# Accents **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 11, 2002, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents/102994 "2002-04-11T06:47:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![neisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4bbf92/32.png) [@neisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neisha)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents/102994/1 "2002-04-11T06:47:56Z")
I’m from California and wonder why the people from most other places have accents. Why do the people in the south have that twang? Where’d it originate from? The indians didn’t have a twang and I doubt Christopher Columbus did either so, where’d it come from?:o ---
**Author:** ![woolly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ebca7d/32.png) [@woolly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woolly)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents/102994/2 "2002-04-11T07:11:16Z")
I’m from other places and I’ve often wondered why Californians don’t have accents like we all seem to have. ---
**Author:** ![neisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4bbf92/32.png) [@neisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neisha)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents/102994/3 "2002-04-11T07:24:33Z")
:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents/102994/4 "2002-04-11T09:25:43Z")
Everybody’s got a funny-sounding accent. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents/102994/5 "2002-04-11T10:58:26Z")
Neither the ‘Indians’ or Christopher Columbus spoke English, with an twang or not. They spoke some other languages, where did they come from? Why couldn’t they speak English like people from California? The answer is that people from California speak perfectly the only normal language, and most other places else it’s got corrupted. I think it’s something to do with the difference in air pressure. Does weird things to your nasal passages. Or maybe it’s come from something in the water. But most people don’t even realize they are doing it. Or they’re just being lazy. We all need to listen more carefully to people from California and start speaking without accents. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents/102994/6 "2002-04-11T11:07:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by neisha \* > \*\*:rolleyes: \*\* I don’t think the rolleyes was called for there; sure, **wooly** didn’t fully address your question, but did quite rightly (IMHO) point out that you seem to have the perception that _you_ don’t have an accent; if this really is what you think, then you are quite spectacularly wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents/102994/7 "2002-04-11T11:13:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by neisha \* > \*\*I’m from California and wonder why the people from most other places have accents. Why do the people in the south have that twang? Where’d it originate from? The indians didn’t have a twang and I doubt Christopher Columbus did either so, where’d it come from?:o \*\* Everybody has an accent. I had a flat northern Oklahoma accent when I moved to Texas and people made fun of how I talked, though I didn’t think I had an accent at the time. People said I sounded like a radio announcer or a Californian (the accents are similar, perhaps because so many Oklahomans migrated to California in the '30s). In the 18 years I’ve lived in Texas my accent has changed. Since I lived in a smallish East Texas town where people had a really strong twang in my voice I’ve picked up a bit of one myself, enough that I sometimes sound more ‘country’ than your typical Dallasite, whose accents aren’t as twangy (closer to a California accent). Now people from further north have a noticable accent to me and I can usually tell when someone is from our neighbors to the north. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents/102994/8 "2002-04-11T11:16:40Z")
It’s because y’all don’t speak proper English, dea-uh. 😉 Of course, everybody has an accent of some sort. One reason that Californians may have the _perception_ that they don’t have an accent is that most everyone on television or in the movies talks like they do. Which makes sense since most English language television and movies, made in the USA, are made in California. Secondly, there was a large influx of midwesterners and other from the Dust Bowl states during the Great Depression. These people tend to have fairly flat accents (think Johnny Carson). When I say flat I mean not particularly twangy, lilted or nasal. This must have influenced the California speech pattern quite a bit. Since California is a very diverse state there are of course other influences, but I suspect that these often get lost by new imports in an effort to fit into the standard. It still sounds like an accent to those that come from a different speech pattern. ---
**Author:** ![Skippman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skippman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skippman)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents/102994/9 "2002-04-11T13:40:15Z")
All I know is that I find Australian accents on women to be quite fetching… but I guess that’s OT… ---
**Author:** ![Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents/102994/10 "2002-04-12T20:27:04Z")
Read “Albion’s Seed”, “The Story of English” and “The Mother Tongue”. Neisha, you must be from Southern California. A native northerner would say you all don’t speak the language correctly and especially not clearly. Like, fer shurr. ---
**Author:** ![SuziQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@SuziQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuziQ)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2002, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accents/102994/11 "2002-04-13T20:40:28Z")
It’s you that has the accent. Not us. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by neisha \* > \*\*I’m from California and wonder why the people from most other places have accents. Why do the people in the south have that twang? Where’d it originate from? The indians didn’t have a twang and I doubt Christopher Columbus did either so, where’d it come from?:o \*\*