# Where's Your Accent From?



## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

I was watching *Delores Claiborne* this afternoon for the the first time in forever and I forgot everyone had those yummy Maine accents - which got me thinking about *Pet Semetary* - which got me wondering whether our Leslie talks like Fred Gwynne (Sometimes, dead is better) - which got me wondering whether NogDog talks like he's from an episode of _The Jersey Shore_ ....

I'm sure you can see where this train of thought is going ... So, what was your accent like when you grew up and where is it now?

I grew up in SW Michigan so I started out with a nasally mid-Western twang (Pop - pronounced 'Paahp') with a little bit of Chicago mixed into the brew (Da Bears!) When I moved to Texas I worked hard to get rid of my Midwest but some Texas has since creeped in (Y'all, Fixin' ... elongating my iiii's ...). But, I was told by a born and bred North Texan that my Midwest comes back when I'm angry but otherwise I sound like I was Ivy League educated - which I take as a compliment ....

So where's your English from?


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## PG4003 (Patricia) (Jan 30, 2010)

I've always lived in Kentucky and don't feel like I have an accent, but when I was working I talked to people in Denver all the time and they used to ask me to say specific words just so they could hear how I said them.


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

I sound exactly like Murray from Flight of the Conchords.  Well, only when I'm doing my "Murray" impression.  Otherwise I sound more like Jemaine.


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## Tris (Oct 30, 2008)

I wish I had a cool accent...but I have a very plain type of speech.  I don't know what you'd call it, but I heard "newspeak" after new anchors would be sent over to my area to learn how to enunciate clearly without an accent.  However I have a bad habit of assimilating to other accents and slangs if I'm around it long enough.  It makes it a bit weird when traveling...  At the moment, I have been watching a lot of BBC and listening to a lot of podcasts from Ireland, so everything is flip-flopping.  I am also by Canada, so I kept saying things like "sooo-ry" and "aboot", so my coworkers kept laughing and ended up calling me "Canadian".

I wish I had a cool accent like Australian, British, or Scottish...

Tris


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## swcleveland (Jun 6, 2010)

*I* don't have an accent....


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Geoffrey said:


> ...which got me wondering whether NogDog talks like he's from an episode of _The Jersey Shore_ ....


Nope. My first two decades of life were in the Chicago area and then NW Ohio, so I have no accent. I've probably picked up a _bit_ of Jersey idioms/usage and a shade of the accent, but if so, it's _South_ Jersey/Philly, not the North Jersey that everyone parodies. (I don't actually say "Yo!" except when trying to be humorously self-deprecating.) However, if you want to hear an accent, you should hear my brother's father-in-law: Long Island Italian.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

PG4003 (Patricia) said:


> I've always lived in Kentucky and don't feel like I have an accent, but when I was working I talked to people in Denver all the time and they used to ask me to say specific words just so they could hear how I said them.


I spent one week in KY working high school band camp with the high school I was going to be student teaching at, spending a lot of time with a native from the area (not too far from Fort Knox). I think I was saying y'all for about the next 6 months.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

NogDog said:


> However, if you want to hear an accent, you should hear my brother's father-in-law: Long Island Italian.


The guy across the hall from my freshman year had one ... and he pronounced the place Lawn Guy Land


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

gee, i wonder what you think I sound like?


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

People in the midwest make fun of the way I say "mom," "box," and basically anything with the "aw" sound in it sounds weird to them because I'm from the Pacific NW.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

scarlet said:


> gee, i wonder what you think I sound like?


"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the


Spoiler



hell


 else are you talkin' to?"

I havent' even mentioned my suspicions that Betsy and Ann sound like Edna Turnblad ....


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

Jessica Billings said:


> People in the midwest make fun of the way I say "mom," "box," and basically anything with the "aw" sound in it sounds weird to them because I'm from the Pacific NW.


Practice talking through your nose more.


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## Margaret (Jan 1, 2010)

I have lived in the Philadelphia area for my whole life, and did not think that I had an accent (I do NOT say "Yo or Youse," ever), until I married my husband and lived on a military base overseas.  Everyone knew that I was from Philly as soon as I opened my mouth.  So I guess I do have a Philadelphia accent.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Geoffrey said:


> "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


tirty tird and tird? boid? actually, no, I don't have a Brooklyn accent. I had a lisp as a child and was in speech therapy, so I have what Tris called the "newspeak" accent. However, I do say ax for ask.



Geoffrey said:


> I havent' even mentioned my suspicions that Betsy and Ann sound like Edna Turnblad ....


