posted
When I read Internet fora, email lists, etc., I "picture" everyone with a northern or neutral accent. It's usually a strange shift when I meet someone for real and they have (unsurprisingly) a southern accent.
So, when those of you who hail from southern states read other people's posts, do you picture southern accents or northern (for example, when you read posts by people whose background you do not know)?
The natural answer would seem to be 'southern," but TV has an all-pervasive influence on language and often is cited as the main cause of homogenization of accent in America. So I figure it may cause people to look outside their own region for generalization.
I'm just trying to learn to read minds one step at a time.
Posts: 720 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
My mother and I both sound like my grandma, who is from Wisconsin originally. So I always hear a slightly southern paced neutral accent, myself. Except with fun words like "Oy!" Then I hear my dad's New York accent he drags out for special occassions.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote: My mother and I both sound like my grandma, who is from Wisconsin originally. So I always hear a slightly southern paced neutral accent, myself. Except with fun words like "Oy!" Then I hear my dad's New York accent he drags out for special occassions.
Funny story, when I was 4 years old my mother took me to speech therapy because she thought I had a speech impediment. The therapist looked at her like she was nuts since I just had picked up her Russian accent, which she had in turn gotten from her Russian father. So we took speech therapy together to lose our accents.
What? I can hijack my own thread.
Quit looking at me like that. Posts: 720 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
I'm from Missouri- currently live in Kansas- I don't think I have an accent at all. I recently lived in Minnesota for over a year. They all insisted that I had an accent when they were the ones that all talked like the people in the movie Fargo- ya you betcha Posts: 295 | Registered: Jul 2004
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added: Even though I was born in/ have lived most of my life in southern states, southern accents have grated on me since I was about five. Not that it sounds bad, but it's just very obvious to me.
posted
I also don't think about accents. In fact, I don't listen to the accents of people around here. In fact... I'd go further, I don't listen to people around here. Being from alabama can be such a drag!
Posts: 96 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
I've been registered since July- so where abouts in Kansas? I'm way out in here in Western Kansas- Dodge City
Posts: 295 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I'm between Wichita and Hutch (work in Wichita). We have two others -- punwit and Kayla -- which are both NE Kansas (KC region). That's all the Hatrackers I know in Kansas at this time.
Farmgirl
edit:(I have gone out to Dodge to take part in the Cowboy for Kids ride for Youthville. Love that area)
posted
We moved out to Dodge in July of 2001 and HATED it. We stayed a little over a year and moved up to Minnesota and we REALLY felt like square pegs in round holes . We decided that Dodge wasn't so bad. I Took a transfer back to Dodge and we really like it better now. Of course we came back with better attitudes . I actually just turned down a transfer back to Missouri (my son is a freshman this year I told him we would stay here until he finishes HS) After that who knows where we'll go except I never want to live north of Highway 70 again!!!! Posts: 295 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I don't usually "hear" accents when I read posts. Unless someone uses y'all to indicate a single person - then I know they're from the North somewhere.
posted
I don't hear accents when I'm reading posts. Maybe I'm not that talented (yet ).
When I went to Florida for school, people told me I had a midwest accent. I was confused. I didn't know there was even such a thing.
Posts: 298 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote: Unless someone uses y'all to indicate a single person - then I know they're from the North somewhere
Hmm.., I heard that a lot when I was in Texas a couple months ago. I heard it a lot from my roommate in Virginia who was from Texas as well. I don't hear it in the north too much. Of course, in Michigan we don't really have an accent. Unless you're a yooper. Then you might as well be from Weesconsin.
Posts: 2208 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Yeah, I hear everyone as neutral, and to me I don't have an accent. People I talk to on the phone tell me I have an accent but I only can hear it if I hear recordings of my voice.
I went to the world SF convention in Boston sometime in the 70s and I was shocked when Isaac Asimov spoke and he had a heavy NY/Boston accent. All those years in my head when I was reading all his books he sounded like he spoke perfectly normal conversational English.
Do some people from NY and California and the midwest not realize they have an accent? It's one that we hear a lot on TV or radio so it's more familiar sounding to everyone in the country, but every region has its own accent. One is not any different than another. They are all equivalent. I think they all sound great. I love people's accents.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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. We decided that Dodge wasn't so bad. I Took a transfer back to Dodge and we really like it better now. Of course we came back with better attitudes ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
. I actually just turned down a transfer back to Missouri (my son is a freshman this year I told him we would stay here until he finishes HS) After that who knows where we'll go except I never want to live north of Highway 70 again!!!! 
