# Have you disavowed your regional accent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 11, 2011, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652 "2011-07-11T18:32:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/41 "2011-07-12T13:11:45Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > My family moved from Western New York to Northern Maine when I was seven. I distinctly remember being teased for the way I said, “socks,” … ‘what are saaaaacks?’ That’s funny, when I was seven I moved from Iowa to western New York. At first people told me that I talked funny, but I think I assimilated pretty fast. But to this day I’m self-conscious about short Os. It’s a balancing act between saaaaacks and swocks. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/42 "2011-07-12T14:10:34Z")
I grew up in the part of the Midwest where there’s not much difference between short 'i’s and short 'e’s. When I realized that in most of the country, pin and pen, Jenny and Ginny, Wendy and windy, etc. are not homophones, I worked at acquiring a standard short e. However, in the process, I’ve mostly lost the short i. So, I used to pronounce both pin and pen as pin, but now I usually pronounce them both as pen. ---
**Author:** ![brewha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/43 "2011-07-12T14:19:35Z")
Not disavowed, just temporarily lost. After I lived in FL for about 2 years, people would comment on my southern accent when I was back home visiting in WI. The funny thing was that I would pick up my ‘yooper’ accent within a day or two of being back home. So, when I got back to FL, I’d get made fun of for that. Now I’m back in the Midwest and pretty sure I talk like a Wisconsinite again. Though truth be told, I was never aware of any change of accents. I’m just going off of what people told me. ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/44 "2011-07-12T14:33:18Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > Sorry to hear about the accident. I had to reread my post twice to figure out what the heck you were talking about. Is there a term for reading something incorrectly because your brain skips over the error while proof reading? ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/45 "2011-07-12T17:35:53Z")
IMO, my accent is pretty neutral. I have lived in the South, New England, Upstate NY and now reside in the Midwest. But if I am around people with a strong accent from these regions, I unconsciously mimic the accent. (to fit in I suppose). I even have a Canadian accent when I head up to the Great White North. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/46 "2011-07-12T18:29:03Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Not in the least. Californian is acceptable anywhere. You ain’t from around here, are you? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/47 "2011-07-12T18:32:34Z")
> [@Lucretia](#): > > I have a teeny, tiny little Connecticut East Coast accent that only another swamp-yankee would recognize…I tend to swallow double t’s "Ki’en (kitten), mi’en “mitten”, ect.), and I say Aunt like Awnt, not Ant. It’s so minor that I’ve never made an effort one way or another, but I think I still have it. My future daughter-in-law has that! She’s from Gloucester, Mass. Her “ki’en” cracks me up. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/48 "2011-07-12T18:42:46Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Well, my Southern Ontario accent has never been a help with the women. Half my relatives have English accents, but did they last until my generation? Noooo… That’s just not fair, man; my sympathies. 🙂 I moved around enough as a young kid kid that I really don’t have anything beyond a generic Northeast accent. I’m a bit of a fast talker, though, and occasionally folks guess that I’m from NYC. Wrongly - I’ve never lived there. I kind of wish I had a bit of a Boston or Maine accent - both are fairly common in southern New Hampshire, which is where I spent grades 1-12. I’d never want to live there again, and have no idea when I’ll even visit again; my family and all my friends have moved away, so there’s nothing to bring me back. But it was a good place to grow up in a lot of ways, and I’d sort of like the regional marker. Oh well. ---
**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:** [July 12, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/49 "2011-07-12T18:43:52Z")
I did have a strong Southern accent at one point, but it didn’t matter because everyone else I knew had one too. When I got older, I realized that everyone thought we sounded like morons, so I tried to get rid of the accent and I think I’ve succeeded in that. However, I do bring it back at times if it seems expedient. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/50 "2011-07-12T19:00:41Z")
The comedienne Brett Butler had a bit about accents. She said she was doing a show in NYC and a guy came up to her and said “Ay, you’re real funny, but I’d hate to have a southern accent, ‘cause it would make me sound so frickin’ stoopid!” ---
