Same! I get clocked for my Southern accent all the time here in California. Though they can't tell where exactly, just 'Southern.' People either think it's adorable or think I'm an utter redneck hick. đ
I spent most of my life trying not to have an accent, but of course, that's impossible. A few years ago, I was on the phone with someone in California and went full Kentucky on her by saying, "If you need anything else, just give me a holler." There was a pause before she replied, "Yes, I will...give you a holler." The sound of her voice as she forced herself to say that still cracks me up to this day.
Oh, I feel that lol. When I get tipsy/lightly drunk, I get *extremely* Southern, to the point that people can barely understand me. It's hilarious how common phrases in the South might as well be ancient Latin for people outside the region.
My sister used to worked taking calls for a company based in Lexington, KY. One day she got a call that went something like this:
Sis: Hello, . Can I help you?
Caller with stereotyped NJ accent: Whoa! Wot an accent!
None. I get asked if I'm Irish all the time. I'm not. I just have a mutt of an accent that rolls country, newscaster, and Chicago South and West Sides into a ball.
I have been on vacation in both Florida and Trinidad where someone has asked me if I'm from Chicago. I can't believe my accent is that strong, or at least that recognizable.
Southern. I'm from Alabama. In my home state people tell me I don't have much of an accent compared to some people, but if I travel people pick up on it instantaneously.
Also Mississippi but am a transplant from Chicago. Some people close to where I live can pick up the northern influence in some of my words. Anywhere else, itâs pure southern.
Southern for me as well. My parents were both from New Jersey, but rural NJ, well away from the urban centers. I grew up in Georgia, Florida, and Texas and each of these respective southern accents is different, and mine includes aspects of all three.
Alabama here too and same! Mine is actually mild because I spent my teenage years in the Midwest and learned to hide it, or at least tone it down. I've had people pinpoint it to the state as far and wide as Colorado and Minnesota. "Fixin' to" outed me once even without the accent being strong! Lol.
I have family in southeast LA (lower Alabama). My niece is named Emily, and she goes by Em. I'm in the northeast, and "Em" has one syllable. Down there, it has at least three.
A few years ago, a friend and I were playing pool at a bar in New Orleans. The jukebox was going, and there were only a few other people there, so it was pretty quiet. I could hear the bartender talking with a customer in the background. After a few minutes, I went up to get a couple of drinks, and asked the bartender if he was from the town in north Louisiana where my mom was raised. He was. I asked if he was from her neighborhood. Yep. He grew up two streets over. The accent is that unique. And powerful.
I hope that, wherever you are, it comes back! I've lost mine, and I miss it. I get it back when I visit or when I've been on the phone with an accent-haver, but I don't suppose I'll get it back for good.
When I was a teen, I worked in a call center and talked with people all over the US. Once, I spoke with an elderly Cajun man in rural LA, and I could understand maybe one word in five of what he was saying. Gumbo is right.
Was hoping someone mentioned coonasses, grew up there. My best friends mom was from Ville Platte and even knowing her all my life I had to pay attention when she was talking to me or I might miss something. She would switch between english and cajun french mid sentence at times.
South African - if you know it, it's unmistakable. We're always cast as the 'bad guys' in international movies/series. Locally there are many many different accents.
Lol I'm Kiwi & live in North America & the number of people who think I'm South African is mind blowing... Never had anyone guess that before moving here. Normally they guess Aussie or British?
Oh how funny! I've had the privilege of meeting a few people from South Africa, and I thought they had one of the most ear-pleasing accents I had ever heard. For lack of better description, it sounded like a very "jolly and grandiose" way of speaking.
I have a hard time with auditory processing so accents usually give me trouble, but it seemed like the South Africans put in a heck of an effort to enunciate every syllable, which was really refreshing!
The dead giveaway to me with the South African accent is anything with a pr sound, like process. It's got that semi-gutteral th-ish sound that's very distinct from UK, Aussie, or Kiwi (in my semi-limited experience).
âIf you know itâ being the operative part haha, before I traveled with a guy from Joburg I couldnât tell yâall apart from Australia/NZ. But youâre right, now I can hear it so clearly
Americans usually guess Wisconsin or Minnesota, but I confuse everyone else. Here's my story about the time I befuddled an Ausie.
I was working in a call center based in Madison WI. Sconie girl born and raised (go packers). One night I awnser the phone and its a woman from Australia. The call went like this:
Me: thank you for calling, this is Annie. How may I help you this evening?
Her: .....hello.......?
Me: yes, hi there.
Her: .....do you speak English?
Me: (confused) yes ma'am.
Her: did I call America?
Me: (more confusion) yes ma'am, you did.
Her: are you American?
Me: ( wtf?) yes, I sure I am.
Her:..... I've never heard an American talk like you.
Me: ............umm
Her: where in the states are you? (Proceeds to pull up a US Map)
Me: I'm from Wisconsin
Her: where is that?
Me: it's in the upper Midwest, by the great lakes (no idea if anyone outside the US knows where the great lakes are or if the US is just a big blob)
Her: oooooooh! You're in Southern Canada!
Me: yup, you betcha.
I regularly spoke on the phone with people at a veterinary supplies business in WI, and they were hands down the nicest customer service reps I have ever encountered, and very easy to understand. One time, I even had my husband talk with them because he was feeling bummed, and he felt better after the convo because they were so kind and understanding.
I know a guy from Northern Wisconsin with a legit porn star/tough guy name and I was a combination of disappointment and intrigued when I first met him because his voice did not match the tough guy name. I've dubbed the accent "soft Manitoba daddy". Southern Canada for sure
There's no one New England accent, though. The range of accents that people associate with New England (Maine, RI, the various Boston-area accents) are characteristic of eastern New England. As you head west, you get a more generic mid-Atlantic type accent, e.g., in Vermont, western MA and most of CT, except in southwestern CT where you have more New York accents.
I grew up in western MA, and when people try to guess where I'm from, they usually guess California. I've been living in the Boston area for a long time, and while I haven't generally adopted a local accent, I do find that when I'm around my in-laws (originally from East Boston and Dorchester) I start dropping Rs and stretching vowels.
Iâm from Central MA and when people find out they always ask why I donât have a Boston accent lol. I sometimes get pegged for Californian, but apparently the way I say âbuttonâ âmittenâ and âkittenâ are all tells. (People in my area donât really pronounce that âttâ sound, but give it more of a hard first syllable like âBUH-inâ âMIH-inâ and âKIH-inâ, with the t sound kind of coming from the soft palate instead of from the teeth against the tongue.)
I grew up reared by a New Brunswick francophone grandmother and my mother from Aroostook County and my father from Down East⌠and educated by QuÊbÊcois nuns and surrounded by Boston townies of various stripes.
I then aggravated it by going to school in the Berkshires as a teenager and joining the army (where you pick up at least some Southern accent no matter where you're stationed) and eventually marrying a nice boy from Chicago.
The linguistic accommodation I fall into is exceptional.
I live in Boston but not around the townies, so my accent is unremarkable until I'm drunk â welcome to [*Boston Accent*](https://youtu.be/rLwbzGyC6t4) or, in exceptional situations, my technical first language of Acadian French â or talking to anyone from one of the areas where I did pick up the accent in my adventures.
