Has anyone ever personally told you that you have an accent? If so, what kind of accent did they believe you have? Where are you actually from and do YOU believe you have an accent?
I was born and raised in California but have never been told that I have an accent per se, although I have been told that I “talk proper” from people out of State.
I guess I’m just curious to know what everyone’s experiences are!
Comments
I mean, everyone has an accent of some kind. It just depends if you are around people with the same accent.
When I speak Swedish: No not really. My accent is pretty close to being as “standard” Swedish as it can get.
When I speak English: Yeah all the time and they are 100% correct. People can usually tell that I’m from some European country immediately, but guesses as to which country range from Sweden to Finland to Italy or even Russia.
I grew up in Wisconsin, and everyone I talked with sounded normal. Then I moved to California, and people said I had a Midwest/Wisconsin accent at first, but then it went away. Now when I go back to visit family in Wisconsin, I can very easily tell there’s a huge accent.
So yeah, everyone has an accent of sorts, many just don’t consider it until you’re out of the region long enough.
Everyone has an accent, just because someone who has the same accent as you has never told you , you don’t have an accent, doesn’t make it true.
I have a bit of a Puerto Rican accent but people just say I sound “Spanish” or “Mexican.”
I am an East TN native. Growing up, I hated the way everyone around me spoke because I thought it made them sound dumb (based on TV and movie depictions, most likely). I worked hard to lose my “country” accent. Now, people in East TN think I’m from elsewhere, and people from elsewhere in the US think I’m from somewhere in the South but they just can’t pinpoint where.
In the UK, they think I’m from US South (I am!). But it’s funny, in France, they think I’m from Scotland. (I do have some Scottish heritage, so it doesn’t bother me. Ha!). In Belgium, a lady guessed that I was Canadian, but I was speaking French at the time.
I was told by a deli manager at an Alabama Publix that I had a weird accent. I have a Midwestern accent with a touch of Yinzer.
I’m from Arizona and I also never thought I had an accent, but a couple of years ago I went to Europe with a tour group from all over the world. There were a handful of Australians in the group who loved my California accent 😂
I’ve been told that my accent is messed up. I’ve moved around a lot and have parents from different parts of the country, so my accent is a muddled up mess.
I have a mild speech impediment, so yes. All the time. And when I tell people I was born nearby they doing believe me.
I’ve gotten a lot better at handling it over the years, but I still dread the ‘where are is your accent from’ wherever meeting new people.
My people trekked across the country from Arkansas to settle in California during the Great Depression to work in agriculture; people couldn’t understand why a Cali kid sounded like a hillbilly lol.
All the time. I was born in the states, but have lived in the UK since I was 10. I have lived in several difference counties in the UK, so have a mixture of an American accent, Dorset (Farmer) and Bristol accent.
Everyone has an accent. I’m from Texas. I have a north Texas metro accent, that gets more southern Appalachia when I talk to certain family members.
If you’re from California you likely have what most would classify as a general American accent, though California does have several distinct accents.
Every time I go on call with friends from other countries, the first thing they say without fail is “Wow, you really are British” so yes, I have one. I asked once and i was told I sound very stereotypically British – like the posh pip pip cheerio type voice.
I once got told that I have no accent and that it was weird. I’m from the PNW and was in DC at the time.
No.. but for most of my life, when I introduced myself people would think my name was Jason..
It’s not my name,
but ironically as a kid I wished it was.. love Power Rangers.
Would people hearing me say my name wrong insinuate that im speaking with an accent of somesort..?
To be pedantic: everyone has an accent. You don’t think about it until you are exposed to people with different accents, but you still have one.
To actually answer the question: yes. I’m Canadian. When I was 12 I was in Air Cadets (similar to US Civil Air Patrol I think?) and the summer camp was the first time I’d been far from where I grew up and interacting with people. My fellow cadets seemed to think I talked funny.
In my adult years I’ve made online friends and spoke to them in voice chats and they love to point out when my accent gets super Canadian.
My accent is regional enough that I don’t want to dox myself by naming it. But it does have its own name.
Yes, I hear that all the time, whenever I travel out of state people always ask, “New Jersey! Am I right?”
Everyone has an accent, but people will only notice when you go to a place where the accent is different.
I get it a lot. “I like your accent, where are you from?” New York. “Really?” Yep. Born and raised in New York. Parents born and raised in New York.
Most people think it’s a Southern accent? Sometimes I get European.
Ironically, back in elementary school, I was in Speech Therapy for what in hindsight was a very New York accent. (“-uh” as an ending in place of “-er/-or”)
Yes i have been told i have a New England drawl by someone in New Jersey
I’m Puerto Rican. People in Portland ask me if I’m from New York.
