What Kind of Accent Do You Have?

I’m from Cleveland, Ohio and I have a rust belt accent! Sounds awful but I kinda like the way it sounds. Also called a northern inland dialect
We have nasal ‘a’s,’ and short “o’s’ but we make great mustard and popcorn balls!

I’m from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and I have a Yooper accent?

Being from Argentina, I have a Spanish accent :))

I’m from New Brunswick, on the East Coast of Canada & I’ve had people ask if I’m English, Scottish, or just didn’t understand me at all! I find that our accents are particularly unique in New Brunswick because it can get a little Transatlantic, lots of generations of Scottish, Irish & English here, plus New Brunswick is the only bilingual (English & French) Canadian province, so there’s also a lot of casual French expressions/pronunciations thrown in.

Our expressions & names for things are certainly unique, too. I lived in England for awhile & remember asking a coworker who had just finished a big project: “How’d you make out?” & she was VERY confused, thinking I was asking about her fooling around with someone! That expression translates into: how did it go, how did you get on, etc?

I never thought I had an accent until I moved to Seattle from the Chicago suburbs. I worked in retail and would greet customers with my enthusiastic midwestern energy and usually the first question I’d get in response was “where are you from?”. It was the first time in my life I realized that I could be placed by my voice. I took some humor in it but also it got exhausting. Over the years my flat vowels rounded and people no longer got stuck on my accent before having a conversation. I don’t pretend at all to know what it’s like being from another country and experiencing prejudice, but it did serve me well to leave my homeland to experience the feeling of being different. I think it would do people well and make us all more empathetic to go through some of those experiences so we’re not so centric in our beliefs and narrative!

French and Singaporean, raised in the Bay Area, CA. I grew up speaking a lot of Frenglish at home and I use a lot of Singlish and British English words. There are a ton of words and phrases I used growing up that I didn’t realize weren’t American English. I was once told I have an accent that sounds like I’m from Hawaii (though I’ve never been). Sometimes when I speak to my husband I have some kind of southern accent.

Grew up about 30 minutes outside of Philly, with most of my family is from Norristown, PA. The dialect here sounds like a cross between South Philly and Jersey with a nasally-undertone. Make sense? Lol. We say “wooder” instead of wah-ter, Chaaalie instead of Char-lie, and “Iggles” instead of Eagles. If you’re ever in the area, be sure to snag a zep from Lou’s or Eve’s and a slice of tomato pie from Corropolese Bakery. Local legends that won’t leave you disappointed.

As an American living in Ireland for the past 9 years, my accent has turned into a weird mashup between the two. Back home, they think I sound Irish, but most Irish can quickly pick up on the American twang. The local consensus seems to be that I sound like an Irish person who has lived in the states for a while.
I definitely made the conscious effort to reduce my American accent though, in order to shake the label of “The Yank”. And I definitely speak more quietly since living here. When I see American tourists around they sound so loud and obnoxious to me now!

Delco. As in Delaware County, PA. As in parts of Mare of Easttown were filmed in my hometown. Mare’s accent in that is over the top but it’s not entirely wrong. To know the accent is to love it, much like the place and the people. It shows up especially in certain words and quite certainly when I’m mad. And trust me when I tell you that I can identify a fellow Delconian anywhere in this world based on that accent.

I’m a Brazilian and moved to the US when I was 21, for college. I thought I’d lose my accent after a while, and it was such a pride thing for me, like “only then will I be fluent in English.” Well… it’s been 15 years and I still have it. But the funny thing is, I seriously do not care anymore about having an accent. I AM fluent in English. I even understand (and laugh at) sarcastic comments! You can’t get more fluent than that.

I love how my accent makes me unique and how it sparks other people’s interest. The other day someone told me how my accent makes my English sound smooth, like the sound of waves, and I like that. I like to think I speak English with a touch of sea waves.

I’m from Canada (southern Alberta) and spent summers in Montana, college in Idaho/Utah anbd have cousins all over the US (West and East Coast. I thihnk I sound pretty similar to western US speakers but I notice the further north in Alberta you go, I hear a stronger Alberta accent. I remember saying garburator in college (for garbage disposal) and my roomates thought it was so strange and hilarious. I also dropped saying “eh” as I got mocked bery badly for it from my American roomates. I love a British accent!

I’m from the Bay Area I’m very curious what we sound like to other people. Separate from colloquialisms like “hella” do we distinct have accents???

Those videos especially the accent guy. I’m originally from the north of England but at 18 I left. I spent a year in the states then moved back for Uni and drifted down to the south. My accent, never strong, gradually wore away but now I still sometimes get stuck on words with u in them. It’s really common apparently with northerners who move to the south. My family thinks it’s hilarious and get me to say things like “bush tucker” which i just can’t do without really concentrating. For some reason it cracks us all up every time.

