I'm really susceptible to other people's accents.  I go to Florida, I pick up the slow conversation and forced "r"s.  My trip to Ireland was a fiasco.

So this morning I watched the second half of Bridget Jones' Diary.  Then someone came to look at the house. 

So, what part of England am I from?  1. worst accent ever.  2. ugh. embarassing.


are you influenced by accents?

Yep, I am.  My family is originally from Ohio (so close to West Virgina you can get a lung full of coal dust.) so I end up with an accent once I hit the West Virgina boarder.  Probably the only time you'll catch me saying pop instead of soda.

You can still hear my "New Yawk" accent. I'm sure Tam, Gis, & Ash (as well as others) will contest to that.  ;)



Cat

It doesn't happen to me any more but I did used to be influenced by them.  I remember meeting a lad on holiday and by the end of the week I was speaking 'proper yorkshire' like him!

Oddly, if I try and do an accent as part of a joke for instance I am rubbish at them!

Although I was born in Quebec, Canada and attended French school, I don't have any accent. My wife (born in Hong Kong) does have an accent

Although I was born in Quebec, Canada and attended French school, I don't have any accent. My wife (born in Hong Kong) does have an accent


I bet you do have an accent really, just that its the same as most others around you

I bet you do have an accent really, just that its the same as most others around you

I have a similar accent that other English speakers have in Canada, regardless of what city, but I don't speak English with a French accent.
Some accents (for me) are hard to understand, like Southern US accents.

I've noticed that Aussies actors who go over to the U.S. have a slight American accent when they return. My wife (who was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago) has a slight West Indian accent which increases when at gatherings with other West Indians...

I have a Boston accent, but it isn't the Kennedy Boston accent, it is the Yankee Boston accent.  Most people know immediately where I come from, sometimes though people from the midwest have told me I sound like I am from England.  Though the English usually know I'm not, but when I went over there, there were some who thought I was a "public school girl".  I am good at throwing my shoulders back an affecting a very good Hyacinth Bucket.

I have no accent, but funny you should mention it, people think that Canadians have a weird accend, and say eh alot.

Eh?

;D

^^I love doing the Mrs. "Bucket".  ;D


My accent is true NYC ...I went to Australia and kept saying things like  "ai-deen"  instead of "eighteen"....

and no one could understand me. 

I always get the Jersey effect when I cross a bridge, and my trips to see mom in South Carolina are hysterical.  she looks at me like I'm crazy but I have no control over it.

I don't have an accent, and I am glad that I don't because I like being able to go outside of Canada so I can screw with people and be like "Due to government law, we aren't allowed to take our accents with us when we go outside of Canada" LOL

"Where's your accent, eh?"
http://addictingfreegames.net/images/doot_abootit.jpg

I don't have an accent, and I am glad that I don't because I like being able to go outside of Canada so I can screw with people and be like "Due to government law, we aren't allowed to take our accents with us when we go outside of Canada" LOL

"Where's your accent, eh?"
http://addictingfreegames.net/images/doot_abootit.jpg



;D ;D

Sis from Florida arriving tomorrow....I'm doomed.

I have a similar accent that other English speakers have in Canada, regardless of what city, but I don't speak English with a French accent.
Some accents (for me) are hard to understand, like Southern US accents.


That's funny because once my brother and I ate at a restaurant in Niagara Falls, Canada and had a waiter that spoke English with a French accent and I couldn't understand a word he said.  I had to have my brother interrpret for me.  ;D

I'm really susceptible to other people's accents.  I go to Florida, I pick up the slow conversation and forced "r"s.  My trip to Ireland was a fiasco.

So this morning I watched the second half of Bridget Jones' Diary.  Then someone came to look at the house. 

So, what part of England am I from?  1. worst accent ever.  2. ugh. embarassing.


are you influenced by accents?


for me its not necessarily accents... I suck at them... but I do pick up on cadences & speech patterns I have a tendency (especially if I watch a lot of eps in a row) to speak like they do on Friends 

(Could I be   more annoying!) 
I can't think of any others off the top of my head but phrasing styles and word choices are my triggers...

I hear someone say Dang... I say dang..
I hear someone say Sweet!... I say sweet

the funny part is that whole Nor Cal, So Cal... Hella  & Hecka  thing... It takes forever for me to get out of it once I get going!

;D

I have a similar accent that other English speakers have in Canada, regardless of what city, but I don't speak English with a French accent.
Some accents (for me) are hard to understand, like Southern US accents.


Funny thing is ( and I'm being serious) most Canadians don't sound like Bob and Doug Mackenzie. 
Many of Canadians I know (or have heard speak) don't have a distinguishable  accent but certain word pronunciations are a dead give away... I'm not talking about the word "About" *aboot*  mostly its words like "sorry" and damn I can't think of the other word my friend says that cracks me up (inside) but she has certain pronunciations that give her away and she's always surprised when people ask where she's from because she doesn't think she sounds "Canadian"


Again is another of those words... we say ay-gin  she says ay- gain 

Canadians are always a giveaway if we mention things or words/phrases that are not commonly (or never) heard in the States.  Does this sentence make sense ...

