally from another country, and their way of pronouncing 'about' came out as 'aboot.' Perhaps that person returned home and thought that is how Canadians pronounce it and somehow the word spread and the myth began!

I don't think us Canucks have an accent, eh? Well, we do say "eh" a lot, but that's about (rhymes with shout) all.

Yup, I've been told I do, si I guess I do. A long time ago I dated a guy who was transferred to Kansas City. He called one evening and left a message on my phone to call him at work at such and such time. When I returned the call someone else answered the phone. I asked to speak to him and the guy said " Oh, you're that southern belle we've heard so much about ". :)

Linda

I seem to pick up accents where I travel. I love to find out where people are from and will ask. I really don't see too much difference between the Canadian people and the northern tier US people. Here in ND we do have alot of Norwegians and Germans and many of those seem to have retains their cultures which I think is great. Enjoy meeting new people and thanks for being you!

If you remember the TV Show "Dallas", that is totally not the way Texan talk.

Gayle

I don't think I do...but I had a guy from Ohio come into work one day and ask what part of PA I'm from! LOL! PA'ers must have a unigue way of speaking that I never really noticed since I'm from there.I do stand out here though...most have Spanish accents.Course my blonde(ish) hair and blue eyes make me stand out even farther!

I grew up in the SW corner of MN..90 miles in from the west, and 90 miles up from the southern border. I worked at a housewares outlet her for many years, had lots of travelers stop in. It would always amaze me when someone would ask which part of MN I came from!! I do notice when we go back to that area, that the family does seem to have an accent!

Not sure if it is done any longer, but I know years ago, national broadcasters would come to the midwest to learn to speak for their news broadcasts.

And yes Glenda....you DO have an accent!!! LOL

Yes, very southern.

I hope I still sound like a Southerner, but we are all such a mish-mash any more, how can you tell? Here where I live in VA, the "natives" don't sound like I do. Across the mountain, the Tuckyhose sound completely different. My DH was born and grew up in SW VA, and he spoke differently that I do.

If Paula Dean is what a Southerner sounds like, then I'm not one. lol

Sue

What I don't understand is why northerners can spend a few weeks or even days in the south and the urge to speak like them becomes very compelling. But, southerners can spend their entire life in the north and never speak like northerners. They never feel the urge to sound like us, but we come back home sounding like them LOL.

I can normally distinguish between British/Australian accents, African/Caribbean accents, New York/New England accents. I guess I never met many people from the western portions of the US.

I have a twang from growing up in the Midwest and it took listening to a tape recording of me to hear it. I do love DD's MIL's accent. She is so cute and darling, and that genteel southern drawl combined with the slower pace of speaking is so endearing. I love Paula Dean's accent, but then I think a lot of it comes from admiring her for being so outgoing, charming, and warm.

I'm the one of two types of Canadians that has a very prounced accent.
I was born and raised in Newfoundland and even though I have lived in Ontario for the past almost 40 years,I know that I still have quite an accent.
I guess it helps that I spend a few weeks every summer there,so I brush up on it every year.
BTW,I love the southern accent!

nope
We don't have accents in Washington.

Funny, when in high school, spent a few weeks with my sister who lived in Philadelphia.

Remember going in shoe store, and people just stood around listening to me talk! :o)

I still say I don't have an accent.

I work for a British company. When one of them visits here (NYC area), a new employee will say "I love your accent". The British person will ALWAYS counter "We spoke English first...YOU have the accent"

lol!!!

I never THOUGHT I did, until my family and I were standing in a line at the San Diego Zoo, talking to the attendant about something and he asked, "What part of Minnesota are you from?" and there had been no mention of anything about that, LOL.

I don't have an accent but y'all do, Suga.

Linda

Yes, I do....or perhaps, that should be said, "Yes, ah dew".

The worst southern accent I ever heard was when Hillary Clinton was speaking before the congregation of a black church and tried to assume a southern accent..."Ah have come too faar..." God, that grated on my nerves.

Ms Glenda, You DO have an accent! But to make you feel a little better --- I can't imagine what Bostonian Kindergarden children do in Phonics class, when a simple word like butter uses a short "a" sound for both the U and the R! LOL How do they ever pass a test!!!

We were visiting in Georgia one time and while in a store, DH asked directions.(That was a mistake!) This is what the lady told him:

Pointing to the right she said, "Go down to the red lot, turn rot and go abot a mall."

I know, some of you know exactly what she said (or ment.)

There was a big window with a clear view behind her so DH, looking in the direction she pointed, asked, "Where is the Red Lot?"

Obviously the perturbed lady must have thought we had a wierd accent.

Interpritation: "Go down to the signal light, turn right and go about a mile.

SHE has an accent!

YIKES! Do you mean the British speak it correctly!

