# accents that are so bad they sound like mental retardation **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 20, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220 "2009-03-20T22:22:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_the\_deuce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/71e660/32.png) [@What\_the\_deuce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the_deuce)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/1 "2009-03-20T22:22:14Z")
I once took a trip to Baltimore, and asked some advice from a hotel security guard. I had _tremendous_ difficulty understanding him, as his speech sounded incredibly slurred and sloppy, or as if he had marbles in his mouth. I was quite impressed that someone with such obvious mental challenges was able to overcome the odds and get and keep a job. Encounters with more of the populace gave me the shocking realization that that’s just how some people from Baltimore talk. I have never been to any other city that sounds as bad. Thankfully, the younger generation either talks like MTV or BET (whichever is appropriate), which are both easily intelligible to me. Also, I thought that Ozzy Osbourne’s manner of speech was caused by all the drugs he took, but I was told later that everyone from Birmingham talks that way. How many cities can there be in the world where everyone talks like they’ve been hit in the head one time too many? What causes this phenomenon? Also, are there places in the world where my northeast American accent sounds like I’m permanently drunk? Well, that’s 2 pit threads in one day. Time to stop procrastinating and do my damn taxes. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/2 "2009-03-20T23:15:34Z")
> [@What\_the\_deuce](#): > > Also, I thought that Ozzy Osbourne’s manner of speech was caused by all the drugs he took, but I was told later that everyone from Birmingham talks that way. How many cities can there be in the world where everyone talks like they’ve been hit in the head one time too many? What causes this phenomenon? Brummies (people from Birmingham) have thick accents, but not that thick, for the most part. I can’t understand Ozzy and I lived in Birmingham for eight years. There are a few districts where people have even thicker accents than Ozzie; “Er’um’s got a foonay babby, eyah?” is Brummie for “She’s got a funny baby, hasn’t she?” but he’s not one of them. If you can find a clip of him speaking prior to about 1981, his speech is fairly clear; not exactly received pronunciation, but easy for most English speakers to understand. ---
**Author:** ![HongKongFooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/3 "2009-03-20T23:24:25Z")
> [@What\_the\_deuce](#): > > Also, are there places in the world where my northeast American accent sounds like I’m permanently drunk? More like a brain damaged four-year-old. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the\_deuce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/71e660/32.png) [@What\_the\_deuce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the_deuce)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/4 "2009-03-20T23:32:06Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Brummies (people from Birmingham) have thick accents, but not that thick, for the most part. I can’t understand Ozzy and I lived in Birmingham for eight years. > > There are a few districts where people have even thicker accents than Ozzie; “Er’um’s got a foonay babby, eyah?” is Brummie for “She’s got a funny baby, hasn’t she?” but he’s not one of them. > > If you can find a clip of him speaking prior to about 1981, his speech is fairly clear; not exactly received pronunciation, but easy for most English speakers to understand. Early Ozzy: ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/VI5ksz49e4E/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/VI5ksz49e4E?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque Modern Ozzy: ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Z7bioMNfq4k/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z7bioMNfq4k?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque Wow, you’re right. In the earlier clips, he sounds fine, so it must have been the drugs. I apologize to all people from Birmingham. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the\_deuce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/71e660/32.png) [@What\_the\_deuce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the_deuce)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/5 "2009-03-20T23:37:38Z")
> [@HongKongFooey](#): > > More like a brain damaged four-year-old. I’m curious. Can you elaborate? Which specific features strike you harshly? Also, where do you originate? (I’m ignoring the “Location” item on your profile, since people tend to move around) ---
**Author:** ![HongKongFooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/6 "2009-03-20T23:45:08Z")
Northeast American makes me think of Bostonian ‘staht the cah’ which sounds childish to some. I didn’t use a smiley but didn’t intend it as a harsh insult just a poke. The people in your OP include many smart people who don’t think they have accents either. My location field is up-to-date, insult away 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/7 "2009-03-20T23:48:08Z")
I don’t have an accent; everybody else does. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/8 "2009-03-21T00:01:38Z")
Speaking of four-year-olds… I think it’s cute when a little kid has a strong regional accent. Anybody got any favorite videos of that? ---
