What is your Accent?

[Shy Spirit]

I'm a little curious - some of you have mentioned that you grew up in the South, and it got me thinking ... I would like to "visualize" people's different voices. We've seen some photos, and can "picture" some members, but I have no idea what we all sound like. Is anyone else curious?

I'll start it off: Although I've lived longer here in Canada than I did in England, I still have an English accent. The kind that says "bath" as if there's an "ah" in the middle. Not the kind that pronounces "but" the same as "put". A Southern English accent, rather than Northern.

[jeninky]

I have a southern accent.. I am from Kentucky...

[LPCullen]

I definitely have a southern accent, as does Jimmy. I've lived in North Carolina the majority of my life, and was born here. Although Jimmy was born in NC, he lived his first 7 years in New Jersey and then in North Carolina since.

[Missymew]

I'm Canadian so I don't have an accent. It's everybody else that talks with accents.

-Susanne

[Hallowell]

I have a French accent mixed with a Down East Maine accent.

[Peggi]

As Holly will attest, I have a pure southern drawl. Did not realize how bad until I heard myself on a recorder once. I also talk fast for a southerner, but slow to a northerner.

Funny story--I once worked with a lady from England and she was always catching it for her accent, she and I had to go to New York for a business workshop once and she found it very amusing to have to translate for me. The waiters, busboys, hotel clerks, etc could not understand a word I said.

[uppitycats]

Flat midwestern accent, much like you hear from most national news anchors (who are trained in this flat midwestern accent so as to be understandable to the most people.) However I have this unfortunate habit...unplanned ...that I "pick up" the accent of anyone I'm speaking with, and if I'm with them long enough, sound much like them. Embarrassing, as most folks think I'm mocking them..but it is unconsious and not deliberate!

[Shy Spirit]

I have a French accent mixed with a Down East Maine accent.

Now, I'm surprised about the French - I never would have guessed!

Funny story--I once worked with a lady from England and she was always catching it for her accent, she and I had to go to New York for a business workshop once and she found it very amusing to have to translate for me. The waiters, busboys, hotel clerks, etc could not understand a word I said.

The Southern accent is not that different from the English, really. For Theatre, I've had occasion to employ a Southern accent. It passed well enough here - but I doubt a true Southerner would have been fooled!

I have this unfortunate habit...unplanned ...that I "pick up" the accent of anyone I'm speaking with, and if I'm with them long enough, sound much like them. Embarrassing, as most folks think I'm mocking them..but it is unconsious and not deliberate!

Me, too! It happened more when I was younger, but I know just how you feel.

[newt]

:thumb: wellerum, let's see. i've lived in North Carolina for 30 years, and most yankees say i sound Southern. i feel very complimented when people say that.

i was raised in upstate NY. that absolutely is not my fault; i was a child.

syracuse NY is a place where vowels are flattened with hammers, words are either bitten off or slurred together, and "th," "d," "g," and "t" sounds are thudded. people sound very nasal and staccato. it's not a pleasant accent.

my theory: yankees talk fast because they're cold and want to get things over and done with so they can hurry up and go back indoors where it's warm, OK?! knowhatimean?

in the southeastern US, people speak slowly because they're surviving the torrid temps and can't muster the energy to talk faster, and besides, southerners are genteel, mannerly people and it's polite to chat a bit.

unfortunately, most people say i still sound like i'm "not from around here."

Nouthern?

[havanaholly]

As Holly will attest, I have a pure southern drawl.

And as Peggi may have noticed, I don't.lol

[Just One More]

Iv'e moved all over all my life, ten states. I was born in New Jersey and people from there can still tell just by the way I say Jersey. I lived there and in New York until I was nine. When we moved to California I practiced every day to stop saying douwg for dog and cauwfey for coffey. I can't even spell some of the terrible accent I had. I went to High school in Phoenix and I don't think Arizona has any particular accent. I don't think I have any particular accent now. I would love to have a British accent. With all the BBC shows I watch I could probably pick it up. I got a book called British English A to Zed.

[smallhouset]

I guess I have an accent being from Pittsburgh, but its not the same accent as people from Philidephia, they tend to sound like they are from New York or New Jersey. I think we sound pretty middle America, but we do tend to use words that are strickly from Pittsburgh things like gum band, yunz, jeet, red up, jaggers,chipped ham, pop,and the ever popular dowtown. Annette,Jokelly did I forget any?

Linda, your accent isn't as strong as Jimmy's. Ceasar loved your accent, he told me he could listen to you talk all day. You made quite an impression on the men here!

[newt]

???????? translations, please?

