Do you have an accent?

I'm from Indiana and I don't think I have an accent. But when I go to the East Coast on business everyone asks me what part of the South I'm from......y'all.

A little Valley Gurl.

I like Southern accents a lot.

I am an American and would not be able to discern an "L.A. accent" unless it was valley girl speak. How in the hell do Eastern Europeans know what it sounds like?

My NY accent is hardly noticeable unless I am very tired or very angry.

I'm from Chicago and yous guys wouldn't notice my accent if it bit ya in da ass

🎶 Guurrrl, no one can even tell I’m gay! Ssssstop it! 🎶

There's this weird-ass shit Chicagoans do with the 'a' in Chicago. No one else in the States makes this sound. I don't even know what it is in phonetics.

Everyone has some kind of accent. We've been through this here before, but take this NYT quiz and there's a very good chance it will correctly identify where you are from based on how you pronounce words and local vocabulary.

I grew up in Northern Virginia and I live in Washington, D.C. My accent is pretty nondescript, sounding pretty much like people on broadcast television. Yet the quiz identified me as being from Fairfax, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and with Baltimore influences.

No accent whatsoever. I had speech therapy for a stutter as a child and wound up with national newscaster voice.

Yes. Rural and very midwestern. I live in BFE.

Weird story, I am from California, born and raised. When I moved to Colorado people there thought I was from Chicago and even Texas. I have zero clue why. I think I just sound like everyone else who lives in NorCal.

I was born in Maine and learned how to talk there - my dad was a native Mainer and never lost his accent. I've spent most of my adult life in Connecticut and seemed to lose my Maine accent. I recently went home to Maine on a part-time basis and my Maine accent returned out of no where. I'll hear myself talking and and be like where did that come from.

I used to have a Boston accent when I was a teen but my boyfriend’s cock was so big he fucked it right out of me!

I do pick up strong accents really easily though. If I spend a little bit of time around someone with a strong accent I sound like them for a while. So, I guess the better answer is that sometimes I have an accent just rarely the same one.

I just now realize that maybe speech therapy is why I pick up accents?

People assume Sam Elliott is from the South but in fact he hails from the Pacific Northwest.

R11 People sometimes hear things based on assumptions they make. I had a professor from Oklahoma who randomly assumed I was from Los Angeles. (I'm from just outside DC in Virginia.) I think it's because I'm gay...

And then I had a newly hired coworker, a young black woman from Atlanta, who told me she can always correctly guess where a person is from based on their accents. (We work in DC.) So I told her to tell me where I am from. She told me to talk and then said something like Nebraska. Then Oklahoma, Idaho, Ohio, upstate New York, New Hampshire, and on and on. She guessed pretty much anywhere in the country where I assume she assumes white people who speak the way I speak come from. She said I was lying and demanded to know where I am from. I told her I am from here, and she said "No one is from here!"

I have a Canadian accent...very pronounced on certain words, like OUT; I can't even phonetically spell what it sounds like.

R117 EAUT

gurl, we know what it sounds like, eh?

Sure do!

Two weeks ago an old friend from college and I got together in by Zoom--we had not seen each other in years. We started talking and she instantly started making fun extensively of my Wisconsin accent (we went to college together on the East Coast although we were both from other parts of the country, and we now live in different cities on the West Coast). So I pointed out almost reflexively (but cheerfully), "Well, you're a fine one to talk--you still have that Colorado twang" (which she does).

She acted as hurt as if I had killed her pet puppy, saying, "Oh God, I still sound like a hick!" She has raised the matter several times in email since.

I don't know why you would make fun of someone else's accent and then be upset if they make fun of yours back.

R8 ok that was weird, it had me coming from Austin, TX., where I was born and lived for 30 years!

I am from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. I live in Texas, and when I meet new people they assume I am Canadian. I don't understand why, to to them I sound that way.

R22 It's not weird. We all have distinctive ways of pronouncing words and locale-specific vocabulary. The only exceptions are people who moved around constantly as children and never stayed in one place for any length of time.

As R8 said, everyone has an accent. There is no such thing as having no accent.

Thank goodness I do not have the New Yawk accent.

Carn-fed.

