Do you speak with an accent?

[Ieyke]

I have a non-accent. Apparently I have pan-American pronunciation.
I pronounce everything the correct way or the most widespread way.

Evidently, my "accent" wouldn't stick out anywhere in America.

Probably has to do with the number of languages I at least partially speak, the amount of media I absorb, the number of British friends I have, and my constant communication across the Internets with people on an international scale.


I DO have a Texan accent I can swap to (among others), but they're not my normal accent.

 

[BodomBeachChild]

I apparently have a southern (US southern) sound to my words. I live in central Ohio, and I come from northeast of here. Yet, somehow, I come off as southern to people. Maybe it's 'cause I was right across the river from WV, but when I talk I sure as hell don't hear it.

 

[The Lugz]

And I dont mean a regional accent like British, American or Australian; I mean one that is odd or out of place for where your primary residence is.

The other day, my friend recorded a video of us playing ME3 and put it on YouTube and as I listened to my voice, I realized I have a slight "twang" to the way I speak that is not common for where I live-- think a standard American Western/Californian accent as the common accent for where I live and I speak with more of a Midwest accent (which is odd as I've only lived in the Midwest 2 out of the 23 years I've been alive).

Anyway, do you speak oddly for where you live? Or do you know someone who does? Is it a problem for anyone involved?

everyone speaks differently, there is no correct way and your local accent is more of a guideline than anything else
you likely learned it as a child and adapted it to your preferred tone later then became accustomed and subconsciously changed it to emulate those speakers that you resonate with or are exposed to allot
this is what happens to most people, it's very common

basically it comes down to social feedback
if you went and lived in Scotland for 40 years and had no exposure to media, you'd come back very Scottish unless you focused your efforts on maintaining your language

your specific 'problem' of speaking oddly for your area probably just means you don't socialize much with older people from your area, this is also common since the rise of the internet

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

My real accent is American Midwestern, which has been touted as the most accentless accent in the United States.

The accentlessness depends on where you live. In my experience, Ohio and Michigan don't really have accents, but Wisconsin and Illinois definitely do. Not to mention the goofy Fargo-style Minnesota accent, which all my friends from Minnesota insist that it doesn't exist.

I have a bit of a Southern accent, probably a 3 or 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. It definitely gets more Southern when I'm talking to people with hardcore Southern accents. At the same time, I've had Midwestern people who couldn't understand me at all. I like to think it's because they're idiots rather than it being my accent.

Then I have to ask: Have you ever slipped into Sud'n? As far as I can tell from certain branches of the family tree, there's a scale. southern accent -> having a "twang" -> speaking "southern" like a bad movie character -> and finally speaking Sudn'n (aka speaking like Boomhauer on King of the Hill).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIaUfBjHjpI

The angrier my mother became, the farther along the run she got.

 

[KingKickass]

I try to convey the "radio voice" as best I can when I'm in public, like what Movie Bob does when he's talking on his shows; buuuuuut I sometimes drift into my natural Southern Arizona-Texas accent when I'm around family. I guess I do, but mainly it's that 'Everyman Average Joe' type of thing.

 

[Jedi-Hunter4]

Well I'm from Scotland but moved down to the Isle of Wight to live with my Dad over a year ago.

Wow, the Isle of Wight. I live like 30 minutes away from Portsmouth. It's weird to see someone on these forums that lives so close to me.

OT: Not in the slightest. I have a very much a middle class Southern English accent, because that's who I am.

From the same area originally, live in the North of Hampshire now. Same middle class southern English accent, but I do sometimes have a "Bognor twang" which slips out sometimes, I absolutely hate it, it's due to when I was very young living in Chichester for a bit, can't shake it and comes out when I'm in a relaxed environment generally. However I've gone to Uni in Coventry for the past four years where according to all the Locals that accent is interpreted as posh, I laughed and said they should meet some of the actual posh lot from down south, cannot understand how they don't find their own voices annoying...

One thing I have found interesting while at Uni is the variety of the accents you meet, for instance two of my best mates are from Yorkshire one north and one south, both talk totally different but both are still instantly recognizable as from Yorkshire (When I first met them when they spoke to each other in a sole conversation I couldn't understand them). The strength of their accents vary depending if they have spent time at home recently. I've been told mine stays fairly consistent but I have picked up a fair amount of their turn of phrase and slag, ie before I came to uni I don't think I had ever used the phrase "Cheers lad" they say it so much it's stuck in my sub-conscious!

===Message To All Non-Brits thinking they have British Accents===

Really doubt it, in the midlands you can go as little as 10 miles and there is a different regional accent you have probably never heard on the tv, there's an obscene amount of regional slang and slang with different meanings in different areas. The British accents portrayed in 99% on all American TV is pretty unrepresentative of any actual accent spoken things like game of thrones are one of the few programs where any decent accents are spoken. Even the BBC is pretty bad for representing anything like how 99% of the country speaks.

Short of being a critically acclaimed actor you probably can not pull off an actual British accent, short of living here for some time.

 

[Jedi-Hunter4]

Well I live in Sweden and don't speak English with a Swedish accent, so SCORE! My accent is pretty all over the place though; American with a side of Irish - or, on a good day, Irish with a side of American - and some British English thrown in for good measure.

Stockholm, Sweden, and I speak like everyone else here. I do however speak quickly and suck at articulating, so no one understands me anyways.

Missed these post's would just say I've got Swedish relatives that I visit for a couple of weeks a year and obviously it's not accent free, but I am always absolutely ASTOUNDED at how many Swedes speak English and how clear it is. Which is good for me as after around 10 years of going there and my cousins speaking Swedish all the time I can still only manage Hello, Goodbye and Thanks, found it incredibly difficult to learn anything, really hard language.

 

[Saladfork]

Well, as I understand it,, Western Canadian (and Northwestern American) are about as close to having no accent as you can get (that is to say, spoken as phonetically written).

As for me personally? Not necessarily an accent but I tend to use some English mannerisms that I've been told sound out of place from me.

 

[Robert0288]

i live in north Ontario but i think i have an Ottawa valley accent.

A lot of the people I grew up with came from the valley. So I have a little of that accent in me, but only really for certain words. The rest is pretty much neutral.

 

[sylekage]

When I worked out in Yellowstone, I had a thick Boston accent, but I was made fun of for it so much that I actually lost it for a while, and took a southern accent home. After I moved home, I got the accent back, but people thought it was weird to have a southern accent, and I thought it weird whenever I tried speaking in my own accent.

 

[Jegsimmons]

Live in Alabama, so i have a very thick southern accent.

 

[OneOfTheMichael's]

Back when I was a young kid, I had this extremely weird mixed Euro accent that I remember being complimented on though I had no idea what is was.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I presume I speak with an Australian accent, although not a very strong one (unless I want to), but I've been told I speak Japanese without an accent. My theory is that the Australian accent is so unembelished that it's easier for us to mimic others.

 

[solemnwar]

One day at work one of my coworkers asked where I was from.
I have never once lived anywhere outside of the city. The farthest away I've travelled has been Ottawa (I live in Winnipeg). It was pretty... weird... since I'm pretty darn sure I speak with a normal Winnipeger accent.
Other than that one incident though... normal winterpeg accent.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

I lived most of my life in North Jersey and I've been told I have a pretty strong New York accent.
At leas I did when I was a kid. Now I have some horrible combination of a North Jersey, South Jersey and New York accent.
I don't fit in anywhere

 

[Fujimora_Pantsu]

I have lived in Australia for my entire life, and yet people all seem to believe that I have an English accent. Apparently eloquence is an exclusively British thing.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

Have Texan vocabulary (I don't care what you think "ain't" is a word) but I grew up my whole life in Washington state, which is known for having one of the most neutral accents in the USA.

 

[Launcelot111]

My real accent is American Midwestern, which has been touted as the most accentless accent in the United States.

The accentlessness depends on where you live. In my experience, Ohio and Michigan don't really have accents, but Wisconsin and Illinois definitely do. Not to mention the goofy Fargo-style Minnesota accent, which all my friends from Minnesota insist that it doesn't exist.

I have a bit of a Southern accent, probably a 3 or 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. It definitely gets more Southern when I'm talking to people with hardcore Southern accents. At the same time, I've had Midwestern people who couldn't understand me at all. I like to think it's because they're idiots rather than it being my accent.

Then I have to ask: Have you ever slipped into Sud'n? As far as I can tell from certain branches of the family tree, there's a scale. southern accent -> having a "twang" -> speaking "southern" like a bad movie character -> and finally speaking Sudn'n (aka speaking like Boomhauer on King of the Hill).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIaUfBjHjpI

The angrier my mother became, the farther along the run she got.

The only people I know who talk like that are mechanics and horse wranglers. I am neither of those.

 

[Euryalus]

I naturally speak in a "broadcast voice", which is generally about as clear as you can get of any accents. HOWEVER, because of this I can do dozens of accents, like various British, Scottish, Irish, Australian, Afrikaans, Russian, Canadian, Bostonian, and Brooklyn accents, as well as southern Drawls, and others. Because of this I don't sound like I'm from my hometown, where people speak in this insufferable "WisCANsin" accent, which sounds like a stereotypical "Canadian" accent, but is somehow more annoying.

Explaining to other people why the Wisconsin accent is strange is Hard!

I lived outside of Milwaukee (Menomonee Falls) for awhile, and when I first moved there the accent annoyed the hell out the 2nd grade me XD

Its mostly the same, but you have things where yeah is "ya," WisCANsin (Wiscänsin?), and calling the drinking fountain a bubbler.

OT: I'm from Ohio, but I've lived all over the Midwest growing up (Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan), so I have a fairly generic "hollywood" accent, but I do have a tendency to say "fer" istead of for when its in the middle of the sentence.

I'll say "what are you doing that FOR," but "Its fer my homework."

I'm not sure where that comes from.

 

[an annoyed writer]

Explaining to other people why the Wisconsin accent is strange is Hard!

I lived outside of Milwaukee (Menomonee Falls) for awhile, and when I first moved there accent annoyed the hell out the 2nd grade me XD

Its mostly the same, but you have things where yeah is "ya," WisCANsin (Wiscänsin?), and calling the drinking fountain a bubbler.

OT: I'm from Ohio, but I've lived all over the Midwest growing up (Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan), so I have a fairly generic "hollywood" accent, but I do have a tendency to say "fer" istead of for when its in the middle of the sentence.

I'll say "what are you doing that FOR," but "Its fer my homework."

I'm not sure where that comes from.

I kinda do the same thing with "for", but to a lesser extent. Honestly, I've lived in Wisconsin for my entire life, but most people around here think I'm from out of state unless they know me well, but instead of educating them otherwise I just like to screw with them. I've got many people thinking I'm from the US east coast, Russia, Britain, Australia, and various other places because I can do really good accents. I look generically European, so that helps as well.