# Do you speak with a strong accent? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 19, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605 "2009-02-19T21:03:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/1 "2009-02-19T21:03:05Z")
What kind? Is it different from most of the people around you, or does everyone sound like that where you live? Do you ever (or have you ever) tried to change it? What conclusions do you think people may draw about you from hearing your accent (besides the obvious geographical ones)? Today I was listening to a guy from Queens and his accent was so extreme he sounded like a cartoon character. Then I remembered that when I was young and living in a different town, I had a strong Southern accent. I thought I sounded cute as kitten britches, but when I got older and moved to a town where that accent was scarce, I decided to “fix” it because I didn’t want people to think I was a hick. How ‘bout y’all? Damn! ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/2 "2009-02-19T21:12:44Z")
I sound like one of those aforementioned hicks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/3 "2009-02-19T21:19:30Z")
I was having a little argument with friends years ago, who insisted that I had a funny accent. They were all from New Yoahk, New Joisey, and Lawn Guy Land. A mutual friend from Germany, who attended American school, said that my accent was what he was taught as the “correct” accent. Hey, in your face, Yankee fans. Many years later a couple of Floridians correctly guessed that I lived in Boston, just from my accent. I was wicked pissed about that. Born in Iowa, raised in upstate NY. They cancel each other out. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/4 "2009-02-19T21:21:30Z")
Although from East Tennessee and having grown up on a tobacco farm, I have no accent whatsoever. Proven to me many times when people find out my background. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/5 "2009-02-19T21:22:28Z")
I should mention one of my favorite jokes from Brett Butler. “I met a guy from The Bronx, and he told me ‘Ay, I got nuttin’ against people from da south, but I hate their accents. Dey sound so freakin’ stoopid!’” ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/6 "2009-02-19T21:24:28Z")
Not unless I’m putting one on. That accent would be mostly NY with a little RI. But generally speaking, no. ---
**Author:** ![Dreamy\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dreamy\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dreamy_B)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/7 "2009-02-19T21:24:54Z")
Born and raised in Maryland. When I’ve traveled North everyone thought I sounded like a southerner and when I’ve traveled South everyone thought I sounded like a northerner. So no, it must not be strong. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/8 "2009-02-19T21:31:48Z")
Any accent I have is drowned out by the personal idiosyncracies of my voice, which even now sounds like Kermit the Frog. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/9 "2009-02-19T21:32:47Z")
> [@Dreamy\_B](#): > > Born and raised in Maryland. When I’ve traveled North everyone thought I sounded like a southerner and when I’ve traveled South everyone thought I sounded like a northerner. … So no, it must not be strong. 😉 Although there is an unmistakable Baltimore accent, as anyone who’s heard the narration in _Pink Flamingos_ while watching the movie through their fingers knows. My mother’s family has a very strong Brooklyn accent but she trained herself out of it in college; my father’s family were Middle European but his accent ended up (for whatever reason) a very mild flavor of Jersey. I realize that someone is going to come along any second and laugh at everyone who thinks they have no accent, but I’ve lived in California and Texas and only the very astute would recognize that I was raised in Jersey. It’s subtle but definitely there, though. I give mine away on words like “wall” and “coffee.” **tdn** , it’s interesting that there is a very definite Upstate NY accent but nobody ever mentions it, and I’ve never heard anyone try and imitate or exaggerate it. I know it when I hear it, though. ---
**Author:** ![CAT\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@CAT\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CAT_1)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/10 "2009-02-19T21:33:00Z")
I am from central WI, and we all sound a little “Fargoish” around here. I am sure I have an accent to others, but I am not the worst offender I know of. The farther north you go in the state, the more the, “Ya, Oh Ya’s” creep in. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/11 "2009-02-19T21:36:51Z")
I’m apparently almost entirely accentless. I’ve lived in Boston all my life, but no one ever guesses it when I travel (all I’ve ever gotten in the South is “northerner”), and Bostonians often ask me where I’m from and seem surprised when they find out. ---
**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:** [February 19, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/12 "2009-02-19T21:38:38Z")
I used to think that Alaskans had no accent, until I heard Sarah Palin’s faux Midwestern twang. Since then, I’ve heard others from Wasilla with that same annoying affectation. Others who have lived here all their lives affect a Montana-western accent, which is equally annoying. One can be a redneck without the accent, but nobody ever told them. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/13 "2009-02-19T21:42:42Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > **tdn** , it’s interesting that there is a very definite Upstate NY accent but nobody ever mentions it, and I’ve never heard anyone try and imitate or exaggerate it. I know it when I hear it, though. Oh, it’s there alright. Every single time I am in the city, more than one person says something like, “I _knew_ you were from Rochester! You sound like a farmer when you speak.” ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/14 "2009-02-19T21:47:22Z")
I’m a Chicagoan, but when I was a kid visiting cousins in Arizona, they all thought I talked fast. I could understand this if I was in Alabama or something, but Arizona?? ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/15 "2009-02-19T21:49:19Z")
Yep. I have a strong US Pacific Coast accent, which is to say a very bland, generic American accent, which would not stand out much anywhere in the states. I’ve lived in Indiana, Virginia, and Oregon, and last summer in Fargo, and though I can fake the local accent from each place, none are part of my normal speech except the Oregon. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/16 "2009-02-19T21:49:53Z")
My Icelandic accent is my own - doesn’t sound like anyone elses so no-one can place me. My Swedish accent is usally generic, with a twing of Gothenburg in it, but reverts to Skånish after a few days there. My English accent has by several people, at different times, been placed as from “Posh Northern England” And my German sounds like I’m from Baden Wûrthemberg. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/17 "2009-02-19T21:52:11Z")
I don’t have any particular accent that I know of, but I pick up whatever I live around for long enough. Right now I am fighting to retain a “normal” r sound in a lot of words, and a lot of the vowels are changing the longer I live here. I do say dawg, sawt, and fuhward, though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/18 "2009-02-19T21:55:24Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Oh, it’s there alright. Every single time I am in the city, more than one person says something like, “I _knew_ you were from Rochester! You sound like a farmer when you speak.” When we moved there, I picked up on it right away, but my parents gave me a smackdown on it before it got entrenched. They freaked the first time they heard my niece say “roight.” A Google search tells me that Bob Hill TV is still in business. Does he still have those horrid commercials? “Hi, I’m Bahb Hill!” Could not stand the guy. My sister ended up working for his wife, or as she called her, The Queen Bitch. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/19 "2009-02-19T21:57:41Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > **tdn** , it’s interesting that there is a very definite Upstate NY accent but nobody ever mentions it, and I’ve never heard anyone try and imitate or exaggerate it. I know it when I hear it, though. For people that have no idea what you’re talking about, listen to Rachael Ray. _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605/20 "2009-02-19T22:01:29Z")
It’s not that strong, but there’s more than a little Elwood Blues in my speech from time to time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-with-a-strong-accent/486605.md?page=2)