Do you speak with a heavy accent?

[Ren]

My accent is the same as other Aussie Australians, ie not immigrants that have arrived recently. Apparently my pronunciation of German is excellent too. Bath is pronounced barth, can't is pronounced carnt. Ass doesn't exist, the correct word is arse.

 

[Immortal]

Yes I do, as an Italian-Canadian who is trilingual (Italian, English, French) I sound "strange" to other Canadians.

Yea jeez Sysyphus ya hoser, don'ya no tat ta udders we soun' weeerd?

 

[newfangle]

I doont know what the hell you're talking aboot. Canadians doont have an accent.

 

[ejday]

In casual conversation, my English has a slight accent: part New York (neutral Manhattan) with occasional flashes of native Chicago (flattened, accented middle vowels). If I'm paying attention, I'm accent-free -- or as Sean put it, broadcast quality.

 

[Switch625]

I have that flat, slightly nasal, mid-western accent. Whether or not I mutilate the "a" and "r" sounds like the typical mid-westerner depends upon my mood. If I'm in casual conversation or feeling very angry, I probably will. If I'm speaking to make a point or in formal conversation, then I won't. In those cases, I have what Sean describes as a "broadcast quality" accent. In all cases, I suppose I would describe my accent as "light."

 

[Grisu]

in switzerland i speak baselbieterdütsch which is my canton's dialect (the different dialects are pretty extreme in swiss german, basel city (baslerdütsch) which is about 25km away from where I live has a completely different dialect).

when speaking high german I of course speak with that adorable swiss accent that never fails to amuse the germans

in english, I hope, my accent isn't too strong. I do have an accent but most americans can't identify it (most of them placed me in scandinavia)

 

[ejday]

Originally posted by KaeptnOvi
...when speaking high german I of course speak with that adorable swiss accent that never fails to amuse the germans ...

German accent story:
I remember vacationing in [what was still] West Germany in '88, Cologne IIRC, and I met a local who had been an exchange student in Houston and spoke very good English. The oddity: A German guy speaking English with hard Deutsch consonants... and a Texas twang. Absolutely surreal.

 

[CurtSibling]

I speak with a rich western Scots accent.
Glaswegians speak rather differently from our eastern rivals in Edinburgh.

It's funny how even over a small distance, there are speech and language differences.

Although I am Scottish, I have never said 'Och Aye.'
Where I am, people tend to say 'Ach Aye'.

I also can adopt a pompous, well-spoken phone manner when the need arises.

 

[ainwood]

I don't have an accent - everyone else does though!


In New Zealand, there are only three accents: Normal (which is how I sound), Southern (where they roll their "R" sounds - Wor-ik for work etc) and the "I'm actually from Opunake, but I was sent to boarding school so naturally I must speak with an Eton Accent" accent.

It is quite amusing to come to England and hear how people from each county have a completely different accent - especially when I work with people from all over the UK. Of course, those in Norfolk "don't get out much", so I can quite understand how their accent has developed in isolation

 

[Pillager]

I find it jolly difficult to make the distinction between an Australian and a NZ accent. The only way I can do it is to ask the Antipodean in question to say "fish and chips". If it comes out as "fush and chups", I know he's a Kiwi.

For Canadian, I find the best rule of thumb is if he sounds like Greg Rusedski he's Canadian, if not he's probably American.

 

[Mikoyan]

I speak general Stockholm-swedish, and i try to shake the whole swedish way of talking when i talk english, without proper success though. But if i try i can imitate scottish, irish, english and northwestern american accents. That usually works.

 

[col]

I had a strong lancastrian accent up to the age of 18. I went to live with the southern softies for a few years while at university and lost most of it. Living back in the north on the 'wrong' side of the pennines, folk round here generally have no idea what my accent is. I have even been accused of not being northern.

My wife as an ex southern boarding school gel has an extremely posh 'received pronunciation' accent and sound like she should be reading the news in an evening dress. She is beginning to learn to speak properly though and now drinks pints.

 

[Pillager]

Originally posted by col

My wife as an ex southern boarding school gel has an extremely posh 'received pronunciation' accent and sound like she should be reading the news in an evening dress. She is beginning to learn to speak properly though and now drinks pints.

Ah! You're ruining her! Quick send her down to Surrey for a while before it's too late.
God, you'll be taking her to Rugby League matches next!

 

[ainwood]

Originally posted by Pillager
I find it jolly difficult to make the distinction between an Australian and a NZ accent. The only way I can do it is to ask the Antipodean in question to say "fish and chips". If it comes out as "fush and chups", I know he's a Kiwi.

As an alternative, ask them to count to 10.

If "six" comes out as "sex", then they're aussies

 

[insurgent]

Danish English sounds awful, it's like a flat, toneless, and dumb accent. It hurts inside me, every time I hear it.

Therefore I am very eager to speak with a British accent, something actually I do. Other people tell me, I have a thick British accent. I was even told I had some half-British, half-American accent when I was in the US...

 

[Matrix]

My English got a bit of a Dutch accent, but my Dutch is as Dutch as it can get.

 

[Vrylakas]

I didn't think so but yesterday I called my wife's work and a new employee answered and I left a message for my wife with her. She then told my wife later that "some guy with an accent called for you."

D'oh!

In Polish I've worked hard to suppress my "eastern" accent as it has the connotation of hillbillies or something along those lines - though it was never strong. Polish is not like German, broken into such strong dialects that the different regions can barely understand each other. The only Polish I can't understand well is Silesian (i.e., my wife's) because it's mixed with medieval German.

 

[jpowers]

Originally posted by MrPresident
I don't have any kind of English accent. I pronounce path, grass, bath etc without the r common to southerners but I don't have any kind of Northern accent. Perfect BBC material. Although I do tend to shout in a slight Yorkshire accent. Having said that to other English speakers I would probably have a British accent.

How do you say 'bath' with an r? 'barth' or 'brath' or 'barath'?

 

[jpowers]

Originally posted by Matrix
My English got a bit of a Dutch accent, but my Dutch is as Dutch as it can get.

Is there a hevy Fries accent in Groningen? I saw a program on Dutch television once and people from Friesland were interviewed, and it was subtitled in Dutch.

 

[Dralix]

Contrary to what my co-workers think, I do not have an accent. I don't say aboot, I don't say "eh" ... I have adopted the American language so I can blend in unnoticed