Worst accent.. (speaking english)..?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I remember having dinner with my ex-girlfriend’s family. Her grandmother was born and raised in Arkansas. My girlfriend left the table and I was left abandoned between her grandmother and her mother.

Grandmother: “You want at?”

Me: “What?”

Grandmother: “You want at?”

Me: “I’m sorry. What?”

Grandmother: “You want at?”

Me: “…”

Mother: “She’s asking ‘do you want out?’”

Me: “OOoooooh…No.”

If I wanted to leave the table, I simply would have stood up. Body language is universal. But I wouldn’t say that Arkansan is the worst accent to understand, it’s just embarrassing when you can’t understand a one-syllable word.

22

The worst accent I’ve ever heard is one that’s local to me–very Rhode Island (or Road-eye-land). I think it sounds even worse than the Boston accent: “Not fo nuttin’ but why dons youse guys all hang out wit us in Nort Pravadence tamarra night? Weze can all fit in my cah. Or weze can all go to da Aht Bah on de Es Side.”

And there’s that whole transitive “R” thing. It rarely gets used in words like cah (car) and pahk (park) but suddenly pops up in words like idea®.

23

Um, pardon my ignorance here, but what/where is a “Dublin 4” (sounds like a golf club, if’n you ask me)?

Just curious, anyone have a website with accent/dialect recordings so I can hear some of these?

24

Dublin 4 is a postal code region of Dublin.

25

Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia accents are simply awful. I’m from southeastern Pennsylvania and have a light Philly accent, much to my shame – I say my Os funny. “Close” becomes “cle-ose,” for example. I’m so sorry. :o

I do think we need to have a campaign to teach everyone to say “Washington” instead of “Warshington.” Whatever accent it is that causes one to use that pronunciation is hideous.

26

Hey Mon! Woncha come down to Ja-may-ca!
AWFUL!

27

Dublin 4 is the postal code that includes the wealthiest neighbourhoods of Dublin City. Nobody from there actually speaks in the D4 accent; it’s adopted mainly by people trying to make themselves appear posher than they really are.

28

Okay, I’m going to break the rule and relate a story about a non-native-English speaker, but it’s funny, so bite me. :wink:

Back when I was a high-school senior and college freshman, I worked at Pay-N-Save. It’s a drug-store chain that doesn’t exist any more; it was bought by Payless, which was itself bought by Walgreen’s or somebody. Basically, it was a crummy retail job; that’s all you need to know.

So I’m back in the toy aisle, cleaning up the tiny plastic guns and other accessories that invariably get spread around when unattended brats rip open the action-figure packages. This guy comes up to me; he looks vaguely Filipino, or maybe Cambodian. Hard to say. Anyway, he looks like he wants to ask a question, so I put down what I’m doing and give him my full attention.

He holds his hands up in front of his face, maybe eight inches apart, palms facing each other, and says, “Glob.”

Me: Frown. Cock head quizzically.

Him: “Glob.” Same position.

Me: Still frowning, a small shake of the head. “I’m sorry, what?”

Him: Shakes his hands. It looks like he’s miming holding an object of some sort. “Glob. Glob.”

Me: “A globe? I’m sorry, we don’t have globes.”

Him: Getting frustrated. Shakes his hands again. “Glob! Glob!” And just as I’m about to repeat my “what?” response, he wiggles his fingers. “Glob!”

Me: Light bulb goes on. “Oh, gloves! Aisle 8. Here, follow me.”

I lead him to the gardening gloves, he grins and nods, I go back to cleaning up destroyed toys.

“Glob.” Good lord…

29

First thing that went through my head when I saw this thread was a bit from a Brett Butler routine, done in her very best Brooklyn accent:

30

Worst accents?

Buffalo, New York and the infamous “flat a.” Makes a Brooklyn accent see absolutely delightful in comparison.

English when spoken by a first generation Korean, Chinese or Taiwanese immigrant.

English when spoken by English South Africans is rather pleasant. English when spoken by Afrikaaner South Africans leaves a lot to be desired.

The mumbling “general contractor” accent one often encounters among blue collar workers in the South.

The “caring counseler/ski bum” inflection often heard in Bouder, Colorado.

The trait of many Hispanic English speakers in New Mexico, who will speak vey staccato but stretch out the last syllable in a sentennnnnnnnce.

31

I’m totally gobsmacked that no-one has said anything about the Strine accent.

You know, the real outback-type Aussie accent. Don’t tell me you all like it?!

Unfortunately I can no longer talk Strine…no-one in Japan could understand me, so I’ve learned to tone my accent down somewhat, and now its totally gone sigh