Accents

[sixtyandaquarter]

While I don't think this'll hold many posts, and don't think it as a great topic mostly -especially in typed form- I'm curious as to the accents of others.

What's your accent? How would you describe it? Is it of native or foreign influence in your region (IE: you live and were born in a region of one dialect, and learned to speak that dialect first, but carry the characteristics of a foreign accent in your speech patterns)? Is it common or uncommon where you live, currently or where you once lived, to hear your accent? Does it affect more than pronunciation, such as your sentence structure when you speak - the grammar let's say too.

And I don't mean this to just English speaking members of the forums. If you spoke German, which I'm sure has accents within it like English does, how does it differ from other forms of the language, for example.

Spoiler: my accent

Me, I'm from New York City and have a heavy non-rhotic accent. I carry many distinctive "New York" patterns. When I say "car" it will sound more like "ca-h" (almost like, but not as vowel pronounced as what I've been told would be the Boston slum accent with "Cauh"). I don't say "drawer" , as in the dresser drawer, I would instead say "dresser draw". R sounds are almost completely, and rarely -if ever- at the end of the word or syllable or before a consonant.
Also words like forest aren't pronounced with the same "or" as in port. It's more like "ah" or the vowel in "not", which carries more of a "ah" sound too.

Words like "that" and "this" can often come out sounding as "dat" and "dis", though when saying "that's" as in "that's not fair" I'll often say "tha's not fair".

My sentence structure suffers, from what I've been told. To use a wikipedia reference, this is exactly how I'd phrase a question.

He wanted to know when will he come instead of He wanted to know when he will come; or, She asked why don?t you want any instead of the standard She asked why you don?t want any.

It's becoming more uncommon in my age group to find my accent, as it's shifting again. However it's completely common to hear people speak the way I do, and until I was 10 I didn't realize I had an accent.

My accent is native and foreign based, as I carry marks of an Alberta Canadian accent from my mother's side of the family. I over pronounce some long a sounds, such as in Canada.

I follow both the Irish New Yorker accent (which is actually the famous one) and the "Mafia" accent (which is actually more New Jersey mixed). Some would call it the "Brooklyn Accent" though I'm not from Brooklyn. However I differ greatly in some vowels. My long I sounds are over exaggerated, mostly because I live on an Island. The "I" sound in "island" is stressed longer.

The "ng" sound is reversed, or occasionally completely omitted. For example, if I reread a sentence in that last sentence out loud, instead of saying it as "My long I sounds" it would come out "My lawn guy sounds". Long Island sounds more like Lawn Guyland or Law Guyland, too actually - which is also on the wikipedia page I quoted from earlier.

I borrow a lot of Yiddish words, and often say them more akin to their accent than my own, though I still stay non-rhotic.

I sound, to be truthful, very brutish and vulgar when compared to the broadcasting accent - that of the Midwestern/California influenced dialect most speech coaches would have their TV personalities speak. In comparison it seems like I'm an illiterate who is barely able to pronunciate/pronounce my own native language.

I lack the phonetic symbols meanings, I don't know what they mean or how to produce them so sorry for my attempts to clarify the phonetic examples.

... this is a completely useless topic but oh well.

 

[Ellie]

I used to think I didn't have an accent but then I realised I do.

I'm from the Black Country, in England. My accent's sort of... not quite "Brummy" but close I guess. T's and D's don't come out properly, and I say "you know" and "like" a lot. You now, like I di-ern't wan'a do that, it jus' came out like tha'. And words like "godda", "wanna", etc are common. Oh and of course "I'm gooin' up tyown". Just listen to Lenny Henry and tone it down a bit.

I guess this is native to my region, as everyone else seems to talk like that...

 

[Alastyr]

My accent is basically General American. I speak exactly like most American broadcasters would.

The only quirk I have for my region, is that most people in Florida pronounce pen and pin the same, but I separate them. That's actually kind of strange since even my parents pronounce them the same. I'm always on their case about it too. :p

 

[rexxzecutioner]

I have a deep southern US accent.

 

[Volrath]

I used to think Connecticut folk didn't have a distinctive accent, but then I read an amazing article about accents in general in the United States. I wish I could find it, but I can give you the gist of it.

In general, a lot of us don't really pronounce the "t"s when at the end of words. They wind up sounding more like "d"s. I told this to a friend and he replied: "Whad are you talking about?" He paused...and realized I was right.

The thing also asked you how you say "caramel," which apparently is a big indicator of your accent. Rather than "care-mel" or "carr-mul" I say "carra-mel" which is appropriate to Connecticut.

So not as noticeable as other accents may be, but still there.

 

[Fafnir]

I don't really have an accent, although sometimes I exaggerate certain words(you can guess which ones). And my voice seems to change throughout the day(I use a lower voice at night and in the mornings for some reason), so I wouldn't know for sure.