I'm with Ron, Judy and Sandy, I have NO accent, but these people down here in FL sure do! Sorry, Glender! :>)
I notice Paula Dean always gets her OLL hot before she starts frying! Uff-da!
JoanMN/FL

No I don't ;0)

Well ok I do but I've never ever in my life ever sounded like Lady Bird or her president husband ;0)

You know Glenda I didn't think you had an accent when we met at Buzzard's......;0)

if i'm around my uncles in ks, ok, long enough i do...

I grew up in Buffalo and never though I had an accent. I speak English just like the announcers on TV. Then I moved to New York City after college (to get a job) and everyone I met told me I have an "accent". Thirty years ater, I go back to Western New York to visit my family. They all say I have a "Lawn Guyland Noo Yawk" accent! It's all relative . . .

Yes, I do. I grew up in Iowa but had cousins down here in Missouri. When we visited them, I thought they talked like such hillbillies! Now I that I moved down here, I know I've picked it up, cause we had a visitor at work once from Ohio, I think it was, and he said he couldn't understand my southern (!) accent.

When we visited relatives in the south and I remarked about the accent a second cousin said "Mah teacher says ah speak perfect anglish."

I grew up in TN, been in TX a long time. I used to live in Wyoming, worked as a waitress, people used to pay me to talk. ie; night, light, ya'll etc., cost them $100 bucks per phrase, just proves there's a sucker born every minute! My husband used to make fun of "tell you what", said it started as soon as we would cross the Mississippi, now all the news anchors here say it, he doesn't laugh anymore!

Ja, I sure do. :)

But I still argue the fact, that it is a Ponca City accent, cause after all, I never had an accent before I went there straight from Germany. :)

Moni

I live in Ontario, and I don't have an accent. I sound like all the newscasters.

I guess I still have one, though it's been 50 years since I lived in the deep south, Fl. My cousin, when he would call me, always commented on it.

When I was living in CA, attending college for RN training I took an elective class, Children's Theater and we put on a play for children and I was an English Maid. My teacher kept commenting he had never heard a southern "English" accent.lol.

Was born in Id, and have lived in Mn, Fl, Ca and now Missouri. So now I have a hillbilly accent I guess.

No accents here!
Anywhere south of Oklahoma has them though! LOL
Never been east or west so can't say!

I grew up in a town sharing the border with Ontario and Michigan and there is a distinct difference not so much an accent but more in the pronunciation of words where you can instantly pick out who's from which side. For example people in Michigan pronounce the words "hot" and "stock" like "haat" and "stack". It was very haat out today. The stack market lost 300 points. They also pronounce the word roof as ruff instead of rhyming it with "aloof roof" it's "aloof ruff". Funny thing is that I moved west 30 odd years ago and when I moved back here last year I could detect that the local Canadians in this area only have a more slightly US sounding accent as compared to those further away in Toronto and such. Even a friend of mine who came to visit for a few days mentioned it out of the blue.
There was an interesting documentary on PBS awhile back about the different US regional accents and how they came to be. One of the things it mentioned was how they have changed over the years. Whereas the standard "no accent" national tv news announcer accent was always based on the accent or lack thereof of people living in the Great Lakes states, MI, IL, and OH they found that indeed the accents of those people has changed and become more nasal and is no longer considered the quintessential "American" accentless accent. It has now shifted westward to the Dakotas, Idaho, Montana etc where people don't have any pronounced accent that would identifiy them as being fromn a certain region, in other words they sound just like Canadians LOL

I grew up 12 miles north of Boston. I have a New England accent not a Boston accent. Now that I live in FL I pick right up on an accent from up north. The Mainers are "wicked" easy!

We has some accent problems when we first moved to TN. Twice DS didn't know what his teacher was talking about. First with a "compass," he heard "campus." Then again when the teacher told me DS was too much of a city boy b/c he didn't know that you get water from a "whale." I heard "whale" too and stood there quite confused for a minute myself, thinking she meant he didn't know whales live in water... which didn't make sense that he woudn't know that. When I got it, I said "Oh, you mean a well!" I think she was mad. I'm sure DS just didn't understand her accent. He was only in 2nd grade. I was worried about spelling tests after that.

DD, on the other hand, was almost 2 and learning to talk a lot when we moved to TN. So her first sentences came out in a southern accent. Cracked me up! It was too cute! Our Ohio family was very entertained by it and would ask her questions like where she swims to hear her say "In the puu-aal." And where is that? "At the tawp of the hee-ill." When she was amazed she'd say "Waa-yaow." I don't even know how to spell it, but she'd put more syllables in "wow" than there are letters. Once DH told her "wow" about something and she told him "You don't know waa-yaow!" She didn't like the way he said it in Yankee, I guess. She's lost it now, but for a while we called her our little Dixie Chick.

I wonder if people would have a hard time identifying my kids' accents as they learned to talk to 3 different southern states with Ohioan parents.

