# Do you have an accent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 25, 2000, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351 "2000-03-25T21:18:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anti\_Pro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Anti\_Pro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anti_Pro)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/21 "2000-03-26T07:42:00Z")
I’m from Atlanta, Georgia, and as Trumpy mentioned, I’ve been accused of being ‘from somewhere else’ too. (though they are never quite sure where that particular place is!) I think it’s my parents, they are Indiana runaways, and though I’ve lived all but three years in the south, I just never picked up a southern accent. It is my husband who is ‘always fixin to do’ whatever, and it bugs me to pieces, WHAT is broken?? ☹ * * * “Um, according to who? Nothing more than a high brow troll, though occasionally the bi polar personality swung in a constructive direction on innocuous topics.” Omniscient ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/22 "2000-03-26T07:57:00Z")
Sheee-yit, no, I don’t have an accent. All you other people are talkin’ funny. Weird, I mourn the “homogenization” of accents. But like Homer (and I NEVER thought I’d agree w/ Homer!) if you have speech in your ear it’s hard not to adapt it. Never thought I had an accent until I lived in TX, and now in IL. (I’m from southern OH, where southern/northern/Appalachian meet). Very strange, to dubbed yankee and eastener in turn. I don’t KNOW what I sound like; just me by default. Objectively, it’s probably a flat, fairly uninflected midwestern drawl, with a smokey twang from the Blue Ridge when I’m tired. FWIW, I like people who give voice to their backgrounds. In a homogenized world, a whiff of accent is the spice and savor from somebody from someplace REAL. Tired and probably drawling and twanging, Veb ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/23 "2000-03-26T09:06:00Z")
I don’t have an accent; _everybody else_ has an accent. Seriously: When I lived in Minnesota, everyone told me I had an “Illinois accent”. Now that I’m back in Illinois, there are little bits of Minnesota that creep in every now and then (particularly when the word “Minnesota” is used). I was speaking to a women on the East Coast at work last week (over the phone) and she asked me to repeat the word “Minnesota”, then told me the way I pronounced it sounded “so cute”. * * * Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99. _Hey, I like that hat, man. They sell men’s clothes where you got that?_ ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/24 "2000-03-26T10:53:00Z")
When I joined the Royal Navy we had a guy in our squad from Aberdeen whose accent was so bad that a Glaswegian had to translate for us.Unfortunately the Glasgow accent is pretty inaccessible too. Oh the comedy! Trying to do teamwork excercises on the assault course.NYAHH! ---
**Author:** ![ultress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/7c8e57/32.png) [@ultress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultress)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/25 "2000-03-26T12:58:00Z")
Most definitely a southern accent here. Course it’s not as bad as the accent you get when you go further south, but it’s evident enough. * * * _I’ve learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it._ ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/26 "2000-03-26T14:34:00Z")
I have an ohio accent. We talk fast and mumble alot. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/27 "2000-03-26T15:13:00Z")
I’ve been asked if I’m Irish, and an Englishman once asked if I was from London. Weird! Because I have no such accent! Not even close! Okay, only two people out of the many I’ve met in my life thought I was English/Irish. Maybe they were just strange individuals (although the Englishman was at a very noisy air show). I girl I knew said I had a “surfer accent”. Chya, as if! * * * “I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry Are you a turtle? ---
**Author:** ![Yankee\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7ea924/32.png) [@Yankee\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankee_Blue)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/28 "2000-03-26T16:16:00Z")
It depends on who I’ve been hanging out with. I’m a natural and unconscious mimic, so I tend to pick up (lightly) strong or constant accents around me. Since half my family is English, half American, and all my college buddies are from the south and all my in-laws are from NY it can get interesting for listeners, but like most chameleons, my natural speaking voice is relatively accentless. * * * All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/29 "2000-03-26T16:41:00Z")
Southern accent here. It varies in thickness, though. If I’m talking to the home folks, it is full-blown. If I’m talking to a non-southerner, it tends to lessen. This is not intentional. I think I learned to do this subconsciously, to keep from having to repeat myself when I am around those who might not understand the full-blown variety. My roommates in college used to rib me about how thick my accent became when I was on the phone with my parents. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/30 "2000-03-26T16:46:00Z")