When I was in my mid-twenties I was working a temp job with this old hippie guy who had studied linguistics in college.

After chatting with him for a few minutes upon meeting each other, he asked me if I grew up in Austin, but if my parents were from somewhere else. He nailed it -- my parents were from Chicago and Pennsylvania

is "gayvoice" considered an accent?

[quote] No accent whatsoever. I had speech therapy for a stutter as a child and wound up with national newscaster voice.

Honey, I hate to burst your bubble, but that's STILL an accent.

[bold]THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS UNACCENTED ENGLISH.[/bold]

Canadian but Canadians say I have Québécois accent because I pronounce French names in French.

I took that test and it named 3 places that I have never been. Reno, Santa Rosa and Worcester

Everyone has an accent.

@r29, "is "gayvoice" considered an accent? "

Yes, even though it's often pretentious, fake and followed by a string of purses

Yes. Full Cleveland and I speak two other languages with the same flaaaaatness. Fortunately my boyfriend finds it funny when I slaughter his native tongue.

I guess what I mean by no accent is no identifiable accent. I definitely do not have a New England accent. No non- Vermonter has ever said 'are you from x' when they hear me speak but Vermonters have asked me where I am from.

I'm from Chicago and worked with a woman who I swore was from Chicago as well because of her thick midwestern accent. She was old family New Orleans, she said that back when the rivers were the super-highways of commerce most towns along the Mississippi and tributary rivers talked with a very similar accent. I have since discovered that Old time families from Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans really do have a similar "river" accent. It's only when you get away from the core of the cities that different regional accents develop

I’m from New York and people in New York routinely ask me where my accent is from. I usually get Canada or France. I have no idea why. Does anyone else get this or am I just a freak? When I was a kid I was self conscious that it was gay voice, but I don’t think it’s that.

R36 I hope you told those Vermonters that you're from a place where people don't end their sentences with a preposition!

I have anal accent.

Oh- and I took that NYT quiz and it placed me in the NYC area. I think it’s because I use New York vocabulary, but just have an odd pronunciation.

R3 - they know from the media. Like my co-workers, especially the young millennials have Netflix, CNN, have seen the same shows and movies we did a.d listen to the same bands. Of course they know also how Kennedy had a different accent than Bush or chuckled when roommate told them her disgusting Repuke of a cousin has a Jersey accent. They could tell one of the engineers was from Texas and I was a bit California. The two twinks at work sound 100% American. But these are just the educated people.

Valley girl, Ebonics, honkie, and some Arizonan cowpoke.

I have a non-twangy, undecorated and plain mid-American accent that I've developed for broadcasting and public speaking.

And when I talk to English or German relatives, or Irish friends, they remark every time what a charming accent I have.

I do not know what that means, and they cannot explain it. "Just so American, with all the traits."

@r40, "I have anal accent. "

That's ok, lots of people talk out of their ass

Doesn't everyone?

Interesting quiz, R8. It places me in Providence, though I grew up in Delaware.

My accent is admittedly a little off geographically. Wherever I am people know that I'm not from there but from somewhere else, not least in my home state or town.

Most Americans say I have a East Coast or Mid-Atlantic and/or a broadcaster's accent, but I was raised among some fairly harsh and choppy hick accents. My parents sounded like different because they never picked up the local accent except in a few word preferences and common tests like 'aunt.' I was aware of the local backwards sounding accents and probably overcompensated in avoiding them. I picked up select peculiarities of word usage and phrases and patterns of speech from points North and South and from travels, but that's more word choice and patterns of speech than an accent as such. In Western States they usually correctly assume I'm from the East Coast but then it all goes to hell as to what part. Midwesterners (women especially) think I'm "from England or Europe or someplace far." English and Irish people are divided in thirds: American?, English but where - or Irish, maybe? or Mystery European accent? Other Europeans know it's an English-speaking accent but depending on what country the guesses skew UK or US.

My voice and speech are not that odd, I don't think (but what does anyone really know about how he sounds?), it's just that it's not that easily pegged as this or that.

I'm from the deep South and to me a slight southern accent can be very sexy. A heavy southern accent can be as annoying as hell. Whenever I hear a deep Brooklyn or Bronx accent, I automatically assume someone is faking it or I've stumbled into a TV police drama or one of those romantic comedies like Moonstruck.

