WTF accent do you have?

I think it's interesting how accents can be so different from one region to another, even those a short distance apart. I work with Danes a lot (the company I work for is Danish) and people from Copenhagen tell me that they have a hard time understanding people from the north end of the mainland.

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Originally Posted by Corvettian

Where are you from? I'm from Glasgow, but two people have told me recently that I sound like I'm from Edinburgh (or thereabouts). I think my accent must have "softened" over years of working abroad.
(for those not familiar with Scottish geography, Glasgow and Edinburgh are about 85km apart)

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And culturally a lot further! For example they say that if you knock on the door, in one city they will say "Come on in and have some tea" while in the other they'll say "Come on in - you've had your tea haven't you. The national Rugby ground, Murrayfield, is in Edinburgh while the national football ground, Hampden Park, is in Glagow. Nearly all Scotland's beer is brewed in Edinburgh while nearly all the whisky is bottled in Glasgow (even if it has been distilled and matured elsewhere).

On a different tack, how does the Italian/French border thing work? You can't switch off "French" and switch on "Italian" because you cross an artificial border. Presumably in San Remo you speak italian and watch Italian TV while in Nice they speak french and watch French TV. But if two of you meet you can communicate without having to switch to a third language like English or German. Do you each speak your own language? Or do you each speak the other's language (or try to)? Or do you speak in a mixture of the two?

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Originally Posted by Brown, Jon Brow

My girlfriends sister is married to a fella from County Durham but to us he just sounds like a Geordie. :p

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That is my back yard :)
to be fair it is the most recognisable accent of the north east (most people from the south couldn't tell the difference between a Geordie and Mackem accent) and its usually fine to say someone from Durham has a Geordie accent.

But for gods sake, what ever you do, make sure you get the football team right :D

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Originally Posted by Mintexmemory

Genuine Piedmont or genuine Calabrian?
sorry just realised it's almost a French accent given your location ;)

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Just pure Italian accent, French accent only when I speak French 😜

D-Type, 75% of people living in Nice have Italian roots, still due to French arrogance influence, they only speak French, even when they travel to Italy to buy cheap foods, clothes, shoes, etc...

That's why people from my area do almost speak perfect French.

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Originally Posted by tfp

That is my back yard :)
to be fair it is the most recognisable accent of the north east (most people from the south couldn't tell the difference between a Geordie and Mackem accent) and its usually fine to say someone from Durham has a Geordie accent.

But for gods sake, what ever you do, make sure you get the football team right :D

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Doesn't have to be people from the south. The rest of us in the north have no idea what you lot are on about too! :p

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Originally Posted by Corvettian

I think it's interesting how accents can be so different from one region to another, even those a short distance apart. I work with Danes a lot (the company I work for is Danish) and people from Copenhagen tell me that they have a hard time understanding people from the north end of the mainland.

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Thats an interesting point. (This may only mean anything to Brits) Take where I live, the county of Essex is not very large and yet the accent can change massively north to south. I am from mid Essex and along with the South. We speak the standard Essex almost east london sounding. Alright mate, haw ya doin. But go to North Essex and people speak with a Norfolk and Suffolk twang. So in a short space the accent completely changes.

Strange thing really. I like most I suspect cant believe how common and horrid I sound on any recording of my voice.

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Originally Posted by steveaki13

Thats an interesting point. (This may only mean anything to Brits) Take where I live, the county of Essex is not very large and yet the accent can change massively north to south. I am from mid Essex and along with the South. We speak the standard Essex almost east london sounding. Alright mate, haw ya doin. But go to North Essex and people speak with a Norfolk and Suffolk twang. So in a short space the accent completely changes.

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It is said that in some parts of the UK that the accent changes in as 5 miles!

I remember as a 8 year old when I moved from Cumbria to Lancashire (about 50 miles) and I was endlessly mocked for my accent on certain words.

EDIT: In as little as 5 miles!

Well I honestly don't know what kind of accent I have now.

It's a combination of living in these places and being with people who speak these accents:

South East London -7 years
South Wales/Swansea - 14 years
Reading/Berkshire - 9 years

and also a bit of Befordshire. Also my mum has/had a strong Derbyshire accent.


