Do you speak with an accent?

[Jacco]

And I dont mean a regional accent like British, American or Australian; I mean one that is odd or out of place for where your primary residence is.

The other day, my friend recorded a video of us playing ME3 and put it on YouTube and as I listened to my voice, I realized I have a slight "twang" to the way I speak that is not common for where I live-- think a standard American Western/Californian accent as the common accent for where I live and I speak with more of a Midwest accent (which is odd as I've only lived in the Midwest 2 out of the 23 years I've been alive).

Anyway, do you speak oddly for where you live? Or do you know someone who does? Is it a problem for anyone involved?

 

[Megawat22]

Well I'm from Scotland but moved down to the Isle of Wight to live with my Dad over a year ago.
My accent has softened a bit since I moved down (according to my friends anyway, I haven't noticed) but it doesn't bother me much. The best thing about it is every party I go to I'm constantly told by people (mostly the ladies) that they love my accent so it's a pretty good conversation piece.
Funny thing is when I lived in Scotland people often commented on my accent being quite soft and every so often someone doesn't pick up on my accent right away as I've been asked if I'm Irish, Canadian and even American a couple of times.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

I've been informed that I am actually something of a mimic. My real accent is American Midwestern, which has been touted as the most accentless accent in the United States. However, whenever I am around different groups, I apparently shift my accent to be similar to those I am talking to. On the phone, it seems I shift into a slightly classical British accent.

At least that is what various friends of mine have told me. I really don't notice it myself.

 

[BeeGeenie]

I have a friend that asked me where I was from.
When she said "You don't talk like you're from here," I said "Thank you."

Although I don't think she was referring to my accent, but rather my "sociolect"

You may be referring to "style-shifting" (or "code-switching" if you're bilingual): The tendency to subconsciously adjust your speech patterns to resemble those of your peers. You speak differently when you're with your family than with your friends, or in different situations, etc.

In short, when you're playing ME3, you may tend to talk like other people who play ME3 because that's the sociolect that you associate with the game.

 

[Scrustle]

Well I'm from Scotland but moved down to the Isle of Wight to live with my Dad over a year ago.

Wow, the Isle of Wight. I live like 30 minutes away from Portsmouth. It's weird to see someone on these forums that lives so close to me.

OT: Not in the slightest. I have a very much a middle class Southern English accent, because that's who I am.

 

[Total LOLige]

I do have an accent but I'm not sure what kind. I'm from Lancashire and currently reside in Scoootland(deliberate mistake), when I was down in Lancashire people used to say I sounded posh and people in Scotland say that I sound like I'm from Sheffield. I moved around a lot as a kid so it's probably some kind of weird mixture of southern and northern.

 

[generals3]

I have the curse of having a french accent when speaking flemish and flemish accent when speaking french. (and in english i have a bit both a flemish and french accent) Oh the hardships of being "perfectly" bilingual.

 

[uzo]

I'm Aussie; but lived in South London (Croydon) as a teen, and then in Japan throughout my 20s. The London times has given me more UK colloquialisms and expressions (saying 'well' to mean 'very', as in 'well tired'; or single word expressions like 'bollocks', or 'geezer'), as well as a slight perversion of my Aussie accent. That said, my Aussie accent was never very Aussie (read: bogan) to begin with - both parents were university educated and spoke 'properly' to begin with - and I attended a private school where other middle class and above students went so we all had a more ... haughty? ... form of Aussie.

The time in Japan doesn't necessarily mean I speak with a Japanese accent - when I was speaking English it was to a diverse mix of native speakers so we all kinda adopted each other's dialects until a middle-ground was established. I remember hearing Warwick Davis on the commentary for the film "Willow" saying how they had to develop a kinda of 'Atlantic' English for him - something somewhere between UK and North America - I guess that's the dialect we ended up with, with a touch of Aussie/Kiwi.

Since my teens, people oft suspect me of being Irish. I have no qualms with this. Never met an Irishman (or woman!) I didn't like. Now the WELSH ... now there's a people I have qualms with. (j/k ya feisty Welsh gits)


As a side note, I'm bilingual (Japanese), yet I don't speak the polite form (hyoujungo) reflexively. If I'm speaking or thinking Japanese, it's Osaka-ben. I learnt all of my Japanese there, and not in language classes - from TV, games, and hanging out with Japanese mates, and having Japanese girlfriends (one at a time thank you 'Charisma Man'). Even now, my wife (being an Osaka-born-and-raised zainichi) and I speak a mix of English and Osaka-ben. Osaka-ben isn't exactly an accent - more of a dialect. The grammatical functions change somewhat. A quick example would be verb negatives: wakaranai - the casual negative of 'to understand' (wakaru), is 'wakarahen' in many Kansai dialects. There's another casual form 'wakannai' which from memory is more like a childish form of 'I dunno'. Of course, Hyoujungo is the same everywhere because it's the 'BBC Japanese' you could say.

 

[Quaxar]

Well I'm from Scotland but moved down to the Isle of Wight to live with my Dad over a year ago.

Wow, the Isle of Wight. I live like 30 minutes away from Portsmouth. It's weird to see someone on these forums that lives so close to me.

Yeah well I live under your bed. How's that for close by? Anyway, I'll see you in a few hours... not that you're gonna see me seeing as you'll be sleeping. Btw you snore slightly, try to sleep on your side more.

OT: I prefer to use a thick Glaswegian accent when speaking but being Middle European I find most a me friends kinnae understand me much, ye ken. It's hard being a Scottish trans-national overseas. And shutup, that's totally a valid and recognized disorder!

 

[Abomination]

I don't, but I'm certain everyone else does.

I've got a strange mix between that Trans-Atlantic British/American accent with a touch of New Zealander.