"jeet" used to mean "have you eaten?" as in, "it's time for lunch, jeet yet?"

i've heard "red up" to mean "wash" or "polish." and in some places in the US a "gum band" is that rubbery thing you used to bundle a newspaper or a ponytail, but durned if i've heard it used otherwise.

is "chipped ham" the same as "chipped beef?" is "yunz" like "you 'uns?" and is "pop" a carbonated beverage?? what the heck is jaggers, other than Mick's offspring?

information, please?

[JewelsRus]

I never even thought of all of the different accents. That is a fun question. I have been here in Utah nearly my whole life, I live about one half hour away from the restraunt that Napoleon Dynamite was filmed in. "OH MY HECK!" Yeah you hear those words alot in Utah. I dont even know what people call a Utah accent, to me it isn't an accent is just the way I talk! Oh an just as a side note I never really understood what was so great about Napoleon Dynamite, but hey to each their own.

Jewels

[nuttiwebgal]

Im from Missouri

I dont have an accent...everyone else does :thumb:

no one has ever said they couldnt understand me so I guess I do ok.

I enjoyed both Linda and Jimmy's accent and Tracy doesnt seem to have one to me either...must be because we both hale from the midwest.

I enjoy accents very much. I wish I did have one.

nutti :yay:

[smallhouset]

'Jeet jet means did you eat and the answer is usualy no,j'ew?

Redd up means to clean your room or house,

A gum band is a rubber band or an "elastic" I heard it called some where else.

Yunz means all of you

Chipped ham is baked ham sliced tissue paper thin and then chopped to make it even finer, makes the best sammitche you ever et. Sitting on the cahch watchin the Stillers play football dahntahn, eating a chipped ham sammitche and drinking an Arn (Iron City Beer) is a great way to spend a Sundy here in the 'Burgh.

Jagger bushes are wild bushes full of thorns, like a rose bush.

Another one I just thought of is worsh, as in go worsh your hands

I guess we do have an accent here!

[wenlaine]

You guys are hilarious. I'm from Canada so I don't have an accent at all.

[Irene]

I'm in Chicago...and I don't have an accent...at least I don't think that I do...Now I have heard that there IS a Chicago accent...but I don't have it...think it's more of a Southside thing and I was born and raised on the Northside...pretty weird huh?

[CJEP]

I grew up in Connecticut and would say I don't have an accent. Often when I talk to people on the phone or when traveling from across the U.S., they ask where I'm from since they cannot tell by how I talk. I would guess the Southerners would say I have the Northerner accent though. I do talk fast. For the most part I talk like the news anchors--I wouldn't say it is just Midwestern accent. Most Midwesterners I know talk like people from Connecticut.

My DH has a slight Boston accent. I don't always notice it, but if he is tired or with certain words it comes out.

[heidiiiii]

I have lived in Connecticut all my life and I have to say I dont have an accent. Which is surprising since we are not very far away from Rhode Island and Mass.

Both my parents had a Boston accent and I know that I used to say some words like they did. But not anymore.

[Shy Spirit]

No-one has an accent until they go somewhere away from home - then suddenly they do! :thumb:

[Peachie]

I have a southern accent, I"m from Kentucky

[IAK]

:my theory: yankees talk fast because they're cold and want to get things over and done with so they can hurry up and go back indoors where it's warm, OK?! knowhatimean?

Yep I guess I have a New Joisey accent so I'm told. I think I sound like anybody else. I've been told that I tawk fast. On a recent trip to CA a waiter in a restaurant immediately recognized that we were from NJ. Of course all the Soprano jokes start flying.

[ilovecats]

I grew up in Utah and didn't think that we had an accent...until i moved away. Utah people have a different way of talking, sometimes it has a flat sound, sometimes people here talk fast, but there is a definate something that i can't explain. When I first moved back here, I had to concentrate on what people where saying sometimes to understand them.

I lived in the south for 10-11 years and have to say that i picked up an accent when i lived in Georgia. It wasn't to imitate or mock anyone, it just happened. I still have a bit of a southern accent, but not much. (i get told i have one, but don't really notice anymore. I think i'm picking up the utah way of talking). Every place that i have lived has their own little something, sometimes it's not obvious, such as the midwest (st. louis) and very obvious such as Georgia. I've lived in Maryland, Georgia, Missouri, Illinois, Wyoming, Texas, Nevada and Utah. Everyone has a little something different!

Now Andrew has an accent! He sounds like he is from the northeast and there is a bit of a canadian touch to it (yessir you guys have an accent! :thumb: )

[Hallowell]

Here in Maine we tend to talk at a slower pace than most and some say it takes forever to get something out of us. We also tend to leave out that nasty r at the end of words like, car would be cah, lobster would be lobstah. Ayuh, that's how we tahk. :thumb: