Hello. I just picked up a copy of Do You Speak American? A great book about our language. Said book prompted me to start this thread. AD's full of a wide variety of folk from all over, so...Do you have a noticable accent, what kind? As for me, I have a typical New Jersey [no, not New York, and ys there's a difference] accent, not to heavy but noticable, water is wadder, are you serious is ah yu seerius etc. etc. So how bout you?

CP

Well, I have lived in every corner of the US, and have been in the Great Northwest for 11 years, (the most phonetically-correct speaking region in the US) I have ZERO accent.

Lets run through this together:

I live in OREGON not ORIGONE. The first O is long, the second O is short just like the E.

We have a city here called Eugene, not YouGene. The accent is on the second syllable not the first.

I speak to individuals all over the country all day long. Accents seem to disappear with higher education. (That is NOT the reason that I do not have an accent. Mine is due to travel and a variety of experiences. Definitely not higher education.)

Eh! where yous come off tawking about peepull wit JERcee ackcents?

Look, just cawse my dawter cawls my dawg a dawg, cawse I cawl a dawg a dawg don't mean nutin'

Actually,

I have a variety of accents in my voice. I may have grown up in New Jersey, but I have lived in many places and with a wide variety of people. As a result I still have words like Dawg(Dog), Cawse(Cause / Because), Dawter (Daughter), MereA (Mirror), and anyone named Sean should realize it is supposed to be pronounced ShaW'n.

However, I know enough to call it Nawlins (New Orleans) and I uses words like Twitterpated (thanks to my readings to my dawter) and Howdy.

I am a Parrot. Send me to Texas to work for a Month I will come back sounding like a Native with just a few inconstancies. Not sure what that says about me but it sure makes life entertaining when meeting new peepull.

My wife reminded me to add that I have a "Ricky Ricardo syndrome", meaning when I get angry my JerCee accent comes back thicker and thicker in relation to my blood pressure.

(WOW dis spell checker had some issues with my post )

Interesting topic. I spent the first third of a century of my life in Southern California, and I have been told that I have a California accent. I'm not sure what this means. I don't speak like a Valley Girl or a Surfer Dude (although I will admit I say "cool" a lot to show approval) , but I probably use a few Californianisms. (The third person plural I am most likely to use is "You guys," for example. I also call sweet non-alcoholic beverages "soft drinks" instead of "pop" or "soda" or "coke.") On the other hand, I have been told my people who knew me in California that my years in Tennessee have given me a Southern accent. I'm not sure. Unlike my Tennessee-born better half, I say the words "pin" and "pen" quite differently. Most folks around here say them exactly the same.

I've been all over the US and have to say that 99% of Americans don't understand me - and I don't understand them!

I am considered very well spoken (for a Scot) so most people in the UK have no trouble understanding me! When I get to the US though - sheesh - what HAVE you done to the English language???

I guess you guys speak American now!

(In case anyone's wondering I communicate in the US by pointing and gesticulating wildly !)

I have most fun (in the US) getting drunk and pretending to be French though. Sorry, thats my guilty little secret - people just say the rudest things...sacre bleu

I have a boring old midwestern accent-- with the long "a"s. I actually adore accents and am pretty good at mimicking them because I love language-- But the one accent that I CANNOT mimic- but that I like the most is a Boston or New England accent. It is just so cute, but for some reason I can't do more than a parody of one: like the title of this thread.

Who all out there has a wonderful Boston accent????.

The post just above this one was talking about a scottish accent-- I am sure that Americans have a hard time with that. I think we do ok with standard English or Irish but no variations. I knew a guy from Whales and I felt so bad because I really truly could only understand about 75% of what he said. I think the English cockney accent is really cute too. I had another friend with a cockney accent and I thought it was fun sounding and they also were very creative in their expressions.

Sadly most cockneys have trouble with my accent too! Whats really good about cockney phrases is that they constantly evolve to include modern references,

I overheard someone asking for a pint of 'winona' the other day (I live in London) - turns out they were buying cider (winona ryder = cider!)

And kermit can be used to mean road (apparently from Kermit the frog, frog - toad, toad rhymes with road - although it requires imagination I guess)

Yes, our language is quite different from "English". It is American.

I am one of the people who can't understand people from Scotland.... especially after they've had a "few pints".

But Aussies may be more unintelligible. I was in Japan once and tried to have a conversation with a guy from Australia. The irony was that I could understand my Japanese colleague perfectly in spite of his broken and flawed English... but the Aussie? I just nodded and pretended to understand him lest I ruin the "conversation" with constant exclamations of "what!?"... His speech was so accented and slang ridden that I just could not decipher it.

I have no accent (boring )...I was raised in Florida, lived in TX for a few years, the Carolinas, overseas, ect. Moved too many times in my life to develope any linguistic idiosyncrasies.

I have been told by many foreigners, however, that my English is about the easiest to understand of any American they have ever encountered . I also have a knack for understanding pretty much any accent I've ever come across, and I often serve as an English to English translator when I'm in mixed company...Like, a Frenchman trying to converse with a Texan, or somesuch.

I spent my first ten years at an international school in India, so I was always surrounded by people from all over the world. The result is, I am a bit of an "accent chameleon." I tend to start speaking like the people I am around, and I have to be careful, so as not to inadvertently insult anyone! In india, many of us spoke what we called "babu English," which literally means "baby English," though it wasn't ga-ga goo-goo stuff. It was English with Hindi words mixed in. When we moved to the U.S., it was to Virginia, so I have experience with the Virginia accent. Since then, I have picked up the Navajo accent, and now the Makah version of the Northwest accent. Here, a lot of sentences end with the word "huh," much as the Canadian "eh." An example: That was a cool movie, huh. It's pronounced more like "haa." You went to the store, huh. The "huh" was also common among the Navajo, but their accent is more noticable, because their language is still very much in use.

Accents I can pull off (as in convince someone I am native): British (London), Scottish (I can easily convince Americans with this, though my Scottish buddy wasn't fooled, though he said it was really good), Indian (well, not in person - my pale skin gives me away; but on the phone I could convince anyone I was from India), Australian, South African.

I can do a good Jamacain patois, a fairly good Trinidadian, a decent French, a sometimes decent German. These come easier when I have someone to model it on. I can do a movie Russian, which I know is not what it really sounds like.

I have trouble between Scotch and Irish - not that they are the same, but it's very hard to switch between them.

I guess it's no wonder I'm a fan of Pygmalion!

I've lived in California all my life, but have had various people think I'm from Texas (NOT) or the midwest. I don't think I have any regional verbal quirks, only an annoying habit of getting tongue-tied and mangling what I was trying to say. I feel like I have a boring, non-regional voice and no talent at all for other languages...particularly in those in which you have to roll your R's - can't do it.


That's hilarious! And rhyming slang takes too much work to figure out. It amazes me how nonchalantly people use it in the UK. A pint of winona sounds pretty funny, though.


Just FYI, it's "Wales". The other spelling is a large sea mammal. Sorry, it's the writer/editor in me.

I have a real mutt of an accent. I have a British accent combined with Southern American. Outside the US or the UK I am always asked are you American or British? I'm Both

Some words I say I sound very British some words I sound very American and others comes out in a Southern twang. Oh and I lived in a Germanic country for a few yrs and this has influenced how I say some words now too. I have no idea what is wrong with me

I have lived in several places in the world and I seem to have a chameleon like ability to easily adapt to my surroundings. When I lived in Australia I didn't think I sounded Australian and all the Aussies knew I was not Australian immediately..but when I met a Californian couple one time..the only Americans I encountered when I lived there..they thought I was Australian because of my accent.

Yet I am fully fluent in bad English. I think it is David Sadaris that says it is not English that is becoming the spoken language of the world..it is bad English. I can understand all kinds of grammatic mishaps..accentual woes. This skill has come in handy.

Worse accent to understand is the northern England accent and I am talking about a Cumbrian accent. You just have no idea until you have heard it for yourself..spoken by one of the ol guys. We lived there when I was a child and we always visit our family friends there when we go to the UK. I have a real real hard time understanding the ol man of the house... It is thick.