I'm California/Arizona raised and don't think I have any accent when I'm in the US. When I lived in London, a guy made fun of my pronunciation of "porter" (he said, "porrrrr-terrrr"). When I visited York, the girl at the restaurant couldn't understand a word I said, even though I could understand her.

R8 great quiz! Placed me correctly in the Midwest/mountain region (I’m from the Midwest but a CA transplant now). No one really knows I’m not from CA until I open my mouth and say something about “pop” and they wonder what the hell that is. New Yorkers though it was hilarious—“you mean SODA?!”

I say "soft drink" and it's not an option on the quiz.

Californians don’t sound any different to me than Midwesterners or those in mountain states, but SNL loved to make fun of a very exaggerated SoCal surfer accent (like the bill and Ted movies accents) with their “Californians” soap opera. I thought it was great because a few friends in LA have a hint of that slow relaxed surfer drawl—just a hint. It’s subtle but endearing.

R8 took that quiz and it pointed me to Santa Rosa (Sonoma County) San Francisco and Stockton (just outside SF Bay Area)

Native SF peninsula here. Not one hint of So Cal even though I went to undergrad at UCLA and lived there for 15 years.

Amazing

I'm an Australian and took the quiz at R8 just out of interest to see where it would place me in the US. The three cities I got were: New York City, Yonkers, and Jersey City. My three least similar cities were Little Rock, Amarillo, and Shreveport.

I've worked for a national association for over a decade and I used to think a lot of areas had "no accent" or nothing distinctive, but now I hear significant differences.

People from Texas really speak very little like people from the Southeastern US, but a lot of people think they sound southern. People in southern Texas and southern California, including white people, very often have Spanish influences in their accents. People from Iowa used to sound vaguly midwestern but close to "no accent," and now they sound distinctly like Iowans to me. People from the Pacific Northwest have an unusual English cadence that seems to be influenced by American Indian dialects. People in Wyoming speak sooooooooo slowly in a very distinct way, and Oklahomans feel...intense or something, with a dull quasi-Texan accent but more slowly like people from Wyoming.

Some states are too diverse to pigeonhole, though. Florida can sound like the deep south, Spanish influenced or else close to mid-Atlantic, and of course there are lots of people from New York and New Jersey there.

A lot of people from New York and Connecticut say "could" when "can" is the correct word, and so I "could always tell" when someone is from there when they say that.

People from New York and Southern California for some reason often say "I'm born in [year/place]" instead ofI was born in."

I had a heavy PA Dutch accent when I joined the Army, but I worked very hard to get rid of it. Now I can't do it even when I want to. My parents still have it, though.

I am from Houston and the quiz pegged me as Houston - Baton Rouge - New Orleans. I did it a long time ago as well and then I came out Houston - Baton Rouge - Shreveport. It's pretty accurate.

Some people are incredibly accent-fluid. I did a study abroad in England during college and I hoped I'd pick up some of the accent in that short time. Nyet!

My sister and I grew up together in Northern Virginia, and somehow I speak with that common Midatlantic accent and she speaks with a slight but distinct twang. My mother was from Arlington, VA--basically DC--and my dad is from North Carolina. When my sister and I have traveled to Paris and Amsterdam together, she has slipped into this bizarre pidgin English accent of her own making when speaking to people. She also does it when speaking with people from a lot of other countries here. She is aware of it but can't not do it. I also work with a woman who does this without being aware of it. It's mortifying when she speaks to people from Africa because she sounds like she is making fun of them.

I grew up on Lawn Guyland but since 2000 have lived in NYC. My regular accent is a mix of LI/Queens/Brooklyn (so pretty much just LI since it's just one island). I work at a city school so playing it up helps to identify me as "one of us". When it doesn't benefit me I code switch. When I lived in CA, i was almost always instantly identified as a New Yorker so it's not like I am always constantly able to hide it.

Weird but when I watch a tv show with a definitive acccent - Sopranos, The Crown, Fargo - I almost always find myself talking and thinking in those accents.

