# What kind of accent do you have?



## El Hondureño

Well if you think you don't have an accent, just tell us where you are from!
Me personally I think I have a ghetto New York stlye accent. For example we don't pronounce every word and foreigners don't understand us. Also we talk with all of our words combined.
Also wetalk with alof our words combined lol


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## alc112

Here some persons don't pronounce the "s" when is the final letter of a word.
And you can also listen "perá" instead "esperá".


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## El Hondureño

Also, we tend to get our voice high-pitched when we want to make a point
For example:
What aryou TALKin about B 
lol


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## alc112

Wait Vic_ us he will tell you about how he/she pronounce vocals becaouse he/she is from cordoba


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## Benjy

i have a pretty neutral british accent accent with a slight black country edge. meh. i think this would be kind of fun if would get recordings of the way we sound. maybe i'll try and sort something out tomorrow


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## mirandolina

A mild Scottish accent - but I can put it on thick when I need to!


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## VenusEnvy

I (like many people will often say) don't really have an accent. Really, I don't! But, my mother was raised in NY, so she still carries it around with her. When she says "hair", "car", "Hey you", etc. New Yorkers also ask questions differently than most people. I wish I could record my voice so y'all could hear it!

Most people ask, "What are you doing in here?" while raising their voice up at the end. New Yorkers would raise their voice up at the word in, and then bring it back down at here  to make it sound like a statement, not a question. Well, my motha does that, and sometimes I tend to.   

My father was born and raised in B-More. I don't think that people's vernacular and accent are a product of their geographical location alone, but also of the spoken language around the house.


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## Merlino

Depends on the language 
When speaking Dutch, my native language people tend to think I'm from the richer parts of the country (that's an issue here in Holland, if you talk like you have a hot potato in your mouth you _must_ be rich :S). I always thought that when I'm speaking English I have a British accent, but I got asked whether I was French or not the other day when talking to someone in English  (no offence to Frenchies but I'm studying Italian so a French accent doesn't exactly help!)


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## mickroberts

I probably have a fairly standard "american" accent as a result of working as a radio announcer.  It was not always that way!  I was born in the hills of West Virginia (read that: hillbilly) with all the accent that implies.  I was also gifted with a good speaking voice which caught the attention of the station manager while attending college (universidad a mis amigos que hablan espanol) and he made short work of bad words like "Warshington" for Washington ... just like Newt Gingrich.


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## Whodunit

I have a little Saxon accent. But I could omit it - I hope so. But my Saxon accent is more a Brandenburg dialect mixed with a Saxony-Anhalt one. It's funny to a Bavarian who would listen to me, I think.


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## GermanGirl

Hi whodunit, in that case I'd like to listen to you, I am from Bavaria. I don't really have a Bavarian accent, luckily (!), but I'm sure people would be able to tell I'm from the South.


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## Helicopta

Where I live, the local accent is quite rural or ‘country bumpkin like’ and although my own accent isn’t particularly strong, I do use a lot of the speech patterns. Some are peculiar to the region but most are also found in many other English regional accents.

Some examples:

The letter ‘H’ is never pronounced at the beginning of a word nor is the ‘G’ on the end of words ending in ‘ing’.

“ow’s it goin?” = “how’s it going?”

*With* gets shortened to *wi*.
*You*, *your* and *you’ve* can all be pronounced *yu*.

*Have* and *are* as *a*.

*My* becomes *me* and *me* sometimes *us*.

“A yu seen me keys anywhere?” = “Have you seen my keys anywhere?”

“What’s up wi yu mate?” = “What’s the matter with your friend?”

“A yu comin wi me?” = “Are you coming with me?”

“Let us know when yu finished” = “Let me know when you’ve finished”

In order to be understood, I have to speak a far more correct version of English when talking with foreign speakers of English (Americans for example!).


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## mickroberts

Aqui en Carolina del Norte tambien hablan con acentos muy curiosos.  For example, a local might call irish potatos "arsh taters" or persons from Harker's Island talk of an exceptionally "hoiy toid" ... high tide.  Some have accents so thick an interpreter is required to totally understand them.  Almost like GWB.

Live slow, sail fast!


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## Sharon

Hmm...can I say "Midwestern Bland" ? I grew up in Ohio, but everyone here says that I have an accent... One night my friends made me say the words "pond" and "pawned" to them, I pronounce the two words differently, but they insist the words sound the same. My parents were both raised in Pennsylvania, and I probably picked up a slight drawl from them; somehow the cadence of my speech is different.  But, _they have an accent_, not me!!  If they watch something happen, they say watch. The timepiece is pronounced "wutch." (-> My sister does this, my brother and I do not.) My father pronounces the word "bury" as "burry," and insists that a "berry" is something you eat. I grew up calling my mother "Mum" and I still address her that way, but when talking about her to my friends, I am careful to say "Mom," or the teasing never ends!! 