Worse American one for me to understand is ...hmm... well when I lived in South Carolina a good portion of the workers for the resort we lived at (my dad worked there..so we got free accommodations) were from this island where they spoke this dialect called Gullah.

Oh I know another cool English dialect that I have heard before...just thought of it..my cousin does her feild work in the islalnd nation of Vanuatu..they speak a dialect called Bislama and my cousin can speak it..it sounds kinda like baby talk.

Yah, whell you gotta watch out der fer dah Nordern MinnnnnehSOtahns who go out tah dah sout an come back wit dah "yah-all guys" stuff. Dey make pretty good rib cookers, sure. Hey? Watchatink? Pretty good rib cookers, yah-sure! Hey! Gimme anudderone'o does Hamms -- not dat one, dat one! Yah, you got it. Tanks der, hey, whatsername der, Leena? Ohferdum, yor Ole! You need haircut der Ole.

It's spooky to go back to the home town and fall back into that brogue. It's a heavier one than the Minnapolis/St. Paul accent, which is heavier than the Southern Minnesota drawl. Three, you get three states in one!

A high school English teacher accused us of having heavy accents. We denied it with all our might. Now it's so obvious.

Of course, nobody talks like those in the movie Fargo if you bring the movie up. Suddenly it all goes to Iowa. Maybe Nebraska. In extreme cases, CNN.

One speaking habit that has never left is dropping a "D" sound in contractions, like "didn't" -- becomes "di-nt." Other than that vestige, the accent has gone Coloradan, which of course isn't much of an accent, according to those around me.

Heavy slang leaves me dumbfounded too, but if it gets explained somewhere, I like the inventiveness of it.

I have a boring lack-of-flavor MidWestern accent: in other words, I don't have one (to my ears ).

I have lived in northern Ohio all my life.

Lol, that's funny, I always pronounced Oregon, AreihGone. And I don't know how you feel about this Mrs. P, but I always said Nuhvaaada not Nevahda.

Overland Sailor, oy, ShaWn and dawg are in my NJ dictionary too, I love the Jersey accent.

CP

Don't forget the new pronunciation of my home state - Kaleefornyya.

So, is Missour-ee or Missour-ah correct?

Ah, the dreaded question.

The correct answer depends on what geographical section of the state you ask.

In the major metropolitan areas like Kansas City and Saint Louis, as well as their surrounding few counties, (and the city of Columbia to some extent) the correct answer is Missour-ee.

When you go out into Hickville ...errrr.... the country / rural areas, which consist of the bulk of the land mass but the minority of the population it is Missour-uh.

Obviously, Being a "City-Boy" (in that I live in the suburbs of St. Louis) I believe it is properly pronounced Missour-ee.

However, being an outsider, in that I come from New Jersey originally I find the idea that the people of this state can't even agree on how to pronounce the name of their own state as rather ridiculous, though it is really just another example of the major social and political divides between "Rural" and "Urban" Missouri.

I have a pretty non-descript midwestern accent, due to much travel and (sadly) education. It's just been easier to lose it for work, etc., but my South Side Chicago is there when I need it - comes out either when agitated or imbibing just a bit. (picture the SNL skit on "Da Bears")

It's sad that the Chicago and other regional accents seem to be becoming more generic. 30 - 40 years ago you could hear someone and tell within a few miles where in the city they were from. I can still tell the difference among older (white) folks between southeast side, north side, etc. It has to do with which immigrants settled where. Germans had long sssss, bohemians had "da" instead of "the" etc. I suppose that in 50 years we'll all sound like Peter Jennings.

Ptarmigan, do you understand the Glasgow patter? That's my favorite. We lived there for a while and it was enjoyable but frustrating to learn. Cockney meets scottish meets I don't know what. Took a while before I knew the "midgie man" was the trash collector (midgies are bugs - very complimentary). Not that they actually collected all of the trash, but that's a separate topic. And there is a saying in Glasgow's posh West End - "Sex is where ye put the tresh." (sacks...trash)

There were a lot of Americans in my school in France, and I was the only one who had moved around quite a bit (the rest had pretty much all live in Maryland), one my teachers asked if I had a particular accent. We all sort of looked at each other, and then said, "No." I never really thought of the US as an accent rich country, especially compared to other places. A friend's boyfriend had once asked me if I was from Ohio, and I was horrified. Apparently, because he's been to acting school, he notices accents more than other people I dont know if I believe it or not. His girlfriend said I sounded like I was from CA (which I am), which I prefer to. I had another friend from Kansas ask me where I was from, since I didnt sound like I was from the mid-west. And a friend of mine from FL (Pensacola) made fun of my "northern accent" when she came up to visit....

