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I have neither fear nor intention of replacing my midwestern accent with a Carolina accent, but I have instructed my wife to smack me over the head with a large tuna if I start drawling like a local.
No offense intended to the locals, of course. Mimicry just isn't something that comes naturally to me.
I have neither fear nor intention of replacing my midwestern accent with a Carolina accent, but I have instructed my wife to smack me over the head with a large tuna if I start drawling like a local.
No offense intended to the locals, of course. Mimicry just isn't something that comes naturally to me.
My DH is from St. Louis. I love his speech! I don't want him to lose a bit of his regional accent (even to - it is probably considered "no accent" - that lovely straight forward Midwest speech). He sounds ridiculous when he tries to say something w/ a Southern accent, LOL!!!!
I say - accents are fascinating and little markers that show where we have been . . .
First of all, "all y'all" is not a ubiquitous southernism. Where I grew up in SC, a person was referred to in the singular as "you." People were referred to in the plural as "y'all," which is a legitimate contraction of "you all." So once again, we have a sweeping generalization based on regional or class differences you personally experienced.
Not to legitimize people mocking other people, but have you ever heard the old saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans"?? If you move to an area with a distinct set of vocabulary, you would be well served to simply ADAPT to it. Once you realize everyone around you says "soda," why don't you just try saying "soda"? If I go to England, and I want a cookie, I figure out to ask for a biscuit. It's not that hard.
Agreed. Which is why I actually find the title of this thread to be offensive.
I am a native. I thought it was offensive that someone was worried they might end up sounding like me.
I have to tell y'all and yoose guys .... you ALL have accents. Westerners (not MIDwesterners) but WESTerners are the only ones without them.
BTW, I'm completely like joking.... totally, dude. (I guess that is more to do with form of English than accent though). :
However, I had a friend who taught English in South Korea and Japan. The company she worked for only recruited in the Western US States since this was the area that they found to be "most accent free".
However, I had a friend who taught English in South Korea and Japan. The company she worked for only recruited in the Western US States since this was the area that they found to be "most accent free".
Yeah, we're sort of like plain vanilla when it comes to this nation's accents (with exception to the valley).
My DH is from St. Louis. I love his speech! I don't want him to lose a bit of his regional accent (even to - it is probably considered "no accent" - that lovely straight forward Midwest speech). He sounds ridiculous when he tries to say something w/ a Southern accent, LOL!!!!
I say - accents are fascinating and little markers that show where we have been . . .
I have frequent... um, "discussions" ... with people from St. Louis about whether or not they have accents. Get them to say "hockey" and tell me that's not an accent!
When I call my friends in CA they tell me I'm starting to sound like I've lived in the south for quite a while. I didn't even realize I was talking like this. I've only been here for a few months. I love listening to people with a southern accent.
Not to legitimize people mocking other people, but have you ever heard the old saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans"?? If you move to an area with a distinct set of vocabulary, you would be well served to simply ADAPT to it. Once you realize everyone around you says "soda," why don't you just try saying "soda"? If I go to England, and I want a cookie, I figure out to ask for a biscuit. It's not that hard.
This is true when it comes to terminology. And it makes a lot of sense when it comes to efficiency, too. If for some reason, a particular region were to call sliced pickles 'slickles' and that's what was common place, as odd as it sounds, if people were already accustomed to it, then I would never take issue with it. Rather, embrace it. Now, going back to my old west coast haunts, as much as I would enjoy introducing new terminology, I think I would reference back to sliced pickles.
I love this nation's dialects. However, accents are only part of what makes a dialect since it also includes grammar, vocabulary and syntax. One can get the accent down, but without the other aspects of dialect, the phony ones are easy to pick out.
Though, personally, I wouldn't find it offensive if someone didn't want to 'sound' like me as long as they constructively knew why they did not like the sound I was emitting (assuming sound includes both the dialect and the actual sound of my voice since there are some people in the south I would not ever want to sound like, but I like their dialects).
AX SEEANT? WHAT AX SEEANT ? I've live in NC all my life and just because I say accent with 3 syllables doesn't make me sound like I have an AX SEEANT!
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Westerners (not MIDwesterners) but WESTerners are the only ones without them. 