I love accents, it makes the same language sound like different music. DS's Spanish teacher is from Peru, her accent is very heavy when speaking English. I get lost listening to her, stop listening to what she says b/c I'm so fascinated by how she says it. She's also very dramatic, lots of hand gestures, so a conversation with her is very entertaining.

I suppose I don't have an accent. That is, until you get with some one who does! I pick them up very easily. Give me a day or less in the south, and I'll have picked up quite a bit. I also have very little trouble understanding a person with an accent. That is, until you get someone from overseas on the phone, especially with a bad connection! Then forget it! Glenda could probably call me right now and I could understand her fine. Unless our phone had a lot of noise on it. We had a problem with it for about 18 months. Finally got it fixed, most of the time. Sometimes bad weather will start it up again for a few days.

DH's grandparents came from Poland, and I had friends in school who came from the south, so I got lots of practice listening. I also have a friend from Holland, and Guatamala.They always say no one can understand them on the phone, but I can!

Tami

I don't think I do. But when I am with certain people I can hear it more in myself. Shorter syllables, I pronounce every letter in a word. I don't say "aboot", but when I say "out" it does sound kind of like ah-oot. I suppose if I talked more slowly then the word about would come out more like that too LOL.

Since I did a business with people from several states I tend to translate canadian terms into "Americanese" lol. For example, it was always "pop" around here but when I travel in the US sometimes I say pop and sometimes soda, and sometimes just soft drink or cola depending on where I am and who I am with.

In the US it is a "cell", in the UK it is a "mobile", and in Canada it is a CELL PHONE. The only time I hear it shortened is on TV (American shows LOL).

I don't know. For those that have met me, do I have an accent?

Yep...have a bit of a southern accent. We say ya'll and you'uns. Most people with a southern accent say "fixin to" ..as in...im fixin to eat lunch! I dont have an accent like Paula Deen...but it has a little bit of a drawl...but NOT bad.

I'VE HEARD YOU GLENDA, YOU DO TOO HAVE AN ACCENT.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I on the other hand DO NOT! lOL

Speaking of Paula Deen, she really needs that 'closed captioning'. I can only make out a word now and then out of her mouth!

Glenda, Yes, Joan and I have an accent. Although I was born and raised 75 miles north of NYC everyone knows I am from Noo Yawk!! And Joan being from Boston, likes to "Pock her Caah. But, you also have an accent which I can listen to all day. ;) Carol

After living most of my life in the PNW, and then 20+ years in the deep south, my kids insist that I have an accent. They're probably right. I'm a chameleon, sounding like whomever I'm talking to..and sometimes it hangs on. They say that i say "beans" strangely, though I don't see how that can be. But I have to say that they all talk too fast!

i've been told i do but i don't hear it LOL! i am on the phone all day at work w/ people across the south from NC to LA and they often ask where i am from. i guess i don't sound too FL like lol or what they would expect. i am from chicago. when i am back in chicago people will ask me where i am from too LOL?! guess i've picked up some southern sound along w/ a perpetual tan... i had a customer last month actually peg me for being from the "region" as in northwest indiana which is where i grew up and lived till i was 18, that was a bit surprising. he was from southern IN...and knew i went to IU. ~ liz

Glenda..... I do not have an accent, but you do!!

BAP

Nope, I don't. I can't hear any accent on anyone from Washington, Oregon, California, or anywhere near here, but I'm usually pretty good at telling where people are from by their accents.

Pickyshopper, in answer to your question, so many Canadians I know say they never hear people say "aboot" or say it themselves, but I can almost always tell when someone is Canadian. It's usually very subtle but enough for me to ask if they are from Canada and then they say, "How did you know?". LOL

I have found that eastern Canadians have an uplifting lilt at the end of a sentence.

A lady from Maine used to say 'potty' for 'party'. My hubby teased her about that a lot.

Myself, I have a hillbilly accent, even if I am from the state of NY.

dody

jennmonkey, It's funny because whenever an American guesses I'm Canadian they always tell me they couldn't discern any accent at all, but our habit of using the questioning word 'eh?' at the end of some sentences is the dead give away! We tend to use it to replace the words, 'don't you think?' or 'is that correct?' So we'd say "Wow, that was an amazing game, eh?" or "looks like you could use another drink, eh?" whereas some of our American friends would replace the 'eh?' with 'huh?' for the same purpose. The funniest conversation I had was on vacation in Europe. I met someone on the beach who sounded exactly like me, having that generic North American newscaster non accent. We talked for about 10 minutes when I said, "What a beautiful day, eh?" to which he replied, "It certainly is. You know, I thought you were American until that last sentence. So clearly you're Canadian, huh? to which I laughed and said, "And I thought you were Canadian until you said that last sentence. Clearly, you're American!"

Bigfoot_Liz

That would be 'da region'

Hey, I was born and raised a "Region Rat" too
Small World...........