What's your accent?

[Ulysses]

Here's a fun YouTube video on various American English accents.

Self-disclosure: when I was 11, we moved from the New Haven area of Connecticut to San Francisco. Later my SF friends told me that I sounded like I had a New York accent. Later when I went to college in the Sacramento valley, my older brother was shocked by my sound, and said I had adopted a, well, Western or Oakie accent. Now I have no idea what I sound like. You tell me. Might be that bland California accent we all know and hate. Go figure.



Aaaand... part Deux:



Holy Crap! There's a part three! I hope they'll get to Cali in this one:



Well, after watching part 3, I guess my part of California (SF Bay Area) is more like southern New England and the mid-atlantic states than the Northwest or the the South. And not like LA, thank God. Ha. Well at least he admits it's not a thorough dissection of all linguistic variations; I think I can detect variations within the SF Bay Area for example. I'm sort of of thinking of the Haight Ashbury accent of the 60's, which is still used by some. You know, that "Ohh, I'm really really stohned right now" accent, or "Fahr out mannn". And the influence of Asian languages on spoken English, such as the Chinese in SF. There might even be some Russian linguistic influence held over from when the Russians colonized as far south as Marin County. But whatever, it's all good.

[O Really]

The guy is really good. Thanks.

[O Really]

I'm generally standard American normally, but can do a decent rendition of Philly-speak, Bawlmore, and Canadian rising. Due largely to my Brit mum and time spent visiting her side of the family growing up, I can speak the Queen's English passably well. I find regional dialects interesting and some certainly add flavor to the language. Others are just generally grating and obnoxious (you know who you are, Boston Southies, et. al.)

I have noticed, though, that if an area has a strong regional accent associated with it, the police and firefighters will have it, even if the majority of people in the area have a less pronounced accent.

[neoplacebo]

There are places here in east TN and southwest VA where I can't understand a fucking word anybody says. Not sure if it's because they're all drunk or if it's me, but I've learned to not go to those areas.

[billy.pilgrim]

There are places here in east TN and southwest VA where I can't understand a fucking word anybody says. Not sure if it's because they're all drunk or if it's me, but I've learned to not go to those areas.

I've never had a problem understanding any of the southern dialects, but agree that there are places in East Tennessee and southwest Virginia that rival some of the thickest Cajun (exception - that alligator hunter guy) and southern African American.
My speech is slightly southern, but Mom was a speech professor and Auburn, even though a very small southern town when I was in public schools, was made up of people from all over the country and even the world.
I think vrede showed me data showing Auburn to be solid repug and no doubt it is now due to it being some sort of Alabama go-to retirement destination, but in the 50s and 60s we were politically shunned by the rest of the state. Wallace constantly singled Auburn out as the lifestyle he was fighting against.
Hell, any town with a 12,000 population and a 18,000 university student body requires nearly every adult to hold an advanced degree. Of course Auburn was (I agree with Vrede's assessment about the present) liberal.

[O Really]

Ran across a questionnaire entitled "What American Accent Do You Have" and thought it might be fun. I got started and realized it wasn't all accent or dialect, but a lot was just regional terminology (like "bubbler" for a water fountain in Wisconsin). I also realized it was going to be longer than I wanted to spend, but figured WTH, I must be at least half through. Anyway, I finished and my "answer" was "Congratulations - you got 56%!" What? Anyway, if you see it, don't waste your time.

[Greg55_99]

I'm originally from Cleveland so I guess my accent would be "midwestern". I traveled all over the world but the most interesting accents I found were those of Canadians WAY up in Labrador. "Gotta poot m'car in da garge, yuh..."

Greg

[O Really]

I'm originally from Cleveland so I guess my accent would be "midwestern". I traveled all over the world but the most interesting accents I found were those of Canadians WAY up in Labrador. "Gotta poot m'car in da garge, yuh..."

Greg

Newfie-speak. Here ya' go -

[O Really]

Speaking of Newfies...

-A Newfie is walking home kicking old bottles, when a genie pops out of one. "I can grant you three wishes," says the genie, "so choose wisely." The Newfie says "Give me a beer that'll never run out." A bottle appears in the Newfie's hand and he downs it, but when we pulls it away from his mouth it's still full. The happy Newfie continues walking home. The genie says "Hey, you still have two wishes left!" "Oh," says the Newfie, "gimme two more of these then!"
-An Ontarian, an Albertan, and a Newfie are running from the cops. They run into an alley and see a pile of sacks, which they decide to hide in. The cops follow them into the alley and kick the bag with the Ontarian in it. The Ontarian goes "meow!" and the cops go "Ah, it's just a bag full of cats." They kick the bag with the Albertan in it, and he goes "woof!" and they're like, "OK, dog in a bag, whatever." Then they kick the bag with the Newfie in it, and he goes "potato!"

