# George Dubya's accent **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 28, 2006, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560 "2006-04-28T05:50:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560/21 "2006-04-28T22:20:41Z")
> [@edwino](#): > > I had a lecture by a [neuropsychiatrist](http://www.childtrauma.org/aboutCTA/bio_bruce.asp) who claimed that accents are “fixed” by age 12. One doesn’t pick up or lose one after that – the one that you have when you are 12 is pretty much the one you have after that. I don’t know if that can be applied as rigidly to regional accents as to foregn language accents, but there is a general rule that once you pass puberty, you’re accent is pretty much fixed. You certainly will never speak a foreign language without an accent, even though young children can do so with ease. I think we all have experienced examples of that. But if you grow up in the South, hearing southern accents all your life, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could pick it up later in life even if you didn’t do so as a child. The key is hearing the sounds all through your childhood. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560/22 "2006-04-28T22:49:39Z")
You know, his accent never sounded that Texan to me. I’m sure he throws a lot of homilies and such in, as well as stuff like getting photographed at Crawford clearing brush in a cowboy hat and UT sweatshirt (I’m sure he strapped on his six-shooter and went bullriding at the Alamo right afterwards), but I don’t get the impression he’s faking the accent. It just doesn’t sound Texan somehow. Southern, I suppose, but “he don’t sound like he’s from 'round these parts.” ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560/23 "2006-04-28T23:31:04Z")
I’m going to guess that it is more of the “pilot’s cowboy drawl” as described by Tom Wolfe in _The Right Stuff_, attributed to Chuck Yeager and company, picked up by so many pilots who followed after them. It’s a lazy way of talking, easily slurred out, and real homey soundin’. In fact, I’ve kind of picked it up myself to the point where someone will ask me every now and then where my _accent_ comes from. American drawl, I say. Totally affected. I don’t take it to the extremes that Dubya does, but it’s there. Like I say, it’s just a very lazy way of talking. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560/24 "2006-04-29T07:23:40Z")
Actually, laziness has nothin’ to do with dialects. It’s a matter of how we learn the language. > [@](#): > > **edwino** : had a lecture by a neuropsychiatrist who claimed that accents are “fixed” by age 12. One doesn’t pick up or lose one after that – the one that you have when you are 12 is pretty much the one you have after that. Sure, you can fake it… We may not be consciously “faking” it when we lose our childhood dialects. There is a difference in the way I talk in Middle Tennessee and the way I spoke growing up in West Tennessee. A life-long friend lives a few blocks from me. My husband can tell when we are talking on the phone. I revert to the pronunciations of my early years. I do that also when I first awake or if I am suddenly frightened. But the rest of the time I am unaware that my adult speech is different from the past. Examples from childhood: _Isn’t_ becomes **idn’t**. _Trenton_ becomes **Tren’non** or **Tren’un** (with a slight glottal stop). _I swear_ becomes _I’ll swan_. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560/25 "2006-04-29T12:38:31Z")
Accents can be “turned on or off” for the same reason a speaker selects certain words in different situations: code switching. For example, I grew up in the South and in general conversation, I employ for the 2nd person plural _y’all_; however, yesterday, I was giving a formal presentation and I used the term _you_ instead. Does that mean I’m using a fake accent? If your response is _yes_, then you know exactly zero about Linguistics. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560/26 "2006-04-29T13:01:04Z")
> [@Backwater Under\_Duck](#): > > It’s a lazy way of talking, easily slurred out, and real homey soundin’. No, it’s not lazy. It’s just different than what you had employed for another register. See my comment about code switching. ---
**Author:** ![BluePitbull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560/27 "2006-04-29T14:33:38Z")
I didn’t realize that there were so many accents in the US. One black american I know in the vet school doesn’t sound anything like the ones on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560/28 "2006-04-29T16:07:22Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#): > > I didn’t realize that there were so many accents in the US. One black american I know in the vet school doesn’t sound anything like the ones on TV. Its a continent spanding country made up of immigrants from all over the world. Of course there’s gonna be a lot of accents. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560/29 "2006-04-29T21:13:52Z")
Former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke was like this. He was a former union honcho who made the move into Labor politics. When speaking in parliament or on TV, he’d speak in a general (if slightly twangy) middle class Australian accent. When speaking to unionists, he’d revert to sounding like Steve Irwin, with a change in accent, speech patterns, and choice of words. The collective ‘you’ in parliament would become ‘youse’ with the unionists. Both real accents, but the way in which he consciously switched between the two was contrived, cynical, and fake. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560/30 "2006-04-29T21:35:12Z")
> [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > Former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke was like this. > > He was a former union honcho who made the move into Labor politics. When speaking in parliament or on TV, he’d speak in a general (if slightly twangy) middle class Australian accent. When speaking to unionists, he’d revert to sounding like Steve Irwin, with a change in accent, speech patterns, and choice of words. The collective ‘you’ in parliament would become ‘youse’ with the unionists. > > Both real accents, but the way in which he consciously switched between the two was contrived, cynical, and fake. Just to be clear, what do you mean by “like this”. Lest someone think that “like this” means “like Bush”, I don’t believe that even the folks who think he’s faking his accent claim that he switches that accent based on whom he is talking to. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560/31 "2006-04-29T21:48:32Z")
No, I wasn’t refering to Bush (I’m actually a Pubbie [or would be were I American], so I wasn’t Bush-bashing). I don’t think Bush is faking anything with his speech. I was talking more about the switching thing, as described by **Monty** , a few posts up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-dubyas-accent/354560.md?page=1)