Yes I have an accent, may I take your order now?

[Fudgethatkay]

I feel awkward. I have a Japanese accent sometimes...only cause I use it so much.

Yet I'm californian, born and raised. ><

[Pagan]

I get funny looks from recent transplants and touristas. Although I'm Anglo, I'm southern New Mexican born-and-bred and I sound like it.

These two videos are the best I can explain what my accent sounds like. (It's aimed at ABQ mainly, but it fits for the whole state....except Hobbs. They sound like West TX.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IucBp1yrr7A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Yy0iWVC00

[MoonCat]

My mother would have asked you about your accent. She used to do that all the time. She didn't mean to be nosy, she just loved accents, but it used to embarrass the crap out of me when I was with her somewhere and she would tell people she loved the way they spoke.

Apparenly my siblings and I don't have the regional accent that everybody else here has. People tend to use very flat vowels in some words, and very nasal-sounding ones in others. For ex., for the word "trailer" everybody else here says "tra-ler" ("tra" like the flat 'a' in 'rat') and we always say "tray-ler". Because that's the way it's spelled!! And for other words, like "rag" we use the flat 'a', and everybody else gives it a long 'a' sound, so it sounds more like "rayg."

Don't know why; we grew up here, our parents were born here, and our grandparents spoke a mix of Polish and English.

[Pixilated]

Accents are fascinating ... well, perhaps not so much to people who are always being asked about theirs ...
I grew up along the Canada-U.S. border and when I lived further north (e.g. further away from the border!) I was told a couple of times I have an "American" accent ... whatever that may be. I think it may have something to do with slightly elongated vowels, but don't quote me on that.

Geez, there's discussing personal stuff and then there's discussing personal stuff and then there's being a complete nitwit and discussing personal stuff. You should have responded with, "Yes, I am in witness protection. I witnessed a mob whacking and one of the mobsters has vowed to kill me and anyone who knows my story. I'd watch your back if I were you."

Nobody ever believes the truth, do they?

"Shhh! My handlers are watching. You don't want them to-" *look up quickly* "Crap! gotta go!"

Great replies!! (Love it! I was gonna offer up, "If I answer that, I'll have to kill you.")

She was actually quite awesome - she rescored my test and for every test after that she would have me follow her to her office after the test and say the sentences before she graded me. I ended up with a good grade in that class since I was doing the phonetic spelling correctly (for me) which was the main point of the class (think My Fair Lady).

A phonetics class?? Dang, I'd have loved that!

[Willowe]

My mother would have asked you about your accent. She used to do that all the time. She didn't mean to be nosy, she just loved accents, but it used to embarrass the crap out of me when I was with her somewhere and she would tell people she loved the way they spoke.

See, if the person's being polite about it I don't have any problem being asked about my accent It's when they start assuming I'm lying to them about where it's from or are just generally rude about it that I start getting annoyed.

I wouldn't blame you if you turned into a compulsive liar every time someone asked you about your accent. "I was born in [town], but I was kidnapped at birth and raised by my kidnappers in [town], England. I was only reunited with my birth parents last week."

Actually for awhile I was a compulsive liar about it. I used to make up names of countries and quietly laugh when the person actually believed me that that place existed. Never did that for customers, though, since I didn't want to risk getting in trouble with my boss for doing it.

[jedimaster91]

I was born in Tennessee and raised in Kentucky. There was this camp in central Indiana I went to as a youth and Kentucky was probably the southern-most state represented. All these people from the northern states would tell me my accent was cute. Now granted, I do have a bit of a southern twang and it gets thicker if I'm angry. But it's not nearly as thick as my cousin's who lives in Alabama. I have a hard time understanding him sometimes.

Mr Jedi grew up in Oregon. We have arguments fairly regularly about the proper way to say creek (he says crik and it drives me nuts) and he definitely pronounces some words differently than I do. Come to think of it, a lot of my friends are transplants from the West and they talk funny.