I grew up all over – military family – and so people are always trying to figure out where I am from based on my accent.
And I also do apparently weird words that are local to certain areas of the country itself. So people have no clue what I’m talking about and then I have to try to figure out how to say it normally.
ive been told i sound a little british because of the slang i use lol
Years ago I moved from Arizona to Scotland. People comment on my accent almost every day!
It’s nothing unusual or sexy because there are Americans everyewhere in Scotland. But I get mistaken for a tourist a lot.
Yep! Outside of the US, people tell me my accent is “clearly American, like what you hear in movies.” In the US, I get “California” or “west coast”. I’m from Nevada so that all tracks.
Sometimes people comment on my lack of accent.
Yes. I grew up in South Jersey and when I moved to Florida multiple people told me I have a Philadelphia accent. I’m like well, I grew up about 20 minutes outside the city.
yep. born and raised in philly and i know full well that i sound like it. “water,” is the big tell but generally people from the northeast are able to pick it out.
I visited TX from ID. Met a cute woman that said I had an accent and I must be from the north. Never had that before. Anyways, great girl, had a fun time and a pleasant visit
I had a bf from Texas once, and he said he liked my accent. I’m from Iowa, I’m not sure what my accent is, lol.
Yep. Born and raised in Minnesota. Now I live in southern Mississippi. People tell me all the time. There are a few things that I say where I think to myself “yep, there it is” (meaning my accent)
I’m from Ontario and was on the phone with an international colleague in Conneticut and it was vocally shocked that I apparently didn’t have an accent (or, per him, that I “spoke normally”). Which was funny, because he definitely had a New England accent.
But generally, I guess I have what’s considered a sort of “neutral” accent in English, in that I speak similarly to how the majority of “generic Americans” do on tv. However, if I drink, or if I am speaking to someone who has one of a few specific accents, I’ll start to unwittingly pick it up over the course of the conversation. Or if I speak French – I definitely know I have a strong anglo accent when I speak French.
i havent specifically been told i have an accent but its super fucking obvious to me that i do absolutely have one lmaoooo. honestly people probs cant even pin down where im from sometimes… though ig it depends on what my accent is doing that day
Im literally from Utah and someone “welcomed me to America” when I got on a public transit bus during the scandavian festival lol. I asked them why they thought I was not American and they stated my accent when I say thankyou.. that the you sounded Swedish…
I have a (what I think is subtle) Minnesota accent. People who have never been exposed to it tend to pick up on it. I had a customer service woman SWEAR I had to be Canadian. She claimed she could SEE Canada from her desk, so she knows what “we” sound like. I finally gave up on trying to convince her it was a Minnesota accent, just so she would drop the point and help me.
In Brazil, I had a native ask whether I was Arabic, of all things, due to my non-native Portuguese accent.
Omg yes. I lived my whole life in California up until I went to college in 2011. When I got to Boston someone asked me if I was high or from California because of the way I talked. My answer to both was yes lmao.
Yes, often.
Apparently my north East Scotland/Tayside accent can be quite….thick.
Most people get it fairly correct, as I do have an American southern accent and I was raised in the south. Most people don’t guess a state though, and when they do they never say the correct one, I think most people just don’t think about my state much at all.
Personally, I don’t think I have that strong of an accent. I know I have one as it’s been pointed out to me a good number of times, and I can tell I talk a bit different from most people I speak with, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near as strong as some people act like it is. I know when I talk with family and such they make me sound like I walked out of California or something.
When I moved from Toronto Canada to Seattle Washington, someone asked me if my accent was from Spokane…? Lol no.
I’ve lived here 18 years and the Canadian is almost completely gone, except when I say “sorry,” which is still quite often. You never outgrow it, sorry.
I get the most random ones. I’m from upstate NY. And all growing up I’d get anything from Boston or Chicago, to people thinking I’m British. I’m now in Florida, and still get the same guesses. Though I do get some that guess NY, usually others from the same area as me. Oh. And New Jersey.
Yes
By non Americans – American.
Americans – Canadian / other international accent that’s not quite either.
By PoC – white.
By young/illiterate (lol) people – nerd.
In my defense English was my second language, I learned it in a school. So yes I speak standard English as my (now) primary language, but I’ve picked up dialects over the years.
You probably sound very American to anyone else.
I am Italian and I have a British English accent. I’ve been told PLENTY when speaking English but only native speakers can also detect the hints of Italian under it all.