You might find this website interesting! http://columbusoh.about.com/library/weekly/aa062800a.htm
Maybe that's where my accent is, I don't say "Nerk" or "Klumbus" like I am supposed to! 

Benjy, what does "_a slight black country edge_" mean? 


Sharon.


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## fatboy06

The Black Country is a part of England in the Midlands.  Nothing to do with race and I couldn't tell you why it got that name!

My accent is pretty middle class South East England - a bit boring really.  I'll tell you what though - Americans are the most annoying when it comes to pointing out accents - 'Isn't his accent sweet?!!!'.

Basically, it isn't as posh as you hear on old BBC recordings where everybody talks as if they have a plum in their voice, but still quite middle class.  If I want to though I can put on quite a strong Middlesex\West London accent.

In French, well I expect it would sound very audiably English and in Spanish and Italian even worse!


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## Benjy

just to expand.. the west midlands was highly industrialised during.... well the industrial revolution (doh) and because of outrageous amount of soot being produced everythnig tended to get rather grimy. hence the black country. that said they have an atrociously thick  accent and one day i really will have to find clip to demostrate it 

edit in the mean time.. the bbc have a site you might liek to read

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blackcountry/have_your_say/accents/accents.shtml


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## fatboy06

lol am I right in saying that a Black Country accent is similar to a Brummie one?  If so, without meaning to be offensive, the sheer nazilness of a strong brummie accent makes my head ring .


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## Benjy

fatboy06 said:
			
		

> lol am I right in saying that a Black Country accent is similar to a Brummie one?  If so, without meaning to be offensive, the sheer nazilness of a strong brummie accent makes my head ring .



brummie == watered down black country accent  it has been labeled a dialect before YAM IN LYE


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## cuchuflete

Following Benjy's brave example, I'll try to give some idea of my accent.
When I speak Italian, or make a flawed attempt to do so, Italians assume I'm a Spaniard. When I'm in Latin America, they ask what town in Spain I'm from. Except in Brasil, where they stare at me quizically for a while, and then ask if I'm Portuguese.
The Portuguese are courteous enough to say, "Ah, you are Brasileiro!"
My three words of French seem to sound like something a recent immigrant from Spain might say.

English? I sound vaguely like one from somewhere in the northeast part of the US, but I can turn on a northern New England accent on when I choose to, and it
sounds fairly authentic to people who are not natives of Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine.

Once upon a time I was a radio announcer, so I can adopt the vocal mannerisms of a classical or jazz announcer, or even a news reporter.

Confusing?  Yes, especially to me.


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## pinkpanter

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> Following Benjy's brave example, I'll try to give some idea of my accent.
> When I speak Italian, or make a flawed attempt to do so, Italians assume I'm a Spaniard. When I'm in Latin America, they ask what town in Spain I'm from. Except in Brasil, where they stare at me quizically for a while, and then ask if I'm Portuguese.
> The Portuguese are courteous enough to say, "Ah, you are Brasileiro!"
> My three words of French seem to sound like something a recent immigrant from Spain might say.
> 
> English? I sound vaguely like one from somewhere in the northeast part of the US, but I can turn on a northern New England accent on when I choose to, and it
> sounds fairly authentic to people who are not natives of Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine.
> 
> Once upon a time I was a radio announcer, so I can adopt the vocal mannerisms of a classical or jazz announcer, or even a news reporter.
> 
> Confusing?  Yes, especially to me.



So you can virtually imitate all the accents you have tried! Amazing, I can do that more or less when singing but not when speaking


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## Benjy

what always makes me laugh is peoples varied reactions to the same sound. i have been told that i sound (when speaking french) as british as they come, i've also been asked which part of alsace i hail from, and i've been told that i'm swiss aswell. all by people from the same region of france lol. maybe its me who is inconsistent. who knows?


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## cuchuflete

pinkpanter said:
			
		

> So you can virtually imitate all the accents you have tried! Amazing, I can do that more or less when singing but not when speaking



Hola Panterita,

I was trained as a musician, so it's little more than listening and imitating, but I never claimed to do it very well!

I spent a couple of weeks in Sweden many years ago, and was told I sounded like my then girlfriend...she was a Canadian with a Hungarian father, a Norwegian mother, and had been living in Stockholm for a few years.  Superb role model for someone trying to learn the local language

Luckily for me, the Swedes were very forgiving.

saludos,
Cuchu


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## VenusEnvy

Isn't it funny how people can tell you their accent, and automatically, you form a mental image of them? 



			
				Sharon said:
			
		

> One night my friends made me say the words "pond" and "pawned" to them, I pronounce the two words differently, but they insist the words sound the same.


Which one do you pronounce differently? And, how?? To me, they sound the same, too. 



			
				Sharon said:
			
		

> If they watch something happen, they say watch. The timepiece is pronounced "wutch."


LOL It sounds funny coming out of my mouth.   


Thanks for this, Sharon! It gave me a chuckle, and warm thoughts!


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## Narda

Although most people say I do not have an accent when speaking English, I am aware that I do have a slight Spanish accent.  When speaking Spanish I could be from several places, but many believe I am Colombian although Colombians know for sure I am not because I do not sound as they do.  On the other hand, and I find it funny, when I speak French, people say I sound "American" (please interpret that as from the U.S.) and my husband, who is "American", is said to sport a Spanish accent.  Vaya usted a saber!  Go figure!


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## Wordsmyth

pinkpanter said:
			
		

> So you can virtually imitate all the accents you have *tried*!



Hi pinkpanter

Maybe in chuchuflete's case he was _trying_. But accent can also change unconsciously with situation, context, etc.  People say mine adapts to the accent of whoever I'm talking to. It's unintentional (except when I'm trying!), but sometimes useful. Visiting Wyoming with 3 other Brits, I had to "interpret" between them and a restaurant waitress: I just repeated their words in my "natural" voice (on that day in that place, I suppose). So they got to eat, and were they grateful? Were they heck, they accused me of 'going native'!! (Well, one of them _was_ from Dudley - that's in the Black Country!)


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## Wordsmyth

Sharon said:
			
		

> _[...] _ I grew up calling my mother "Mum" and I still address her that way, but when talking about her to my friends, I am careful to say "Mom," or the teasing never ends!!
> 
> Sharon.



Wow Sharon,    Not only do you spell doughnut with an 'ugh', but you have a "Mum".  You could almost qualify for a "Chiefly Brit" tag !!   

So do you have a Dad or a Pop/Pa(w)?

W


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## Sharon

Venus Envy said:
			
		

> Which one do you pronounce differently? And, how?? To me, they sound the same, too.
> 
> Thanks for this, Sharon! It gave me a chuckle, and warm thoughts!


Venus Envy,
I must be slow today, because it took me a minute to realize what you meant by which one I pronounce differently!  (My first thought...if they are different from each other, then they are BOTH different...but no, you meant differently from my friends!! )

Pond is the one I pronounce differently. My accent changes depending on who I'm talking to; family brings it out, and  I am also very susceptible to picking up the accent of those around me. It also changes depending on _what_ I am talking about. I spent a week or two every summer in Pennsylvania during my childhood, so when talking about things I did there, the accent comes out! I can't spell the pronunciation, so I found a linguistics website, and I am going to give you their explanation. I never knew Pennsylvania had nine dialectal regions! 
My accent is Upper Ohio Valley, second generation removed!! 


> Summary: Midland dialect of the Western Pennsylvania type. Scotch-Irish substratum; as "Gateway to the West" shows affinities with Midwestern, and Appalachian dialects.
> 
> Since the early part of this century, *the Western Pennsylvania dialect has been demarcated by its merger of short O and AU into an intermediate vowel, so that cot and caught sound alike.* Although recently this merger has been spreading into the northern and southern tiers of Pennsylvania.
> The dialect's lexicon owes a great deal to the Scotch-Irish frontiersmen who settled Western Pennsylvania and subsequently migrated southward down the Appalachian chain, mixing with Southern settlers from the Piedmont. The common Scotch-Irish base explains why the Midland dialect of the Pittsburgh area shares many similarities with the Southern dialects of the Appalachians such as *the distinctive second person plural pronoun y'uns.* http://www.evolpub.com/Americandialects/PennaDialMap.html


Cot is always the same, but  my pronunciation of caught varies. Another example my friends have pointed out; I pronounce the names Don and Dawn alike. I forgot about that in my earlier post. Unless I pay close attention, I cannot pronounce the "Dahn" of Don. I've gotten abuse from Dons for this!!   And, though I haven't said it in years,  I would have spelled it "youns" ! 


			
				Wordsmyth said:
			
		

> Wow Sharon, Not only do you spell doughnut with an 'ugh', but you have a "Mum". You could almost qualify for a "Chiefly Brit" tag !!
> 
> So do you have a Dad or a Pop/Pa(w)?



Wordsmyth, he's my Dad! 
 What is _Chiefly Brit_ for "Dad" ??

Sharon.


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## pinkpanter

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> Hola Panterita,
> 
> I was trained as a musician, so it's little more than listening and imitating, but I never claimed to do it very well!
> 
> I spent a couple of weeks in Sweden many years ago, and was told I sounded like my then girlfriend...she was a Canadian with a Hungarian father, a Norwegian mother, and had been living in Stockholm for a few years.  Superb role model for someone trying to learn the local language
> 
> Luckily for me, the Swedes were very forgiving.
> 
> saludos,
> Cuchu



Hi Cuchu 
For what I know of you I am sure you had a great Swedish accent but even if you didn't, listening to someone whose native tongue is English speaking Swedish is already quite impressive by itself. And you only spent some weeks here! 
Are you still learning some Swedish? Do you like it?
Hope you have a great day,


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## pinkpanter

Wordsmyth said:
			
		

> But accent can also change unconsciously with situation, context, etc.  People say mine adapts to the accent of whoever I'm talking to. It's unintentional (except when I'm trying!), but sometimes useful. Visiting Wyoming with 3 other Brits, I had to "interpret" between them and a restaurant waitress: I just repeated their words in my "natural" voice (on that day in that place, I suppose). So they got to eat, and were they grateful? Were they heck, they accused me of 'going native'!!



