Trench Kamen wrote:

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

my recently converted Jehova's Witness family members..

Do tell. This sounds like a good story.

I'll save it for the scary stories thread.

Last edited by OnlyInThisLight (05-21-2010 09:20:57 PM)

Ive been getting in touch with the hispanic portion of my heritage(s), so lately ive been saying small phrases in spanglish. Also to all my non american brothers and sisters, Im totally jacking (stealing) your slang.

I have a latent Boston accent. Normally this is something I can just turn on and off to amuse people, but when I’m particularly flustered, impatient, or groggy, I sometimes find myself reverting to it unintentionally. Roots run deep, I guess.

On the other hand, I speak Japanese with a Kansai accent because I deliberately trained myself to do so.

Also, I can’t roll my Rs at all. Never figured out how. I think that’s why I never felt right taking Spanish in high school. :shrug:

I can wear an accent after brief exposure, but I can't say that I really have one myself. My mother, however, will develop an abrasive southern accent the moment she picks up a phone, which is perhaps the most embarrassingly ridiculous things she does. I have an odd sort of speech impediment myself. My brain works at least four times faster than my mouth, so I get caught up in what I'm trying to say, what I mean, what I'm currently saying, and at least two other ways to say it all at the same time and end up tripping over my words and conjoining them irreverently on my tongue. This is grotesquely exacerbated with any kind of social pressure.

KillerxXxQueen wrote:

My brain works at least four times faster than my mouth, so I get caught up in what I'm trying to say, what I mean, what I'm currently saying, and at least two other ways to say it all at the same time and end up tripping over my words and conjoining them irreverently on my tongue. This is grotesquely exacerbated with any kind of social pressure.

Me too. Or I will combine a word with the following word in the sentence. Another thing ive noticed, is that if im excited enough words will simply refuse to form. I know the exact word I intend to use, but for some reason I am unable to vocalize it. So it will look like I just............................stopped midsentence.

Bluesky wrote:

zomg. I love Southern USA accents, I dunno what that's about since I come from the North of England and have never met anyone with one IRL, lol. But they sound so pleasing to the ear.

Some Southern US accents are so thick and rife with regionalisms that they seem like an entirely different language than from the rest of the country.

That's one thing about a nation as large and with such a varied history as ours... we may be one country, but there's all kinds of variations of American English depending on where you are. Still, I've got to give a lot of credit to the UK and Ireland which squeeze a lot of different dialects into such a small space!


Oh yeah! I just remembered this cool website I found years ago which is highly relevant to this discussion! The Speech Accent Archive. Enjoy!

Last edited by Imaginary Bad Bug (05-24-2010 08:48:20 AM)

We have very... distinct dialects here in Newfoundland. We don't share the Canadian accent of the mainland, and people who here us usually think that we're Irish, Scottish, or British(?).

Phrases like "Yes, b'y!", "Buddy, what're ya at?" and "Gettin' on the go t'night?" are pretty common. I'm, um, not really a fan of how we speak, and my accent, although present, is less extreme because I live near the city.

But yeah. It's pretty unique, which is definitely something.

Also, "Buddy dat's sum gay luh!" pops up all over the place. Good times.

I... I sound exactly how I type. D:

My voice DRASTICALLY changes in pitch and depth, because... I seriously forgot what I sound like. (I went near deaf as a kid, and it comes back at inopportune times.) I also supposedly have like, two of those things that hang from your throat? I obviously can't see it, but they considered getting me surgery for it, but surgery might have messed up my voice or something? I'm not sure. I don't even know if they fixed it.

I make LOTS of strange voices, and my mother has always wanted me to do cartoons. D: I just sit around making strange noises all day, seriously. D:

I also DON'T have a southern accent. People online always assume I do, and no, noone does where I live. (Except my aunt, and we have no idea why she does.)

I also say things like vegetamables and realimaties, and I'd type like that too, but its really hard. D: And I OVEREMPHASIZE words alot.

My family speaks spanish, and the only thing I caught of it is talking FAST. (A hispanic accent is talking at the speed of light. seriously. also, DRAMATICALLY) I'm really slow compared to them, but to alot of people I'm REALLY FUCKING FAST. Or... I talk... slooow. Usually when I'm not sure what I'm saying. D: My other verbal language is German, which is can sorta talk in, but reading is bad, and writing is HORRIBLE. It was my default, but was replaced with English REALLY early on in life. I apparently sound more German when I'm speaking all proper-like, but, I've never heard someone with that accent my age. D: I don't know how I held onto that.

When I wake up, I sound like Marilyn Manson, and it generally gets higher throughout the day. (I has allergies when I wake up...) My voice ranges from like... Batman to bursting dog eardrums. D: I enjoy being squeaky. I also call people POOPIEFACES instead of asshole or jerk. ...I also don't say bad words in front my my mommy, cause, she'd totally disown me. D:

I've always found it strange that when my aunt and mother speak I don't really hear an accent but when my friends hear them they'll ask "Where is your mom from?" I guess it's because I've lived my whole life with it. I have no detectable accent (plain old standard English) but there are some words I mispronounced for years as a kid just because my parents couldn't pronounce them (my father is by far the worst offender for mispronuncing words. I mispronounced "Chiptole" until I was 13 because of him and my friends still make fun of me).

In Spanish I'll usually take a second before I say something to make sure in my head all the grammar is correct because when I was a little girl my mother and aunt used to make fun of me when I said something wrong in Spanish . My Spanish is pretty standard too, in Argentina people thought I was Mexican. I can sort of fake a Spaniard's accent and if I try I can kind of do an El Salvadorian one too. As Allegoriest mentioned, it is customary to speak as fast as humanly possible. I can do that occasionally but normally only if I'm angry and in that case there's bound to be a grammatical error

Last edited by Ruggahissy (05-30-2010 05:25:34 PM)

winksniper wrote:

I unintentionally pronounce the "w" in sword. 

ooh, I do that in the word 'drawing' (comes out 'dro-win'). Not in other words s'much though, bit weird. Occasionally in 'poor' too ('poh-wer'). My gf accused me of being 'proper Yorkshire' last time I did that, lol.
(That's, 'Pro-peh yawk-sher', to you guys ;) ).
  Where you from, WS?

What little spanish I can speak comes out VERY slowly. To the point that I will only do it around certain family members because I'll either get rediculed mercilessly or in the case of the older ones, be mistaken for being slow. But appearantly my Puerto Rican accent is perfect.

I have the tendency to start speaking either "Bostonian" "New Yorka" or "Joisey" at random intervals.....usually makes me sounds mafia-esque.

Putting pants onto the ends of words.

Yes.

I do this in real-lifepants.


(I also pretty much stole a lot of my online and rl speaking habits from allegoriest and Lady N and a bit from Naji here on IRG.  )

Last edited by OnlyInThisLight (06-03-2010 05:14:29 AM)