 

[Anonymous]

mostly general american newscaster voice with a bit of a stoner drawl. i have a tendency to say "what?" as "what" - slower than usual and usually dropping the "t" at the end, and usually without the sound going up as in a normal "what?".

 

[PeteD2S]

I am proud to say that I am one of the few people (not really few, when there are millions in 1 population) that doesn't have an accent (or speaks normaly) in my country. It's like, the north, middle south and south have all different accents in each region. In the middle north (where I live..somewhat) 2 regions don't have an accent, or atleast you can't tell they have because people speak correctly. I live in 1 of those :P (although there are some local accents, I am thankful I don't have them)

 

[ccoa]

Who exactly decides which is speaking "normally" and which is the accent?

I have a fairly standard American accent. I speak just like most of the interior NW. I tend to drop the 'e' in words that end in 'en', so written is pronounced writt'n, but most Americans do, or so I've noticed. I have picked up a few quirks from my stay in Oregon, but thankfully not the one where they pronounce Italian eye-tahl-yun.

It's funny, but my mother is from Iowa. Most of the time, our accents sound the same, until she says words that rhyme with doll. It comes out with a bit of a drawl, like dahl. :P

What's really interesting is word choices by region, though. Some say soda, some say pop. ^_^

 

[kaze950]

Standard American, I'd say.

 

[rexxzecutioner]

What's really interesting is word choices by region, though. Some say soda, some say pop. ^_^

Everyone knows that all carbonated drinks are "Coke"! haha

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

I forgot... As ccoa brought up, I didn't even think of mention the "en" sound. I drop the "en"/"ing" sounds. Cutting becomes Cutt'n. I also drop the double T from some words. Button, mitten, & kitten are pronounced as "bu-in", "mi-in", and "ki-in" - at least that's the closest I could come across to phonetically explaining. Oddly I can say bottom, which many people who say "ki-in" wouldn't be able to pronounce the double T. But it usually but it usually comes out "bahdum" or even "buhd'm" if I'm talking rather fast.

Even words like "end" will come out like "en" with a drop pause, too now that I think of it.

 

[rexxzecutioner]

It's called a glottal stop, very common in English dialects.

 

[arcthemonkey]

Broadcast English, baby!

Normally, I would claim to be devoid of accent or dialection entirely, but really, that comprises a dialect as well. That, and I tend to use broad 'A's.

Other than that, I'm an IPA master!

I grew up in California/Oregon, and I have to say that I disagree with a lot of explanations of supposed "California English." Most of it seems to be a literal caricaturization of "Surfer Bum" speak, and no matter how many times I've been to San Diego or Santa Monica or any other place on the coast or inland, I've never heard it before.

Oh, and it's pronounced "Or-ig-in" - that's not an accent, it's a fact.

(ccoa, I'm curious as to what you "picked up" here? The only thing I could think of is that a lot of the old people around but way too much emphasis on the different between "wine" and "whine". I swear, my grandmother says, "Hwat?"

Never heard anyone say eye-talian here before...

 

[Ellie]

@CCoa: I say neither Never said soda or pop in that context. It's always "soft drink", "fizzy drink", or just plain "coke" (never cola either though).

I've only heard people say eye-talian when a British person tries to do an American accent. But that's the same as when an American tries to replicate British, they end up sounding like the Queen. "Golly, one sure does not like that."

 

[Cruelty]

i guess i kinda got an urban/inner-city accent.

people with really proper grammer and word pronunciation amuse the hell out of me. british/uk/whatever accents annoy me.

anyone with an irish or scottish accent is instantly awesome.

 

[Grandor]

Well, I have a slight Brookyln accent, where I tend to drop letters such as g's in words like hugging, flying, anything that basically ends in ing. My second language really has no effect on my accent though, which is weird.

 

[Venetia]

One could argue that everyone on the planet has an accent, but I'm in the corner of the idea that being accent-less is the way of speaking in which nothing is pronounced differently than the proper way one may find in a dictionary.

I speak very, very properly, in that I don't mispronounce anything when I speak. I grew up in So. Cal, and my mom was hard core about grammar and pronunciation. It kinda frustrates some people, but I was in theatre and it was important that I said everything deliberately. Speaking accent-less helped me in easily picking up other accents, and I was able to play a Spanish courtesan and a southern belle.

Sometimes I kinda envy people with British, Spanish, Italian, African, and Irish accents. Their speech sounds so much prettier and more exotic than the stuff I say

 

[rexxzecutioner]

Sometimes I kinda envy people with British, Spanish, Italian, African, and Irish accents. Their speech sounds so much prettier and more exotic than the stuff I say

That is a product of no pride.

 

[Xilef]

I don't have an accent with a name, I definately talk weird, but I have no recognisable accent. It's what happens when you live in the north of englang for half your life and move down to the south.