Hi Wordsmyth,
Wow that's so funny! That your accent addapt to the accent of whoever you are talking to... That's great for learning foreign languages!! 
Funny anecdote 
Regards,


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## JJchang

Wordsmyth said:
			
		

> People say mine adapts to the accent of whoever I'm talking to. It's unintentional (except when I'm trying!), but sometimes useful.



I'd love to see you in a trip to India.


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## Wordsmyth

pinkpanter said:
			
		

> Hi Wordsmyth,
> Wow that's so funny! That your accent addapt to the accent of whoever you are talking to... That's great for learning foreign languages!!
> Funny anecdote
> Regards,


Well, pink, it seems I'm not the only one:  see Sharon's post #27:



			
				Sharon said:
			
		

> [...] My accent changes depending on who I'm talking to; family brings it out, and  I am also very susceptible to picking up the accent of those around me. It also changes depending on _what_ I am talking about. [...]
> 
> Sharon.



... and yes it does help with learning languages; as in the expression "having an ear for languages" (though personally I find it a big advantage having *two*!)


W


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## Wordsmyth

JJchang said:
			
		

> I'd love to see you in a trip to India.



Hi JJ,

OK, my "w" slips easily into a "v", and a little head-rolling isn't too hard - but I must admit that's when I'm trying; I've never stayed long enough in India to find out whether it would come naturally.

W


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## Wordsmyth

Sharon said:
			
		

> [...] Wordsmyth, he's my Dad!
> What is _Chiefly Brit_ for "Dad" ??
> Sharon.


Sharon,

_Chiefly Brit_ for "Dad" is "Dad". Occasional regional variations, such as "Da". Sometimes when talking about (but not to) one's Dad, "the old man", "my old man" is heard -- more commonly in southern England, I think -- but potential confusion here because it also means 'husband'!

Other forms of address, mostly amongst "upper classes" (  ) and now hardly ever used: Mama/Papa, Mater/Pater, Mother/Father ...

Anecdote   : I know a family where the kids, going through the 'adolescent independence' phase, started calling their parents "Parental Unit 1" and "Parental Unit 2". The parents cleverly put an end to it by pointing out that it was sexual discrimination, as "PU2" for Mum implied inferiority.


PS  The linguistics website from which you took the quote 





> [...] owes a great deal to the Scotch-Irish frontiersmen [...]


 is risking hellfire & brimstone if any Scots (or Scotsmen) read it. The adjective is 'Scots' or 'Scottish'. "Scotch" is whisky, or mist, or (outside the UK) sticky tape.

W


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## Wordsmyth

Sharon said:
			
		

> [...]  (My first thought...if they are different from each other, then they are BOTH different...but no, you meant differently from my friends!! )  [...]
> 
> Sharon.


Sharon,  you never cease to surprise and impress me. I'm thinking of having a _"Chiefly Brit"_ medal made for you -- or, to avoid any wrong impression of cultural partiality, perhaps it should be a _"Chiefly defender of good English on both sides of the Atlantic"_ medal.

Doughnuts, Mums and Dads aside, you're one of a dying breed : you're a "different from" person.     

I've just realised this is getting rather OT, so if anyone wants to take me to task over the pros (are there any?) and cons (yes) of "different than"  , please send a brief flag reply here, point to a new thread, and let battle commence (but spiders, flies, cats & dogs will win the day!!  )

W


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## garryknight

Wordsmyth said:
			
		

> I've just realised this is getting rather OT, so if anyone wants to take me to task over the pros (are there any?) and cons (yes) of "different than"  , please send a brief flag reply here, point to a new thread, and let battle commence (but spiders, flies, cats & dogs will win the day!! )



There's no need for a new thread.  Things differ *from* each other. They don't differ *to* each other and never, ever differ *than* each other. It's as simple as that.


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## zebedee

Wordsmyth said:
			
		

> Well, pink, it seems I'm not the only one:  see Sharon's post #27:
> 
> 
> 
> ... and yes it does help with learning languages; as in the expression "having an ear for languages" (though personally I find it a big advantage having *two*!)
> 
> 
> W



I also unconsciously pick up the accent of the person I'm listening to, wherever they come from. 
After living so long away from the UK I tend to speak English with Spanish inflections!
When I'm speaking Spanish some people spot straight away that I'm British (the pink "guiri" cheeks might have something to do with it...) whereas others do a doubletake when my nationality comes out in conversation perhaps weeks after meeting me. And when travelling to other areas of Spain my "acento Valenciano" makes people laugh. 
When I lived in France for a year, I used to get told that I spoke French like a little kid (!) and now I speak it with a Spanish accent  

zeb


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## cuchuflete

Was that a test, Zeb, of our close reading of text abilities?  Your second post is slightly different from the first.

