I have a Montgomery County, Maryland accent, which is sort of like a very soft Southern accent with nasally o’s. My friends in Utah think I have a thick Southern drawl. My friends here in SC have no problem identifying me as a Yankee. I’ve also been told I have an English accent (from a Minnessotan).
My husband, who’s from Australia, gets asked where he’s from all the time. He just deadpans, “About a half mile up the road.” (South Carolina) and gets some really weird looks.
I don’t know if I have an accent or not. My friend from Georgia says I do. (I am a native of L.A.) I don’t think I had an accent of any kind for many years, then I picked up some “Valley Girl” phrases from some teenage co-workers (Oh My Gawd) a few years back, and I suspect that I now have an “accent” of sorts.
I recently moved to the Midwest, and some have accents, some don’t. Some are damned thick, and scary, at least to me. The most telling sign (even amongst a Midwesterner who doesn’t have a noticable accent) is that they pronounce “insurance” like “insurance”, whereas Californians pronounce it insurance. I’ve noticed this among most Midwesterners, and it is backed up by the old Hitchock film “Marnie”. (Where Sean Connery catches Tippi Hedren in a lie, after she claims to be from California, but pronounces the word insurance, the Midwestern/Southern pronunciation.) I’m not saying all Midwesterners pronounce it this way, but many do.
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