My accent is pretty generic British English - what we call over here "Received Pronunciation" (or "posh", depending on where you are!). It's called that because it isn't a regional accent at all - it's one that you "receive" or pick up in a school, most often a private school (like the one wot I went to )

But, like quarkhead, I can pretty much take on any accent in spoken English, depending on who I am talking to. Until I was four, my family lived in Cardiff, and I had a very strong Welsh accent (if you've never heard one - and neither Catherine Zeta Jones nor Anthony Hopkins have one any more unless they consciously put one on - it's probably easiest to describe as "sing-song"). We moved to a wealthy area in England, where the accent was much less thick, and where I struggled to be understood. At that age kids haven't yet really started to get cruel, so it didn't feel bad, but it was just a case of having to change to fit in.

I've since been told by linguistics professionals that at this kind of age, the language centres of the brain are still developing, so anything you learn how to do then becomes a hard-wired skill - it's also supposed to be the best age for learning foreign languages.

In my teens and early twenties I got into a couple of conversations that almost got me into trouble, where I would end up talking to two different people with two different accents in their own accent simultaneously. One or both of them would think I was making fun of them, when in fact I hadn't even noticed myself doing it. And even now if anyone hears me talking to anyone from back home in Wales, they can tell quite easily because the accent comes back.

The downside is that I end up soaking up the accent of wherever I happen to live. I've been living here for almost nine years now so I've picked up a bit of a Wiltshire burr, which I've noticed makes strangers from elsewhere in the UK think I am less intelligent (and have straw in my hair and smell of cow dung, or something - it's thought of as a bit of a backwater, especially by Londoners. To an extent it is, but not as bad as they make out.)

On returning from my visits to the USA, I've even been told that I've picked up a bit of an American accent. Not a bad thing in itself, but it's one less tool with which to hold on to my identity. Fellow Welsh people rarely believe I am Welsh, unless I am at home in Wales, for example.

Julian-- I really like English accents-- but my favorite is Cockney. Is it really true that the British look down on that accent? If so, why? I have been good friends with an English family that moved to our neighborhood when we were all kids. They had two daughters exactly mine and my sister's age (9 and 10). We became best friends. To this day I still hear an english accent from them even though they have been here for 30 years. But they say that when they go back to England everyone thinks they are american!

Nope, or at least so I am told.

I grew up in the bronx, and when I was about 13 we moved to brooklyn. The brooklynites would alway ask me where I was from, and I'd tell them, and they always asked why I didn't have a bronx accent. Later on in life, in the pre internet days, many times when I would phone in a mail order catalog order and give my address as the bronx (moved back to the bronx later) the person would ask where I was originally from. Again, because I didn't have an accent. The exception was the time one of them told me like I sounded like I was from Michigan, but not knowing what that sounded like I could only take her word for it.

I like ot imagine that my normal speaking voice is pretty neutral. Like quarkie and julian, though, I can be a bit of an accent chameleon. I'm sometimes told that I still retain a bit of an Irish accent from having lived there for so long, but if I spend much time with my friend Tracy, I start sounding like I'm from Texarkana.

At college, I studied acting for a couple of years and, like kim's friend says, a lot of vocal training has to do with adopting various American regionalisms. I often find with many accents, though, that as much of it is in the inflection and the cadence as in the actual pronuncation.

I was raised in central Pennsylvania where the middle class accent is pretty a nondescript mid-Atlantic (and the same goes for the middle class Dublin accent, which is frequently mistaken for "American"). Even as a kid, though, I often had people ask what country I was from (guesses ranged from Canada to Wales) - even other Pennsylvanians. I think I studiously tried to avoid a lot of the thicker rural Pennsylvania accent of many of my peers and ended up with something "learned" from television - though a friend once suggested that I had been "brain-washed by the Church of Noel Coward".