I have the weird picking-up-the-accents-around-me thing, too. I have to try really, really hard not to do it. I don’t know why it happens. It just does. I’m from Michigan. Lower Peninsula, so I don’t have “da yooper” thing going on. I don’t think I have an accent, although when I’m visiting my in-laws in Arkansas they say I sound Northern for a day or two, then I sound like I’ve lived in Arkansas all my life (aieeeee!). I’m from Flint, Michigan, so if there’s any accent at all, it’s just a really, really pissed-off one. 🙂 * * * This space blank, until Wally thinks up something cool to put here. ---
**Author:** ![Nu\_Vo\_Da\_Da](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/97f17d/32.png) [@Nu\_Vo\_Da\_Da](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nu_Vo_Da_Da)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/31 "2000-03-26T16:55:00Z")
I’m one of the accent-chameleon people as well, probably because I moved around a bit as a kid. ## Right now I’m an odd cross between a Minnesota (Min-a-sooh-dah) accent and a lancaster county(I’m not freakin amish) accent. I just wish I had managed to hang on to my South African accent a little bit longer, oh well. Still later, Gerald did a terrible thing to Elsie with a saucepan. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/32 "2000-03-26T17:18:00Z")
I think certain states, like Arizona, have fewer people with regional accents so phone jobs are usually located in those states? ---
**Author:** ![the\_Scarlet\_Pimpernel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f1d935/32.png) [@the\_Scarlet\_Pimpernel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_Scarlet_Pimpernel)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2000, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/33 "2000-03-27T06:32:00Z")
Ive been living in Denmark for two years and have lost almost all trace of my California accent. Predictably, before I moved I could never hear that Californians _had_ an accent - and now I hear it loud and clear. Now my family says I sound “European”. Ohhh-kaaaayyy. What exactly does a “European” accent sound like? When I speak Danish, people usually think I’m British, but when I speak English, I get mistaken for a Dane, even by other Danes. Go figger. * * * Ass-Toaster Extraordinaire, SDMBSRC ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2000, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/34 "2000-03-27T06:58:00Z")
In the last year, i’ve been asked, by Americans, if i’m Australian, a New Zealander, Irish, Scottish, German, French and very rarely, English, which I am. ---
**Author:** ![Sealemon88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Sealemon88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon88)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/35 "2000-03-26T19:09:00Z")
Like a couple of other posters here, I tent to be an accent sponge if I’m not paying attention. I have a slight Texas accent, that sometimes comes out stronger…in the right situations. 😉 * * * You say “cheesy” like that’s a **BAD** thing. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/36 "2000-03-26T21:46:00Z")
Apparently I do, though of course I can’t hear it. I think I sound just like Dan Rather. What cracks me up, though, is when I mention that I spent most of my early childhood in Oklahoma and then people tell me they could hear that in my accent. I was more than 20 years ago and they never mention anything until after they know I spent 6 years there. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/37 "2000-03-31T06:46:00Z")
Android209. I thought I knew that accent this is just for you. Did you hear about the board cancelling the Manchester United supporters dinner? Apparently none of them knew where Manchester was! Man U fan Quote"I don’t go to games but I’ve seen all the goals on TV!" Dives for cover ---
**Author:** ![monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monster)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/38 "2000-03-31T06:55:00Z")
You know the guys on Saturday Night Live…DA BEARSSSSSS, DA BULLSSSSS. That’s me! (Although I never knew it until I moved away.) ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2000, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/39 "2000-03-30T19:00:00Z")
I have a bit of a Texas drawl that shows up when I’m tired, drunk, or making a concious effort to sound more genteel - especially when I talk to older people. It helps when I’m doing tech support, because a frustrated or nervous user doesn’t get half as threatened by a woman with a sweet accent as they do by a techie guy who mumbles and talks to fast in jargon. ---
**Author:** ![Rousseau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Rousseau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rousseau)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2000, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351/40 "2000-03-30T19:15:00Z")
So get this. In August I moved out here to the Midwest from Jersey (I was born in Yonkers, NY). Back in December when I told my English teacher here that I was going to college back in New York, she said “Oh, great, you’ll keep your accent.” I said “What?” She said “Your New York accent. You’ll keep it.” So I asked some other people (not from the Midwest) if I had a NY accent. And their reply generally was “Are you kidding? Of course you do!” And then one day a couple of weekends ago a guy came by looking for my father and I answered the door, and he said “Hey! You talk funny too, just like your parents!” I had no idea… * * * “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.” -Winston Churchill [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-an-accent/15351.md?page=3)