Comments on: Humor in Accents: Yes, you have one

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:21:44 +0000

I’ll have to agree with your linguist that the t in often is silent, you’ll see it in dictionaries as a second (and wrong) choice, even when most Americans say it this way. Been living in Nebraska less than a month and noticed the vowel shifting they do here, also the length of vowels changes, so you end up hearing dayem instead of **** or things like that. I LOVE accents and reading about them, nice post btw.

By: Linda

Linda — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 05:47:47 +0000

I agree that everyone has accents, but I didn’t realize how specifically they could identify where you’re from. I am from Michigan, and am sure that I have the midwest accent. While I was living in California, several people asked me if I was from Michigan. I thought they were psychic or something. They would tell me it was my accent that gave it away. I was amazed that they could pick the state. I still don’t hear it.

On another note, I have to comment on Jeremy’s reference to the word offun (often). I was taught, by a professional linguist, that the ‘t’ is silent, and that people pronouncing the ‘t’ are saying this word incorrectly. Has anyone else heard this? or was this just a linguist with a specific dialect?

I also agree with Vickingsson about the abilities of people to speak even one language correctly. This drives me nuts, but I seem to remember a different post about people mispronouncing common words. I won’t get back into that one.

By: Vikingsson

Vikingsson — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:30:47 +0000

I love accents. Everyone has one indeed. You can’t hear your own. I don’t hear mine most of the time but one thing I often hear no matter where I go including my home town, “You’re not from around here are ya?”. (suffix might include “eh?”, “huh?”, “ya?”, “si, non, oui”)

But it isn’t the accents that bug me, it is the mangled language. Not from people with a different primary language but from people with only *one* language. Learn at least one language. Please, pretty please ya’ll.

By: Lezhai

Lezhai — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 23:26:52 +0000

My Mother in law is the queen of adding the “R”. Grrr…it is so annoying, I have given up on correcting her. It isn’t WaRsh! She is from Wyoming, so maybe it is a NorthWestern accent.

One that makes me laugh is the “OO” sound the Canadians say. For example… “out” is pronounced “oot”. That one makes me laugh.

I am guilty of saying “moun-an” also guilty of calling a Creek a “Crick”…but you are wrong, I don’t have an accent….everyone else does. HEHEHEHEHE

By: Brenda

Brenda — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 22:48:44 +0000

One of my favorite things about traveling is all the different (diffrent?!) accents. I LOVE accents! I love to listen to people talk and I LOVE our friends who call “HIM” DAWNY AWSMOND!!!
:)
All my friends with accents make me smile… I, for one “upstate new yorker”, don’t have one!! hahahahha