Only two people in my life have ever commented on my accent, so I tend to think that I don't have one. But when I was a teenager, I was told that I sounded a little Canadian with a crisper-sounding "yes" (instead of "yeah") and the way I pronounced "out" with a distinctly enunciated "t". Maybe Wertz could tell me if there are any vestiges of Canadian-ness in my speech since we have spoken with each other.

Like other people though, I tend to get lazy in my speech patterns, so those vestiges probably aren't there any more. As a Michigander, I supposedly have a Midwestern accent.

Wertz, you have an interesting accent.

Ah, the Ole and Leena jokes. You have to be from the midwest to have
heard those!



Well, in the movie the accents were a bit exagerated, for dramatic effect.
However, in South Dakota yes is always a "yah", and I suppose is always
an "I s'pose."

People here in California occasionally ask me where I'm from, sensing a bit
of an accent, which is ironic, considering there are much more pronounced
accents floating around the greater Los Angeles area.

I think it used to be looked down on a great deal more than it is today - we have become dramatically less class-conscious as a society than we used to be even 30 years ago. Nearly everyone thinks of themselves as middle class now, even though (according to the Marxist description that, having been written in 19th century England, pretty much defines our class system) since very few people live on property income and almost everyone goes out to paid work, we're actually almost all working class now.

So badges of "working-class-ness" such as the Cockney accent are no longer the sort of social stigma that I think you are referring to.

Besides, the "Cockney" of old - being born "within the sound of Bow Bells" i.e. within what is now the City of London & Tower Hamlets (two discrete borough areas of Greater London, like Queens and the Bronx in NYC) is now quite rare, since property there is now either so expensive that the kids born there are likely to grow up in private schools, or so deprived that they are less likely to speak English as a first language than Somali or Bengali.

Pearly Kings & Queens and all that Mary Poppins stuff is now largely for enthusiasts and tourists only, I'm afraid, and has no more (or less) bearing on modern London life than Morris dancers do. (*thinks* Oh dear. I'm going to have to explain what Morris dancers are now - ever seen The Wicker Man?)

That said, the sound that Cockneys make (a strong Laaaaaaahndun accent and rhyming slang) have become not only the common sound of the whole of Greater London, but have spread out to most of the South East of England to varying degrees. There is something called "Estuary English" (something of a snobbish term, originally - it refers to the mixing of pure, clear Received Pronunciation with the salty impurity of "Cockney". It's also called "Mockney" especially when adopted by someone who used to speak RP - e.g. Guy Ritchie, Madonna's husband) that many if not most people in South East England now speak. To American ears is often sounds more Australian than British. (Though the Australian habit of raising the intonation at the end of every sentence to make them sound like questions becoming common here hasn't helped. I've also noticed this in some Americans, especially in California.)

Course, the class system in accents hasn't gone away, just changed. We still make assumptions and judgements about people as soon as they open their mouths. Call centres have done lots of research that reinforces old regional stereotypes; and have found that the Cockney/Mockney accent evokes a nice person but one who's likely to be a bit untrustworthy; West Country/Rural accents evoke naivety and lack of education; West Midlands accents make people think one is intensely boring; Merseysiders (Liverpool and surrounding areas) are lazy thieves; Mancunians are druggy hedonists; and so on. About the only accents that English people trust on the telephone are Scottish, Irish or Received Pronunciation, so lots of call centres got put in Scotland and Ireland in the 80s and 90s, and even those in other parts of the country had disproportionate numbers of Scots and Irish working in them.

Of course, now they're all being put in India, which is miles cheaper for the companies concerned, and to hell with what the customers think, but it illustrates a little how accents in British English are seen by other Britons.

Lastly, I know what you mean about your English friends. I know several Americans that live here who get the exact reverse from their families whenever they go home for a visit.

I agree with Julian - no one really looks down on cockney accents, but people definitely did....its such a shame we had to scrap the class system. It made so easy to arbitarily judge people. Now we have to make value judgements based on how people behave, if they keep their word, are they trustworthy etc. No fair!