Apparently, I sound quite sophisticated.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

I can switch between VERY strong Yorkshire, a condescendingly posh Received Pronunciation Accent and shy generic 'British' mumbling at will.

 

[piinyouri]

I've lived in southern rural america for 17 years and I have resisted assimilating the local accent to great effect.

Except "y'all". Because you cannot say that without said accent. And it's just to easy of a verbal shortcut.

 

[Aramis Night]

I started to develop an accent when my voice changed during puberty. It was like a soft english accent of some kind. I hated it so i trained myself to speak more deep but low. which is closer to a mumble. I was also self conscious so i speak while barely opening my mouth which means i tend to mumble(something i've been correcting).

At one point i had a relationship with a girl who had just come back from spending a summer in europe and had an accent. My accent would start surfacing again the more we were around each other. I Still do my best to suppress it. It makes me feel like a phony or like one of those pathetic guys who uses an accent to get laid(I know its effective but i feel that sort of behaviour is beneath me). I have lived in southern california all my life and have never been to europe so i feel like i have no right to have one.

But if i have a sore throat i'll slip back into it as it hurts less to talk that way. And sometimes it just happens without me realizing and my GF will give me a hard time about it. It doesn't help that she seems to think i'm doing it on purpose. She will make a crack relating me to Anthony Hopkins since she thinks i sound like him when i slip into my accent. It's annoying.

 

[Shinsei-J]

I apparently have quite a strong Australian accent, though I can't seem to put my finger on what makes the accent Australian.
It's not like I speak bogan, I speak properly and most often formally. I just don't really get it, I guess I have no self awareness of how I speak.

 

[Smiley Face]

I've been informed that I am actually something of a mimic. My real accent is American Midwestern, which has been touted as the most accentless accent in the United States. However, whenever I am around different groups, I apparently shift my accent to be similar to those I am talking to. On the phone, it seems I shift into a slightly classical British accent.

At least that is what various friends of mine have told me. I really don't notice it myself.

Hooray for mimicry! Me too, high five.

I'm from Toronto, which being such a hub of immigrants and so close to the States, has a fairly neutral accent as standard rather than anything distinctly 'Canadian', if indeed there is a standard for Toronto. My mother, however, is from Edinburgh, and as such when I first learned to talk, I had a Scottish accent. It naturalized eventually, I'm not sure, probably by the time I was 7/8, but some expressions/hints of the accent stuck around, and I can still pull it out. Maybe as a result of this accent shift, or maybe not, I do have a tendency to pick up accents or mannerisms for a week or so if I'm either exposed to them a lot, or for the first time. It happens without my realizing it, and once I do, I realize I've been talking like it for the past day or so. And that's when I'm not thinking about it; when I put an effort in to it, I can usually hit the nail on the head, or close enough for those who aren't intimately familiar with it.

One thing that's odd - I've never quite been comfortable with the way my naturalized accent sounds; when I pay attention to it, it usually doesn't feel like my voice, even though it's my default setting. I feel much more at home with myself when I speak with a Scottish accent, even though it's been so long since it came automatically to me that it's started to degrade. Maybe that's a reason behind why it keeps shifting, who knows.

 

[Apollo45]

I've been informed that I am actually something of a mimic. My real accent is American Midwestern, which has been touted as the most accentless accent in the United States. However, whenever I am around different groups, I apparently shift my accent to be similar to those I am talking to. On the phone, it seems I shift into a slightly classical British accent.

At least that is what various friends of mine have told me. I really don't notice it myself.

I do the same thing, minus the British accent anyway. I've got the American West/Midwest non-accent, although I tend to drop my G's more often than normal and occasionally don't pronounce my T's (apparently that's common though. I've never noticed). But depending on who I'm with my accent changes a bit. I've got buddies from Missouri, so when I'm out there/hanging out with them it changes to more match how they're talking (Missurah instead of Missouri, as an example). I've got other guys I go hunting with who are more of your classical rednecks, and I end up adopting their accent when I'm with them (quakies instead of aspens, wallers instead of wallows instead of ponds, etc). A friend of mine from Texas took me bar hopping when I was visiting at one point and I got some of his college friends surprised when they found out I wasn't from around there.

What was rather strange was living in New Jersey for a few years... The guys out there always commented on my "accent" like it was weird, although they could never place it. I never managed to adopt that one, and people would place guesses ranging from Texas to Michigan to California. I don't think anyone guessed Colorado, which is where I'm actually from.

 

[YingDerpington]

I have lived in Australia for all but 2-3 years of my life. Somehow I have developed an English accent. I know not how this came to be but what I do know is that it bugs the crap out of me when people I've known for several years still think I was born in Britain. Apparently it becomes a shining example of everything the English accent stands for when I get angry or passionate about something (though this is according to some Australian friends, half of which have the iconic bogan accent that makes the rest of us cringe, so I don't place much stock in their words).

Any tips on refining this accent would be nice, I find the English accent much nicer than Australian bogan accent.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

Well yes. But I know how it developed: my father was in the military when I was a kid, and he got different posts all over my country, which caused me to go to school in rural areas, in cities and even in a reservation (I went to school with guaranies, mapuches and Onas, all native tribes from my country). This caused my accent to differ from the city where I live now (Buenos Aires) and in fact most people cant pinpoint where I am from.

 

[SadisticFire]

Apparently I have an East Coast accent even though I have never been to the East Coat.(America)
It's kinda strange but I guess that's what happens when you don't talk, and don't listen to those around you, shutting yourself off, except for the internet.

 

[thesilentman]

I don't even have an accent. The closet it's gotten is my insistence to pronounce English words the British way with some Gujarati syllables slipping in from time to time. But they never stick around. Tis a shame, I think that's an interesting accent blend.