[shopgirl15]

Maybe the "witness protection" guy was trying to be funny? I hope so at least.

Can I ask what your grandparent's accents are?

[Willowe]

Maybe the "witness protection" guy was trying to be funny? I hope so at least.

Can I ask what your grandparent's accents are?

I've gotten pretty good at telling when customer's are pulling my leg and he was either the best actor I've ever seen or he was dead serious. I really wish he was being funny, though.

My dad's parents have Pennsylvania Dutch accents, and my mom's parents accents are Northern New York, almost a slightly country-Canadian sound at times.

[sylvier]

"I'm sorry did you say Witless Protection Program? Yes, I trained hard with a speech coach to develop this unusual accent"

[Ironclad Alibi]

Another response when asked about your accent is: "What accent?"

And then there's this response.

[vikingchyk]

Accents are fascinating ... well, perhaps not so much to people who are always being asked about theirs ...
#snip#
A phonetics class?? Dang, I'd have loved that!

Me too! I took one Linguistics class in college, and it was fascinating (but it dealt more with the nuts and bolts of language: grammar and syntax - I wish I remembered more of it) I listen to a podcast called "A Way With Words" and they touch on stuff like that, mostly for American English: regional vocabularies, linguistic pronunciation shifts, and all kinds of word fun - I recommend it for anyone interested It's on iTunes, or http://www.waywordradio.org/ {or on NPR in some areas, I think}

One of my pet peeves with my mom is the added 'r' in words (most commonly 'warsh' and 'Warshington' - there is a linguistic word for this, which I've forgotten - some kind of shift, I think) While I was growing up, my dad and I would always get on her about it, especially since he grew up in Washington state (move there from ND when he was about 10, I think) Then, OMG, when I was back in Chicagoland visiting this summer, it happened: HE said 'Warshington ' Nooooooo! She's finally infected him!! Ah well, they have been married for 49 years, I guess she wore him down.

Another quick OT aside: it's also amusing to hear accents come back. The older my dad gets, the more pronounced his North Dakota accent gets. I first noticed it coming back when he hit his 50s (he's 72 now) He didn't have much of the accent when he was in his 30s and 40s. I'm sure there's a fancy term for that, too I also noticed a boomerang accent in my then-roommate, when she would be on the phone with her family back in Chicagoland, or fresh back from a visit there.

[EricKei]

I grew up in New Orleans and have spent most of my life here. I have what I would describe as a neutral accent, to the point where at least one filthy, thrice accursed tourist outsider has asked my why I did NOT have an accent o_O

Meanwhile, half of my extended family speaks in either a heavy Mississipi drawl (including the crik for creek) or a hardcore local "Yat" accent.

[Andara Bledin]

One of my co-workers is from Wales.

Most of the time, she has a really mild accent at this point, having lived in the US on the west coast for the last 30 years or so. But when she's planning a trip back home, or family is visiting out here, it gets really strong.

What's bad is that when I was still in the same office, I'd pick up the linguistic cues and start mimicking her without trying to, and that would confuse our callers, since I was the receptionist at the time. Although my favorite confused caller was from a prior reception gig where the guy was from west Texas and was absolutely convinced that I had to be from the same area because I somehow managed to nail his accent after hearing him say one phrase. Poor guy was utterly confused by the fact that I'd never been close to Texas at that point.

^-.-^

[Ironclad Alibi]

... is the added 'r' in words ... Chicagoland ...

The above reminded me of the following ditty from my childhood, and my mother's pronunciation:

Chicken in the car and the car won't go - Chi-car-go.

It's in the state of Ill-i-noise.

[Pagan]

It's in the state of Ill-i-noise.

My mom's family moved out here in 1960 from a small town in southern Illinois, about 50 miles north-(slightly)east of St. Louis.

To this day, it annoys the fool out of her when people pronounce it "Il-i-noise". "There's no 'noise' in Illinois!"