I was quite suprised at that to be honest, do you have a link to any of the research? For one thing, I wouldn't expect (say) Mancunians to think that other Mancunians sounded like druggy hedonists and I certainly wouldn't trust someone just because they had a Scottish accent......so I'm a little skeptical....

Carlitoswhey

lol! My dad's a weedgie (Glaswegian) so I do okay there! I however have a far more refined accent from the posher city on the east coast of Scotland. Besides, no-one needs to collect trash in Glasgae, you just wait for the wind to blow it away and it's someone else's problem...

I'm afraid not - I read it in my local paper (the town had quite a few big call centres in the mid 90s so it was sort of relevant) and to my knowledge they don't have anything in their web archive.

However, I Googled "regional accents call centres UK" and found a [URL=http://careers.lancs.ac.uk/profiles/ H/H2_Call_centre_manager.pdf]PDF[/URL] that says "Call centres have grown dramatically over the last ten years and are now widely used throughout the UK and abroad. Certain geographic areas such as the Northwest and Edinburgh and the M25 corridor around Reading and Bracknell
have tended to attract more call centres than others, this has been partly because of the appeal of regional accents and the availability of suitable staff for the call centres.". The Northwest thing conflicts with my earlier rantings - I admit that it's only a half-remembered repetition of something I read nine or ten years ago - but the rest broadly fits.

Thinking about it, the stuff I read made a distinction between people who call you - where hearing your own accent was preferred - and people who answer when you call them - where certain accents were liked and trusted more than others. I certainly remember than Birmingham/West Midlands, West country, and Liverpool accents were particularly disliked, and neutral/RP and lowland Scots accents were liked.

When Joey Harrington came to Detroit he kept saying "I'm from Ori-GUN, I don't know where this Ori-GONE is". I guess he noticed the difference, frankly if someone said either one, I prOBABLY wouldn't notice the difference.

It makes sense to me that, since most words that end in "gon" like hexagon are not pronounced hexa-GUN. Same with Eugene, I'm still not sure how you say it if you don't call it you-gene, consider euchre or eugenics.

But being from Michi-GUN (or Michi-GAN, makes no difference) I prolly really shouldn't say anything. We have our own web page for pronunciation.

http://www.michigannative.com/ma_home.shtml

I always thought we had little to no accent. In parts of Michigan there are some really strong accents, like the Finnish in the upper pennisula who say "welcome to da yu-pee, eh!". We're somewhat similar to Canadians, being such close neighbors and all, and have some connection to the folks in Minnie-soda. We're not terribly similar to the Pols in Chicago/Wisconsin however, "duh bulls, duh bears!".

The class system is definitely far from dead. I recently did some consumer research in the UK (focus groups) and it was amazing - classism and reverse classism ... turned out that class was the most relevant characterization for the product we were researching, ahead of income, location, etc. I was honestly surprised.


Every time I flew into Edinburgh, just hearing the airport announcements with that big, broad scots accent always made me smile, vs. Glasgow's patter. "Welcome to Edin-burraaa, please enjoy your chips with salt and sauce."

My accent is not totally French. It's a strange mix of French and Northern European, tinted with bits of British English (goes way back when I lived in London) and strong addition of American slang!!!

If accents were like instruments, I'd be a band!

Maybe this copy of an email a friend sent me will splain why I have a failure to communicate around cheer from time to time.

A West Virginian

Only a West Virginian knows the difference between a
hissie fit and a conniption fit, and that you don't
HAVE them, you PITCH them.
_____

Only a West Virginian knows how many fish, greens, peas, beans, etc., make up a "mess."
_____

Only a West Virginian can show or point out to you the
general direction of "yonder."
_____

Only a West Virginian knows exactly how long "directly" is
-- as in: Going to town, be back directly.
_____

Even West Virginian babies know that "Gimme some sugar" is
not a request for the white, granular, sweet substance
that sits in a pretty little bowl in the middle of the table.
_____

All West Virginians know exactly when "by and by" is. They
might not use the term, but they know the concept well.
_____

Only a West Virginian knows instinctively that the best
gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is
a plate of hot fried chicken and a big bowl of cold
potato salad. If the neighbor's trouble is a real
crisis, they also know to add a large banana puddin'!
_____

Only West Virginians grow up knowing the difference
between a "right near" and a "right far piece." They
also know that "just down the road" can be one mile or 20.
_____

Only a West Virginian knows and understands, the difference
between a "redneck," a "good ol' boy," and "po' white trash."
_____

No true West Virginian would ever assume that the car with
the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn.
_____

A West Virginian knows that "fixin'" can be used as a noun,
a verb, or an adverb.
_____

Only West Virginians make friends while standing in lines.
We don't do queues, we do lines, and when we're
in line, we talk to ever'body!
_____

Put 100 West Virginians in a room and half of them will
discover they're related, even if only by marriage.
_____

West Virginians never refer to one person as "ya'll."
_____

West Virginians knows Cornbread comes from corn and how to eat it.
_____

Every West Virginian knows potatoes with eggs, bacon, pork, and venison
, and coffee are perfectly wonderful; and that fried
green tomatoes are not a breakfast food.
_____

When you hear someone say, "I was fishin down by the crick you know you are in the presence of a
West Virginian
_____

Only true West Virginians say "sweet tea" and "sweet milk."
Sweet tea indicates the need for sugar and lots
of it -- we do not like our tea unsweetened. Sweet
milk means you don't want buttermilk.
_____

And a true West Virginians knows you don't scream obscenities
at little old ladies who drive 30 mph on the freeway.
You just say, "Bless her heart" and go your own way.
_____

To those of you who're still a little embarrassed by
your West Virginian accent Take a ride on our mountain Roads, say a prayer for your safety
Bless your heart!
_____

And to those of you who are still having a hard time
understanding all this West Virginia stuff, bless your
hearts, I hear they are fixin' to have classes on
Hillbilly as a second language!
_____

And for those who are not from West Virginia but have
lived here for a long time,you'll need a sign to hang
on your front porch that reads:
"I ain't from West Virginia, but I got here as fast as I could!" Almost Heaven!!!

And those that are from West Virginia and living away "Take me home, country Roads"
_____

Bless your hearts, y'all have a blessed day!!

I live in a South, a place with an accent.

It is shocking to me to hear my children, very understandably, talking Southern.
Ain't
fixing to
all y'all

they look at me in a dull patronizing gaze when I tell them ain't is not a word.

I live in San Francisco, but still have a bit of a Texas accent on some words. It gets worse when I'm around friends and family or drunk.

I have managed to purge "ya'll" from my vocabulary to replace it with "you guys". I still say "oil" and "tar" in a very Texas fashion and use the word "fixin' " a lot. I try to say "soda" as much as possible now instead of "coke". In Texas everything is a coke - "what would you like to drink? A coke. Ok what kind? A Dr. Pepper." There is an interesting link I came upon a while back about what areas of the country call everyone's favorite fizzy beverage: http://www.popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html

The only Northern California-ism that has made it into my vocabulary (that I'm aware of) is "hella", which is a very bay area thing.

As far as other people go, I had an opportunity to meet several of the AD staffers over my vacation so I'd have the following comments:

- Eeyore: I didn't notice any accent really, and especially not a southern accent. If I was speaking to him via phone I'd never guess he lived in Tennessee.

- Mike & Jaime: I didn't think Jaime really had an accent of any kind that I could pick up on, but Mike definitely still has some Chicago inflections in his speech. They may live in Savannah, but they don't talk like southerners.

- Wertz: I can't really place his accent, I guess accent chameleon is a good way to describe it. However, there is an Irish component to his way of speaking that is very distinct, or at least was to me.

I live in Colorado, and to my knowledge, I have no accent. People often compare the Colorado way of speaking to California, but I don't know that it's entirely accurate. I have a friend who lived here until her early twenties and then moved to southern California. I pick on her a little bit when I talk to her on the phone, because I can hear that whole "valley" thing creeping into her voice. It's not extreme, but it's definitely there, and she doesn't believe me.



Amlord, from my perspective, you definitely have an accent.