In Italian I have a normal amount of detectable regional accent, but it’s not too heavy and it’s pretty normal for an Italian to hear other regional accents.
My sister lives in Connecticut and I live in Ontario and we make fun of each other’s accent all the time
I’ve had people ask if I’m from Chicago. I’ve lived in Washington and Oregon for the vast majority of my life… but my parents are both originally from Chicago, and apparently some of my pronunciation reflects that.
Yes, I have been told, although not very often, that I have an NYC accent. I only lived there for around 9 months when I was around 5 years old. It probably didn’t hurt that my parents were New Yorkers.
I’m Scottish so yes
I was born and raised in the south in the US and I definitely get told I have a southern accent.
I’m from Pennsylvania. I was asked if I’m from Boston. Never been there.
I grew up in southern Ohio and moved to Utah at 18. When I first moved I CONSTANTLY had people asking me where I was from after hearing me talk. One person said “Are you from Texas or something?” Hasn’t happened in a long time now, but recently I said something to a friend about having lost my accent and he said, “Oh, you think you have, huh?” with a smirk. My in-laws met my parents and said they had southern accents. I can’t hear it at all.
Less being told I have an accent more people trying to guess where I’m from based on it.
I’ve had Americans assume I’m British.
Some Australians assume I’m American, but most other Australians can tell.
Some Irish people assume I’m British.
Some Brits assume I’m British, but I’ve had some assume I’m American.
New Zealanders can normally tell, but I’ve had some assume I’m either American or British.
Scotts can generally tell that I’m Australian.
I haven’t met any Canadians.
I live in Alabama. To people here, I sound like people on TV or something. But to literally anybody else, I have a Southern accent. I agree, though I think it’s slight. And very cute 😎
I’m from Massachusetts. Anytime I go out of New England, I’m asked about my “accent”.
When I was about 13, I visited my uncle in Los Angeles. I’m from Philadelphia. Every single person I spoke to mentioned not only my “accent”, but also that I spoke so fast that they could barely understand me. Total strangers butted into my conversations to comment about it.
I figure this is why people from southern California all seem to have that slow and sleepy “surfer dude” inflection to me? Either way, I had to make a constant effort to speak more slowly while I was there.
Californian here too. I also have never been told I have an accent.
I am from Michigan, and worked in Australia a few years ago. I was told that i sounded canadian alot while i was there.
As soon as I speak everyone knows I’m from New Orleans.
I grew up in Wisconsin. I had to go to North Dakota for work once a few years ago. They overly teased me about my accent, asking me to say all kinds of words. 🙄
I grew up in Ohio, spent most of my 20s in NYC, and have lived in California since then.
No one has mentioned me having an accent myself, but they’ve often asked my kids if they’re from England.
I don’t hear a British accent in any of them, and I know they’re not faking it or anything, they’re just talking normally. But we’ve gotten that comment a bunch of times.
I definitely got a Massachusetts accent but I feel like I have a drawl also. It’s weird lol
East Texas accent. Lived in the Middle East and everyone thought I was Australian 😂
Most of the people you hear on TV have a generalized American accent that is typical of Californians. So I think most people in the US have heard it a lot and don’t think it’s unusual.
Yes. I’m Danish, living in Denmark, but working with lots of people from around the world so at work at speak English. People can usually hear I’m Danish
Yes but it’s kinda funny. I worked in a call center for a long time and talked to people all across the US. I would get a lot of “I don’t hear an accent. Where are you from?” I would tell them and they’d say “no way!!! I don’t hear it. You just sound… neutral. I asked because I couldn’t pinpoint it!”
1 out of 20 would ask me where I lived first. I would say Alabama. Then they would say “oh yeah I totally hear that!” No. No you don’t. 🤣 If you think my accent is Alabama then I have bad news for you when you get someone who has the accent 😳🤣
Don’t get me wrong, I can manufacture a thick southern drawl when needed. I just don’t have it, and have never had it, as my default. Yes, my entire family sounds very southern. I am unsure what happened because if you put me around anyone else (like my German bestie) I take on some of their accent and speech patterns. Just not the southern ones 🤣🤣🤣🤷🏻♀️
I called my cousin one day when I was about 10 or 11. I didn’t tell him who it was and he immediately said “Hello, Razz, does your mom know you are calling?” I asked him how he knew and he told me I had the thickest Texas accent of all of his relatives.
Looking back, it’s hilarious, as my entire family is from Texas.
People point it out all the time. I definitely have a very strong accent. Born and raised in South Mississippi. My accent is so strong that sometimes even other Southerners have trouble understand what I’m saying.