# What Accent of English Do You Have? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 14, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394 "2011-06-14T03:44:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elvis\_Chimney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/50afbb/32.png) [@Elvis\_Chimney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elvis_Chimney)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/41 "2011-06-14T14:43:48Z")
Watered-down Glasgow accent - years of living in Edinburgh have watered it down to the extent that I was recently accused by a workmate of having a “posh Glasgow accent”, which offended me no end. I’m told that I become markedly more Glaswegian when a) drunk or b) on the phone to my mum I can only imagine what I might sound like if I were to phone my mum when drunk. ---
**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/42 "2011-06-14T15:06:11Z")
New Orleans’ y’at. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/43 "2011-06-14T15:10:45Z")
North/Greater London, so probably a bit RP, a bit Estuary English. ---
**Author:** ![xkit0katx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/50afbb/32.png) [@xkit0katx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xkit0katx)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/44 "2011-06-14T15:11:34Z")
A very mild South Eastern Massachusetts/Cape Cod accent, with overtones of Connecticut - I grew up in MA, but did a few years of school in CT. I’m definitely an “accent chameleon”. When I talk to people who have really pronounced (to my ears) accents, I have to make an effort to not unconsciously imitate their speech patterns. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/45 "2011-06-14T15:12:48Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > I think I’d say I speak general American or California English. CA English here too. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/46 "2011-06-14T15:18:56Z")
Midwestern American. There are enough nuances in the main population centers in the Midwest that people from out-of-state can correctly peg me to the Indianapolis area when hearing me. Folks from Indianapolis, however, often assume I’m from the east coast somewhere, usually due to how quickly I speak (relative to locals) and vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/47 "2011-06-14T15:24:55Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > According to [one map](http://aschmann.net/AmEng/#Dialects_TheNorth), Inland North. I’m confused by this map. One of the points it lists for the Greater New York City area is that both _bad/had_ and _father/bother_ don’t rhyme, but I am from the New York City area and those two examples absolutely do rhyme. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/48 "2011-06-14T15:33:53Z")
**Curtis** , let me be the first to thank you for finally starting an apolitical, nonreligious, broad appeal thread. Perhaps there’s hope for you yet, kiddo. 😉 I’m not sure I can adequately explain my accent. I was born in the US, but was raised, and spent about equal amounts of time both inside and outside the US. I speak English, Spanish, German, French, and Japanese at various levels of fluency, and a smattering of Hebrew. I tend to be very precise in my pronunciation and grammar. I possess no US regional accent that I’m aware of and don’t “pick up” the local accent from wherever I currently reside, whereas my wife, who was not born in the US, does. Any colloquialisms I use are put on for effect, or purposeful exaggeration. Caught and cot, pin and pen, and merry and marry are not homonyms for me. I don’t drawl or twang. I do, however, substitute a ‘D’ sound for words spelled with a double T, e.g., butter becomes budr, patter becomes padr, cattle becomes cadəl, etc… ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/49 "2011-06-14T15:38:14Z")
Midwestern American – more specifically, the [Northern Cities Vowel Shift](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_English_regional_phonology#The_Northern_Cities_Vowel_Shift). According to others, I used to have a more pronounced Green Bay accent (I grew up there). Six years in Madison, WI, then 22 years in suburban Chicago, have blunted it, though it can still rematerialize when I visit friends and family up there. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/50 "2011-06-14T15:45:29Z")
I’m originally from the south, and had a southern accent as a child, but have since degenerated into midwest blandness having lived among yankees for so long. If I go back to the south or am around people from the south, or have a couple of beers my accent comes back a little bit. I can pour on the cornpone if I want to. My kids call it my “hillbilly accent.” it cracks them up. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/51 "2011-06-14T15:49:10Z")
Like the people on TV. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/52 "2011-06-14T16:06:39Z")
I have a bit of a Chicago Great Lakes accent. Its intensity varies, depending on my environment. I tend to pick up accents, so when I spent a few months in Scotland, I picked up a little bit of Scottish, apparently (according to others–I didn’t think I was speaking any differently than before), but that wore off quickly when I left. When I lived abroad for five years with an eclectic English speaking crowd, my accent neutralized and even developed some Britishisms. Now that I’ve been back in Chicago for seven years, it’s pretty much back to the Great Lakes accent, and I sometimes even semi-consciously overdo it slightly, lopping off more “ths” into "t"s and "d"s than I normally would. For example, I normally _do_ say “fifdy-fift’ shtreet,” in casual speech, but I wouldn’t usually say “turdy-turd shtreet.” I would put the “th” in there. Now, I sometimes just purposefully go for the more accented version. ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/53 "2011-06-14T17:30:34Z")
Danish, Indian, Irish, British, American. Mostly British, I think. It depends on who I’m talking to and/or the number of beers I’ve had. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/54 "2011-06-14T17:50:49Z")
My father was teased in boot camp about his very thick southern accent (Southern Lowland). He was determined that nobody was going to continue to do so. Therefore, he listened to Edward R. Murrow on Armed Forces radio and taught himself to speak with a Standard American English accent. Although I was born in the South (as ‘South’ as Atlanta, Georgia gets), I was taught to speak with that same accent. It confuses the heck out of people when I tell them where I was born. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/55 "2011-06-14T17:52:12Z")
North Dublin (educated). ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/56 "2011-06-14T17:54:19Z")
I speak Southern USAmerican English, Memphis variety, otherwise known as _correct English_. The rest of y’all non-y’all users have the accent. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/57 "2011-06-14T17:56:42Z")
Western Canadian (I don’t say “aboot;” if I hear someone saying it like that, they’re either from Ontario or Newfoundland). ---
**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:** [June 14, 2011, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/58 "2011-06-14T18:16:28Z")
> [@JoseArcadio](#): > > Scottish - a blend of Highland/teuchter and Glaswegian. Oooooh, talk to me, baby! 😛 Mine is a complete hodgepodge. I grew up in the midwest, went to university outside Pittsburgh, lived in Virginia, London, Albania, Kosovo, Germany, Kabul and now New England. I tend to pick up pronunciations from everywhere and often start to adapt the accent of the person I’m talking to. One would be hard pressed to tell where I was from originally by my accent. ---
**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:** [June 14, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/59 "2011-06-14T18:34:25Z")
Wigan / South Lancashire accent. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394/60 "2011-06-14T19:51:09Z")
Standard American accent (aka ‘Newscaster’). I spent roughly equal amounts of time in upstate New York, South Dakota, and the Philadelphia suburbs between 2 and 18 so I never got a regional accent. My parents (who grew up mainly on Oahu, Hawaii) don’t seem to have regional accents either - to my ear anyway. My mom has a very well-enunciated, ‘proper’ manner of speaking and all three of us kids sound a lot like her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-of-english-do-you-have/585394.md?page=4)