I have a moderately broad Wigan accent. It’s certainly broad enough that people not accustomed to hearing northern English accents have a hard time understanding a word I say (i.e. most Americans).
Not really. I grew up in southern Alberta, which has a pretty standard ‘North American’ accent. (Although there is such a thing as ‘Western Redneck’ accent…just watch that movie…ah hell, I can’t remember what it’s called. It has Tron and his friend, both of them metalheads running around getting drunk, ‘givin’ ‘er’, etc. Dammit! Anyways, that’s what I consider to be a western canadian redneck accent.)
When I was in the army, we went on a trip to Texas for a couple of weeks. I asked a couple of people who I was chatting with where they thought I was from. They all agreed on Minnesota. So I guess I would fit in pretty good there.
I’m another one of those that grew up too close to a city and watching too much television to have a strong southern accent. Plus, in the Atlanta suburbs, nobody wanted to be called a “redneck” so we tried our best to unlearn or cover up the accent.
Some people act surprised when I say I’m from GA, because I’ve got no accent; others immediately say they hear it and ask me where I’m from. Apparently it comes back stronger when I’m drunk, or when I’m talking on the phone to somebody from back east.
I’ve been told that the cadence of my speech is Southern, but the accent is Midwest. I actually do not sound like a native Chicagoan. I don’ t say “waaahter” or “warsh” or “melk”. Having grown up in FL, MA and IL–I guess that’s ok.
Sometimes, I catch myself going nasal and actively correct it.
People from outside Chicago who know Chicagoans say that I have a definite Chicago accent (not one of the strong ones like Bridgeport or Melrose Park, mind you). However, Chicagoans/Illinoisians can typically detect the Wisconsin in my accent - I was born and raised there, and lived there until my early 20s.
I have NEVER met a Chicagoan who says “warsh” and I’ve been here for 40 years.
In fact, I’ve seen that more in eastern Wisconsin. My grandparents said it that way.
Lived my whole life in the San Fernando Valley and I never utter “Like, y’know, whatever”, nor do I constantly pop bubble gum, nor am I a hot, easy lay.
Yup, I have two regional accents that I switch to back and forth depending on my mood and…I don’t know, subconscious factors.
I was born and raised in Northern California, but I moved to the Midwest (Michigan, then Chicago) in 2002. I never thought of Californians as strongly regionally accented people, but my own natural accent is noticeably different from Midwesterners. However, I am something of an accent mimic and I usually speak with a more Midwestern accent nowadays. My parents (“dee-ad” and “maaaam”) tease me about it. But when I’m in an especially good mood or I’ve had a couple drinks, my California accent comes back, strongly. One of my coworkers is also from Northern California (and has a strong CA accent) and it only takes a short conversation with her to bring my native accent back.
When I first visited New York City, a cabdriver noticed my Okie accent right away. He said “Not from around here, are ya?”
I laughed and said “Now, how did y’all figger that out?”
He said, apparently in all seriousness, “Cuz youse guys fum da Sout’ all tawk funny.”
I have what I think is a slight New Jersey accent. Though I never really realized it until I moved out of NJ. I had always believed there were 2 distinct accents in NJ, Northern NJ (New Yawker-sih) and Southern NJ, which sounded to me like sort of a mix of NY and Boston. I, being from Central NJ, was convinced I had neither. My co-workers in State College, PA said otherwise. My accent faded slowly while I lived there, and I even started to pick up the Central PA accent, where every sentence sounds like a question. Then I moved here, to Northern California, an area that doesn’t, at least to my ears, have a distinguishable accent.
I still believe that my NJ accent is fading, but it does definitely come back after a few drinks, and if I spend a couple of hours on the phone with my mom or my sisters.
I’ve lived in Mississippi for my entire life (nineteen years). Since “moving” to California last fall for college I’ve had several people make remarks about my lack of an accent.
(In fact, none of my family has anything like a strong accent, despite the fact that all of them except my dad have basically lived only in the south. I doubt the average person could tell where they’re from based on their speech.)
I do say “y’all,” but I think that’s perfectly proper for any region.
If you’d like more info or to actually view it, the friendly folks at my former work place will be glad to hook you up.
When I’m being professional, I have a somewhat pronounced Chicago-area accent (something I’ve just discovered from listening to a voicemail of mine inadvertantly). If I’m just talking, though, I have no real discernable accent, though I do sound like my French Canadian mother and grandmother if I’m really tired.
I’ve lived in Ontario all my life. Last week an English guy asked me if I was English.
I have no idea. Maybe it’s because I have good diction? I do say ‘eh’, occasionally, but I certainly don’t say ‘aboot’. I think the only people I’ve ever heard say ‘aboot’ are Bob and Doug MacKenzie. Beauty, eh?
I don’t believe I have an identifiable regional accent, but I am occasionally belittled at work for my use of “y’all” and the verb “sweep” paired with a vacuum cleaner. I don’t see anything wrong with “y’all”, as SAE doesn’t have a 2nd person plural – we have to use something, so I use y’all, which is nicer to me than you’uns, yinz, or youse.
I was asked something completely out of left field tonight about accents though – three Spanish-speaking customers came in and I helped them in Spanish. One of them asked me if I was Colombian (!?), and I was like no, but I learned the majority of my pronunciation from Shakira and Juanes, and they are Colombian. They got a little giggle out of that.
When I was a very little girl, my parents had good friends who were Puerto Rican. I learned to count in Spanish from them before I started school. Years later, I took Spanish in high school, and was taught a Mexican dialect of Spanish, rather than “formal” Spanish. While working in a resturant and chatting in Spanish with a cook, he asked me why I spoke Mexican with a Puerto Rican accent.
Those early lessons STICK.
Everyone has an identifiable accent; all it takes is a good dialect expert.
That said, I haven’t noticed much of an accent here in WV. People where I grew up in KY sounded more “southern.” Every now and then, though some really southern sounding words come out of my daughter’s mouth (riight, niight, eye-s [ice], etc). She’s hearing it from someone, so maybe I have a thicker accent than I thought.
But that’s fine, gotta have some kind of accentand at least when I fill up the bathtub I’m not filling it up with “wooder.”
I’ve lived in Southern Ontario all my life as well, and therefore have no identifiable accent. Just ask my English co-workers. 
Actually, I’ve had a few people say I have a trace of an English accent, but that’s probably because of leakover from all my English relatives (and endless bouts of Masterpiece Theatre/Monty Python from TVOntario)…
I’m from Montgomery, Alabama. I do have an accent that creeps in from time to time, but usually, no, I don’t have much of one.