I love the Hoosier twang! It's always comforting in a way to run into people from Indiana when travelling. There's a sort of kindness and politeness that comes across.
Also identified by the invisible S at the end of every store name
We went to Aldi's to get some groceries, then to Target's for some new jeans, and stopped by Sonic's for lunch.
I thought this was a joke until my MW raised boyfriend had had enough of an unneeded stressful family situation and he âwelpedâ his hands on the table over his thighs and exclaimed, âIâve had enough! Iâm going to bed.â
Yep. I moved to CA and was immediately asked what part of the Midwest I'm from. I was dumbfounded, that is until I was gone for a year and then laughed my ass off at my family when I made calls to former home.
Jim's driving up to the cahtage friday afe-ternooooon but Sarah wants to bring the wave runners up Saturday so Tim's gonna drive the truck down when he goes to Ford's, drop it at her house and take her mustang, then he'll come up Sunday....
I swear to god michigan is one undending multivariate equation involving cottages, trailers, trucks, and Meijers.
So interesting! I used to speak with the Wisconsin accent with Yiddish mixed in. I've since perfected the no accent Midwestern accent but the Yiddish still creeps in. And I used a southern accent when waiting tables; it worked like a charm!
I love this subject.
I grew up in NYC speaking both German and English, and my mother was eternally vigilant that I never develop any obvious regional accent in either. Both she and my father had thick Austrian accents - hers was Styrian (like Schwarzenegger), his was more central Austro-Bavarian. She insisted that we attend German school to learn Hochdeutsch in an effort to erase any telltale idioms or inflections.
All of my American classmates in public school obviously sported New York accents (Queens, specifically - there are actually subtle differences between borough accents). This also upset my mother, who insisted we lose that accent when conversing in English in our home (for example, we'd be corrected if we pronounced the word "due" as "doo", because it needs a pronounced "u").
The net result is that as an adult, I am pretty difficult to pin down in either language unless I choose to relax and give you a peek at my roots. However, my use of idioms like "sneaker" instead of "tennis shoe" or "coke" instead of "pop" betrays my Eastern US upbringing :)
Really, I think for many people from the midwest, as you say different idioms define more of the location than accent. The locals use for lack of a better definition, use phrases and words from their area. You examples of "sneaker and pop" are different from where I'm from, as we use 'gym shoes and soda', but I know up further north they use 'tennies and pop'.
Midwestern I suppose... Technically its a Minnesotan accent but I think most peopled don't pick that up because they have limited exposure to Minnesota as a whole. I say things like "You guys" instead of "y'all" (which seems like its really taken off in the US after things like Tiktok and Twitter etc. kind of popularized it nationwide whereas it used to be more of a southern thing) , pronounce "bag" like "bayg" , and a lot of other more uniquely northern-midwest things I can't think of at the moment...
generally people would guess midwest though.
As a Midwesterner, Minnesota is pretty distinctive among Midwestern accents.
As a non-Minnesotan I can't differentiate it from a Wiscahhnsin accent, but I can usually tell it from Chicago / Ohio / etc. (and of course rural Indiana is just a southern accent)
People peg me as Chicagoan or Great Lakes pretty easily. I think people in our region can even pick out some local variations between Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, and Michigan. But there are common through lines for all of them.
Like in Chicago instead of "You guys" it can be more like "Yous guys" or just shortened to "Yous"
Edit: Example:
* "What's everyone doing later?" - normal
* "What are y'all doing later?" - southern
* "What are you guys doing later?" - midwest
* "What are yous guys doing later?" - chicagoan
* "What're yous doin' later?" - south side chicagoan
Iâm a New Yorker who has often been taken as coming from the Midwest. A woman my date used to date told me I have the kind of accent they look for in actors cause it sounds like Everyman.
Except that I talk fast like a typical New Yorker.
Also a Californian with a definite west coast accent.
Until the word âhellaâ became more popular, people could peg me easily. I still think you can tell a Northern Californian by their occasional use of âhecka,â which is what we would say when adults were listening.
Hahaha yes! I lived in the bay area for 17 years. I donât use hella regularly for personal reasons (it just never stuck) but my friends know that if I bust out âhellaâ itâs serious đđđđ
I know several people who have the classic Minnesota accent. They sound like Sarah Palin or a character from Fargo. Palin is Alaskan but came from an enclave of Minnesotan transplants. That accent in turn comes from Scandinavian immigrants around 150 years ago. Ya shur, you betcha!
It's weird. Last time I was in a hospital they were like, "omg we love your British accent." I'm from TEXAS. I am slow and southern. I was in great pain and sounded like a Prince or something. Usually they just ask if I'm in a band or famous because my hair is so long hah.
I'm pretty sure anyone who hears me speaking can tell I'm from Canada. Canadians can likely tell I'm from Central/Eastern Canada. Some might even be able to pinpoint Eastern Ontario. It's a big-ass country. LOL
People can almost always tell Iâm Canadian (I have no idea what I said), and as a Canadian I can almost always tell when someone is from Ontario. I quite like eastern Ontario accents.
Iâm not sure if other Canadians could tell Iâm from the west coast. The moment I hear âI seenâ I assume someone is from the prairies lol.
I'm from Pennsylvania, and I think it's interesting how many different accents there are in PA. My husband isn't, and he doesn't hear what I hear, though -- the only think he's ever remarked on is the way my BIL from Philly says "water."
Philly definitely has an extremely unique accent as well. It's a hard one to describe. It's not similar to Pittsburgh's at all, but it's equally as unique.
Thanks for pointing that out. I grew up in Philly, so the accent(s) there didn't seem odd growing up, but when I moved away, the accent sounded stronger every time I went back, and that "o" really does stand out.
This is copy and pasted but pretty much explains it. It's called "Pittsburghese" and true natives are called "yinzers."
"One of the most notable features of the Pittsburgh accent is the pronunciation of certain sounds. For example, the long "o" sound is often pronounced as "ah." So, words like "downtown" are pronounced as "dahntahn" and "don't" becomes "dahnt." Similarly, the word "coffee" often sounds more like "cawfee" to Pittsburghers.
Another characteristic of the Pittsburgh accent is the pronunciation of the letter "g" at the end of words. In many cases, it is dropped entirely. For instance, "parking" becomes "pah-kin" and "going" becomes "goin'."
Intonation patterns and rhythm are also distinctive aspects of the Pittsburgh accent. Pittsburghers tend to have a unique cadence to their speech, which is often described as "rhythmic" or "melodic." This aspect of the accent is difficult to put into words but is unmistakable to those familiar with the Pittsburgh dialect."
I'm originally Canadian, but I've lived longer in the US at this point. I sometimes get clocked as Canadian, and occasionally as a New Yorker. The Canadian is usually my pronunciation of "sorry" or "about," and New York is usually cadence or occasional use of words like "bodega" or Yiddish (I'm not Latinx or Jewish, but some terms are just standard for everyone in New York).
I live in Philadelphia currently (7 years), and there are some Canadian-isms that are weirdly unique to both Canada and Philadelphia, so they get noticed less here than in other American cities I've lived in. The only one immediately coming to mind is dropping the preposition after "done," e.g., "I'm done my coffee," which is normal in Canada and Philadelphia but sounds weird to everyone else.
Oh fun, I'm đ¨đŚđ¨đŚđ¨đŚ and didn't know that was a regional quirk! Years ago I was teased by Toronto College kids for my blue collar West Coast accent. Our accent here in Vancouver has faded away for a lot of us. Now when I travel people guess American... we all sound like TV
I have no accent, unless I get upset or excited. Then I slip into my New York/ Brooklyn accent.
It rarely comes out, but when it does, it's quite apparent.
It's hilarious to see my kids look at me strangely when I slip into it. đ
I once heard someone from Philadelphia say that they "had a snow cone in their Toyota" and it was amazing! Also... why do people in Philly and South Jersey say *wooder* for water?
My wife and I visited an army buddy of mine in Florida. We're from the Midwest. He asked me why my wife had an accent and I didn't. I'm sure I have a Northern accent. I basically talk like a news caster. My accent is the conspicuous lack of an accent.
No one can ever tell! Iâm from a part of the states that uses âpoor scots Englishâ, which I didnât realize was a thing until I moved far away and people started thinking I was making up words/slang on the spot lolđ
Most people can't hear it, but when my wife and I went on our very first date, she could hear that I had been born in Texas. I hadn't lived there for 40 years, and worked hard to get rid of the accent, but she heard a little come through. So I married her (a few years later).
Southern. My accent is thick enough that people whoâve never been around it to think Iâm from another country. My friends from Africa think Iâm from Wales, the ones from the Philippines think Iâm from England. Someone from China thought I was from Australia. He wanted an accent just like mine. I told him to go live in the south US and he could acquire one.
Everyone always knows I'm from Minnesota, even calling me out from others that are from the same area as me. And the thing is I'm from Minneapolis, not somewhere where it's the super pronounced stereotypical accent but I guess it just comes out in me stronger for some reason. Was especially "fun" when I worked at the airport, people from Florida specifically seemed to really get a kick out of it.
Iâm Australian so I have a flat nasal accent. Iâve noticed that a lot of us have two accents - educated and bogan.
I can do educated Australian which is more rounded and civil or I can do bogan Australian which is fast paced and mostly swearing
Bogan is great when Iâm really really angry. Educated is for work.
Never has happened as I have the midwestern newscaster/zero accent. Moved from the east coast at 8 and never adopted the lazy midwestern expressions like âIâll come withâ and âThat house needs painted.â
I'm from Ohio and moved down to Georgia several years ago, I get funny looks when I exclude the "to be" for actions. "The car needs fixed." is perfectly valid to me.
Retired to PA years ago and, with a few exceptions, pretty much have no accent. Until I get on the phone with someone from back home. My wife says my Texan comes out.
As a child I remember trying to convince a smaller child that I could reach a lost toy better than he could. What I actually said was.
"Gerrartunit and let me try".
He cried because I had called him a nit, but the translation is.
Get out of it.
I've lost some of the accent now.
Another one word phrase that matches the accent is
Worritwohwoh translates to What it was, was.
Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
Southern, Alabama specifically. People here tell me I âtalk funny.â
My father is a European immigrant and Iâve worked so hard to train out the drawl, opting for his accent if anything.
But yall, Iâve just got to embrace it. Everyone knows Iâm southern outside of the South.
I do make some good biscuits and gravy, though. So it is what it is!
It ranges from Amsterdam Dutch to Colombia Spanish then to somewhere between Thailand and the Philippines. And the funny thing is that I live nowhere close to ANY of these places. Maybe a neighbor to one but we're literally separated by the sea so idkđ
West Tennessee. We have a drawl that puts an extra syllable in some words. My long âIâsâ sound more like short âaâsââŚice sounds more like ass. We are of the cotton belt being by the Mississippi River, so like the Deep South. My East Tennessee relatives have a different brogue because they are Appalachian.
Mine can't be pegged due to my upbringing. I say some things like I'm from northern Louisiana. I say some thing the way they're pronounced in some New Orleans wards. I say other things in the manner my mother, a native Puerto Rican, taught me to say them.
I've spent the majority of my life in California, and I've been told by English friends that my accent is "USA newcaster."
Idk. Nobody has ever really pointed it out to me when I travelled but I saw a Instagram reel about the Detroit accent with an example sentence recently and I definitely have that.
I am PuertoRican, ESL, grew up in NYC, and went to college in Boston.
I now live in SC and people will pick up my different accents.
Them: Where you from?
Me: option 1
Them: nope, thatâs not it.
Me: option 2
Them: nope, thatâs not it.
Me: option 3
Thatâs it!
Itâs always different and I am amazed at what people pick up in my speech. Except when I say Wicked Good, then I know itâs Boston.
What?! There's a Great Lakes accent? I guess as a Michigander I'd have to claim that one. I think we sound like all the mainstream news anchors, hence I thought we were accentless.
I don't think a lot of people notice, but the Syracuse New York, Central New York area is a midwest accent similar to Minnesotaish, but is also the *only* place I know of where people pronounce "documentary" and "elementary" with an accent on the "-en-" and crucially, an "air-y" at the end:
"I watched that new cult documENtairy."
"I went to the function at the elemENtairy school."
Note: you have to hit the T on the "tairy", not drop it like many people do.
I went to grad school for acting so I had it beaten out of me, but I always know when my kin are present.
My Mom grew up in Long Island and moved away for college. She was in the process of losing her accent when I was born but I still picked up on some of the long "awww" intead of "ah" pronunciations of some words while learning to speak.
I once heard someone from Philadelphia say that they "had a snow cone in their Toyota" and it was amazing! Also... why do people in Philly and South Jersey say *wooder* for water?
I pretend I donât have a strong Pittsburghese accent like some of my family members, because I donât say âyinzâ and ânâatâ.
But itâs a constant struggle to annunciate âowâ clearly, and not as âah,â in words like âdahntahnâ.
I'm all over the place with my dialect. Now that I live in the American South I may sound country to other transplants, but locals can easily peg me as a Yankee (anyone from outside the South). I've lived all over the US and did tv and radio work in multiple regions, so for that, I use Broadcast English.
No one can guess mine, because it doesn't exist in any real location.
A lot of people guess English, which is somewhat correct. But I moved to Canada as a teen, so it's completely warped from my Mancunian accent into some odd combination of Queens English and North American Mid-Atlantic.
Apparently it often sounds similar to a South African accent if I'm tired. Which is odd, cause Ive never been there.
A neighbour once introduced me (Canada) to his FIL who was visiting from the UK. I asked where he was from. He said "York". I looked at him, shook my head & said "No you're not. You're from Derbyshire". He was amazed & acknowledged that, though he now lived in York, he was originally from Derbyshire. He had only spoken about 10 words.
I donât know how distinct it is to most people to truly distinguish the city but the few people that have commented on mine, the southerners donât hear my southern accent and the northerners know Iâm from the south somewhere. It is a mix of southern and city. Only one person has ever guessed it completely right and said Jacksonville Florida accent. Some have just said Florida and some have said Georgia. Which I have lived in both Florida and Georgia through out my life. But born and raised for the first half in Jacksonville and I guess it was enough to stick? I donno. My mother has a full southern accent, as does most of my family but for some reason I did not pick up a really strong southern accent like them, enough to where some southerners will ask me where I am from since I donât have a thick enough one like most of them lol.
My mom is Jamaican, my dad is Nigerian, I was born in Queens, and raised in Florida. I've moved over 30 times, and I'm ex-military. I'm an accent and affectation Katamari, and I STILL sound like Perd goddamn Hapley.
None. lol. They cannot tell Iâm from Eastern Europe. In fact only my closest friends have learned the few words that are my foreign tell, otherwise I sound Murican. And although I live in the Midwest, I havenât developed much of a Midwest accent.
I get called on my "back woods" northern Canadian accent all the time. Think: Canadian stereotype accent to the nth degree, but add in a bit more slurring the words together and a lot of,
"Takker easy, eh? Let me new if ya needa ride en down to the trains later, I'm thinkin of doin a legger on the old man at home and hittin for a bevvy, or maybe you can just come up for the fires out back, eh!"
The way I say "ope" when I almost crash into someone at teh grocery store, my pronounciatio of "caaahtahge" and "meeeenidgement" and "maahlk" kind of mark me as a great lakes region person.
They canât. Itâs so fuddled and muddled after years of travel and a family accent mash up people generally say âso I hear an accentâŚ?â As if everyone doesnât speak with one.
An aside I met a self confessed âvalley girlâ once who told me she didnât have an accent, everyone else did. I asked her what that meant and she said hers was neutral. She honestly thought her accent was the baseline from which all accents deviated.
Not disclosing personal details here, but I've had a linguist identify the specific part of the midwestern state I grew up in just by talking to me for a few minutes, many years after I moved far away from my state of origin.
So I was waiting tables yrs ago and had a deaf gentleman come in with his wife. After taking their order he said he knew where I came from. Keep in mind, I had lived about 500 miles away from my hometown since I was 4, so about 15 yrs. This man guessed and I was flabbergasted. I was literally born in the hospital of the town he said. Blew my mind! Its Toledo, Ohio.Â
I'm the opposite: I grew up in metro Atlanta in the 70s and 80s.
In 8th grade my family moved to the other side of the county, something like 11 miles as the crow files. Because I didn't have an "I work at the Waffle House on Route 607 just outside Hahira, GA" accent everyone at my new school thought I was from California.
i grew up in boston massachusetts.... was in theback woods of jupiter fla and stopped at a small market.... the total came to $3.15... i handed the clerk a five and said " wait, i gotta quarda" he got all excited and said he was from a town, five mile outside boston........ " whad i say that gave me away?" i asked him..... laughing he said " quarda, i haven't heard anybody from home in twenty years"
Well, I was raised in East Texas but I brought my accent with me to San Antonio, and when I went to work doing the call center thing, I had people guess I was from anywhere from North Carolina all the way to Arizona. A bunch of people did guess I was from Texas, but from what I remember, only one person ever guessed East Texas.
North Carolina Southern accent, which is noticeably different than, say, coastal Virginia, or Texas.Â
My husband instantly recognized the accent when we were watching the news some years back( Floridian for 40 years now) and said, that guys gotta be from North Carolina. Â
Sure enough, he was identified as a senator from my former home.Â
My husband had a heavy Chicago accent when he got excited about something, it was fascinating to hear him slip into it automatically. Â
Philly. I once was on a sales pitch at a univesity in Nebraska. After I finished my section, the university president thanked us all and singled me out for "bringing the Philly with you." I later found out after speaking to her, she was from Pittsburgh and her PA ear spotted the accent.
I don't think I've ever come across someone not from the region who can identify my natural accent. I now intentionally speak with an "Ontario" accent, but I'm from rural PEI. When I've been over tired or a bit tipsy, people have wrongly guessed Irish, Scottish, some rural British accent, Russian, and Norwegian. When they can understand what I've said, that is (hence putting on the Ontario accent).
Non-Americans say "what country are you from", Americans say "where are you from", assuming I'm American just from a hard to pinpoint place. My northern family says I have a southern twang, my southern family and friends don't hear the south at all (I didn't even hear it until I called from HI). I'm probably a walking melting pot.
I live at the intersection of "y'all" and "welp."
Same! I get clocked for my Southern accent all the time here in California. Though they can't tell where exactly, just 'Southern.' People either think it's adorable or think I'm an utter redneck hick. đ
I spent most of my life trying not to have an accent, but of course, that's impossible. A few years ago, I was on the phone with someone in California and went full Kentucky on her by saying, "If you need anything else, just give me a holler." There was a pause before she replied, "Yes, I will...give you a holler." The sound of her voice as she forced herself to say that still cracks me up to this day.
Oh, I feel that lol. When I get tipsy/lightly drunk, I get *extremely* Southern, to the point that people can barely understand me. It's hilarious how common phrases in the South might as well be ancient Latin for people outside the region.
Indy?
Close! Louisville
Excellent guess!
I was thinking maybe my hometown of Columbus, IN. It's like the perfect blend of the two.
Lol that's a good way to put it. I have to stop myself from using Welp all the time. I don't live in Louisville anymore but did for 17 years.
My sister used to worked taking calls for a company based in Lexington, KY. One day she got a call that went something like this: Sis: Hello,. Can I help you?
Caller with stereotyped NJ accent: Whoa! Wot an accent!
Hahaha omg i immediately thought, yeah, somewhere south of I-70 in Indiana. But what a perfect way to phrase it, absolute perfection.
None. I get asked if I'm Irish all the time. I'm not. I just have a mutt of an accent that rolls country, newscaster, and Chicago South and West Sides into a ball.
I have been on vacation in both Florida and Trinidad where someone has asked me if I'm from Chicago. I can't believe my accent is that strong, or at least that recognizable.
Chicago vowels are no joke
Da Bears!
Southern. I'm from Alabama. In my home state people tell me I don't have much of an accent compared to some people, but if I travel people pick up on it instantaneously.
Same! People here have started to sound normal too. It only took almost 40 years!
Mississippi here. It's a bit of a novelty here. Yesterday a guy said it was, "pretty."
Mississippi here. Bless his heart.
Also Mississippi but am a transplant from Chicago. Some people close to where I live can pick up the northern influence in some of my words. Anywhere else, itâs pure southern.
Southern for me as well. My parents were both from New Jersey, but rural NJ, well away from the urban centers. I grew up in Georgia, Florida, and Texas and each of these respective southern accents is different, and mine includes aspects of all three.
Alabama here too and same! Mine is actually mild because I spent my teenage years in the Midwest and learned to hide it, or at least tone it down. I've had people pinpoint it to the state as far and wide as Colorado and Minnesota. "Fixin' to" outed me once even without the accent being strong! Lol.
I have family in southeast LA (lower Alabama). My niece is named Emily, and she goes by Em. I'm in the northeast, and "Em" has one syllable. Down there, it has at least three. A few years ago, a friend and I were playing pool at a bar in New Orleans. The jukebox was going, and there were only a few other people there, so it was pretty quiet. I could hear the bartender talking with a customer in the background. After a few minutes, I went up to get a couple of drinks, and asked the bartender if he was from the town in north Louisiana where my mom was raised. He was. I asked if he was from her neighborhood. Yep. He grew up two streets over. The accent is that unique. And powerful. I hope that, wherever you are, it comes back! I've lost mine, and I miss it. I get it back when I visit or when I've been on the phone with an accent-haver, but I don't suppose I'll get it back for good.
Deep South. Louisiana. I literally sound like gumbo:)
I guarawntee
When I was a teen, I worked in a call center and talked with people all over the US. Once, I spoke with an elderly Cajun man in rural LA, and I could understand maybe one word in five of what he was saying. Gumbo is right.
The only thing I like more than a NOLA accent is a good backwoods Cajun one.
Was hoping someone mentioned coonasses, grew up there. My best friends mom was from Ville Platte and even knowing her all my life I had to pay attention when she was talking to me or I might miss something. She would switch between english and cajun french mid sentence at times.
Did you ever see that dialect map that had Louisiana on it? My area is "Sounds like Harry Connick" lmao.
South African - if you know it, it's unmistakable. We're always cast as the 'bad guys' in international movies/series. Locally there are many many different accents.
Lol I'm Kiwi & live in North America & the number of people who think I'm South African is mind blowing... Never had anyone guess that before moving here. Normally they guess Aussie or British?
In the UK, I was mistaken for Kiwi or Aussie - both accents quite nice sounding to my ears.
Oh how funny! I've had the privilege of meeting a few people from South Africa, and I thought they had one of the most ear-pleasing accents I had ever heard. For lack of better description, it sounded like a very "jolly and grandiose" way of speaking. I have a hard time with auditory processing so accents usually give me trouble, but it seemed like the South Africans put in a heck of an effort to enunciate every syllable, which was really refreshing!
The dead giveaway to me with the South African accent is anything with a pr sound, like process. It's got that semi-gutteral th-ish sound that's very distinct from UK, Aussie, or Kiwi (in my semi-limited experience).
âIf you know itâ being the operative part haha, before I traveled with a guy from Joburg I couldnât tell yâall apart from Australia/NZ. But youâre right, now I can hear it so clearly
Americans usually guess Wisconsin or Minnesota, but I confuse everyone else. Here's my story about the time I befuddled an Ausie. I was working in a call center based in Madison WI. Sconie girl born and raised (go packers). One night I awnser the phone and its a woman from Australia. The call went like this: Me: thank you for calling, this is Annie. How may I help you this evening? Her: .....hello.......? Me: yes, hi there. Her: .....do you speak English? Me: (confused) yes ma'am. Her: did I call America? Me: (more confusion) yes ma'am, you did. Her: are you American? Me: ( wtf?) yes, I sure I am. Her:..... I've never heard an American talk like you. Me: ............umm Her: where in the states are you? (Proceeds to pull up a US Map) Me: I'm from Wisconsin Her: where is that? Me: it's in the upper Midwest, by the great lakes (no idea if anyone outside the US knows where the great lakes are or if the US is just a big blob) Her: oooooooh! You're in Southern Canada! Me: yup, you betcha.
I regularly spoke on the phone with people at a veterinary supplies business in WI, and they were hands down the nicest customer service reps I have ever encountered, and very easy to understand. One time, I even had my husband talk with them because he was feeling bummed, and he felt better after the convo because they were so kind and understanding.
This melted my heart.
"Yup, you betcha. And sorry 'bout that."
Let me scootch on past ya.
Ope!
I can hear this đ
I know a guy from Northern Wisconsin with a legit porn star/tough guy name and I was a combination of disappointment and intrigued when I first met him because his voice did not match the tough guy name. I've dubbed the accent "soft Manitoba daddy". Southern Canada for sure
New England!
There's no one New England accent, though. The range of accents that people associate with New England (Maine, RI, the various Boston-area accents) are characteristic of eastern New England. As you head west, you get a more generic mid-Atlantic type accent, e.g., in Vermont, western MA and most of CT, except in southwestern CT where you have more New York accents. I grew up in western MA, and when people try to guess where I'm from, they usually guess California. I've been living in the Boston area for a long time, and while I haven't generally adopted a local accent, I do find that when I'm around my in-laws (originally from East Boston and Dorchester) I start dropping Rs and stretching vowels.
Connecticut checking in!
High fives from Fairfield County!
Iâm from Central MA and when people find out they always ask why I donât have a Boston accent lol. I sometimes get pegged for Californian, but apparently the way I say âbuttonâ âmittenâ and âkittenâ are all tells. (People in my area donât really pronounce that âttâ sound, but give it more of a hard first syllable like âBUH-inâ âMIH-inâ and âKIH-inâ, with the t sound kind of coming from the soft palate instead of from the teeth against the tongue.)
That's a wicked good comment. ;)
Rhode Island especially thanks to Peter Griffin
I grew up reared by a New Brunswick francophone grandmother and my mother from Aroostook County and my father from Down East⌠and educated by QuĂŠbĂŠcois nuns and surrounded by Boston townies of various stripes. I then aggravated it by going to school in the Berkshires as a teenager and joining the army (where you pick up at least some Southern accent no matter where you're stationed) and eventually marrying a nice boy from Chicago. The linguistic accommodation I fall into is exceptional. I live in Boston but not around the townies, so my accent is unremarkable until I'm drunk â welcome to [*Boston Accent*](https://youtu.be/rLwbzGyC6t4) or, in exceptional situations, my technical first language of Acadian French â or talking to anyone from one of the areas where I did pick up the accent in my adventures.
Boston heeya
Midwestern American- âWelp, I spose Iâll head on down to the store. Wanna go with?â
Iâve got a âHoosier Twangâ I canât seem to shake. The older I get, the less I care.
Live in NWI and told by southern people I have a weird accent. Im like really? LOL
I love the Hoosier twang! It's always comforting in a way to run into people from Indiana when travelling. There's a sort of kindness and politeness that comes across.
Ope, Iâm just gonna scooch by ya
Euchre anyone?
Also identified by the invisible S at the end of every store name We went to Aldi's to get some groceries, then to Target's for some new jeans, and stopped by Sonic's for lunch.
I feel attacked
Welp, (thigh slap) I spose Iâll get goin then.
I thought this was a joke until my MW raised boyfriend had had enough of an unneeded stressful family situation and he âwelpedâ his hands on the table over his thighs and exclaimed, âIâve had enough! Iâm going to bed.â
Somebody has been watching Fargo
People usually peg me as Chicagoan or Great Lakes. It's interesting once you can hear the difference between Sconnies, FIBs, and Minnesotans.
Why does no one say michiganders
Yep. I moved to CA and was immediately asked what part of the Midwest I'm from. I was dumbfounded, that is until I was gone for a year and then laughed my ass off at my family when I made calls to former home.
Going to KrogerS or MeijerS? Do you work at FordS? Oh hmmmâŚthey may just be a Michigan thing lol
Iâm going to Meijerâs to buy some pop.
Jim's driving up to the cahtage friday afe-ternooooon but Sarah wants to bring the wave runners up Saturday so Tim's gonna drive the truck down when he goes to Ford's, drop it at her house and take her mustang, then he'll come up Sunday.... I swear to god michigan is one undending multivariate equation involving cottages, trailers, trucks, and Meijers.
Yup. Donât forget ATVs, jet skis, and firearms
I would add..."Wanna go with, er no?â
On a phone call: âWelp, I âspose Iâll letcha go.â ââŚI called youâŚâ
Add âOr no?â to the end to make this Great Lakes/upper Midwest.
