What's your favorite regional accent?

[Phillycat]

Which accent makes you smile?

And no region-bashing, please! If you kids can't behave yourselves, I'LL TURN THIS CAR AROUND!! :evilgrin:

[Bertha Venation]

1. Don't turn the car around, but: we West-Coasters don't have an accent...

...we have a stereotype, dude.

:)

[freedom_to_read]

22. a dialect perhaps

It's sad that when people think of a Southern California accent they immediately think of the way teenagers, like, talk, you know?

But most of us grow out of that phase and talk normal now, don't we?

Still there is a western accent. When I moved back east, everyone thought I talked funny.

[Phillycat]

26. No offense intended.

Didn't mean to stereotype. It's just been my experience with (admittedly younger) californians. :shrug:

[Biased Liberal Media]

35. Southern Californians...Northern Californians don't use "like"

a LOT. I started using like one year after going to school in soCal (raised/born in norCAL)

[GRLMGC]

69. Wait a minute

you guys have introduced "hella" into the vocabulary. I encounter this horrible phrase way too much. I'm from Southern CA, by the way and I've encountered many people from up North who talk in that stereotypical way.

[laheina]

88. We do have a few linguistic ticks

in NorCal. I've definitely observed that we say "like" more than normal in a conversation , but it's not in that Valley Girl way.

Hella I can't remember saying regularly since the late eighties, but it dies pop out ever now and then. Like the F word, sometimes it's the only way to make your point!

[Bertha Venation]

100. what's "hella?"

never heard it.

[Phillycat]

102. Hella good, hella cool, hella hard. Synonym for "very".

Everyone I know who's from California says this word 15,000 times a conversation. :shrug:

[Bertha Venation]

103. No longer EVERYONE. I've never even heard of it, much less

said it. :shrug:

[Phillycat]

104. I really think this must be a Northern/Southern Cali difference.

I think all the Californians I know are from Souther California. So clearly I am HELLA misinformed about the Northern dialect. Thanks for setting me straight. :)

[Bertha Venation]

106. You're saying it's Southern Californians who say "hella?"

I'm from Southern California, south of L.A., even.... :shrug:

Who knows? :D

[Phillycat]

107. Oh!

Never mind. I'm hopeless, clearly. :)

Do you know the band No Doubt? They do a song called "Hella Good". I think they're from Orange County?

[Bertha Venation]

108. Oh, heavens, janesez, don't ask me about bands

Someone just mentioned Good Charlotte to me earlier today and I said, "what's that, a french pastry?" I'm a philistine.

I've heard of No Doubt, but couldn't tell you where they're from or what songs they've done.

[Bertha Venation]

60. I know. It's totally cool.

Besides, judging from my subject line, there must be something to that stereotype.

[eataTREE]

96. Yes, you do.

It manifests itself most strongly in the 'o' sounds, both long and short. I can hear it every time I call some vendor's technical support line in Cali.

Homestar has a California accent.

[Bertha Venation]

99. I see.

You'd think being born and raised in a place, and living there for nearly forty years, would qualify one to speak somewhat authoritatively on a subject. :shrug:

[eataTREE]

101. No one thinks THEY have an accent, it's everyone else who talks funny.

[Bertha Venation]

105. Good point. Here's another:

I work in Washington DC, which naturally draws people to work from all over the country. I have asked countless people since I started working here, "where are you from?" because of their accents. I've never once had someone look at me funny as I speak, then ask me, "where are you from?"

[ogradda]

112. i was just thinking that

we are absolutely accentless.

[Huckebein the Raven]

2. voted new yawk but I've never heard a Philly accent. What

does it sound like ?

[Phillycat]

6. The vowels are odd.

Get a Philadelphia native to say "cherry coke" for you. It comes out something like "churry coake".

[JimmyJazz]

21. and we shop at the the Ampee (the A&P)

In Philadelphia, they call they way they talk "Fluffyan." That's the way the name of the city is pronounced, if you're from Fluffya. It's sort of like swallowing syllables the way a fan of “dah Fills” (The Phillies baseball team) might swallow a “jeez take” (cheesetake), the Fluffyan national dish.

If you've seen the 1976 movie "Rocky," you've heard Fluffyan spoken like a near-native. Sylvester Stallone nailed the accent and the lingo perfectly, as well as the attitude ('addytood'). As the never-say-die prizefighter Rocky Balboa, Stallone says "yo" a lot. At one point Balboa, the neighborhood wanna-be prize fighter -- who is courting his soon-to-be sweetheart and wife, Adrian -- says: "Yo, Adrian, I'm not used to tawkin' to a door."

http://www.npr.org/news/national/election2000/conventions/postcards.phillytalk.html

[Phillycat]

24. We also shop at the Ack-a-mee. (Acme)

:)

Why the hell does that have 3 syllables?