"I couldn't decide if I wanted a Two-Four or a case of Pop, but since I only had a buck, I went to the GT Boutique and bought a litre of Homo Milk, then went home and fell asleep on my chesterfield.  Maybe tomorrow, I'll stop at Timmies for a Double-Double, then on lunch, I'll stop at Harvey's for a Poutine"

Canadians are always a giveaway if we mention things or words/phrases that are not commonly (or never) heard in the States.  Does this sentence make sense ...

"I couldn't decide if I wanted a Two-Four or a case of Pop, but since I only had a buck, I went to the GT Boutique and bought a litre of Homo Milk, then went home and fell asleep on my chesterfield.  Maybe tomorrow, I'll stop at Timmies for a Double-Double, then on lunch, I'll stop at Harvey's for a Poutine"


nope not at all...  ;D 

Canadians are always a giveaway if we mention things or words/phrases that are not commonly (or never) heard in the States.  Does this sentence make sense ...

"I couldn't decide if I wanted a Two-Four or a case of Pop, but since I only had a buck, I went to the GT Boutique and bought a litre of Homo Milk, then went home and fell asleep on my chesterfield.  Maybe tomorrow, I'll stop at Timmies for a Double-Double, then on lunch, I'll stop at Harvey's for a Poutine"

Makes sense to me!

Two -four = Beer
litre of homo milk = carton of homogenized milk
Chesterfield = sofa
GT = Giant Tiger store
Timmies = Tim Horton" (Sorta like Starbucks)
double-double = double cream, double sugar
Harveys ( Burger place, liek Wendys or Burker King)
Poutine = Quebec type french fries with gravy and cheese curds..you like or ..you hate it

Oh God, my accent is constantly changing!

I was born in LA, so I had a typical Southern California accent.  Then came my 7 years in Idaho, which has a variation of a Midwestern accent (drawn out a bit, almost Southern in a way).  Then back to LA during the height of the "Valley Girl" fad.

Then came my 4 years in North Carolina (where I picked up a bit of a drawl), 13 years in California again, 5 years in Alabama, and the last 2 years in Texas.  People nowadays tend to ask me what part of the South I come from.

And I am not the only one like that.  My wife spent her first 17 years in Argentina, and the rest mostly in California.  Her accent is so slight that most people can't pick it out (most think she is Russian, or from Israel).  And because her native Spanish is Castillian, most who hear it still can't tell where she is from (she says it has become corrupted by the Mexican Spanish she hears constantly).

And I am sure that is changing even now.  Instead of the Baja accent she has been mostly exposed to, now it is the Tejano accent she hears on a daily basis.

I'm bad if I go back up north. I lived in Yorkshire for 7 years and had a strong Yorkshire accent when I moved to Oxford aged 16. So strong in fact people at college didn't understand me. I lost that eventually and now I have a totally southern accent, so much so that sometimes I think I sound dreadfully common!  ;D ;D

The problem is if we go to visit Himself's family in Durham I suddenly start talking with a Yorkshire accent again and I'm sure people think I'm taking the piss.  ;D

I pick up accents fairly easily, I am from Northern Illinois (so I naturally talk fast).  I then went to college in Southern Illinois, and I slowed way down.  I worked in South Carolina, and yep picked up a draw.  Went to Washington DC for 6 months, came back and people said I talked funny.

The WORST though (not an accent, but along the same lines of this), I worked closely with a stutterer.  Yep, I picked up stuttering.  I was so embarrassed.  I was afraid he thought I was making fun of him.  I told him, that I thought I "picked it up."  He laughed, and told me that he did not used to stutter before the age of 6, and then he had a stuttering friend..... :o
I was panicked at that point, am I going to stutter forever???  Well I left the job, and dropped the stuttering.

I'm really susceptible to other people's accents.  I go to Florida, I pick up the slow conversation and forced "r"s.  My trip to Ireland was a fiasco.

So this morning I watched the second half of Bridget Jones' Diary.  Then someone came to look at the house. 

So, what part of England am I from?  1. worst accent ever.  2. ugh. embarassing.

are you influenced by accents?


Ha ha. Bridget Jones' Diary is not the best indicator of how people talk in England (what accent is that? Lol). Like in the US, the accent depends on where you come from ... and most of those accents aren't posh, lol.

I don't change my accent because I am stubborn. I have lived in the South West of England for 13 years now and my Midlands accent hasn't changed that much. Mind you, I can't stand the Devon accent so that probably has something to do with it.

I'm really susceptible to other people's accents.  I go to Florida, I pick up the slow conversation and forced "r"s.  My trip to Ireland was a fiasco.

So this morning I watched the second half of Bridget Jones' Diary.  Then someone came to look at the house. 

So, what part of England am I from?  1. worst accent ever.  2. ugh. embarassing.


are you influenced by accents?


I don't know about accents...but I have a definite 'telephone' voice !

I pick up accents fairly easily, I am from Northern Illinois (so I naturally talk fast).  I then went to college in Southern Illinois, and I slowed way down. 
Maybe it's an Illinois thing because I am too and I do too.  Some people think I'm from the south, though.  When my best friend and I were in Vegas, 3 different people thought I was from Atlanta???  I did go to school in Texas for a short time, but that was 20 years ago...I have always said "y'all" though ;)

I don't know about accents...but I have a definite 'telephone' voice !


Same here, lol. I think it's my time working for a financial company that did it. I was often praised for my telephone manner. :)