Maybe this is why people can't understand anything I'm saying.

Basically I probably talk a bit like Jenson Button at times, though I spend much of my time at work talking in an imitation of my colleagues voices, since I just loooove my impressions. I can do some F1 impressions too (extremely badly). :p

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Originally Posted by rjbetty

Maybe this is why people can't understand anything I'm saying.

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Pardon?

My accent is central Canadian , whatever that means .

But , I mock accents from all over .

My best story about that is from an encounter in El Paso , Texas .
My 1974 Ford Econoline had just decided to have more of a rest than I was prepared for(new timing chain required) , and I was wandering the rest stop , looking for someone who could fix the issue , or , at least diagnose it , and , as I waited for the tow truck , a man walked up to the door as I walked out .
Not really thinking about what I was saying , or the way I was saying it , I piped up with "Y'all know anythin' about old vans ?" in a "Jawja" drawl .
He asked where we were from , and I answered with "Up in Caynuduh , in Ontarriow , not the Ontarriow in Californyuh ya unnerstan , but up in Caynuduh ."
We must have talked for about twenty minutes or so , until the tow truck arrived , and I managed to keep the accent flowing for the whole conversation .
"Oop , thars muh tow truck . Gotta go . Nace towking to ya ." I said .
And , he asked "Where y'awl from agin ? "
To which I replied "Up in Caynuduh , in Ontarriow ." .

He shook his head and said "Wow , Y'all don't have much accent !" .

I managed a straight face until out of sight .

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Originally Posted by J4MIE

I don't have an accent :s But I love listening to other accents, one if the many advantages of living in the North East :D

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You don't have an accent my left bumcheek!

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Originally Posted by Daniel

You don't have an accent my left bumcheek!

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You are the only person I know who really doesn't have an accent ;)

I have been told I have a fairly neutral accent, but I can't hide that fact that I am not an English speaker.

My Spanish accent is also quite neutral with the odd drop of cazurro accent when making questions or the use of some localisms.

In English I have a fairly neutral accent. The more important bit there is the complete absence of any German accent when speaking English. Since I mainly work for large international corporations, I do a lot of telco's and it's always funny when the English or the Americans realize that I'm German. They all expect us teutons to drool all over ourselves trying to pronounce 'th' :p

In my native German I've got the thickest Berlin accent you've ever heard.

In Russian I speak with a southern siberian accent, as I spent a lot of time in Omsk.

I don't even remember how exactly I was chosen, but a few years ago, I went down to Ardent Studios here in Memphis and was told my accent was classified "Mountain Southern" even though I have lived here my whole life, and Memphis is nowhere near the mountains.

Regardless, they took me in and recorded my voice saying various words and phrases for two hours as part of Onstar's voice recognition system. They were trying to upgrade their systems to respond correctly to different accents and such. It must have gone ok, they paid me $200 for two hours. :D

I was born and brought up in Stratford Upon Avon and then lived in Banbury for a few years after that. I've lived in Wales for the past decade though, but thankfully haven't picked up any kind of accent along the way. My accent I would say has a slight Midlands twang although I have been told I sound posh many times. :)

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Originally Posted by henners88

I was born and brought up in Stratford Upon Avon and then lived in Banbury for a few years after that. I've lived in Wales for the past decade though, but thankfully haven't picked up any kind of accent along the way. My accent I would say has a slight Midlands twang although I have been told I sound posh many times. :)

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Naahhhh... I bet you speak like a shakesperean hero....:devil:

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Originally Posted by gadjo_dilo

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Originally Posted by henners88

I was born and brought up in Stratford Upon Avon and then lived in Banbury for a few years after that. I've lived in Wales for the past decade though, but thankfully haven't picked up any kind of accent along the way. My accent I would say has a slight Midlands twang although I have been told I sound posh many times. :)

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Naahhhh... I bet you speak like a shakesperean hero....:devil:

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No peril my sweet Juliet, for thou wrong you may be lol :)

I'm more Iago :D


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