What accent do you have?

[Rick Denney]

Midland.

That is correct for someone from San Antonio, Austin or South Texas, generally speaking.

And someone consciously making sure not to attain to the local dialect.

Rick "who would do likewise in the same place" Denney

[Rick Denney]

midland?

then west, then south

hmmm, born and raised in houston, tx

So was I. But I've always been told I don't have a pronounced Texas accent, even by people well outside Texas (except my wife, and mostly when she's poking fun). I think it was the school I attended in Houston, which was mostly kids of a melting-pot of the professional classes. The people I know in Houston who have a strong Texas accent (though it must be said that the regions of Texas are quite distinct) were from more homogeneous areas.

When a childhood friend of mine moved to Poughkeepsie (his father worked for IBM), and he came back after two years for a visit, boy, had HIS accent changed.

I can tell the difference between the west side of Philly and the New Jersey suburbs of Philly. Accent distinction seems to be more localized up this way.

Rick "who can assume a local accent with about a day's practice" Denney

[Chuck(G)]

Rick "who can assume a local accent with about a day's practice" Denney

Maybe you should qualify that one with "local US accent". I'd love to hear your Yorkshire or highland Scots accent at the end of a day...

Chuck "Just saying that English is spoken outside of the US"(G)

[windshieldbug]

Just saying that English is spoken outside of the US

... and I've heard those same people say that English isn't spoken inside the US (and they're not referring to Spanish)

[Rick Denney]

Rick "who can assume a local accent with about a day's practice" Denney

Maybe you should qualify that one with "local US accent". I'd love to hear your Yorkshire or highland Scots accent at the end of a day...

Chuck "Just saying that English is spoken outside of the US"(G)

I have spent days with colleagues from the UK, and been able to pick up a lot in a day or so. But it goes away just as fast. It's strictly mimicry, though. The word usage, however, isn't hard for me at all--I'm the veteran of way too many British spy novels.

Rick "who thinks the Brits have the most interesting spies" Denney

[Chuck(G)]

The word usage, however, isn't hard for me at all--I'm the veteran of way too many British spy novels.

See, ha is yor geordie, Rick?

Abeun the hemmel, ower bye,
Wheelin’ in the dappled sky,
Ye’ll droon oot spuggies, lairks ‘n’ wrens,
An’ set the ladies hoyin’ styes
Wi’ yor feckless cry!

Doon wheor the willas hev thor fling
Fornenst the footbridge, catkins hing,
An’ heor the tits are aall agabbor,
The robin playin’ hitchy-dabbor
Afore he tyeks t’wing.

[tubatooter1940]

After two years in Alabama, following 25 years in Germany,my German brother-in-law could not find enough words in German to converse with some tourists visiting the U.S.. Once he started thinking in English, He began to lose his native German.
He was a nice guy. I'm sorry my sister-in-law ran him off.

[Dylan King]

How does one pronounce "beef balls on California cucumber"?



http://youtube.com/watch?v=mlOiYrlvW6g

[djwesp]

Midland- No accent

Ditto.

Most of the people I've met here in Nebraska do have an accent.


It is a high pitched curve on the ends of vowel sounds.

[jacojdm]

I guess it got me half right. I got midland but I'm from northern Ohio.

Me too. I grew up in North Canton, went to college in Bowling Green, and now reside in Cleveland. I think that many northeast Ohioans, excepting those from greater Youngstown, are split between the nasally kind of accent (the kind that say we drink Paahp) and the "non" accent (pop) that the survey says you and I both have. Some that are closer to the PA or WV border have what I've always considered to be a defined accent (Pawp).

[Chuck(G)]

midland, but I was born in Odessa, so it's close...kinda...

More like deep South--Odessa's right there on the Black Sea...

<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... emblem.gif" align="center">

[LoyalTubist]

I have a very strong Southern California accent. It's twangy, I speak quickly, and I keep my jaws clenched tightly together. A grad school class in diction tried to rid me of this affliction--and teach me a North Central Texas accent. I lived in New Jersey for a number of years and when I say "coffee" (kawwfee), it fools people. Honestly, I think I have a mix of accents of the different places I've lived in and gone to school. I don't know what Vietnam is going to do to it!

[Rick Denney]

Abeun the hemmel, ower bye,
Wheelin’ in the dappled sky,
Ye’ll droon oot spuggies, lairks ‘n’ wrens,
An’ set the ladies hoyin’ styes
Wi’ yor feckless cry!

Doon wheor the willas hev thor fling
Fornenst the footbridge, catkins hing,
An’ heor the tits are aall agabbor,
The robin playin’ hitchy-dabbor
Afore he tyeks t’wing.

There's a difference between an intentionally archaic Northumberland dialect and modern English, of course. I don't notice modern writers from that area using any of those words, or even the poets of such as above when they give an interview. I don't expect many of those usages would pop up in, say, a short course about traffic signal design, or that you'd hear much of Fred Reed's poetry when talking to a tuba player in the Coldstream Guards.

One accent I could not master in a day was the way New Zealanders say "no". They put at least three syllables into that word. I worked hard at it for two weeks and made no headway.

Rick "noyeuh" Denney

[lgb&dtuba]

Midland, by the quiz.

In reality, Tidewater, Va., which is close enough.

I've had exactly one person catch it correctly over the ham radio, but she was born and raised in Deep Creek about 15 miles from where I was born. The Norfolk area is a melting pot, so no surprise on the accent.

Jim Wagner

[cjk]

My test told me my result was the Inland North. I thought I talked like a hick.

I was born in Indiana, relocated to TN when I was three, college + grad school + first job in AL, and now reside in GA.

[ASTuba]

My test told me my result was the Inland North. I thought I talked like a hick.

I was born in Indiana, relocated to TN when I was three, college + grad school + first job in AL, and now reside in GA.

No thought to it. You talk like a hick, I said it.

[djwesp]

Midland North here.


(coming from a guy born in Arkansas---hmmm, stereotypes?)

[CrappyEuph]

100% Inland North:

You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."


- Jamie (who IS from Chicago, and is pleased that North Texas has not ruined the evidence that proves it)

[tubiker]

Greetings

BBC Local Radio in the UK have been running a project called Voices, going round doing interviews with people who have very strong local dialects - the results are great.
If you follow the link you can listen to people in the Newcastle area talking in very strong "geordie" accents. The second of the 3 interviews alludes to bloke.................

http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/ ... xhoe.shtml

away the lads

Andrew M

[Bill Troiano]

You talkinamme?