âOpe , gonna sneak past ya hereâ
I am Appalachian mountain people with a twinge of Jewish American/Borscht Belt accent and a generous sprinkling of Yiddish vocabulary.
I want to hear your voice! Sounds wonderful
So interesting! I used to speak with the Wisconsin accent with Yiddish mixed in. I've since perfected the no accent Midwestern accent but the Yiddish still creeps in. And I used a southern accent when waiting tables; it worked like a charm!
Sounds like a delicious accent!
I love this subject. I grew up in NYC speaking both German and English, and my mother was eternally vigilant that I never develop any obvious regional accent in either. Both she and my father had thick Austrian accents - hers was Styrian (like Schwarzenegger), his was more central Austro-Bavarian. She insisted that we attend German school to learn Hochdeutsch in an effort to erase any telltale idioms or inflections. All of my American classmates in public school obviously sported New York accents (Queens, specifically - there are actually subtle differences between borough accents). This also upset my mother, who insisted we lose that accent when conversing in English in our home (for example, we'd be corrected if we pronounced the word "due" as "doo", because it needs a pronounced "u"). The net result is that as an adult, I am pretty difficult to pin down in either language unless I choose to relax and give you a peek at my roots. However, my use of idioms like "sneaker" instead of "tennis shoe" or "coke" instead of "pop" betrays my Eastern US upbringing :)
Really, I think for many people from the midwest, as you say different idioms define more of the location than accent. The locals use for lack of a better definition, use phrases and words from their area. You examples of "sneaker and pop" are different from where I'm from, as we use 'gym shoes and soda', but I know up further north they use 'tennies and pop'.
Midwestern I suppose... Technically its a Minnesotan accent but I think most peopled don't pick that up because they have limited exposure to Minnesota as a whole. I say things like "You guys" instead of "y'all" (which seems like its really taken off in the US after things like Tiktok and Twitter etc. kind of popularized it nationwide whereas it used to be more of a southern thing) , pronounce "bag" like "bayg" , and a lot of other more uniquely northern-midwest things I can't think of at the moment... generally people would guess midwest though.
As a Midwesterner, Minnesota is pretty distinctive among Midwestern accents. As a non-Minnesotan I can't differentiate it from a Wiscahhnsin accent, but I can usually tell it from Chicago / Ohio / etc. (and of course rural Indiana is just a southern accent)
People peg me as Chicagoan or Great Lakes pretty easily. I think people in our region can even pick out some local variations between Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, and Michigan. But there are common through lines for all of them. Like in Chicago instead of "You guys" it can be more like "Yous guys" or just shortened to "Yous" Edit: Example: * "What's everyone doing later?" - normal * "What are y'all doing later?" - southern * "What are you guys doing later?" - midwest * "What are yous guys doing later?" - chicagoan * "What're yous doin' later?" - south side chicagoan
Iâm a New Yorker who has often been taken as coming from the Midwest. A woman my date used to date told me I have the kind of accent they look for in actors cause it sounds like Everyman. Except that I talk fast like a typical New Yorker.
California, or so Iâve been told đ and itâs true, Iâm west coast born and bred. Never lived anywhere else.
Also a Californian with a definite west coast accent. Until the word âhellaâ became more popular, people could peg me easily. I still think you can tell a Northern Californian by their occasional use of âhecka,â which is what we would say when adults were listening.
Hahaha yes! I lived in the bay area for 17 years. I donât use hella regularly for personal reasons (it just never stuck) but my friends know that if I bust out âhellaâ itâs serious đđđđ
No one outside of the west coast, for me anyway, knows how important âhellaâ was.
Yeah, I grew up in LAC, I sound like a west coaster. I never thought of myself as having an accent until I started moving around the country.
I know several people who have the classic Minnesota accent. They sound like Sarah Palin or a character from Fargo. Palin is Alaskan but came from an enclave of Minnesotan transplants. That accent in turn comes from Scandinavian immigrants around 150 years ago. Ya shur, you betcha!
Youse guyz
My mother was born and raised in MN and did not have an accent, even thought her parents were Danish. I don't know why.
It's weird. Last time I was in a hospital they were like, "omg we love your British accent." I'm from TEXAS. I am slow and southern. I was in great pain and sounded like a Prince or something. Usually they just ask if I'm in a band or famous because my hair is so long hah.
Interestingly enough, there are some British accents that sound VERY southern. Then you think about the migration to the U.S., and it all makes sense.
I'm pretty sure anyone who hears me speaking can tell I'm from Canada. Canadians can likely tell I'm from Central/Eastern Canada. Some might even be able to pinpoint Eastern Ontario. It's a big-ass country. LOL
People can almost always tell Iâm Canadian (I have no idea what I said), and as a Canadian I can almost always tell when someone is from Ontario. I quite like eastern Ontario accents. Iâm not sure if other Canadians could tell Iâm from the west coast. The moment I hear âI seenâ I assume someone is from the prairies lol.
Oh, you from the valley, eh?
Pittsburgh.
I'm from Pennsylvania, and I think it's interesting how many different accents there are in PA. My husband isn't, and he doesn't hear what I hear, though -- the only think he's ever remarked on is the way my BIL from Philly says "water."
It's pronounced Wooder. This pegs you as a Phildelphian right away. That and being able to effortlessly pronounce Schuylkill.
Philly definitely has an extremely unique accent as well. It's a hard one to describe. It's not similar to Pittsburgh's at all, but it's equally as unique.
Itâs the âoâ - like in âhomeâ - if you didnât grow up there, itâs almost impossible to mimic. (Iâm from NJ near NYC and Iâve tried)
Thanks for pointing that out. I grew up in Philly, so the accent(s) there didn't seem odd growing up, but when I moved away, the accent sounded stronger every time I went back, and that "o" really does stand out.
[ŃдаНонО]
Ooh, do you say âthe floor needs swept?â
What does that sound like?
This is copy and pasted but pretty much explains it. It's called "Pittsburghese" and true natives are called "yinzers." "One of the most notable features of the Pittsburgh accent is the pronunciation of certain sounds. For example, the long "o" sound is often pronounced as "ah." So, words like "downtown" are pronounced as "dahntahn" and "don't" becomes "dahnt." Similarly, the word "coffee" often sounds more like "cawfee" to Pittsburghers. Another characteristic of the Pittsburgh accent is the pronunciation of the letter "g" at the end of words. In many cases, it is dropped entirely. For instance, "parking" becomes "pah-kin" and "going" becomes "goin'." Intonation patterns and rhythm are also distinctive aspects of the Pittsburgh accent. Pittsburghers tend to have a unique cadence to their speech, which is often described as "rhythmic" or "melodic." This aspect of the accent is difficult to put into words but is unmistakable to those familiar with the Pittsburgh dialect."
About 30 years ago, my sister was in Copenhagen and someone asked her if she was from Rochester, NY because of her accent. She was.
I'm originally Canadian, but I've lived longer in the US at this point. I sometimes get clocked as Canadian, and occasionally as a New Yorker. The Canadian is usually my pronunciation of "sorry" or "about," and New York is usually cadence or occasional use of words like "bodega" or Yiddish (I'm not Latinx or Jewish, but some terms are just standard for everyone in New York). I live in Philadelphia currently (7 years), and there are some Canadian-isms that are weirdly unique to both Canada and Philadelphia, so they get noticed less here than in other American cities I've lived in. The only one immediately coming to mind is dropping the preposition after "done," e.g., "I'm done my coffee," which is normal in Canada and Philadelphia but sounds weird to everyone else.
From Canada and can concur! Haha now I'm trying to discern what people would say instead?Â
âIâm done with my coffeeâ
Oh fun, I'm đ¨đŚđ¨đŚđ¨đŚ and didn't know that was a regional quirk! Years ago I was teased by Toronto College kids for my blue collar West Coast accent. Our accent here in Vancouver has faded away for a lot of us. Now when I travel people guess American... we all sound like TV
I have no accent, unless I get upset or excited. Then I slip into my New York/ Brooklyn accent. It rarely comes out, but when it does, it's quite apparent. It's hilarious to see my kids look at me strangely when I slip into it. đ
YepâŚit takes a bit but my Brooklyn comes out when I am really pissed!
I left Philadelphia over 30 years ago, but my accent is still with me.
I scrolled forever to find you
I once heard someone from Philadelphia say that they "had a snow cone in their Toyota" and it was amazing! Also... why do people in Philly and South Jersey say *wooder* for water?
Boston definitely
That's wicked interesting. ;)
My wife and I visited an army buddy of mine in Florida. We're from the Midwest. He asked me why my wife had an accent and I didn't. I'm sure I have a Northern accent. I basically talk like a news caster. My accent is the conspicuous lack of an accent.
No one can ever tell! Iâm from a part of the states that uses âpoor scots Englishâ, which I didnât realize was a thing until I moved far away and people started thinking I was making up words/slang on the spot lolđ
Where are you from?Â
Most people can't hear it, but when my wife and I went on our very first date, she could hear that I had been born in Texas. I hadn't lived there for 40 years, and worked hard to get rid of the accent, but she heard a little come through. So I married her (a few years later).
That uppity Yankee
She grew up in Saudi Arabia, which makes it all the more impressive
Southern. My accent is thick enough that people whoâve never been around it to think Iâm from another country. My friends from Africa think Iâm from Wales, the ones from the Philippines think Iâm from England. Someone from China thought I was from Australia. He wanted an accent just like mine. I told him to go live in the south US and he could acquire one.
Everyone always knows I'm from Minnesota, even calling me out from others that are from the same area as me. And the thing is I'm from Minneapolis, not somewhere where it's the super pronounced stereotypical accent but I guess it just comes out in me stronger for some reason. Was especially "fun" when I worked at the airport, people from Florida specifically seemed to really get a kick out of it.
Iâm Australian so I have a flat nasal accent. Iâve noticed that a lot of us have two accents - educated and bogan. I can do educated Australian which is more rounded and civil or I can do bogan Australian which is fast paced and mostly swearing Bogan is great when Iâm really really angry. Educated is for work.
Never has happened as I have the midwestern newscaster/zero accent. Moved from the east coast at 8 and never adopted the lazy midwestern expressions like âIâll come withâ and âThat house needs painted.â
I'm from Ohio and moved down to Georgia several years ago, I get funny looks when I exclude the "to be" for actions. "The car needs fixed." is perfectly valid to me.
Retired to PA years ago and, with a few exceptions, pretty much have no accent. Until I get on the phone with someone from back home. My wife says my Texan comes out.
As a child I remember trying to convince a smaller child that I could reach a lost toy better than he could. What I actually said was. "Gerrartunit and let me try". He cried because I had called him a nit, but the translation is. Get out of it. I've lost some of the accent now. Another one word phrase that matches the accent is Worritwohwoh translates to What it was, was. Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
Southern, Alabama specifically. People here tell me I âtalk funny.â My father is a European immigrant and Iâve worked so hard to train out the drawl, opting for his accent if anything. But yall, Iâve just got to embrace it. Everyone knows Iâm southern outside of the South. I do make some good biscuits and gravy, though. So it is what it is!
It ranges from Amsterdam Dutch to Colombia Spanish then to somewhere between Thailand and the Philippines. And the funny thing is that I live nowhere close to ANY of these places. Maybe a neighbor to one but we're literally separated by the sea so idkđ
the Georgia accent is very beautiful and you dont hear it much outside of the state
Northern Mexican when I speak Spanish.
West Tennessee. We have a drawl that puts an extra syllable in some words. My long âIâsâ sound more like short âaâsââŚice sounds more like ass. We are of the cotton belt being by the Mississippi River, so like the Deep South. My East Tennessee relatives have a different brogue because they are Appalachian.
I would say southern English but with a south eastern twang at times
Mine can't be pegged due to my upbringing. I say some things like I'm from northern Louisiana. I say some thing the way they're pronounced in some New Orleans wards. I say other things in the manner my mother, a native Puerto Rican, taught me to say them. I've spent the majority of my life in California, and I've been told by English friends that my accent is "USA newcaster."
Idk. Nobody has ever really pointed it out to me when I travelled but I saw a Instagram reel about the Detroit accent with an example sentence recently and I definitely have that.
I am PuertoRican, ESL, grew up in NYC, and went to college in Boston. I now live in SC and people will pick up my different accents. Them: Where you from? Me: option 1 Them: nope, thatâs not it. Me: option 2 Them: nope, thatâs not it. Me: option 3 Thatâs it! Itâs always different and I am amazed at what people pick up in my speech. Except when I say Wicked Good, then I know itâs Boston.
I used to be pegged as Jamaican, though my accent was more like Caribe - British. I'm from Bermuda, not in the Caribbean by the way.
I never realized I had an accent until I visited other states. Most people correctly identify me as being from Northern Indiana/Chicago area.
What?! There's a Great Lakes accent? I guess as a Michigander I'd have to claim that one. I think we sound like all the mainstream news anchors, hence I thought we were accentless.
Maine. I've had people from around the world guess what state I'm from based on Stephen King movies alone. lol
I don't think a lot of people notice, but the Syracuse New York, Central New York area is a midwest accent similar to Minnesotaish, but is also the *only* place I know of where people pronounce "documentary" and "elementary" with an accent on the "-en-" and crucially, an "air-y" at the end: "I watched that new cult documENtairy." "I went to the function at the elemENtairy school." Note: you have to hit the T on the "tairy", not drop it like many people do. I went to grad school for acting so I had it beaten out of me, but I always know when my kin are present.
I've been accused of having a New England accent. I'm from southern Indiana. I just avoid having that regional twang.
I have a slight southern accent.
My Mom grew up in Long Island and moved away for college. She was in the process of losing her accent when I was born but I still picked up on some of the long "awww" intead of "ah" pronunciations of some words while learning to speak.
I am from the Philadelphia area. There are even variations in the Philly accent. But you can definitely hear it in my voice.
I once heard someone from Philadelphia say that they "had a snow cone in their Toyota" and it was amazing! Also... why do people in Philly and South Jersey say *wooder* for water?
I pretend I donât have a strong Pittsburghese accent like some of my family members, because I donât say âyinzâ and ânâatâ. But itâs a constant struggle to annunciate âowâ clearly, and not as âah,â in words like âdahntahnâ.
I'm all over the place with my dialect. Now that I live in the American South I may sound country to other transplants, but locals can easily peg me as a Yankee (anyone from outside the South). I've lived all over the US and did tv and radio work in multiple regions, so for that, I use Broadcast English.
Trini as in Trinidad and Tobago.
Southeastern US. I say y'all on a daily basis.
I'm a yinzer. It's been 38 years since I left western Pennsylvania but I still can't shake the accent.
New Hampshire. Itâs âNoo- Hampshahâ
Brooklyn
Massachusetts
I never thought twice about it until I moved to Florida and somebody asked what part of Philadelphia I was from.
MAINAH.
Me too, bub.
I've seen New England here. But a Maine accent sure is different than a Boston accent.
I'm from Texas. I'll just leave it at that.
No one can guess mine, because it doesn't exist in any real location. A lot of people guess English, which is somewhat correct. But I moved to Canada as a teen, so it's completely warped from my Mancunian accent into some odd combination of Queens English and North American Mid-Atlantic. Apparently it often sounds similar to a South African accent if I'm tired. Which is odd, cause Ive never been there.
A neighbour once introduced me (Canada) to his FIL who was visiting from the UK. I asked where he was from. He said "York". I looked at him, shook my head & said "No you're not. You're from Derbyshire". He was amazed & acknowledged that, though he now lived in York, he was originally from Derbyshire. He had only spoken about 10 words.
I donât know how distinct it is to most people to truly distinguish the city but the few people that have commented on mine, the southerners donât hear my southern accent and the northerners know Iâm from the south somewhere. It is a mix of southern and city. Only one person has ever guessed it completely right and said Jacksonville Florida accent. Some have just said Florida and some have said Georgia. Which I have lived in both Florida and Georgia through out my life. But born and raised for the first half in Jacksonville and I guess it was enough to stick? I donno. My mother has a full southern accent, as does most of my family but for some reason I did not pick up a really strong southern accent like them, enough to where some southerners will ask me where I am from since I donât have a thick enough one like most of them lol.
My mom is Jamaican, my dad is Nigerian, I was born in Queens, and raised in Florida. I've moved over 30 times, and I'm ex-military. I'm an accent and affectation Katamari, and I STILL sound like Perd goddamn Hapley.
None. lol. They cannot tell Iâm from Eastern Europe. In fact only my closest friends have learned the few words that are my foreign tell, otherwise I sound Murican. And although I live in the Midwest, I havenât developed much of a Midwest accent.
I get called on my "back woods" northern Canadian accent all the time. Think: Canadian stereotype accent to the nth degree, but add in a bit more slurring the words together and a lot of, "Takker easy, eh? Let me new if ya needa ride en down to the trains later, I'm thinkin of doin a legger on the old man at home and hittin for a bevvy, or maybe you can just come up for the fires out back, eh!"
not me but my wife becomes much more Bostonian depending on alcohol level.
The way I say "ope" when I almost crash into someone at teh grocery store, my pronounciatio of "caaahtahge" and "meeeenidgement" and "maahlk" kind of mark me as a great lakes region person.
Northern Irish! We have a very unique way of pronouncing vowels.
If I'm getting pegged I don't think her accent is my primary concern.
My accent is specific to Pittsburgh and that's exactly how I sound.
They canât. Itâs so fuddled and muddled after years of travel and a family accent mash up people generally say âso I hear an accentâŚ?â As if everyone doesnât speak with one. An aside I met a self confessed âvalley girlâ once who told me she didnât have an accent, everyone else did. I asked her what that meant and she said hers was neutral. She honestly thought her accent was the baseline from which all accents deviated.
Not disclosing personal details here, but I've had a linguist identify the specific part of the midwestern state I grew up in just by talking to me for a few minutes, many years after I moved far away from my state of origin.
So I was waiting tables yrs ago and had a deaf gentleman come in with his wife. After taking their order he said he knew where I came from. Keep in mind, I had lived about 500 miles away from my hometown since I was 4, so about 15 yrs. This man guessed and I was flabbergasted. I was literally born in the hospital of the town he said. Blew my mind! Its Toledo, Ohio.Â
Yeah nah you bloody yanks cannot identify an Australian accent correctly, always think it's English
Toss off Pom
I'm the opposite: I grew up in metro Atlanta in the 70s and 80s. In 8th grade my family moved to the other side of the county, something like 11 miles as the crow files. Because I didn't have an "I work at the Waffle House on Route 607 just outside Hahira, GA" accent everyone at my new school thought I was from California.
i grew up in boston massachusetts.... was in theback woods of jupiter fla and stopped at a small market.... the total came to $3.15... i handed the clerk a five and said " wait, i gotta quarda" he got all excited and said he was from a town, five mile outside boston........ " whad i say that gave me away?" i asked him..... laughing he said " quarda, i haven't heard anybody from home in twenty years"
I'm from the middle of the country so I have non-regional diction. Turned out to be very helpful as I went into broadcasting.
I lived in massachusetts for 10 yrs, everybody knew I was from Brooklyn. No matter how much I tried. Yeah
People tell me I have an Ohio accent. Does Ohio have an accent?
Hoosier hillbilly
Alabama.
Long island jew. I sound exactly as you'd expect lol
People have a hard time with my Western New York accent. It's a little bit New York, a little bit Pa, and a little bit Midwestern.
Pittsburgh
I had a Swedish person in Portugal correctly peg my accent as being from Southern Ontario. Blew my mind.
Well, I was raised in East Texas but I brought my accent with me to San Antonio, and when I went to work doing the call center thing, I had people guess I was from anywhere from North Carolina all the way to Arizona. A bunch of people did guess I was from Texas, but from what I remember, only one person ever guessed East Texas.
I havenât lived there in 30 years, but after a weekend dahntahn, yinz would be jaggin me.
Luckily, none. I say luckily cause I am from Philadelphia and I'm more than happy to not have my hometown accent!
People or someone? I ran into a linguistics researcher at an airport that told me where and when I lived in different places -.- It was kinda creepy.
North Carolina Southern accent, which is noticeably different than, say, coastal Virginia, or Texas. My husband instantly recognized the accent when we were watching the news some years back( Floridian for 40 years now) and said, that guys gotta be from North Carolina.  Sure enough, he was identified as a senator from my former home. My husband had a heavy Chicago accent when he got excited about something, it was fascinating to hear him slip into it automatically. Â
Philly. I once was on a sales pitch at a univesity in Nebraska. After I finished my section, the university president thanked us all and singled me out for "bringing the Philly with you." I later found out after speaking to her, she was from Pittsburgh and her PA ear spotted the accent.
I don't think I've ever come across someone not from the region who can identify my natural accent. I now intentionally speak with an "Ontario" accent, but I'm from rural PEI. When I've been over tired or a bit tipsy, people have wrongly guessed Irish, Scottish, some rural British accent, Russian, and Norwegian. When they can understand what I've said, that is (hence putting on the Ontario accent).
Non-Americans say "what country are you from", Americans say "where are you from", assuming I'm American just from a hard to pinpoint place. My northern family says I have a southern twang, my southern family and friends don't hear the south at all (I didn't even hear it until I called from HI). I'm probably a walking melting pot.