# Things you always say in a borrowed accent. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 28, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053 "2009-08-28T17:42:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/21 "2009-08-28T19:45:43Z")
Any and all discussions about Chinese buffets immediately turn into [John Pinette quotes.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdwuiyO7hOU) “You go now! You here four hour!” ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/22 "2009-08-28T19:52:02Z")
When I’m at work, and customers thank me (I bartend) I find myself saying, “But of COURSE, DAHHHLING!” in the plummy tones of a rich old English lady. I don’t know why I started doing it but I can’t seem to stop. I also have an angry-old-English-man voice that only emerges when I’m joking around with one particular girlfriend of mine. And this voice says things like, “WELL, perhaps if you had CONSIDERED the repercussions of undertaking such a MAMMOTH ENDEAVOR when you were ILL PREPARED for the LIKELY CONSEQUENCES…” I don’t talk like that. But the Angry Old English Man does. Sometimes we laugh so much over it that we get a little teary-eyed. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/23 "2009-08-28T20:58:27Z")
Since Ah-nold became governor, I pronounce all the syllables in Cah lee fohn ee ah. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/24 "2009-08-28T21:00:51Z")
Oh, I do this all the time, and I’ve offended people more than once, so I’m really trying to stop. “So pretty!” is always with a Hindi accent - I don’t know if I picked it up from a movie, or a friend’s mom, or what. “Antonio Banderas” is always “ahn-TOHN!-ee-oh bahn-DAY!-rrras!” When I answer the phone with “Hello”, it’s usually with a Russian-ish accent (“Hhhieh-loh”), or sometimes sing-songy upper-crusty British (“Hel-LOOOO!”) And a whole slew of phrases come out “country”, because you really can’t say them any other way: “don’t you pay it no nevermind”, “I’m fer it/I’m agin’ it”, “that was right neighborly”, “aren’t you a peach!” and so on. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/25 "2009-08-28T22:06:06Z")
I had an Iranian professor for a statistics class once upon a time. I often pronounce “basically” as “Basic-Alley” just like he did… ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/26 "2009-08-28T22:20:58Z")
After spending a summer there, I can’t say “Fargo, North Dakota” without sounding like a parody of a native. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/27 "2009-08-28T23:08:41Z")
“Sorry,” when proffered as a perfunctory non-apology, is always pronounced in clipped British accent, flipping the R so it almost sounds like “soddy.” If someone tells me an interesting story or fact, I never say, “Interesting!” I say, “Ve-r-r-r-r-ry in-ter-est-ing! But not funny,” in the Arte Johnson German accent. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/28 "2009-08-28T23:48:23Z")
_Inconceivable_. But it isn’t an accent so much as a voice. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/29 "2009-08-28T23:52:26Z")
“Oh really” in this weird clipped faux-British accent (I’ve heard it likened to the accent Leia puts on during her mouthing off to Vader early in Star Wars). My friends say I do this a _lot_ and that it’s a really weird affectation, but I’ve never noticed it except on the phrase I mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/30 "2009-08-28T23:55:04Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > “Isabella Rossalini” in a cartoonish Italian accent. > > Likewise “Ricar-r-r-rdo Montalban” in an exaggerated suave Latin accent. Me, too. Thank-you, David Letterman, c. 1986. I picked up a peculiarly American accented “Good evening” from the fella who voiced the “Rexall Family Druggist” on the commercial portions of the Phil Harris/Alice Faye show in the late forties and early fifties. Very serious. Very sober. Very clearly a piss-take, coming from me. ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/31 "2009-08-29T01:40:32Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > "Room Key " in the manner of inspector Clouseau Likewise, “Bimp.” ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/32 "2009-08-29T02:13:35Z")
**Things you always say in a borrowed accent.** _“Not fish… snake!”_ ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/33 "2009-08-29T02:15:36Z")
“Quoite noice.” ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/34 "2009-08-29T02:17:56Z")
“No Coke, Pepsi.” ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/35 "2009-08-29T05:45:26Z")
“That’s thinkin’ with yer dipstick, Jimmeh!” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/36 "2009-08-29T06:20:31Z")
I always scream, “I’m well aware of that Mr. Worf!” in Picard’s british accent. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/37 "2009-08-29T06:24:50Z")
Also: “'allow? Whut’s thes, then?” It’s not Picard, though. Just some random cockney thing I whip out. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/38 "2009-08-29T06:26:07Z")
“Cut me a switch of the tree, now! GEET!” In as deep fried, confederate Alabaman as you can. Man, I’ve got a ton of these… ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/39 "2009-08-29T09:44:34Z")
In my very best 'Strine: Broooce Shazza Aw yea’? (Bruce Sharon Oh Yeah?) The “Shazza” comes from my vocal lessons, where my teacher is trying to teach me to rough up my voice, so in our very best Bogan we do “Shazza, yer late!” right through our noses untill I’m laughing to hard to do that anymore. From my Kiwi friend at work, I’ve picked up Aw shut brew Aw cuz Aye? Chilly Bun (Oh, shit, bro Oh cous Aye after every sentence, aye? Chilly Bin - a cooler, called an Esky here.) These are things I’m trying to stop doing, since I’ve noticed I’m somewhat of an accent chameleon, and I’m slowly losing my OWN accent. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053/40 "2009-08-29T13:19:07Z")
> [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > And a whole slew of phrases come out “country”, because you really can’t say them any other way: “don’t you pay it no nevermind”, “I’m fer it/I’m agin’ it”, “that was right neighborly”, “aren’t you a peach!” and so on. Oddly enough, I can say “God willing and the creek don’t rise” without any accent whatsoever. My only reliable slipping-into-accent is when someone says “Thank you” and I say “Thank yo [sic]!” in an accent that’s only recognizable as a Groucho imitation to someone who’s seen that movie. (Which movie? Is that _Duck Soup_?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-always-say-in-a-borrowed-accent/508053.md?page=3)