H&T
Qxu

EDIT: Yes, well spotted! So you were awake! I've got rid of one of them now.
H&S
Zeb


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## Wordsmyth

garryknight said:
			
		

> There's no need for a new thread.  Things differ *from* each other. They don't differ *to* each other and never, ever differ *than* each other. It's as simple as that.


Indeed Garry, I'm 1000% in agreement with you ('different' is *not* a comparative adjective; that's 'more different'), but try telling that to the well established "different than" brigade across the Pond and they'll just tell you it ain't wrong, and they've a right to be different than you  and it's as simple as that!

So, to them, I say take this clear and meaningful sentence:
"Spiders are more different from flies than cats are from dogs"
... replace the 'froms' by 'thans', and see if anyone can understand it!

OK, no need for a new thread now, but I doubt we've heard the last of it.


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## cuchuflete

Wordsmyth, 
I have lamented the way many of my countrymen butcher even AE, but I haven't heard _different than_ with any frequency.  Perhaps it's the company you keep?  

cheers,
Cuchuflete


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## Sharon

Wordsmyth said:
			
		

> Sharon, you never cease to surprise and impress me. I'm thinking of having a "Chiefly Brit" medal made for you -- or, to avoid any wrong impression of cultural partiality, perhaps it should be a "Chiefly defender of good English on both sides of the Atlantic" medal.
> 
> Doughnuts, Mums and Dads aside, you're one of a dying breed : you're a "different from" person.


 


			
				Wordsmyth said:
			
		

> [....]the well established "different than" brigade across the Pond[....]


Umm...no medals, please, I would hate to think of being hunted down by the "different than" brigade.  They sound suspiciously akin to the people who used to terrorize me, thanks to the "Bell Curve."  !!  (Maybe a nice certificate, suitable for framing?  ) Although, Cuchu is right, they are not quite as prevalent as you think. (Then again, Cuchu, maybe it's the company _we_ keep?!)

Sharon.


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## Wordsmyth

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> Wordsmyth,
> I have lamented the way many of my countrymen butcher even AE, but I haven't heard _different than_ with any frequency.  Perhaps it's the company you keep?
> 
> cheers,
> Cuchuflete





			
				Sharon said:
			
		

> [...] Cuchu is right, they are not quite as prevalent as you think. (Then again, Cuchu, maybe it's the company _we_ keep?!)
> 
> Sharon.



Cuchuflete, Sharon,

You join forces to restore my faith   . Maybe you're right about the company thing. In this esteemed Forum I'm rubbing shoulders with people who care about language, which isn't always the case.

In 6 years of frequent stays in the US, I did hear 'different than' a *lot* -- and I just found:
501 cases on CNN-dot-com News;
6030000 cases in a Google search.

So why is your perception so different from mine? I think the answer's in the Collins Cobuild Bank of English (Prepositions used after 'different') - I would've included the original table, but haven't yet figured out how to Insert Image or add Attachment to a post [so I can't even send your certificate, Sharon  ]  :
 US speech: 69.3% from / 30.1%  than / 0.6% to
 UK speech: 68.8% from / 3.9%  than / 27.3%  to
I'd never have thought there was a 27% 'different to' brigade of Brits: I guess I've heard it so much I don't notice it (like the pain you get used to). Maybe it's the same for you with 'than'?

Anyway, according to Collins, two-thirds of Americans and two-thirds of Brits get it right, so I guess there's still hope.

PS  I'm still trying to figure out the link between terrorised Sharon and The Bell Curve. If accents come into it somehow I won't feel so guilty about running OT  

ciao
Wordsmyth


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## cuchuflete

Wordsmyth,
Sharon may object to my revelation of intimate secrets she has yet to share with me, but perhaps it's something about more than two standard deviations from the mean.
We seem to have, from the perspective of frequency distributions, two overlapping bell curves, both distorted, so that a representation of a two-humped camel would express your statistics graphically.  Or an upside-down portrayal of King Farouk on a bar stool.

Right Sharon?

abrazos,
Cuchu


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## Venezuelan_sweetie

Well..........

This is kind of an old thread, half of which sounds a little off-topic...  But if three mods gave it a try, why not this 'pelada'?  

In *Spanish*, my vocabulary is 'Caraqueño' --> from Caracas.  Venezuelan slang is a slippery squid, which is hard to be caught.  Getting rid of it is really hard!  Regarding accents, mine is a crazy mingle: Caraqueño, Brazilian, a little bit of Scottish, and some bits and pieces of unidentified nationality floating around.

In _*English*_...  hard to say.  I learned AE, but my accent is far from 'American'.  Perhaps, Pan-American....    Besides, my odd use of grammar is constantly betraying me!  Isn't it, guys?  

In *French*, everything but French!

In _*Italian*_, South American all the way...


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## Etcetera

I speak Russian with a notable St. Petersburg accent, which is subject of endless jokes and lamentations of my Muscovite friends. 
As for English, the whole of my first year at the University was devoted to learning RP, so my pronunciation is closer to it than to any other accent (except Russian, I guess). 
Finnish... well, we haven't paid much attention to pronunciation yet.
And as for Polish, I guess my accent will betray my at once!


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## Alex007

I think that it is quite funny to travel around the United States just to listen who the others talk..it is so different in every state..My accent? Well, I guess Czech


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## Sallyb36

I have a southern accent mixed with sa liverpool one, but everyone in liverpool thinks i'm a southerner and everyone down south thinks i'm a northener. I can hear a bit of northern twang but not really that strong, and definitely not scouse!


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## BurningDesire

Well, since I'm from Buenos Aires, I guess I have a Porteño accent  even though I don't notice it.

I have a friend form Córdoba and another one from Misiones and they tell me I pronounce the *LL *like a *Y *or* SH*, for example porteños pronounce *SHAMA *while others pronounce it more like *IAMA *(the word is llama). Plus, they say we speak much louder 

I speak English with an American accent (I'm afraid I'll never be able to pull off a british accent) and French with a....French accent?  I don't know, I'm pretty good with accents, my French teachers always say that!


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## GEmatt

I'm not sure what mine is, in English. My parents speak fairly standard English (but with a trace of the West Country and the West Indies), but not as noticeably BE as Received Pronunciation. I grew up outside the UK, so my parents and the television (basically AE) were my only sources of English. I would describe it as a very neutral English, with no noticeable regional hues, something like that.
School was and work is for the most part in German and French, with the following reactions, speaking:

English to the Americans: "Oh you got such an English accent!"
English to the English: "Where did you pick up such good English? Your consonants betray you, though."
French to the French: "You're not French. Are you Belgian?"
French to the Swiss-French: "So, do you speak any languages apart from French?"
Swiss-German to the Swiss-Germans: "So, do you speak any languages apart from German?"
German to the Germans: "What?"


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## Pedro y La Torre

Irish accents are changing, well at least Dublin one's are. Now on the (richer) southside of the city there's a "D4" (after the post code) accent which is sort of mixture of American and English, kind of bizarre to hear if I'm honest, while the Northside one is much rougher.


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## DearPrudence

Benjy said:


> i think this would be kind of fun if would get recordings of the way we sound. maybe i'll try and sort something out tomorrow


He he, still waiting  

I reckon I have a neutral accent when speaking French.
But I've just learnt on the forum I use words typically Norman words and expressions like "clenche" for "poignée de porte", "qu'est-ce que tu bouines ?" ...  
And sometimes, when people with what I call "a neutral accent" talk to people from the South (very recognizable accent), the latter will say:
"Judging by your _accent_, you're from the North".
I know I'm really self-centered but I can't help being surprised at being referred to as having an accent. If they said "by your _lack_ of accent", that would be OK  

In English, I absolutely don't manage to reproduce the slightest American accent. It's almost British English with, an accent, of course (and unfortunately  ), which can't be identified as French though (phew. But it's still strange  )


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## Pedro y La Torre

DearPrudence said:


> In English, I absolutely don't manage to reproduce the slightest American accent. It's almost British English with, an accent, of course (and unfortunately  ), which can't be identified as French though (phew. But it's still strange  )



Really? That's quite an achievement because I've almost never heard any French person able to speak English without a very strong accent


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## izabella

My English is American but it has a posh British twist to it because I lived in london for a couple of years.

In other languages, when I do speak I'm always told that I sound native. The reason for that is I grew up traveling all over the globe.


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## invictaspirit

My natural, default accent is Estuary English.

Some typical features:

-a thaasand paands (£1000)
-internationaw, Braziw (we pronounce final L very 'dark' like you often hear in Brazilian Portuguese and Polish...basically it's a W to anyone else)
-jawonna, jathinkso, jew (do you want to, do you think so, due)


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## Chevaux

I come from the Mid-West (USA). I suppose I have a bit of a southern hitch in my accent, but overall it is pretty neutral. I tend to speak like those around me. When I compete in rodeos (my hobby is barrel-racing) I usually end up sounding like a native of Texas by the end of the day, but at family reunions, I sound like I was born and raised in Dublin (where most of my family is from). I have never had a problem with accents when speaking in foreign languages, and have even been complimented a time or two by native speakers (although they are sure to mention that my grammar needs work, just to keep me humble). My school is known for hosting large amounts of exchange students each year and so I get a lot of practice speaking french and spanish (my chosen languages) with those who are fluent.


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## Grefsen

Alex007 said:


> I think that it is quite funny to travel around the United States just to listen who the others talk..it is so different in every state..My accent? Well, I guess Czech


During a trip to Norway in June 2005 I was surprised to learn that I actually speak Norwegian with a "Californian accent."


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## ernest_

I can fake a good Scottish accent for a while, of course it doesn't sound like real Scots, but. And I play the daft laddie likes, "where does this Scottish accent come from?" they say and I go "what accent? ah dinnae ken what you are talking aboot!"  But after a while it turns into Cockney because of all the diphtongs that I don't get right, and I say 'delay' with 'ai' instead of 'ei' and so on.


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## mariposa11

I'm not quite sure what kind of accent I have, but if I would have to guess I would say I have a bit of an Italian accent (most noticeably when speaking French, as I still roll the r's even though I've spoken French my entire life). I still find it amusing, though, when people compliment me on how good my English is considering where I live...LOL...I'm not quite sure what they expect!

Vanessa


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## JamesM

In English, I have a California accent. At least, that's what I've been told. I do, however, pronounce my words carefully and that sometimes results in people asking where I am from _originally._ I was born and raised in California, so it always tickles me when someone asks that.

In French, I've lost most of my American accent, enough that French people are surprised to hear I'm from California. I have a trace of a German accent in French because I slavishly mimicked my college prof in French and she was German.  I've smoothed a lot of that out, too, though. It's getting better, day by day.


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## winklepicker

Benjy said:


> just to expand.. the west midlands was highly industrialised during.... well the industrial revolution (doh) and because of outrageous amount of soot being produced everythnig tended to get rather grimy. hence the black country. that said they have an atrociously thick accent and one day i really will have to find clip to demostrate it
> 
> edit in the mean time.. the bbc have a site you might liek to read
> 
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/blackcountry/have_your_say/accents/accents.shtml


 
Also from Auntie Beeb, Benjy, is this bunch of Dudley accents _('Dood-lye')._ Or you can choose clips from all over the UK here.

When I was a kid I talked like this. Now I'm a bit posher - but not as posh as this, thank God.  ('They tiyend to go orf' one of them says!).


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## Nanon

I sound rather standard and neutral in French. I can mimic "l'accent de Marseille" pretty well because I grew up in Southern France, but it is not the natural way I speak. However I am permeable to other people's accents and sometimes I need to control myself because some may think I'm making fun of their accent -- which I would never do.
In Spanish I sound mostly Venezuelan, this is where I spent several years of my life but since part of my family is Chilean, sometimes the intonation betrays me!
In English I sound close to English, not really French. A kind of foreign mixture in any case.
In Russian: "Where did you learn your Russian from? Are you of Russian origin?" I am not (cf supra) but there is a strong belief that being able to speak Russian has something to do with genealogy 
In Portuguese: Brazilian (SP) mixed up with Spanish and everything else, I think. A Portuguese would say I learnt Portuguese in Brazil, but some Brazilians say I sound European Portuguese, which I have never studied and even find difficult to understand sometimes ...


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## KaRiNe_Fr

In UK I have a so sexy French accent.
In Spain I have a lovely French accent.
In France I have a soft southerner French accent.
In Germany, even when speaking English... I'm not understood... 
Poor me, I'm linguistically disabled!  But I'm trying to cure that, mind you.


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## francophone

I've a french one that i try to get rid of everytime i start learning a knew one, when i talk in arabic people never think i grew up in Alexandria, mostly i pronounce lightly letters like r, h, ghein, 3ein, 7ah. That's not because i don't know how to pronounce them but i always eat letters while talking, i talk fast and half of my letters are alreayd lost. 

When i first started to practice english in everyday's life in Canada, i had a slight french accent that I wanted to burry eversince i was 10. And a canadian friend complemented me when it was time to go home that i got completely rid of it, that 'm a better case than my brother who had to completely forget how he used to pronounce letters in french. But when the english gets complicated i find it easier to think of it like a french word :mrgreen:

My Italian teacher hated french because of me, not only an accent when i'm pronouncing it but also when writing. Like Io ho una macchina, I used to say o'na macchina, i was relating the vowels together, in Italian unlike French you have to pronounce every single letter. 

There are arabic words that are originally french or italian, so I'd pronounce them the way they should be, people won't love that and some told me that my arabic is really broken, most college mates, noted that there are letters I never get to pronounce, and that i put strange accents on some words. 

Arabic language has many sounds, anyone who can speak it and pronounce it, can speak without difficulties other languages. But this is not the case, for ex. instead of saying better they say bettar, or combuter(computer), ped(bed), croisson(instead of croissant), boqer(bouquet), bond(beyond), mobayle(mobile), undar(under), rewynd(rewind), though italian is easy to pronoucne but that was difficult too, the hard letters were a, b, c, z, h(they used to pornounce it), g...