Edit: just clicked on your link. I love "Itlee", that's so true. How else would you pronounce Passyunk, except "Pashyunk"? :shrug:

[JimmyJazz]

29. Skuykill - Sure Kill!

I forgot about the Ack-a-mee!

oops: I mean, YO - I forgot about the Ack-a-mee!

They left I'mina off the list, as in "I'mina go to the Ack-a-mee now!"

[Phillycat]

37. Dinja go Saturday, wid Ant-ny?

[JimmyJazz]

46. Jeet?

No! J'dew - I'm starving! I need a hoagie! :P

[Phillycat]

47. Me too! I'm off to lunch! See ya in a bit!

[Danmel]

113. You also say O-Kay a lot

With a sort of odd inflection in the kay that i can't figure out how to transliterate.

[Phillycat]

116. Huh. I don't know about this one.

I've never noticed it. Can you give me some context?

[meow2u3]

39. I'm a native New Yorker living in Philly, so I can let you in on...

...some of Philly's pronunciation quirks.

Let's just put it this way: Herry up and burry the evidence.

[Phillycat]

40. "Herry" is a good example of the vowel weirdness.

Wooder for water too.

[JimmyJazz]

49. FOR THE RECORD - I DO NOT SAY WOODER!

:P

[obreaslan]

58. Ya beat me to Wooder...

I'm from South Jersey, or South Philly Lite. We have refined the Philly accent to perfection. Some examples:

Manager=Myanager (or Banyana)
Sandwich=Samwhich
Breakfast=Breffist

And for fun, let got to the...

Italian Market=Talyin-Mawkit

[NamVetsWeeLass]

3. Pittsburgh!

The area was physically my home for 31 years, It is always home in my heart. I hear that accent and I can just feel myself smile.

[arwalden]

5. You Mean "Picks-burgh"?

[NamVetsWeeLass]

117. or the ever lovely Pissburgh anat. eom

[sniffa]

30. reddup

[NamVetsWeeLass]

118. Yeah< redd up your room anat, so we can go dahwn to

Pants anat. We'll stop by Primanni's an grab an Arn an a Sammich while we're out anat.

[Beware the Beast Man]

41. I'm goin' dahn Pants n'At.

Don't be a jagoff ;)

[NamVetsWeeLass]

115. Don't be no Jag Off Beast. n/t

[Kurt Remarque]

66. after over 40 years in pittsburgh

i moved to philly and discovered that sputzie, jaggers,"red-up" etc. aren't words at all!

[NamVetsWeeLass]

119. yep, they aren't... according to who though?

You can't trust anyone from Philly anat, Dude, they have the Fliaers anat..... And They ain't got no Hoagies neither. ROFLMAO.

[minerva50]

89. My parents were both Pittsburghers and the accent sounds like family to me

I grew up in Maryland. I thought my uncles, aunts and cousins had a charming way of speaking and sometimes heard similarities to to the way my parents spoke. My mother and I were travelling on a train a few years ago, chatting as we sat. As we got up to leave, the lady behind us asked, "Which one of you ladies is from Pittsburgh?" Evidentlly Mom's accent is still apparent to others, though to me, she just sounds like Mom. I do recognize it when I hear it from strangers, and it still brings warm, familiar associations.

[NamVetsWeeLass]

121. Kinda funny, here in West BY GAWD virginny, they pick

the Pittsburgh up in my voice almost immediately. I don't fly into Pittsburghese unless scared, excited or I hear someone speaking my native tongue. I have had little old people here tell me "I ain't taking that-there medicine offa You, yer a yankee." Ummmm. Sure. OK.I have to now inform you that WV didn't fly the stars and bars officially, either. It was the Biggest Brother V Brother state in the civil war, but officially, Yuinz guys are yanks too, anat!

[JVS]

4. Pittsburgh accent. The classic Yinzer

[Spiffarino]

7. North Carolina's Outer Banks

From Manteo to Ocracoke, it's probably like nothing you've heard. The accent comes from Elizabethan times.

"It's hoi toide on the souinde soide."

[tsakshaug]

8. Which southern?

I prefer the accent of the NC Piedmont, do not like the more nasal mountain accent.
When i lived in Boston, I could figure out the neighborhood a person was from by the accent.

[Phillycat]

14. See, I don't know enough about the differences to post different ones.

Sorry. :evilfrown:

[short bus president]

32. Yes - NC Piedmont is a FINE accent.

Unfortunately I don't have it. I have a combination Virginia/Arizona accent, with touches of Brooklyn when I'm drunk. Or, I should just say, with touches of Brooklyn. ;-)

[mwdem]

52. N.C. Piedmont for me...I still have it after being away

for over 25 years. When I'm tired, it's really apparent.

[Wat_Tyler]

Manchester.

[Phillycat]

12. I only included American accents...

someone should do a world accent poll. :)

[Wat_Tyler]

15. Yeah, with 5654 choices.

:P

[Phillycat]

17. Yeah, but

you could do, you know, British, Spanish, French, Indian, Asian. You know, overgeneralize. That never pisses people off, does it? ;-)

[China_cat]

63. Well, I clicked 'other'

because I prefer the Frisian accent, myself.

[candy]

9. Boston,no contest and easily recognized. n/t

[hippiechick]

10. WisCAHNsin, goin to da Packer Game dis weekend, eh ?

:hippie:

[no name no slogan]

76. Aw, jeez, who let da cheezhedds in here?

Ya, da Vikes are gonna go all da way dis yeer.

:evilgrin:

[HEyHEY]

11. South London

I fink iwts a terrif accent

[Wat_Tyler]

16. I fink yoor a fukkin mowron.

[HEyHEY]

50. Oi! Fuck off fen, stop being such a minca

[Zuni]

13. I have to say Baltimore, because it reminds me of my dad

My dad grew up in Baltimore and he and his family had the thickest accents. I have a slight 'Murlin' accent, but my dad used to make me laugh when I was a kid when he said certain words.
Some Baltimore pronunciations
Baltimore---Balimer
Maryland---Murlin
Pretty---Purdy
Water---warter

Senator Barbara Mikulski has a good example of a Baltimore accent

[XNASA]

18. Whassamatter. Don't no one like how Dennis Farina talks?

To me Farina has the best Chicagoese of anyone on TV. Joe Mantegna sounds like a real Chicagoan as well.

I can see why people don't really like Chicagoese. It's pretty difficult to listen to sometimes. So nasally.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

19. I like Connecticut's

n/t

[Phillycat]

20. The lock-jawed Kennedy diction?

Chow-dah!

[Zuni]

23. That would be more Boston

The Kennedys are from Boston

[Phillycat]

25. Huh. What does Connecticut sound like?

[short bus president]

27. Joe Lieberman,

only somewhat more awake.

[Phillycat]

31. Ha ha! Probably less Republican, too...

[sniffa]

36. Liser, cuber, sofer

[Phillycat]

42. Translation? I'm guessing that last one is "sofa".

[sniffa]

45. Lisa, cuba, and sofa

kenndy/joe quimby accent. :P

[Phillycat]

48. Got it. Vote Quimby.

[Zuni]

54. Vote Sideshow Bob for Mayor.

[KamaAina]

28. Wot, no mo' room fo' da kine Pidgin?

Try listen sometime, mainlan' buggahs! Wot, you nevah like?

Note: Opihi does this a LOT better than my haole self!

Edit: Great. I can spell all the Pidgin words but not 'better'. Shoots!

[Zuni]

33. Are you from Hawaii? I knew Haole is a derogatory term for whites

among the islanders

[KamaAina]

85. 'Haole' is only a derogatory term if used in a derogatory way

kind of difficult to explain to off-islanders, but most of the time, it is merely a descriptive term for Caucasians. Others include "pa-ke" for Chinese (also used to mean "cheap", rather like being a "Scotty"), "so-le" for Samoans, etc.

Now and again you will hear a person of color refer to "f---kin' haoles". This is the point at which it becomes derogatory. The same goes for "damn pa-kes" or whatever.

Oddly enough the only one of these words that is always construed as derogatory, like the N-word, is "popolo" -- African-American. Go figure.

[Phillycat]

34. Is this Hawaii?

Yes, I've run out of room on the poll. Sorry. :cry:

[Biased Liberal Media]

38. Oh I love Hawaiian accents. I chose Boston but I have to change my vote

to this!!!

[Estel]

43. N'awlins, cher

[Phillycat]

64. Oh yes, I like the N-awlins accent very much, too.

[Beware the Beast Man]

44. Also, Midwest: add a short "e" sound to every short "a" sound.

Example:

Beack, eaccident, atteack, sneack, etc.

[no name no slogan]

82. That's very S Wisconsin, N Illinois

and I hear it a lot in Lower Penninsula Michigan, too. Strangely, it's not in Minnesota or Iowa as much.