**Author:** ![What\_the\_deuce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/71e660/32.png) [@What\_the\_deuce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the_deuce)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/9 "2009-03-21T00:12:00Z")
> [@HongKongFooey](#): > > Northeast American makes me think of Bostonian ‘staht the cah’ which sounds childish to some. I didn’t use a smiley but didn’t intend it as a harsh insult just a poke. The people in your OP include many smart people who don’t think they have accents either. > > My location field is up-to-date, insult away 🙂 Ah, I should have been more specific: Philadelphia, which has a very different accent from Boston. Sounds like the male announce [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jWUd3Sf4lY). At least, I think that’s what it sounds like. You see, to me, that sounds like no accent whatsoever. 🙂 I have nothing bad to say about “Atlantic Canada”, as I’ve never been there so I don’t know what it sounds like. ---
**Author:** ![HongKongFooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/10 "2009-03-21T00:23:18Z")
Well this is no fun, I don’t hear an accent in Philadelphia residents either. We need to round up some New Englanders. We have a lot of French and Irish accents here but alas I have none according to the Scots and Russians and Iranians, etc. that I’ve worked with. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/11 "2009-03-21T00:35:58Z")
> [@What\_the\_deuce](#): > > Early Ozzy: > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI5ksz49e4E](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI5ksz49e4E) > > Modern Ozzy: > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7bioMNfq4k](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7bioMNfq4k) > > Wow, you’re right. In the earlier clips, he sounds fine, so it must have been the drugs. I apologize to all people from Birmingham. I couldn’t watch either of those clips for long. Is that supposedly talent on display? ---
**Author:** ![Alienhand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@Alienhand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alienhand)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/12 "2009-03-21T00:37:42Z")
> [@HongKongFooey](#): > > We need to round up some New Englanders. That road don’t go nowhere, just stays right he-uh. says the guy from CT… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jester/32/8223_2.png) [@Jester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jester)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/13 "2009-03-21T00:41:16Z")
And then there’s the glorious Pittsburgh accent: perfectly calibrated to say what needs saying as quickly and painlessly as possible, with no regards to aesthetics or manners whatsoever n’at. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/14 "2009-03-21T00:48:06Z")
I lived in Washington DC for 12 years, just an hour’s drive from Baltimore, and I was there quite often. Can’t say as I noticed an accent in either place. Except that a lot of the locals call their city “Ball’mur” with maybe a little teeny i thrown in between, sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/15 "2009-03-21T01:01:29Z")
Thanks to President Kennedy, I learned when I was seventeen that a weird dialect didn’t reflect ignorance. So we got over snickering at him ever time he talked about our probems with “Cuber” – especially when he saved our asses during the Cuban missile crisis. A little edjication cured me of thinkin’ people are dumb because of their regional dialects. That idea doesn’t seem to have taken hold in television production yet on the East or West Coast. Even when you’re a model, you are pressured to get rid of that Southern accent. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/16 "2009-03-21T01:07:00Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > I couldn’t watch either of those clips for long. Is that supposedly talent on display? Ozzy has more talent in his left nut then you, your friends, and all your friends’ pets combined. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/17 "2009-03-21T01:18:50Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Ozzy has more talent in his left nut then you, your friends, and all your friends’ pets combined. Oh that’s _talent_ in there is it? And I here I was fapping to internet porn and letting all my talent go to waste. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/18 "2009-03-21T01:22:02Z")
There is no absolute standard in language. People who don’t talk like you sound funny, but you sound funny to them. You need to get out more. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the\_deuce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/71e660/32.png) [@What\_the\_deuce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the_deuce)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/19 "2009-03-21T01:32:23Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > There is no absolute standard in language. People who don’t talk like you sound funny, but you sound funny to them. You need to get out more. I wasn’t saying “accents sound funny”, in fact I think most accents sound cool and interesting (including Australian, by the way). I’ve heard many different accents, but it’s very frustrating on those few occasions when an accent is absolutely incomprehensible to the point of barely understanding half of the words that a person is speaking. I was trying to communicate with the security guard, but it was like I was talking through the audio equivalent of a one-way mirror: he could understand me, but I couldn’t understand him. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/20 "2009-03-21T02:09:00Z")
> [@What\_the\_deuce](#): > > Thankfully, the younger generation either talks like MTV or BET (whichever is appropriate), which are both easily intelligible to me. You consider that a good thing? How unfortunate. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220.md?page=2)