- A newfie named Clyde died in a fire and was burnt so badly that the morgue needed someone to identify the body. His two best friends, Clem and Zeke, came to do the job. Clem went in first and the mortician pulled back the sheet. Clem said "Yup, he's burnt pretty bad. Roll him over." So the mortician rolled him over and Clem took one look and said, "Nope, ain't Clyde."
Just to be safe the mortician brought in Zeke and Zeke took a look at him and said "Yup, he's burnt real bad, roll him over." The mortician rolled him over and Zeke looked down and said "No, it ain't Clyde." The mortician asked "How can you tell? Zeke said "Well, Clyde had two assholes." "What? He had two assholes?" said the mortician. "Yup, everyone in town knew he had two assholes. Every time we went to town, folks would say 'Here comes Clyde with them two assholes.' "

-A newfie rolls into his factory job at 10:30. The floor manager comes up to him and sayd, "You should have been here at nine o'clock," to which the newfie responds "Why, what happened?"


-One day a newfie goes to a carpenter and asks how much it would cost to build a wooden crate that is 1 inch tall, 1 inch wide, and 50 feet long. When the carpenter asks what he needs it for, the newfie replies, "The wife snapped her clothesline the other day, and I have to send it to Toronto to get it fixed."

-A newfie walks into a lumber yard and says, "I's building an 'ouse bye' and needs me some a dat der too be far" The clerks says "You mean 2 by 4?", the newfie says "Yes bye', dat's da stuff." The clerks asks "Well how long do you need it?" The newfie responds "Well bye', I's buildin an 'ouse wit it so I's gonna need it for awhile."

-A Mainlander is driving down the highway and runs over a rabbit. Wondering what noise was, he stops his car and gets out to look. While he's standing there a newfie pulls up and asks him what's going on.
The mainlander says, "I'm just here visiting your fair province and I seem to have killed one of your animals."
The newfie takes a look at the rabbit and says, "No problem, bye. Hang'er down a few."
The newfie then goes to his truck and gets an aerosol spray-can, which he proceeds to empty onto the rabbit. When he's done he chucks the empty and says, "There ya go, me son. Enjoy yer stay" then gets in his truck and takes off.
The rabbit gets up, hops 10 feet towards the woods, turns around and waves, hops another 10 feet, turns around and waves, hops another 10 feet, and finally disappears into the woods.
The Mainlander is blown away. Wondering what the newfie did, he grabs the can out of the ditch and reads the label, which says: "Hair spray. Gauranteed to bring dead hair back to life with a permanent wave"

-A newfie was having a hard time attracting women at the beach, so he decided to ask his friend the lifeguard for advice.
"It's dem big baggy swimming trunks, my son. Dey're years outta style. Yer best bet is to grab yeself a pair of Speedos--about two sizes too small, and drop a fist-sized potato down inside 'em. I'm telling ye, man.. .ye'll have all de babes ye wants!"
The following weekend, the newfie hit the beach with his new Speedos and his fist-sized potato. Everybody he walked past immediately covered their faces and started gagging.
The newfie went back to the lifeguard and said, "I did what ye said, but it's sitll not working."
"Lard-Tunderin' Jeezus b'y!" said lifeguard, "the potato goes in the front!"

-Two newfies are in a car enjoying a bottle of black horse, when a cop pulls them over. The newfie in the passenger seat says "He's got us now by, what are we gonna do?"
The driver says they have nothing to worry about and tells him to follow his lead and say nothing.
The driver peals the lable off the bottle of beer, licks the back of it, sticks it to his forehead, and puts the bottle under his seat--the passenger follows suit. The police officer approaches the drivers window and asks for his licence and registration.
As the driver gives the officer his info the officer asks whether he or the passenger had been drinking at all that night, at which point the driver points to his forehead and responds, "Oh no sir, we's on da patch ya see!".

-A newfie's wife passed away and he called 911. The 911 operator told him that they would send someone over right away and asked him where he lived.
"At the end of Eucalyptus Drive," the newfie told her. The operator asked, "Could you please spell that for me?"
After a long pause, the newfie said, "How 'bout if I drag her over to Oak Street and you pick her up there?"

[Ulysses]

I'm originally from Cleveland so I guess my accent would be "midwestern". I traveled all over the world but the most interesting accents I found were those of Canadians WAY up in Labrador. "Gotta poot m'car in da garge, yuh..."

Greg

Newfie-speak. Here ya' go -

Sounds to me like a Bostonian talking way too fast.