Do you have an accent?
By laurika
@laurika (4532)
United States
November 19, 2007 6:09am CST
I do have one and I think I would have for rest of my life. I was on the party this weekend and when one lady find out I was from Europe she started asking me all kinds of questions, just to hear me talk, because she said she loves my accent. So I was thinking if you have one, what people think about it and if you can hear the different accents? Actually I can hear it very good and it is not hard for me to know, who is from german, england, india,...
7 people like this
31 responses
@sherrir101 (3670)
• Malinta, Ohio
19 Nov 07
Unless Ohio people have an accent, I don't have one. Twenty five years ago I lived in Texas and I came home with an accent. I do not have it any more. I love to listen to a southern drawl accent. It just gives me the shivers. LOL
@maddysmommy (16230)
• United States
19 Nov 07
I have a kiwi accent as I was born and raised in New Zealand. People here in the USA immediately think I am from England and or Australia LOL never NZ. Then they go onto telling me that "oh I have been to NZ yada yada yada" which I don't mind listening to them go on about the place. I just get homesick when they do LOL
@AmbiePam (92781)
• United States
20 Nov 07
Well, I've been all over the United States and everyone asks me from where I'm from because I don't have a detectable accent. Sometimes I'm sure I can use words that are distinct for a certain area of the US, but I don't think anyone could tell where I was from by listening to my voice. I met a woman at bookstore once, and she checked out my purchases. I loved her accent. She was from England, but I have heard English accents before. Hers had a great lilt to it. I really enjoy hearing someone British, Scottish, Irish, or Australian speak. It's fun to me. I could listen to some of them all day.
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
20 Nov 07
That is a funnier question than the one confusing soap with soup, my friend. If I went to Germany and tried to speak Deutsch or to France and tried to speak Francais or to Spain and tried to speak Espanol, I would have such a funny accent the locals would probably break their sides from laughing. But here in the US what I have is called a dialect and it changes a bit regionally, so that is a bit the same..
Once I was accused of having a schoolteacher accent. Truly! I went into a place to drop off some laundry and the proprietor said, "Schoolteacher, eth?" and I was amazed, being altogether new to the neighborhood. "You sound like one!" he sniffed.
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
26 Nov 07
As the first person who replied above said and others agreed, EVERYONE has an accent, but I think you meant the question to be whether people here have accents from their first language when they speak a second (or third, or fourth?) language. I am not laughing AT you, Laurika. When you say you can tell if a person is from Germany or England, do you mean when they speak the language they were born to or the one you were born to or English? If you travel from New York to Los Angeles and stop at various places along the way, you will hear that the local people sound very different as you travel even in the US.
@terrych (1227)
• United States
20 Nov 07
I do have an accent, Chilean accent, and my friends here, called also a latino... I am not really sure about what exactly that means, but some people told me that they love my accent...
But, also having an accent some times it is not good, because for some people is hard to understand me... because of my accent...
anyway nothing to do, just live with it!
@goodsign (2287)
• Malaysia
19 Nov 07
Hi Laurika.
Everybody has an accent as it is a particular way of pronouncing a language, associated with a country, area or social class.
Yes of course I do have one, people will straight away label me as Malaysian. And as well I can guess other's accent too, nice thing if we can communicate to each other in one community with assorted accents.
HAPPY DAPPY.
@littlefranciscan (18327)
• United States
19 Nov 07
That is really funny..since..everyone has an accent.. In your own country or city you may not .but if you go somewhere else ..yes you do..so yes when I am not in my home state.
@lancingboy (1385)
• United States
20 Nov 07
I'm from Texas too and was in Speech class in the first of my school years. I think I left that class when I was like in 3rd or 4th grade? The teacher said that there was nothing wrong with the way I talk and that I sounded British. When I talk I can hear myself and it sounds like it's a mix of British, German and Irish. I have NO idea how THAT is possible, because I am the only one in my family who sounds like that lmao!
I wonder if genealogy has something to do with it? I found out sometime last year that my family comes from all three of those countries mentioned above. Maybe it's a gene I inherited? I know I can speak German fluently, even though I have no idea what I am saying (if I'm reading from a piece of paper or something). I know how German sounds, I just don't know the English translation in other words.
@isaiah12 (416)
• United States
20 Nov 07
If you asked this question when I was in my teens I would have said no. But now I would have to say yes, a Boston accent.
I grew up in Whitman, Massachusetts. After I earned an Associate in Science degree in college I moved down in Norfolk, Virginia. When I first moved down there I had a hard time understanding people with their southern accents. But people would make fun of my "accent". They would ask me to say "park the car" over and over.
Everybody has an accent. It is something they pick up from where they grow up.
@chrislotz (8137)
• Canada
23 Nov 07
Everyone has an accent. It depends who is listening to hear it. I have had people say I have a Canadian accent by a person who is German. I think you hear a person's accent when you talk to someone from a nationality your not used to hearing or is different than your nationality.
@quentina (109)
• China
21 Nov 07
I am from china.may be I have oriental accent which is mild,sweet..but i like the voices from world anywhere.they all are special,fair-sounding.
@lilaclady (28207)
• Australia
20 Nov 07
I guess everyone has an accent to someone, and I guess no-one thinks they have one until someone from another country tells you about it. I t is strange I can't tell the difference between American and Canadian accents, I think they are so similar...
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
20 Nov 07
I do still have an accent. It's not very noticeable except when I'm upset or excited about something.
I do like my accent and here in toronto people don't really pay much attention to something like that. However I've been in some places where having an accent makes people look at you funny :)
@3lilangels (4639)
• United States
19 Nov 07
well from being born in the u.s. i guess to other people i do have some sort of accent,some people tell me i talk like a new yorker.i think all people have a little accent of their own.pattie