Not sure what kind of accent it is, but it sounds somewhat normal but the "er" ends up sounding like "ah". It's some kind of islander/east coast US accent

R57 and R58 I have NO idea why, but when in Spain, my own English around Spaniards became halting and abrupt, as if I was a foreigner speaking English. I wasn’t trying to do it at all. Happened to a lesser extent in Quebec, too. I just sort of slip into a weird version of English without thinking that is succinct and has its own weird accent. My spouse made fun of me for it!

I think this happens to some people who are processing multiple languages and accents in other countries and regions and they just fluidly slip into a different way of speaking.

R58 I binge watched the Russian series "Ekaterina," about Catherine the Great, on Amazon last year and it really did my head in because I started thinking and dreaming in a rhythm influenced by the Russian language cadence. I don't speak any Russian but it still got inside my head.

I remember being startled when I was studying French that French words and then sentences started intermixing with my interior monologue.

Meanwhile, I recently learned that some people have no interior monologue/dialogue with language and think in abstract terms! Days after I read that, I saw a YouTube video of a girl from Germany who posts videos about living in the US say someone asked her if she thinks in both English and German, and she said she doesn't think she thinks in any language...! She said she doesn't have words in her mind, or isn't aware of them if she does. How crazy is that?

I got news for you R15 (and others), those living in the eastern part of Washington and Oregon (and probably the whole state of Idaho) have a slight to moderate country accent. For instance, upon hearing my mom's recorded voice (she passed many years ago) on an old cassette, I was shocked to hear the pronounced twang in her voice. As for my accent, many people think I'm from Canada. I tell them no, that I'm simply gay.

LOL R62 yeah the people who have assumed I am from California are really saying, "you sound so gay."

I had a Philly accent - lost in in college. I hear it now when I go there - and it is awful.

I'm from Massachusetts. I grew up sounding like a Masshole. Then I lived in LA and, like, I totally had a SoCal accent. Then I lived in Texas, y'all. Now I'm in NYC and I talk really fast. The only constant was the lisp and the swish.

I’m from West Texas, and even though I’ve lived in NOVA, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, SoCa, and now North Texas, my accent has not changed much. When I was lucky enough to travel to Sydney, Australia, the desk clerk at the hotel upon checkin said, you’re from Texas, USA... I just said, “I was fixin to tell you that, but you beat me to it”

I spoke in MLE when I lived in London, but can't do it for the life of me now, which I find weird. It came so easy to me after living there and spending heaps of time with my friends who all spoke it. If I tried now I would sound like I was doing a [italic]really[/italic] bad imitation.

Everybody has an accent.

I have a general “educated” Canadian accent (think Peter Jennings, or Lloyd Robertson) but my frequent use of “eh” probably outs me as someone from the Ottawa Valley.

My parents were from New Brunswick but moved to the Ottawa area in their early 20’s and lost most of their original accent, but mum’s comes back sometimes once she’s had a few drams of whisky in her.

No I drive an American car.

I moved from the frozen Northeast to the South. Georgia to be specific. People love my accent. It's weird as all hell. Plus I've scored tons of cock down here.

I have a slight southern accent, with lots of folksy expressions from my family. Sometimes I go into a y’at New Orleans accent or a NY or a Southwest Va twang just to have fun. I like accents and am pretty good at American ones, not so great at the British ones. I can do Vietnamese which I picked up at work, but it sounds racist these days, too so I stopped doing it.

I know someone who was adopted from China by a religious white family and raised in southern Virginia. He has a slight southern drawl. He was talking on the phone at a Metro platform one day and a woman walked up to him and said, "WHY DO YOU TALK LIKE THAT!" Just screamed it in her face. He got off the phone and asked what she was talking about and she said that his face and his accent don't match. This was before there was such a concept as a Karen and he said it took all the restraint he had not to punch her in the face.

Er, that should read "She just screamed it in his face."

It nailed me as Philly, Newark/Paterson, Yonkers

I think it’s very charming when there’s a contrast between an accent and the way you look. I know a Korean woman who moved to Tennessee as a child and who sounds just like Dolly Parton. So much better than the vocal fry of NoVa.

R48 That stupid bitch was just acting like an butthole, she was playing dumb just because you're American.

Everyone has an accent.