Edit: It depends on your education if you went to an english school and grew up as an anglophone, French will be hard, if you are a francophone, English stinks. If youa re neither all other languages stink


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## Paulfromitaly

When I speak Italian with my relatives or mates I have a mild Northern Italy accent (Brescia - Bergamo) which affects my voice intonation rather than my pronunciation.
When I speak Italian with foreigners or Italians who are not from my area, I try to tone down my accent as much as I can, yet every native could tell  I'm a northerner. 
When I speak English, nearly no one could tell I'm Italian (not because I speak English that well, but because I don't have an Italian accent, or at least, that's what natives say..) Americans would say I've got a British accent, English would say I've got a mild Scottish twang and Scottish would say that my accent is too English.. 
Oh yeah, a Californian mate of mine recently told me that I sound French, but she's nuts..


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## Etcetera

I've just remembered a funny detail. 
When I was in my first year at the University (and it was then that we were learning to speak English properly, and not the way we used to back at school), one of my teachers told me that I was speaking English with a French accent because of my [r]. It was indeed very much French-like, although I've never done any French.


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## badgrammar

Compared to a Brit, an Aussie, a New Zealander, or a South Affie, I've definitely got an American accent.

But most Americans will ask me where I'm from, because apparently my American accent does not sound entirely American to American peoples' ears...

And nobody but nobody believes I'm from Texas.  Especially not Texans!


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## Kmyyy

Pedro y La Torre said:


> Really? That's quite an achievement because I've almost never heard any French person able to speak English without a very strong accent


 
OOOh ! You're not nice !  But it's right that the French have a horrible accent in english.

I speak english with a little american accent (if I want) but I'm sure you can hear I'm a stranger when I speak english !


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## Temptress

I am Spanish and have Spanish accent. I have studied always with a teacher who is really fond of the English spoken by queen Elizabeth. He has always told us "You have to understand all the accents but you have to speak that kind of English". So for a long time I have tried to speak with a neutral accent (British in any case).My English is good but you can say I have not English as mother language.

I have an American boyfriend and since I am dating him my nice British accent is disappearing, and I have to use other kind of expressions because the first time I asked him "What do you fancy?" he told me "In the States we don't fancy anything".
Anyway there are some words which, when I am tired, I pronounce in the Spanish way, like machine, and he says it is funny and I remind him of his countrymen (he is from New Mexico) pronouncing in english as if I were born in Mexico.

Strange mixture, but really funny sometimes!!!


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## clairanne

Hi

I have a fairly neutral BBC -)not Eton educated "posh") voice mixed with a few East Sussex vowels.  I do find that I can easily get drawn in to coping other accents if I am with the speakers long  enough.  You have to be very careful if you do this as some people think you are mocking them and get upset. I think this is probably due to me being a classical singer which means you have to listen to a lot of accents and languages quite intently in order to be able to give a reasonable rendition of which ever language you might be expected to sing in.


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## sloopjc

I used to speak English with a variety of rural, but well-mannered accents, because I lived in the county of Essex in the U.K. for many years. Born in the north of England my parents were of the generation that moved south to better themselves, which included losing their accents. From Yorkshire I have lived in Ulster, Tyne & Wear, Lancashire, Norfolk, Essex /Suffolk borders, and most parts of London - where 99% of my friends where either Scottish or Irish, with the remainder being from the Midlands! I now live in Spain and my partner speaks no English at all, so I really only have my parents, who are also in Spain, to speak English with. My mother emulates the Queen's, English bless her! As talking in English now takes second place in my life, I usually switch on a dead-straight, BBC commentary-style accent when I talk. It's ideal on the phone.


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## Lugubert

My Swedish accent in Sweden is heavily influenced by my environment. On the West coast, I'm regarded as a native. On the East coast, I'm sufficiently close as not to draw attention as a foreigner. In the south, I can fool people into thinking I'm one of them for several minutes, if I'm lucky. I avoid the north.

My English accent used to be sufficiently Midlandish. It has now been totally destroyed from two visits to India (some three months total).

For German, I suppose nobody nails me to any particular region; perhaps Hamburg, though, with a slight tint of Frankfort, as long as I remember closing my Swedish very open long 'a's.

My French accent makes people ask me to switch to English.

For Spanish, I get no comments, but at least people in Mexico as well as in Spain understand me most of the time. Maybe some influence from Islas Canarias: Ête caye? (= Este calle?  ).


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## 94kittycat

I really don't think I even have an accent-- I live in Western Canada and everybody speaks the same there. But if you go more eastern, you hear some french accents and the people waaay out East speak a lot different than the Westerns do. I love listening to people from Australia or England, for example, because I think they have such wonderful accents. But, when I start talking they might think that *I'm* the one with an accent! Is there even such thing as not having an accent?


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