No, neither Betsy nor Ann has a Baltimore accent.


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## Tripp (May 28, 2009)

I grew up in Minnesota, but I don't have that accent like the one in the movie "Fargo".  But I do have the Midwest nasal twang that you talked about, Geoffrey.  

I thought my accent was pretty vanilla until someone asked me where I was from.  I used the word soccer in a sentence and they said that is what gave me away...saaaaker.


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## Hoosiermama (Dec 28, 2009)

I grew up in New Jersey and most of my relatives are from Maryland. Moved to Indiana when I was 14. My sons, DH and co-workers make fun of words I say. If I go out east for a long visit, the accent picks right back up. There are specific words like "quarter" and "strawberry" that they all claim have a distinct accent to them. So they always try to get me to say them, and then laugh.

Personally, I don't think I have an accent. THEY all talk funny.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

I grew up not too far from you, Geoffrey, and so I say "paahp" too. Where I live now, some people do sound to the casual listener like the people in "Fargo."


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I've lived in Florida for over 50 years, but as soon as I open my mouth, everyone knows I'm from Jersey. In fact, I am from the Jersey Shore but I say y'all (what a good word) instead of youse guys.


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

My family moved West when I was 6, but I spent summers with various relatives in New York and New Jersey. As a child I spoke with a Brooklyn, Mid-Town Manhattan, Jersey Shore, Arizona, California, New Mexico or Texas accent where appropriate. As an adult, I, unconsciously, mimic the accent of anyone that I'm speaking with. It's an embarrassing habit.


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## Tripp (May 28, 2009)

> The accent is actually _slightly_ different from that -- called an Iron Range accent.
> 
> Here's some random guy with the accent.


I grew up in "the Cities" but went to college in Duluth which is on the cusp of the Iron Range. Or "da Range", and yes, there is a difference. I never said, "Doncha know" or "You betcha". Maybe "Yep", but not a lot. We did say "Ish", which I have never heard anywhere else. I think there is a bit of a divide between northern Minnesota and southern Minnesota.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

I was born in Iowa and have lived here off and on for more than half my life, so I think generally my speech is unaccented.

My parents were born and raised in Virginia and North Carolina and you knew my Dad was a Virginian until the day he died.  I have lived in Nebraska, California, Jamaica, Japan, Virginia and North Carolina and spent more than a few days in England, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand.  That means I will throw around a few y'alls and generally say "hey" instead of hello (but without the twang), I still say "sumimasen?" instead of "excuse me?" and speak a pretty fast Jamaican patois if someone else starts it.

I guess I use a mix of word usage from other regions/countries in my (I think) unaccented midwest speech.  Who do I sound like? I have no idea.


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## valleycat1 (Mar 15, 2011)

I grew up in East Texas so have a definite southern/Texas twang, which gets worse when I'm tired (ti-yard).  Y'all - can't live without it! Have been working the past few years to go from Mon-dee, Tues-dee, etc. to Mon-day, Tues-day, but I still have to think about it.

I live in California now & a lot of people (including several of my in-laws) think I'm not so smart because of the way I sound. In some situations that gives me an advantage.  George Bush didn't help me much in that respect!  

When my DH and I travel to Texas, he really has a hard time understanding a lot of the locals.


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## Shayne Parkinson (Mar 19, 2010)

New Zealand.  My accent's not hugely strong, though - partly because I lived in England for two years and have spent a fair bit of time in Australia, and getting teased about one's accent gets old fast.  I've done a little professional voice training for acting, too, and can soften my accent further when I want to.


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

oh, such a weird subject for me: i lived in queens until i was seven. when we moved to california, other kids made fun of my accent for years. then when i lived in london, people would ask me where i was from, and i'd make them guess. most said canada - they didn't identify me as american. when i lived in france, and american tourists stopped me for directions and i responded in english, they often said: 'you speak english very well!' i'd tell them i was from los angeles they'd be surprised. when i moved back to the states and started working here, people would often complain to my boss that i was rude. 'it's your more formal european manner,' my boss would say, urging me to get more casual. (but maybe in some cases it was because i really was rude.)


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## Jane917 (Dec 29, 2009)

I grew up in Southern California, and have always lived in the west. I am often asked if I am from New York. Since I am a speech therapist, this totally bugs me, because I can't figure out what speech pattern I have that would make people think I am from New York! However, the closest I can come is that my grandfather came from Australia, and some traces of his accent must be ingrained in me, just enough to confuse everyone. I certainly don't sound like my Australian cousins!

I have to admit, when I have traveled to Boston, I have had to question whether we were speaking the same language!


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

Even though I left New York over 40 years ago........it still comes out: 

 "DAWG"


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

The way I talk sounds normal to me but I'm told I have a Southern accent. I've lived all my life in Oklahoma so I guess I should.


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## patrisha w. (Oct 28, 2008)

Jessica Billings said:


> People in the midwest make fun of the way I say "mom," "box," and basically anything with the "aw" sound in it sounds weird to them because I'm from the Pacific NW.


My English is from England from the Robin Hood area since I spent the first 30 years of my life there. 
I spent the next 30 in Mississippi where I picked up "Y'all" which is a very useful pronoun. I also learned to say the State's name as Miss'ippi. I also got a lot of comments for my pronunciation of "aw" words. If, for example, I wanted my class to spell Lawn, I would say "lorn" and had to re-say it as "Larn" for them!

I now live in Vermont.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

I've lived in the Chicago area all my life.  I don't have an accent.  In the early '70s, talked to a guy in Jersey City, NJ for work every day.  Job heavily involved numbers.  Loved to hear him say "thirteen".  He once asked me how high the mountains were around Chicago.


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## AlleyGator (Mar 25, 2011)

I grew up in Florida and if I had a penny for every time someone ask me if I'm from Australia, I could be a rich lady.  Once, when we were visiting out West, I was ask to speak into a microphone so my 'accent' could be recorded, which I'm told is quite unique. A teacher was traveling to different areas to record various accents for her drama class.


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## Hoosiermama (Dec 28, 2009)

> when we moved to california, other kids made fun of my accent for years. then when i lived in london, people would ask me where i was from, and i'd make them guess. most said canada - they didn't identify me as american. when i lived in france, and american tourists stopped me for directions and i responded in english, they often said: 'you speak english very well!' i'd tell them i was from los angeles they'd be surprised.


When we moved to Indiana, other kids asked what country I was from all the time. My accent was really heavy back then. When DH and I were at Indiana University in college, we went to see Rocky, and I got so homesick, just from the accents.


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

my accent is from England...


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## rayhensley (Apr 16, 2011)

In Hawaii I have what we call a Pigeon accent. I usually hide it, but....

Instead of saying, "Please, lover, pass the salt," you say, "Eh, brah, try gimme da salt!"

It's all rather loud.


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## endhalf (Dec 7, 2010)

We czechs have accent like this woman:






I hope I have better accent but basically R is for us important as our language is hard and strong. Of course this girl isn't really good speaker but hey, you can understand her anyway


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## 4Katie (Jun 27, 2009)

Like Margaret, I'm from the Philly suburbs. I used to have quite an accent with certain words ('wudder' for water and 'caw-fee' for coffee), but lost most of my accent over the years - especially when my kids were learning to talk. It still creeps out when I'm tired, or when I'm back in PA.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)




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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I was born in Central Texas, spent the next 12 years traveling in the US and Europe as an Army brat, then settled back in Central Texas, where I've stayed. I have very much a newspeak accent (which I used to call my "NBC News accent), with a vocabulary and sentence construction influenced by English mystery novels of the thirties and forties.   

People never guess I'm a native Texan, born 80 kilometers (oops, I mean 50 miles) from Austin, where I live.

Mike


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## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

I have an Angelino/West Coast accent: I swallow my T's (they turn into D's) and if I'm not careful I get very dipthong-y.


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## Someone Nameless (Jul 12, 2009)

<sigh> I've lived all my life in the south (Mississippi) and I have the Southern Accent to prove it.

Listen to the audio Kathryn Stockett reads from "Too Little, Too Late" at the end of The Help That's what I sound like.


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## Alle Meine Entchen (Dec 6, 2009)

I grew up in Eastern Kentucky.  My family says things like, "holler" for hollow.  I've lived in West Virginia for almost 7 years.  I didn't think I had an accent until I was in Germany (lived there for 1 1/2 years) and was teaching english.  I was very shocked to learn that "our" rhymes w/ "hour".  In KY, it's pronounced "r".


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I got a crash course on American accents with my first job in America. It was a military city and a convenience store, a very busy one.   . The things I learned. My english wasn't up to snuff then yet, I hadn't been here very long and it was very very difficult and a very lonely place to be. 

I thought I spoke english before came here, at least the basics, but it means nothing when there are so many different accents. 