**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:** [July 12, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/51 "2011-07-12T19:04:39Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > That’s just not fair, man; my sympathies. 🙂 I got the bad teeth, but not the accent… :: sob :: :: shakes self :: At least I has a nice bike ride today. ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/52 "2011-07-12T21:00:04Z")
No, but I’ve disavowed some regionalisms - like saying “warsh”… ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/53 "2011-07-12T21:00:05Z")
I was born in northern New York, and spent my childhood bouncing between there and my current hometown in southern Virginia. I can code-switch at will between light Appalachian Southern and North Country (though not cricker, which is a different animal altogether…if you want a decent approximation, take a Canadian, beat him over the head with a rock a few dozen times, and have him read aloud from the script for Fargo. If he still pronounces more than 30% of his consonants, heave the rock at his front teeth for good measure). When I’m not paying attention, my normal speaking voice is more or less newscaster-American with mixed regionalisms from both areas, ensuring that I get an ample share of :dubious:'s wherever I go. ---
**Author:** ![thebenn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@thebenn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thebenn)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/54 "2011-07-13T11:53:17Z")
I grew up in Louisville after coming to the U.S. from Vietnam at age 3. I learned English from watching Sesame Street and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, and was able to avoid picking up the Southern drawl that’s endemic to the region. I’m pretty thankful for that, actually!! I probably would have tried pretty hard to lose the drawl since I no longer live in Louisville. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/55 "2011-07-13T12:02:54Z")
No. I have a very strong south Lancashire accent. Even if I tried to disavow it (which I won’t be doing any time soon) I can’t. However, I must temper it slightly unconsciously when I’m around non-native Lanky speakers, though, as my Scottish girlfriend complains that my accent becomes literally unintelligible when I go back home. She can’t tell a word what my Dad is saying, neither. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/56 "2011-07-13T15:24:07Z")
I try not to speak with a Canadian French accent _in English_, replacing it with what I assume is a standard Canadian accent, but could be American-influenced as well. Of course, how “good” my accent is depends on how often I speak English. When I haven’t spoken it in a while, or when I’m more nervous, I revert to a stronger Canadian French accent. In French, though, I speak with a relatively typical Quebec (or Western Quebec anyway) accent, and I have no problem with that. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/57 "2011-07-13T15:51:14Z")
Accent, not so much - I’ve always had just enough of one for someone familiar with the accent to peg me as a Newfoundlander, but not enough to stand out here in Ontario. Dialect, on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/58 "2011-07-14T18:04:08Z")
Central Pennsylvania doesn’t have an especially strong accent, but there are some quirks - e.g. doing something “rate away” = “immediately”, di’nt vs didn’t etc, Omitting “to be” from sentences e.g. “that needs washed” vs “that needs to be washed”, a bit more nasal than other regions… Whoops, let me correct myself: “that needs waRshed”. I actually tried correcting Sister Mary Discipline, in 1st grade, when she misspelled it as “wash” on the blackboard :smack:. I never had even as much as my brothers, and a lot of it warshed away, I think, because of being in the choir and studying French in high school, and also my father had a not-too-strong Georgia accent (mitigated by decades of living in Yankee-land). 2 of my brothers still have the strong central PA manner of speaking. The third moved to the Midwest - and has as a strong an Illinois accent as any native. **Typo Knig** is an oddball: New York metro area, Jewish family… and you couldn’t tell by his accent at all! Everyone else in his family, you could cut it with a knife. As far as I know, he never did have the accent (certainly not when I met him, fresh out of high school). ---
**Author:** ![Lobelia\_Overhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/59 "2011-07-14T21:59:33Z")
I am Irish, born in London, but brought up in Scotland. I was doing all right at school with my non Scots accent until we’d a history lesson during which the teacher gave an overly graphic description of what English soldiers did to Scottish people during some war or other (I can’t remember which one - probably something like in _Braveheart_) all eyes in the class turned to me and from that day forth I was hated with a passion for being English. A few years later I’d ‘perfected’ a Glaswegian accent, and when I went to High School (yes, dear reader, that teacher had been talking to students aged 8 or 9) in another town, no one knew me, and no one guessed my terrible secret that I _wasn’t Scottish_! Saved me from being beaten up on a few occasions… ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652/60 "2011-07-14T22:07:32Z")
No. Most people can’t recognise a Warwickshire accent anyway. Hell, most people don’t even know where Warwickshire is … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-disavowed-your-regional-accent/588652.md?page=4)