Jo, I read through all the comments posted so far and did not see another West Virginia so I’m here to represent all us Appalachian gals out there. I grew up about 70 miles west of Washington, DC so I’m perhaps not the best representative sample BUT I am so proud of the way my accent reflects the unique culture of our region. We have a mix of
words and accents that combine to be a little bit Southern, a little bit mountain—I even read recently that the generic Appalachian dialect is said to be the closest to Elizabethan English that
is spoken today. I think our accent is particularly interesting to study because for so long it was associated with being a backwoods, second-class redneck, but to me it is a point of pride—a true nod to a resilient, hardworking group of underdogs that came from all over the world and mixed into these mountains together. However, I do wish you could hear me say “oil”—I don’t even know how to phonetically type it, but it’s a hoot!

I’m born and raised in Southern California, and no one here thinks we have an accent lol. But apparently we do? And instead of saying Interstate 5 or Highway 56 we say “the 5” and “the 56”. People always know right away where I’m from when I’m anywhere else in the U.S.

I was born in South Africa and lived there until my late teens, and then moved to the U.K. My accent became quite British because nobody could understand a word I said, so I had to adjust it. I then went to university in Scotland, and have been living in London for the last 15 years and my husband is french. My accent is …. Interesting. I do tend to pick up other people’s accents subconsciously. I do that thing that other people have mentioned here about speaking with more of an American accent when in the USA because I sound so odd (to me) when I speak with my British / french / South African accent. I also pick up Australian intonations (my grandmother was Australian).
It’s interesting seeing how my children’s accents turn out. My eldest is 6 and his accent changes depending on who he’s talking to- with me it gets more South African and with his school friends it’s super Norf Lahndahn. There have been times when he’s said something my husband couldn’t understand because the accent was so strong.

BTW – with the change of layout it’s not possible to scroll up or down in the comment box which came make it hard to edit (on an iPhone).

I’m also from Michigan and I once saw a meme that said “the most Midwest sentence: Ope, just gonna sneak right past ya and grab the Ranch” In both accent and content, I felt deeply seen!

I’m from Pittsburgh but I live in Boston. My Pittsburgh-ese comes out sometimes. We have our own language. My favorites are:

1. Nebby-means nosy
2. Gum bands-rubber bands
3. Not a specific word but we do not use the phrase “to be”. This needs washed is a normal sentence to me. I had no idea that this was incorrect until moving out of the city. (Correct sentence: This needs to be washed.
4. Buggy-shopping cart
5. Redd up-clean
6. Pop-soda

My mom is Ukrainian but has lived and worked in the US for 40 years. She still has a Slavic accent, but doesn’t think she does. Much to her surprise, my husband got her on video, and when she saw it she exclaimed “I didn’t know that I still have an accent…” Yes, Mama, you do!

Man I love this topic! I’m from East Texas and grew up around some strong accents. (My mom swore she didn’t cuss because when she said “shit” it had like 9 syllables in the middle.) But I had a Yorkshire nanny growing up so my accent would switch from Texan to British mid-sentence depending on which parental figure in my life had taught me which word. It was really confusing to my cousins haha.

No doubt that this wasn’t your intention – but this question comes from such a place of white privilege that it took my breath away. How casually you can ask this – without even having to consider the lived experience of the millions in this country who are ridiculed, othered, discriminated against because of their accents. For them it’s not a cute story of an accent slipping after a nice glass of wine but of an everyday existence of often diminishing their natural accents and therefore their true selves so that they can be respected in American society.

Definitely a mish mash. I was born in Tanzania and lived in the Uk for a bit but have been in British Columbia for about 30 years now. English-isms still slip out. And I still flip my Vs and Ws like a Tanzanian

I’m a New Englander who has been transplanted to the South. My first day of graduate school, I asked someone where the bubblah (aka bubbler, aka water fountain) was and I will never forget the look on their face, haha.

I grew up outside Chicago but I lived with my Norwegian grandparents until I was three and spent summers with my Kansas grandparents so my mishmash is a weird accent. I still say Chicago like Chick kogo and wash like wrersh, no one can ever place me. Great story from my Norwegian great grandfather, he told the whole family, “In the house we speak Norwegian, outside the house we speak American.” This was said with great pride. I often think of that when I hear different accents from people who come here to live their life, it makes me really happy because we all are at the end of the day Americans.

I really do have a fairly neutral east coast accent, minus saying y’all. I live in FL now but have lived all over. My grandmother, however, was born in 1910 in a very established part of Mainline PA, and sounded EXACTLY like Katharine Hepburn in Philadelphia Story. It’s definitely a speech pattern and accent that doesn’t exist anymore. After she died, I’d watch old Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant movies to remind me of her.