# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/21 "2009-03-21T02:20:45Z")
I’ve often wondered why we even need the letter “R” in the alphabet… Purely anecdotal: Working in a large city hospital I’ve had the pleasure of working with a huge collection of different people with all sorts of different accents. There’s plenty of good ol’ Boston in here but I can’t even begin to list the number of other accents because there is no way I could come up with a complete lists. Oddly enough the hardest for me to get a handle on is a woman with a very thick Eastern European accent (speaking perfect English) who is originally from Poland. And as far as “sounding drunk” goes I believe she could be the most sober person I’ve ever met. ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/22 "2009-03-21T02:26:13Z")
> [@What\_the\_deuce](#): > > 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**. Bolding mine. In whose brain, then, do you think the problem lay? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/23 "2009-03-21T02:29:50Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Ozzy has more talent in his left nut then you, your friends, and all your friends’ pets combined. Don’t lie, we’ve all seen his kids. There’s no talent coming out of _there_. ---
**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, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/24 "2009-03-21T02:49:44Z")
Anyone who doesn’t like Ozzy can go eat a bat! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/25 "2009-03-21T05:36:52Z")
If you want to hear a really think B’more accent, watch seaon 4 of the Wire. The character Snoop is played by a Baltimore actress. I know people who found her accent so thick that they turned on the subtitles on the DVC. ---
**Author:** ![BigBertha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BigBertha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigBertha)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/26 "2009-03-21T07:57:06Z")
Hon! ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/27 "2009-03-21T08:39:54Z")
> [@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. The problem is, some accents/dialects do sound, when spoken entirely correctly, like another accent/dialect _plus a medical condition_. When I first came to live here in Swabia what struck me that old men speaking a thick dialect here sound very like a North German man who has killed off a lot of brain cells with drink. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/28 "2009-03-21T10:59:06Z")
Well, I’m surprised that the southern accent hasn’t been brought up as retarded-sounding, seeing’s how that seems to be the popular sentiment. :rolleyes: For me, the Boston accent (and the rest of New England, for that matter) sounds very strange. I don’t think it sounds like drunk/retarded talk, just someone with a speech impediment where they can’t say R’s properly. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/29 "2009-03-21T11:31:51Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Ozzy has more talent in his left nut then you, your friends, and all your friends’ pets combined. None of my friend’s pets have a left nut. Most of my friends don’t either. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/30 "2009-03-21T11:45:21Z")
> [@omgzebras](#): > > Don’t lie, we’ve all seen his kids. There’s no talent coming out of _there_. Well, I for one enjoy his whole range from [the dreamer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbJqswLi3uE) through [children of the grave](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lboS7psz-qc&feature=related) There is a reason that Blizzard has himself refer to himself as the Prince of Darkness, Black sabbath was one of the original heavy metal bands that brought an entire genre to popularity. Match him against your little scratch master wannabees and metal bands who sound like you just turfed everything into a cement mixer and turned it on. Melody, rhythm, lyrics you can actually understand the individual words in and not screetched at the top of some incoherent bastards lungs … ---
**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 21, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/31 "2009-03-21T16:13:08Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > There is a reason that Blizzard has himself refer to himself as the Prince of Darkness, Black sabbath was one of the original heavy metal bands that brought an entire genre to popularity. _The_ original heavy metal band. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/32 "2009-03-21T16:24:48Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > You consider that a good thing? > > How unfortunate. I do hate being able to understand people. It’s so irritating when I’m just trying to inhibit normal conversation. ---
**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 22, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/33 "2009-03-22T00:41:42Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > If you want to hear a really think B’more accent, watch seaon 4 of the Wire. The character Snoop is played by a Baltimore actress. I know people who found her accent so thick that they turned on the subtitles on the DVC. I tried to find a youtube video of the Baltimore accent that I heard but I kept coming up with videos like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrVbikDcAsY), which are too comprehensible. I’ve never seen the wire, but I found a [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE-uY7P3pe4) of Snoop, and she seems to be closer to the mushmouth I heard in Baltimore, but still too comprehensible. Also, I did a little more searching and it seems that unfortunately Ozzy’s sloppy speech is caused by a genetic degenerative disease of the nervous system ([cite](http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/osbourne%20diagnosed%20with%20parkin%20syndrome), [another cite](http://drownedinsound.com/news/12113)). Also, my “go eat a bat” comment, was obviously a joke. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/34 "2009-03-22T01:34:46Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > Even when you’re a model, you are pressured to get rid of that Southern accent. Which I don’t understand. There is nothing hotter than a Southern accent on a girl. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/35 "2009-03-22T01:58:38Z")
A note on indecipherable accents: I’ve heard it in Mississippi and New Orleans, with black citizens; there will be a regular talk with white people, then a different talk that can’t be heard as readily with white folks. I heard the same thing in Jamaica, too, and really, saw/heard it with a good smile as to the smartness of having a language under the radar of a dominant culture. Not “retarded” at all, but quite smart in being able to communicate beyond those ears you don’t want to hear it. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/36 "2009-03-22T02:10:43Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > Which I don’t understand. There is nothing hotter than a Southern accent on a girl. Not always true. I have a very thick accent that can be hard for people to understand and I do worry that people mentally subtract 30 IQ points when they hear me. There are a few Southern accents that women can “wear” like Callie in CSI:Miami. Mine is more like Joy in My Name is Earl. But thicker. I don’t try - it just comes out like than unless I’m doing my work voice to “pass” as normal. Or, just more normal even if I don’t quite hit it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![threnodyangelfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@threnodyangelfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threnodyangelfire)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/37 "2009-03-22T02:12:27Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > Which I don’t understand. There is nothing hotter than a Southern accent on a girl. I so agree. Unless it’s Anna Paquin in True Blood. Her southern accent makes me want to cut my ears off. I travelled through the Carolinas and Tennessee with the two most gorgeous southern women and I so tried to adopt their accent. Alas. The Aussie accent in me is too strong. It will not shift! ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/38 "2009-03-22T02:33:30Z")
> [@elelle](#): > > A note on indecipherable accents: I’ve heard it in Mississippi and New Orleans, with black citizens; there will be a regular talk with white people, then a different talk that can’t be heard as readily with white folks. I heard the same thing in Jamaica, too, and really, saw/heard it with a good smile as to the smartness of having a language under the radar of a dominant culture. Not “retarded” at all, but quite smart in being able to communicate beyond those ears you don’t want to hear it. I had a Jamaican roommate in college, and it was interesting for me to observe that she spoke (at least) three different dialects. When talking to me or other Americans or when in class she spoke what sounded to me like British English with a Jamaican accent but was probably really Jamaican Standard English. When she was on the phone with her family back home then she spoke with what seemed like a stronger accent and used a different Jamaican dialect of English that was still intelligible to me despite some unfamiliar grammar (“No Mummy, him no go dere”). When she was with other Jamaican students then they spoke [Jamaican patois](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Creole), which I didn’t understand at all. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/39 "2009-03-22T05:11:10Z")
Theah Buffalo eyacksint. Ground zero in the Great Northern Vowel Shift, and where the Great Lakes accent is at its strongest. The flat A is so harsh it can break glass. [From an article about the Buffalo accent](http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2007-04-10/haynie-vowelshift): > [@](#): > > Krissy Walter always knew she had a slight nasal accent. But the moment she stepped onto Colgate University’s campus in central New York state, the Buffalo, N.Y., native started taking flack for the distinctive way she pronounced her flat A’s. > > “It would always hee-appen when I said a word like eah-pple,” Walter said. “Everyone would kind of repeat my words bee-ack and laugh.” My name in Buffalo English is pronounced “Dee-yan.” ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220/40 "2009-03-22T05:33:08Z")
A couple of years ago, I had occasion to speak (by conference call) with a group that included a Scouser, a Sydneysider (Ennzedd by birth), an East Anglian expatriate in the Far East, and a couple of others. The Scouser was barely intelligible to my Standard American ear, the Sydneysider quite clear (but I kept expecting him to tell me what he was going to do to this croc next! :D), the expatriate didn’t seem to have much of an accent at all – barely a hint of a ‘clipped’ accent and otherwise pretty close to Standard American. Most people in Raleigh, including lifelong residents, seem to speak Standard American with just the slightest hint of a Upper-Southern drawl (quite distinct from the molasses-and-magnolia Deep South accent); my landlady and next-door neighbor, only 25 miles east, speaks in a Down East Tarheel accent that sounds like Scarlett O’Hara practicing elocution with a mouthful of marbles. And she’s _normal_ for this area; the folks running the farm supply store and the general store, the deputy sheriff investigating a breakin in the immediate area, the folks who run the polling station when we vote – they **all** sound more or less like that (except the farm supply guy’s bookkeeper – by sheer coincidence, she ended up in this same small town as us after having been raised about 20 miles from where we used to live, and has **no** accent ;)). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents-that-are-so-bad-they-sound-like-mental-retardation/490220.md?page=3)