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This is mostly a rant/vent unfortunately but hopefully it will spark some sort of intelligent conversation.
So I moved to Atlanta from NY. I grew up in CT and NY (upstate and downstate) and all of my family is from NY, CT, or RI. I didn't realize until I moved down here that my accent is mashed up and annoying as hell.
I do the typical NYC words like coffee, dog, and talk like cawfee, dawg, and tawk. That's how my family members from Brooklyn and Staten Island say it so I guess I just naturally picked it up.
But my mother's family is from RI. They also say those words the same but they do the "r" thing that I think Boston people do as well. Car become cah and door become doowah (not sure exactly how to type it phonetically). Under becomes unduh and garbage becomes gahbage.
My family from NYC doesn't do the "r" thing though. So when I talk to people, they don't get how I lived in New York but have the "r" problem.
I considered taking courses to lose the accent or at least weaken it a bit but my friend convinced me not to because he said it makes me unique to people in the South, which is a valid point. The ladies seem to love it down here.
It just sucks having a mixed accent sort of I guess you could say.
What sucks even more is that I'm half Asian and you never hear an Asian with this accent. The only people who are Asian in my family that I know are my dad and my grandmother. My mom comes from a gigantic family with the majority of them being Italian. The more I researched this whole accent thing, the more I understand that it's kinda an Italian thing.
Most people don't even know they have an accent, even after hearing themselves on a recording.
Yup. That's how my mom and her family is. But I guess since my dad talks semi-normal with a weird Asian-English twist, I kind of realized that I talk funny. Then when I moved to Atlanta, it really hit me.
I don't hear many people come forward and say that their accent is annoying. Been living in Mississippi for over 2 years now and I think 75% of the people here talk too slow and with so thick of an accent I can't understand them some of the time. It goes both ways though, being from the midwest they say they sometimes have a hard time understanding me...which doesn't make sense because nearly everyone on cable TV and movies has the standard American accent that I do.
Seems like the more annoying accents are the east coast/Bostonian accents and the deep south/hick accents. The rest of them are pretty pleasant I think, but it's all personal preference.
I know of several transplants in Mississippi who came from Florida, California, etc and have now picked up the southern accent after living here for a few years.
I'm not sure how the accents are in Atlanta, it's a big city, and big cities even in the south don't have the same thickness as the small towns do.
ja1myn - I had a chuckle over your post. I'm in the same situation as you, but in reverse. I grew up in the south (lived all over the south and midwest) and now live in Boston for the second time. I don't have a strong southern accent, but I certainly don't have a Boston accent. The first time I lived up here, I didn't want to talk because it was so obvious I wasn't from here. Now I've decided there are bigger problems in the world than my accent - lol. If I want to say 'fixing to go', then I'm going to say it.
I don't hear many people come forward and say that their accent is annoying. Been living in Mississippi for over 2 years now and I think 75% of the people here talk too slow and with so thick of an accent I can't understand them some of the time. It goes both ways though, being from the midwest they say they sometimes have a hard time understanding me...which doesn't make sense because nearly everyone on cable TV and movies has the standard American accent that I do.
Seems like the more annoying accents are the east coast/Bostonian accents and the deep south/hick accents. The rest of them are pretty pleasant I think, but it's all personal preference.
I know of several transplants in Mississippi who came from Florida, California, etc and have now picked up the southern accent after living here for a few years.
I'm not sure how the accents are in Atlanta, it's a big city, and big cities even in the south don't have the same thickness as the small towns do.
It's just annoying to me because I get asked by both people not from the northeast and from the northeast about why I talk like an old school Italian NYer/Bostonian yet I am Asian looking.
Yeah Atlanta is the same way. Native ATL people talk way too slow and take decades to get a sentence out.
The moment I begin to pick up the Southern accent, I am moving back north. No offense to anyone with a heavy Southern accent, it just isn't music to my ears.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KimmieP
ja1myn - I had a chuckle over your post. I'm in the same situation as you, but in reverse. I grew up in the south (lived all over the south and midwest) and now live in Boston for the second time. I don't have a strong southern accent, but I certainly don't have a Boston accent. The first time I lived up here, I didn't want to talk because it was so obvious I wasn't from here. Now I've decided there are bigger problems in the world than my accent - lol. If I want to say 'fixing to go', then I'm going to say it.
It's funny you brought up the "fixin'" thing. A guy who I work with is from NC and he always says he's "fixin' to do this or that" and I'm like "wtf are you tawkin' about?"
Only when I'm outside of the northeast and not in a heavy Italian area. Due to my family and where I grew up, I picked up a lot of Italian slang that I thought was normal since many people all over the northeast use it. Outside of the northeast, people mock it.
Only when I'm outside of the northeast and not in a heavy Italian area. Due to my family and where I grew up, I picked up a lot of Italian slang that I thought was normal since many people all over the northeast use it. Outside of the northeast, people mock it.
Yup that's probably the most annoying part about it is when people mock it. Or when I say something completely serious and they crack up as if it were a joke.
"fixin'" or another one is, "cut the lights on!" How can you cut something on? You can cut it off...but not on.
Being from the midwest we called it pop, that's probably the only part of the country that says it that way. The rest of the country says "soda" and the deep south calls it all coke, even if it's a Mountain Dew, it's a coke. SMH
"fixin'" or another one is, "cut the lights on!" How can you cut something on? You can cut it off...but not on.
Being from the midwest we called it pop, that's probably the only part of the country that says it that way. The rest of the country says "soda" and the deep south calls it all coke, even if it's a Mountain Dew, it's a coke. SMH
Never heard the cut the lights on thing. Does that literally mean turn the lights on?
My cousins from Indiana call it pop too and I never understood it either lol.
My main point of this thread though was mainly about how my physical appearance certainly does not match up with the way I speak.
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