In S. Minnesota and N. Iowa, they actually transpose the 'e' and 'a' sounds in the above words, so that the short 'a' is almost long 'a'-sounding: so a "bag" becomes a "baeg", "wag" becomes "waeg", etc.

Must be all the corn.

[Beware the Beast Man]

86. Mostly along the lake shores, I noticed.

People I've met from Cleveland, Buffalo, etc. all have that same nasal dialect thing going. But I'm a yinzer myself.

[212demop]

51. I'm a New Yorker (but not a New Yawka, not that there's anything wrong

with that), however, my affection for the chicago accent runs deep- I went to college there, and my best friend lives there, so when I hear it it makes me think of her.

[Midnight Rambler]

53. Texas

To my ears, at least, a Texas accent sounds different from your typical southern accent. Listen to the way * talks (I know he's not a real Texan, which pisses me off to no end) as opposed to, say, Bill Clinton or John Edwards. Actually, now that I think about it, Ross Perot is probably the better example of that Texas drawl, albiet a bit more nasal.

[damntexdem]

55. Chilean Spanish.

Hey, where I grew up, people didn't have accents -- but they all developed one later.

[RebelOne]

56. I have a Philly accent.

Even though I grew up in South Florida and am now living in Georgia, I have not been able to shake that accent. People still ask me what part of the North am I from.

[the Princess]

57. TEXAS!!!!!!!! Baby!

It's different from any other southern accent and it makes me melt! Give me a tall Texan with a beard and a deep voice and I am a GONNER!!
*swoooon*

:)

[mcscajun]

59. Cajun, naturally... (n/t)

:)

[Rambis]

61. KC airport a couple years back

This guys sits down next to me and says... So you like spatz? I said, you must be a saux fan? He says yeah, I say, I am as big a loser as you because I am a Cub fan. We had a nice chat. I am still a loser!

[Phillycat]

65. Poor baby.

Hey, if the Sox can do it, you guys gotta be next! :hug:

[Rambis]

80. Congrats!

Although you had two X cubs you know? If you have 3 X Cubs on your roster it is a metaphysical impossibility to win the world series.

[Rjnerd]

62. Yorkshire (North riding)

You have to drag the words out with a draft horse, and they bite of the end anyway... (same sort of thing with rural vermont)

Down maine can be entertaining.

I do know one genuine cockney (who sounds the part).

[AlCzervik]

67. My own wicked bad Boston accent so out of place in Northern California

[HEyHEY]

68. No-one loves the mumbling speed talk of my hometown?

[Phillycat]

70. What is your hometown?

[Wat_Tyler]

71. He's from the Couve.

[HEyHEY]

79. Vancouver, British Columbia

[regularguy]

72. Born in Brooklyn, settled in Philadelphia.

Youse got a frikkin' problem wid dat?

[Phillycat]

73. Er, no sir! Go Iggles!

[flygal]

74. Neu Oh -leeeenz babie!

[no name no slogan]

75. How To Talk Minna-soh-tan like a native

How to talk Minnesotan (from a 35-year-old native speaker):

Ya, shure, yoouu betcha!
(Absolutely! I'm on it!)

=============================================

Hey dere, we're all goin to da store to git sum cannees. Djawana come with?
(We're going to the store to purchase candy. Would you care to join us?)

==============================================

Ole makes his first trip to Minneapolis/St Paul (aka "The Cities") to go see a live show of "A Prairie Home Companion". On the way to the Historic State Theater, he walks past the 'Gay 90s', a drag bar and local landmark. He sees a drag queen and says: "That's different."

(Now, what the hell was that?!?!)

==============================================

Jim: Howya doin' dere, Bahb?
(Bob): Not too bad, considerin.

(Jim): Hello Bob, how are you?
(Bob): I'm FANTASTIC, never been better!


==============================================

That's all for now. I got a hotdish in the oven I gotta go check before company gets here.

:P

[Phillycat]

77. That's really funny!

Thanks for posting. :)

[no name no slogan]

83. There's a whole book about MNan out there somewhere

IIRC it's called "How to Talk Minnesotan". In fact, they even made a musical about it a few years back.

Yeah, we're a strange breed. But what do you expect from a place that has winter 5 months a year?

:dunce:

[Phillycat]

84. God. I would shoot myself.

I hate the cold (and I live in the Northeast. Yes, I'm weird.)

I shivered through all of Fargo, and it was SUMMER.

[no name no slogan]

109. Fargo!

Man oh man, it was unsafe to leave the state after that came out! Even my friends in the UK saw that film! It's funny, because I drive by most of the locations in the film on a daily basis-- even the ones that are supposedly in Fargo are located in Minneapolis or Saint Paul.