The really funny thing for me is that on 3 different occations now cab drivers have told me I sound like I am from New Orleans, one claimed Alaska.  When I am drunk that is  . I sound nothing like that, even I can tell. 

One thing for sure though, I doubt I'll ever sound like a Texan.  . I think I blended pretty well when I lived in Oklahoma though. But its really interesting as I have to pick stuff up from somewhere, yet, I don't pick it up where I live.


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## Asphodel (Jul 19, 2009)

I grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, but I don't really have a southern accent. Growing up, my mother discouraged the use of southern-isms such as "y'all" and "fixin' to" because she feels that those who speak thusly may be (wrongly) perceived as less intelligent. I worked in customer service for many years and callers from other parts of the country always remarked on my lack of southern accent upon discovering that they were speaking to a customer service representative located in the south. 

I often pick up turns of phrase from things that I've read, and I tend to absorb the manner of speech of those around me. (I've gotten some funny looks for saying "It's all gone a bit pear-shaped.")


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## bobavey (Sep 14, 2010)

I'm not sure, but I'm from Oklahoma.


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## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

On picking up bits of books etc: I've acquired some Britishisms like "gone a bit pear-shaped" (WONDERFUL phrase), but worse, I've picked up quite a bit of the 19th century. I read Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books obsessively, and many of the phrases he uses, which were common in the early 19th century especially in nautical life, have snuck into my speech:

"A flower on your head!"
"A glass of wine with you!"
"It don't signify."
...and once, I even told the kids "Belay that!" completely unconsciously. We still laugh about it.


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

The only accent I can tell is southern, after living in NC for a long time.


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## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

British accent. 14 years in the US and I still put up with the comments and requests to repeat myself.


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## kindlequeen (Sep 3, 2010)

I'm from San Francisco and it was pretty interesting to see an article in the paper talking about our local accents recently.  I always assumed we didn't have accents out here but there are some small variations that keep us different.

My grandmother who was born in SF in the 1930's has a habit of adding "r" to some words - she says "warsh" instead of "wash" and "Valencia" is pronounced "Val-en-cha" in my family.  

In high school I was on the speech and debate team where I had a coach who was a stickler for enunciation, I learned the proper way to say everything!  Working the register at a local store after graduating, I was often asked if I was from England or Ireland (I've never been).  

My father in law is from Prague and the Czech accent is still strong after 40 years in the US.... he doesn't pronounce his "b's" very well so we laugh at him when he asks us if we want to eat "crab" - it always comes out as "crap."


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## tsilver (Aug 9, 2010)

I was born and raised in Ohio and didn't think I had an accent but when I was 19 and went to New York and worked in a diner I found out I did. The other employees would laugh when I called out an order, saying things like "What do you want honey child?"  They thought I sounded like a southerner although the accents are completely different.  I lived three years in Manhattan and 16 years in Brooklyn and I partially acquired a NY accent during those years.  I never met anyone in NY who said toity toid for thirty third or oily for early.  My kids had a strong Brooklyn accent when we moved back to Ohio.  Because of it, my daughter was given the lead in her senior class play, "Guys and Dolls."  After six months or so back in Ohio, I lost most of the New York accent I had picked up and my kids completely lost their Brooklyn accent.


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

Nothing in particular. Typical Cali-ish. My vocabulary includes words like hella. Spent 6-7 ish years of my childhood in the south and could let a y'all slip sometimes.  Like to play with different accents with telemarketers.


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## Rin (Apr 25, 2011)

I'm Australian, born and raised, I've never been out of the country, heck I've only been out of my home state twice (and one of those trips was ten minutes long)...yet, 90% of people think I'm American. I've had Americans think so, which is really weird (most of those were over Skype though, so digitisation may have played a part).

I think it's just from watching too much TV while growing up, and I've just picked up on inflections and intonation pattens and whatnot. 

I don't mind...except when people don't believe that I'm Australian. -_- I once had a screaming match with a lecturer at college because she didn't believe that I was a local.


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## RhondaRN (Dec 27, 2009)

I'm from southeastern North Carolina, born and raised and I have a SEVERE southern accent, lol!  Just think of Loretta on Coal Miner's Daughter or even Kyra Sedgwick from The Closer (she is not from the south but she does the most accurate southern accent I've ever heard from someone not from the south) and you have what I sound like.  Once, in my 20s, I was working in the admitting office of the hospital, admitting a woman from the north.  She started literally laughing at me, saying she did not think our accent really existed but now she knew it did.  I was a little insulted.  However, a few years before that I went to California to visit my sister and they loved the accent there.  Oh well.    Neither my parents or siblings or my children have an accent as pronounced as mine, so I don't know what happened to me.  It's me though!!


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## Val2 (Mar 9, 2011)

I consider my accent as 'confused'. I was born in South Africa, moved to the UK at 20, spent three years in Bahrain (a melting pot for accents), then back to the UK for three years and then 16 years in USA from California to Arizona, Texas, a short spell in Pepperall. So it has evolved into something not really recognizable. Definitely 'confused'.


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## Tippy (Dec 8, 2008)

I am from the northern plains and have been told I have an accent.  Somewhat of a drawl, but certainly not texan, perhaps a little twangy.  Probably nasal, too.


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## Christopher Hunter (Apr 11, 2011)

I have a Mississippi accent but a New York heart.


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## SheaMacLeod (Apr 13, 2011)

I'm from Portland, Oregon.  I guess I always had a typical sort of Pacific Northwest accent.  Much like a "news anchor" accent, I guess.  Then I moved to London 5 years ago.  People weren't surprised to hear I was American (I mean, HELLO!  Hard to hide that accent.), but they were surprised that I didn't have a heavy accent. They considered it very light.  

My accent has mellowed quite a bit in the last five years and I've taken on a lot of speech mannerisms of the British.  When I have to call somewhere back home, the bank or whatever, I find it so odd to hear my hometown accent again.  It all sounds so flat and nasal.  I had no idea how nasal it was! lol


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## MaryKingsley (Mar 26, 2011)

I'm home, so right now I don't have an accent.  However, when I travel, I'll admit that I do have a New England accent.


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## rho (Feb 12, 2009)

Bonac Bub! 
From here http://www.bonac.net/
"Now nearly lost forever, there was once a thriving local Bonac dialect, which held strong into the middle of the last century. Today, the Bonac accent is in the process of being lost to the New York City speech patterns of the western portion of Long Island. The Bonac accent is said to be akin to the spoken language of the working class settlers who came from England in the 17th century; and it is also, remarkably, said to be akin to accents of fishing cultures farther down the Atlantic coast, in the Carolinas, for instance, where similar groups of Englishmen settled around the same time. In Bonac, the word "pie," to give one example, was rendered as "poy." (As in, famously: "Boy goy that's good poy.") Archaic English words survived in Bonac dialect into the 20th century, such as the word "wickus" for rascal. There are only a handful of Bonac speakers left."

Actually though probably more boring news speak ...


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

My accent has sent people who tried to figure it straight bonkers. I am never quite at home anywhere because it is such a mix.

My Scottish father emigrated to Texas and married a native Texan. Between listening to his Edinburgh accent and spending most of my summers in Scotland while living and going to school in Texas...

Yikes. My accent is so mixed up. I definite do NOT sound like a Texan. (Nothing wrong with that, but I just don't) I've had people guess anywhere from England (no, not even close) to Connecticut.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

There was a story on TODAY this past week about a woman from Oregon who had some oral surgery and when she woke up she spoke with a vaguely English accent. . . .definitely not the same as before the surgery.  Sometimes she sounds more Irish and sometimes more Scots. . . . .


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## Alex Sinclair (May 5, 2011)

I have lived the majority of my life in the south of england, but my family are all from liverpool and I have a scouse accent (The Beatles!). The problem is everyone down south thinks I sound Scouse (From Liverpool!) but everyone in liverpool thinks I talk posh (southern accent!) it is not good either way!


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

I don't even know exactly what my accent is. It is all mixed up mess. I can speak and understand very well 4 languages.


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## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

Apparently.  The Rochester, NY accent.  

Dawn


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Jeff said:


> As an adult, I, unconsciously, mimic the accent of anyone that I'm speaking with. It's an embarrassing habit.


Doesn't embarrass_ me_, and I do the same thing. It drives my (British) father nuts, because he thinks that I fake the American accent to fit in or something, but I don't. It just _happens._ Most of the time I sound sort of generic mid-East-Coast, unless I say _tissue_ or _issue_ which always come out British. And if I'm with Americans and British in the same room, I get tongue-tied.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

MeiLinMiranda said:


> ...and once, I even told the kids "Belay that!" completely unconsciously. We still laugh about it.


DD's dad says that, but he gets it from Captain Picard...


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

I'm from NC but have been gone from there a long time.  However, if I visit the accent returns immediately.  And my officemates are always giving me a hard time for saying "era" instead of "error".  At least I don't say "y'all" anymore.


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