# Do you get irrationally irritated by accents / voice traits? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 23, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332 "2015-04-23T01:21:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Turpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Turpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/41 "2015-04-23T20:04:29Z")
I often wondered about Americans with heavy accents and what they think when they hear the “nonaccent” that most Americans speak in on TV. Can they hear the difference in how 99% of people speak on tv versus how they speak? ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/42 "2015-04-23T20:10:25Z")
I can’t bear an accent from North Carolina, or for that matter South Carolina I suppose. I’m not knowledgeable enough about the area to drop a pin in the correct locale. For a long time I thought Paula Deen came from North Carolina, but Wikipedia tells me she’s from Georgia. That woman’s voice makes me want to stab an ice pick down my ear canals. ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/43 "2015-04-23T20:19:14Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > What region does that? I’d rather cope with the omission of a “t” or two than hear the t sound replaced with “d” such as a glass of “wadder”. Yes, I’d like that much “bedder”. GAH. Dropping t’s is New England, and I’m guilty. Hilariously, it drives my Bronx born and raised uncle (by marriage) crazy and he never misses an opportunity to mock. Whatever, dude, you sound like Rhoda Morgenstern. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/44 "2015-04-23T20:51:09Z")
Not if they’re real, but fake ones drive me crazy. It took me a long time to realize that I don’t watch Modern Family because Sophia whatz-er-name’s accent makes me want to scream. I know that IRL she has a bit of one but she lays it on so thick in the show that I just can’t listen to it. Fran Dresher makes me want to kill; I can’t change the channel fast enough. The kid on That '70s Show I can somewhat tolerate but I think the only one that doesn’t bother me is Raj on TBBT. To me it’s barely disernable and I don’t even think about it being “different.” ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/45 "2015-04-23T21:00:19Z")
Mostly I am annoyed by it when people exaggerate it as part of a public persona. For example Paula Deen or Sophia Vergara. Sure, their accents are based on how they really talk, but I don’t for an instant believe that’s their “real voice.” And since these folks have been mentioned time and again by other posters, no elaboration needed. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/46 "2015-04-23T21:57:28Z")
That nasal twang like Savannah Guthrie has sends me into seizure mode. I honestly can’t watch the national news whenever she guest anchors. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/47 "2015-04-23T23:52:39Z")
Like George Bush, I have a hard time saying " nuclear". I have a tough time with “powerful” as well (it comes out pare-ful). I have a problem when someone equates certain accents or dialects with a lack of intelligence (especially the time a guy with a Canarsie, Brooklyn accent cast aspersions on my intelligence due to my East Tennessee accent). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/48 "2015-04-24T00:04:37Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > Like George Bush, I have a hard time saying " nuclear". I just discovered that Wikipedia has a page on “[nucular](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucular).” ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/49 "2015-04-24T00:28:11Z")
Do you also say “real-a-tore”? \ ---
**Author:** ![stretch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@stretch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stretch)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/50 "2015-04-24T00:36:53Z")
You are not alone. Some accents bother me because they remind me of someone, and some sounds like vocal fry bother me if they seem super fakey. I know I shouldn’t be irritated because I have a terrible raspy voice due to stupidity in my youth\*, and I know my voice is not soothing to hear. Yet things irritate me. \*Smoking and an over-enthusiastic sing along at a Def Leppard concert which damaged my vocal cords, causing me to mostly lose my voice for 3 months. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/51 "2015-04-24T01:40:17Z")
You all (_not_" y’all" - I mean each of you) are cracking me up and making me feel better about my little, er, problem. Since I hate the sound of everyone’s voice (just kidding) I could weigh in on everything that has been said here. I adore Sohpia V. so for some reason her voice doesn’t bother me, but Penelope Cruz makes me want to scream " oh puhlease girl, you’ve been here fifteen years. Let go of the “cute foreigner” thing already". It seems like the midwestern dialect is supposed to be the “standard” or most “neutral”. W T F??? Unless I’m misremembering or I don’t actaully know what is refered to as the midwest (Illinois, Wiconsin, Michigan, Indiana, right?) I must \*vehemently \*say “HELL NO”. That’s got to be the one I loathe the most (sorry, my midwest dwelling Dopers- remember \*I \*confessed to sounding like Baritone McBrady;) ). Currently I work with a boss who, mercifully has lost most of his NY accent, but still says “_fo_ward” for forward. That’s a really common thing for some reason and I want to smack him with his own damned smartphone. There’s the newly graduated gal who is smart as a whip, but I can’t tell if she has growths on her nodes or she’s just a fryin’ the vocals. Then we’ve got Lispy McLisperon; also extremely intelligent but seems unaware of his unbearable vocal likeness to Sylvester the Cat. Let’s not forget Big Ebb McCracker; six foot four, handsome, and straight out of the cast of _Green Acres._ And finally, our Michigan transplant who, among other irritating things, pronounces Tampa as “Tam-PAH”. There’s a reason why WOOK streams music all the live long day 😉 ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/52 "2015-04-24T02:45:55Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > But the person who did the voice recording for Chicago’s “L” should never have gotten the job. Half the time, he’s not pronouncing the work “next” correctly. Some times he got it right, but half the time it’s “Belmont is necks”. This is exactly what I meant by “leaving off the ends of words.” There was a documentary on TV about the world’s forests, and the narrator, a PhD, spoke excellent standard English . . . except for the plural of “forest,” which he pronounced “foress.” And of course “the question that needs to be ass.” It’s not a regional dialect, and I’m hearing it practically every day now. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/53 "2015-04-24T03:02:28Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > This is exactly what I meant by “leaving off the ends of words.” There was a documentary on TV about the world’s forests, and the narrator, a PhD, spoke excellent standard English . . . except for the plural of “forest,” which he pronounced “foress.” And of course “the question that needs to be ass.” > > It’s not a regional dialect, and I’m hearing it practically every day now. Holy cow; I haven’t encountered this particular abomination yet :eek: I can’t even imagine what the producers of said doc were thinking. Shall we talk about supposed professionals, trained in voiceover work, who cannot pronounce _social security_? Even I, Cindy Brady, can say SO-shull security, as opposed to “SOsal security”. ---
**Author:** ![yawuntz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a5b964/32.png) [@yawuntz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yawuntz)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/54 "2015-04-24T03:13:34Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Not sure if this is the same thing, but I see red when people leave the “g” off words that end in “ing”. “Good mornin’” is a sure way to make my morn_ing_ decidedly ungood. I’m ok with good mornin’ for good morning but what really gets me is “good morneen” which I guess is a sort of failed compromise between the two. Double plus ungood. > [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Well thank you for chiming in, even though I cannot begin to comprehend **"pgonushashon ghefe’t "** 🙂 pronunciation defect. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/55 "2015-04-24T04:53:18Z")
One of the regular AM stations here in LA has a weather forecaster who I switch off as fast as I can when I hear him. Fellow Angelenos may be able to identify him, but no matter; the point is that his sign-off gimmick irritates the hell out of me, Irrationally, even. He ends his bits with a standard 'This is (forecaster’s name) with your (radio station)'s weather foreeeecassst". Or maybe he’s toned it down some recently, but I don’t want to listen to find out. Nothing but a gimmick, a completely irritating gimmick. And not every expert interviewed on Public Radio knows how to give good interview. One lady this morning, when asked a question, would too often start the response with a brief, “Right.” As in, “I expected this question, and here’s my rehearsed answer.” Mildly irritating. ---
**Author:** ![CaptainAmerica\_1987](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@CaptainAmerica\_1987](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptainAmerica_1987)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/56 "2015-04-24T05:42:40Z")
I can’t stand the NY and Boston accent. It creates such an uncontrollable amount of hate in me! ---
**Author:** ![Whitney\_Harper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@Whitney\_Harper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whitney_Harper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/57 "2015-04-24T05:49:36Z")
I do indeed. Also, a lot of throat clearing irritates me. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/58 "2015-04-24T09:46:25Z")
> [@CaptainAmerica\_1987](#): > > I can’t stand the NY and Boston accent. It creates such an uncontrollable amount of hate in me! Where do you come from? Your profile doesn’t say but includes > [@](#): > > " The Spirit of Lady Liberty can be found in it’s people " Do you know where that statue stands? Do you know there is more than one “NY and Boston accent”? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/59 "2015-04-24T16:41:22Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Given the demographics of the “El”'s passengers, is it perhaps a case of them deliberately pronouncing half the time in AAVE and half the time in White Midwestern? > > I’m only semi-serious here, but stranger things have been done … No, I’m pretty sure the whole system was done in one or two sessions, and the announcer managed to suppress dropping the t half the time, and failed the other half of the time. And I can just see the engineer grimacing every time it was dropped. > [@panache45](#): > > This is exactly what I meant by “leaving off the ends of words.” There was a documentary on TV about the world’s forests, and the narrator, a PhD, spoke excellent standard English . . . except for the plural of “forest,” which he pronounced “foress.” And of course “the question that needs to be ass.” > > It’s not a regional dialect, and I’m hearing it practically every day now. I have a Midwestern accent, and feel lucky as it is the ISO 9000 “American Accent”. I think it became so because cultural icons like Walt Disney and Johnny Carson came from the same background. Dan Rather, in his autobiography _The Camera Never Blinks_ wrote about having to learn to tamp down his native Texas accent when he first got on the radio. He was assisted in this endeavor by a listener who would call the station every time he made a slip, like saying “…the sheriff’s depity” and she’d call in saying, in a very schoolmarmish voice “It’s DEP-U-TEE!” and hang up. When he first was offered a network job, he was told he should sound like he was raised in the network vice-president’s office. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332/60 "2015-04-24T17:39:47Z")
I don’t want to hurt any feelings but I hate the Joisey accent. The one the _Housewives of New Jersey_ use. I have several friends from New Jersey and they don’t talk that way, although one will just to annoy me. There is inner city Baltimore accent that I hate, not because of the accent but because I can’t understand a word of it. One of my bosses used to describe it as ‘he sounds like a horseshit salesman with a mouth full of samples’. All the words run together and the endings get dropped off. An ex-bf would slide into it when he was tired and I got to where I could understand him, but I had to be paying attention. It also drives me nuts when intelligent people from Baltimore say curve for curb, chimley for chimney, liberry for library, zinc for sink, Dezember for December, mirrow for mirror - the list goes on. I know they are smart people, but the Baltimore speak is too deeply embedded in them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-irrationally-irritated-by-accents-voice-traits/718332.md?page=4)