I grew up on a farm in a very rural area of Alabama, but an oddity is that I don’t have a Southern accent. My parents did, my siblings do, and most of my classmates did, but I had to explain and assure (almost argumentatively sometimes) fellow Alabamanites that yes, I am indeed “one of you”- in fact branches of my family have lived in Alabama for hundreds (perhaps thousands*) of years. I can only accredit it to two possible causes: 1) watching too much television as a child (though I grew up before cable) and 2) having a slight stammer/stutter as a kid I was probably more conscious of my speech, though I don’t talk slowly (in fact the most common complaint about my voice [which I’ve heard time and time again “should be readin’ the news”] is that I talk way too fast).
Oddly, most of my friends from Alabama tend to have the same description: they grew up in either very rural or at least not particularly elite areas and yet, even though the an impressive variety of Southern accents are alive and well (though perhaps condensing**, and rarely if ever even roughly approximated in Hollywood movies about the South), none of my friends ever developed one.
So I’m curious: who here does or does not have a geographically identifying voice?
*One branch of the family was Creek Indian [a long long time ago] and exactly how long they’ve been in what’s now Alabama is a matter of debate
**The last college where I worked was home to Flannery O’Connor’s papers and had the only known television appearance of her known to exist; she was world famous in her own lifetime, was one of the most famous Southern writers of all time and was incredibly well read, but she had a drawl that was damned near indecipherable. When she was at school in Iowa some of her professors had to have others “translate” for her; she grew up before TV and her family never went to movies and rarely listened to radio, which probably aided in the development of her voice.
My region (Northern California) is one of those that doesn’t really have much of a regional accent, and I don’t speak in the way my peers do, so the answer is doubly no.
My dad grew up in an outlying area of Baltimore and had a mild accent I ended up “catching” from him. That was common enough in the suburb where I grew up. But when my high school French teacher commented on it I made a conscious effort to standardize. My mom never really had it that much and my brother seems to have followed my lead, but my dad and my sister make fun of some of my vowel sounds now.
I’ve noticed that some of the old vowel sounds come out in extremely informal situations when I’m talking fast or am surprised, so I guess it never really leaves.
I supposedly have a faint Southern accent but since no one that didn’t know I was from Tennessee has ever commented on it or even asked me where I was from, I think the few people that say I do hear it out of prejudice. With that being said, when I visited the South last May, I could hear the accent creeping into my voice after less than a week there so I could be reading too much into people’s lack of reaction… I don’t know for certain.
No, I don’t have any regionally identifiable accent. I come from Ontario, but I don’t say aboot or eh? at the end of a sentence. If I did have an accent, I don’t think they would have wanted me to be the voice of all the underwriters on this public radio station!
Unfortunately, yes, a bit, though I’ve tried to fight it.
Aboat = about
Moase = mouse
Moath = mouth
Privacy and vitamins have short “i” sounds.
Leh-zsure for leisure, which I hear as “lee-zsure” here.
Canadian Maritimes, New Brunswick, not “Newfie” (which, for you west coasters, is short for “Newfoundlander”, and absolutely does not apply to all of us - the Newfs have a language uniquely their own!)
The accent where I’m from sounds like a curious mix of Scottish, Irish, and Acadienne French. Many folks sound as though they are going to end a sentence with “Doantcha know.” We get a lot of immigrants from the British Isles.
I should have a readily identifiable Texas accent, but I don’t. I think it’s because my parents watched Dallas when I was a kid, and those outrageous accents made me self-conscious about my own. So I supressed it.
Now people don’t always believe I’m from Texas. Ah well. Probably makes it easier to “put on” other accents at will.
Not much of an accent here (too many years of voice lessons) - but DeHusband says I sound like Scarlett when I’m trying to cajole him into doing something. He is teased when he goes home to New Mexico because he’s picked up a southern accent.
It’s obvious to anyone who hears me speak that I’m from the Great Lakes region. Those with a more finely-tuned ear can place me, accurately, as from Chicago. Native Chicagoans can tell by my accent what hundred-block I grew up on
I have a bit of one, mainly short’nin’ my words a bit. I also talk fairly fast at times, which I believe is also a bit regional. But I’ve found that I don’t always talk with much of an accent–sometimes I’ll catch myself, but I’ve found that I tend to pick up the speech patterns of those around me if I know them that well. If I don’t, that’s when I revert to my hick ways.
For the record, I’m from South Shore Nova Scotia. I probably have a slight Acadian accent as well.
I was raised in the military, and never spent more than 3 years anywhere until my family moved here to west Texas almost 20 years ago. So while I can slip into a border accent if I so choose, I don’t have an easily identifiable accent of my own other than “standard American.” I don’t speak as my parents do – each has a slight remnant of a different southern accent. Next to them I sound downright patrician. In fact, I once had an expert listening to me surreptitiously as I talked casually with some of my friends. He came up afterward and correctly identified where each of them had come from but admitted that I had him stumped.
I’m an immigrant to my locality, but was brought here aged 1. I’ve picked up some aspects of the accent & vocabulary. The one thing that’s most obvious is ‘cutlery’. Obviously, it’s “cuttle-ree”. But people tell me otherwise In general, I find that kids with local parents are far far more likely to acquire a local accent themselves. And kids without a local connection (after the first few years) never do so.
Indeed, is there any way for us to hear this online?
It was on a 1957 anthology program on NBC. The host (whose name I can’t remember- he’s not anybody famous except perhaps in 1950s NYC) was a very pompous William F. Buckley sort who very obviously loved hearing himself talk more than his guest. The premise of the show was that an author would be interviewed and part of one of their works would be dramatized on an adjacent stage. (In O’Connor’s case it was “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, but only about 15 minutes worth.) The interview and dramatization would flip back and forth. Odd set-up.
My accent is odd…though now that I’m in Ohio, it’s identified more often as southern (which is correct) - though rarely do they actually come up with Tennessee. Earlier this week someone asked me if I was from Texas. I do sometimes think that my southern accent has become stronger since I moved - maybe in reaction to the NE Ohio accents that are all around me every day.
When I was in the south, I got a lot of comments from people who didn’t think I was from the south.
I’m also a fast talker - that does get commented on quite a bit. I try very hard to slow myself down, but if I quit thinking about it, the speed is right back up.
More often than not, it’s what I saw that gives me away. I’ve tried to drop the “y’all” from my vocabulary, but it seems to come right back.
I’d say I have a faint southern accent that becomes more pronounced as I get more tired. I’ve lived in Tennessee my whole life. Still, like Lsura I’ve been told I talk too fast, really weird for the South.
-Lil
Yes. I have a buffalonian/western ny accent that causes my a’s to sound a bit whiny. For example, ran is pronounced kind of like raeyan around here. I tried to even it out by using a flatter ah type sound for awhile, but it wasn’t worth the trouble.
In general, I find that kids with local parents are far far more likely to acquire a local accent themselves. And kids without a local connection (after the first few years) never do so.