Gotta hand it to the Coen brothers-- they know their stuff. BTW, they come from the same Minneapolis 'burb that both Al Franken and Tom Friedman came from-- St. Louis Park. Must be the water.

[Phillycat]

111. Honestly, I didn't know anything about Minnesota or any of that

area before that movie. I had no idea what their accent sounded like or anything. I'm from the East Coast and don't know much about the middle of the country. :dunce:

[SmileyBoy]

122. Not only do I live in Fargo, but I graduated from St. Louis Park HS.

That's one of the reasons why Fargo is my favourite movie.:)

[no name no slogan]

87. We even have a book and a musical about our strange language

Glad to share it! Here's a good intro to the land of 10,000 lakes (and several million mosquitos).

[underpants]

78. OH I SEE ONLY ONE ACCENT FOR THE WHOL E SOUTH

But New York Boston Philly (known for their sandwiches and not much else) and even Baltimore get their own.

I see how it is.

I personally favor a sweet Virginia accent to say a Tidewater accent or a Valley accent but the sweet Virginia accent can be closely approximated by the Southern West Virginia accent-though that tends to be a bit higher- but not really a Western Carolina accent which is more like an Eastern Tennessee accent and of course an Eastern Carolina accent is much like the Tidewater accent (at least the northern half of the Carolina East)and I would be remiss if I didn't mention a strong Georgia accent that can cool even the most humid of days like a fresh breeze.

[Phillycat]

81. Um.

Okay. :)

[gollygee]

90. Should I be offended that my accent only has 2 votes?

I think SW Mich. has a Chicago style accent.

:D

[Phillycat]

91. Nope, mine only has 3. :)

[Zuni]

92. mine has none, because I voted before it was a choice

[Phillycat]

95. I'm sorry, pumpkin.

:hug:

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

93. Yeah

I gotta echo underpants here. Just in TEXAS, I can tell the difference between someone from Cooper (pronounced Cuhper not COOOper) and someone from Houston or someone from Dumas or Dallas.

So let's see. My favorite would have to be DEEP East Texas. I mean Heart of Darkness East Texas, not Paris and shit. Rural rural rural east Texas. THAT dialect is smokin'. Rich and thick and honeyed but somehow very different from the deep south proper dialect. No dropping of the r's....it's hard to describe.

[Left Is Write]

94. Well, hey, I guess I hafta say Minnah-sohtan, then.

'Cause dat's where I'm from and all. ;)

Maybe I never lose my Minnesota "accent" in favor of speaking like Idahoans. I've lived here for four years and do not consider myself an Idahoan. I am, and always will be, a Minnesotan.

As an aside: ten years ago I was working in radio in Central Wisconsin. I went on a semi-working vacation to Nashville. While sitting in a bar one night waiting for someone, I struck up a conversation with the guy next to me. He said, "Where are you from? Minnesota?" Coyly, I answered, "I live in Wisconsin." He said, "Well, you might LIVE in Wisconsin, but I'll bet you're FROM Minnesota."

So how the heck did he know that? Nashvillians can tell the difference between Wisconsin and Minnesota? (Any Wisconsite or Minnesotan could, of course.)

I was raised in the Minneapolis suburbs. I don't sound like those out-staters....;)

Uff da.

[bloodyjack]

97. I love how Michiganders talk

They pronounce their R's but it's very similar to the Jersey accent from what I gather

bad-->byad
sad-->syad
glad-->glyad

and so on.

[Phillycat]

98. FULL DISCLOSURE: I voted for Philly, but I love Bahstan best.

Can't help it. That accent (especially on a guy) makes me weak in the knees. I find it incredibly sexy. :loveya:

[jcappy]

110. Brooklyn & Jersey City==me faves.

[realisticphish]

114. Northern Ohio/Cleveland

i love girls who talk with cleveland accents


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[mainegreen]

120. Duh, MAINE!

"It was blowin' sumn' fieahce, so Me and Maah took the skiddaaah down to town. Stahpt at the maahket and saw Bob. 'Nyuh."

Where I come from we dont say Ayuh. With the western maine accent its 'Nyuh. Downeasters talk slow, but we speed everything up, 'cept for some word like 'skiddaaaah'!

You know what a skidder is, right? :)

[VOX]

123. A *real* Texas accent is quite nice, and in women it's devastating...

to my heart, anyway.

I say *real* Texas accent to distinguish it from the lame sounds uttered by the phony Connecticut Carpetbagger who currently sits in the White House. :grr: