[timb64]

I loved Bram Stoker's Dracula but Kiannu Reeves and Winona Ryders' accents were pretty bizarre!

[lesmore49]

I don’t mind.

Rather I like being mistaken for a Canuck.

Back in the '70's I was on a trip to the UK and I was mistaken twice for an American. In once instance, I politely (after all that's the Canadian way ) explained that I was a Canuck, not an American.

The older (80 something) Brit that I was having a conversation with, replied..."well really no difference is there...you're over there (North America), you're (Americans and Canadians) in the colonies and you sound the same. He added that both Canadians and Americans lived in North America...and people who live on that continent...which is known as the Americas and thus....you're (Canadians/Americans) Americans."

I was in my 20's, he was in his 80's...but I couldn't counter any of his arguments. He was logical.

[Gorgarath]

If you drop a "yinz" into a conversation, it's pretty much a dead giveaway that you're from somewhere in the western part of PA. Only place I know of that uses the word and it took me a long time to weed it out of my vocabulary as I grew up asking what yinz were up to and other such things. While I give my wife and in-laws flack for a lot of their NJ accent, at least "yous" makes sense as opposed to "yinz." Though how they can pronounce crayons as "crowns" makes me laugh every single time. Along with their wooter and creeks. (I will give them that creek should be pronounced creek. Depending on usage, I will actually pronounce it creek, usually in reference to something like the Creek War or something like that, but if I'm talking about Arnold Slick from Turtle Creek (thank you Mike Lange) or the small stream behind my house, it's "crick.")

I like to think that I have no accent and that the rest of y'all just talk funny. :P

[Dartmoor Dave]

I was born in England, grew up in the USA (New York State and Arizona), and I've lived back in England since 1986. But even so an English person will occasionally ask if I'm American, although no American would ever think I was.

There's some Americanisms that I just can't drop. I'll always say lootenant instead of leftenant, and I'll always say missle instead of miss-ile. I've just about adapted to cars having boots instead of trunks, but I'll always think of them as having hoods rather than bonnets. And I can only ever ask for an eraser; never a rubber.

Of course, nowadays I live on Dartmoor, wur usn's in't got nun accent innyow, cus usn's talk prapper loik.

[RoxnDox]

Suggesting a Seattle local is Canadian might be grounds for war

True, but it just his own presumably-sorta-tongue-in-cheek claims of Canuckian status 😉


Besides, we already had our local war over some pigs... Been a while, but still counts.

[StiffLegged]

If you think Glaswegian impenetrable, try your luck with Doric, the Aberdeenshire accent. My sister in law (Yorkshire) managed quite well with us (Burns country Scots) until she heard my father and brother discussing work. Tradesmen’s Broad Scots in context is impenetrable to well-bred, delicately nurtured persons. Me, I vary according to company but enjoy the breadth of the English language in all its flavours. Except Liverpudlian, sorry, never did like that variant.

[robgski]

I was born in England, grew up in the USA (New York State and Arizona), and I've lived back in England since 1986. But even so an English person will occasionally ask if I'm American, although no American would ever think I was.

There's some Americanisms that I just can't drop. I'll always say lootenant instead of leftenant, and I'll always say missle instead of miss-ile. I've just about adapted to cars having boots instead of trunks, but I'll always think of them as having hoods rather than bonnets. And I can only ever ask for an eraser; never a rubber.

Of course, nowadays I live on Dartmoor, wur usn's in't got nun accent innyow, cus usn's talk prapper loik.

I think Russell Hoban's novel Riddley Walker takes place near that area, I love hear passages fom it read aloud in a proper accent

[StiffLegged]

...nowadays I live on Dartmoor, wur usn's in't got nun accent innyow, cus usn's talk prapper loik.

So have you any friends or relatives in Clayhanger, or do they live in Clonger??

[robgski]

“Yinz” is a contraction of “you ones” and thus does an archaic form of address live on.

The hostess of a YouTube photo channel is from the Isle of Skye, charming accent.

There's a lot of movies supposedly set in Scotland, but for some reason the characters are all Irish...

It's because the Scottish actors insist on being paid.

[Dan Rentea]

I've always been intrigued by accents in the speech of people I hear around me. As a child, I listened to a lot of non-American English broadcasts on TV, and subconsciously picked up on differences in speech, accents, inflections, and vocabulary.

As an adult, I've travelled quite a bit outside America, lived for over a decade in Germany, and even worked as a translator/interpreter in Europe and the Middle East. All of this has made given me a keen ear for accents, and I will puzzle over where I think the speaker might be from, not just the country, but the region, possibly even the city.

Also, certain accents are like catnip to my ears, I could listen to the speaker talk for hours about anything at all.

Oftentimes, movies will try to have the actors speak in the proper accent of place and time, when it works well, it's great, but when the actor can't pull the accent off, it throws me off too far to enjoy the dialogue.

For some, accents really hinder off the listener's ability to comprehend. I once had two young co-workers, one from Alabama, and the other from Boston. They genuinely had a hard time understanding each other's accent. Slang, of course is often challenging, and some countries have dialects that make speech even more unique. I enjoy the richness and diversity of it all.

Are you a person who can hear past the accent, or does an unfamiliar accent present a barrier to understanding for you?
Are there any accents you particularly enjoy hearing?

Although I speak italian due to the fact that I was living in Italy for 2 years, I sometimes speak in english when I'm in Italy just for the accent of italians. The most enjoyable accent have the italians from Puglia, Sicily regions. Lovable accent!

[timb64]

“Yinz” is a contraction of “you ones” and thus does an archaic form of address live on.

The hostess of a YouTube photo channel is from the Isle of Skye, charming accent.

Do you have a link?I could listen to Kirsty Young’s voice all day!

[Gorgarath]

“Yinz” is a contraction of “you ones” and thus does an archaic form of address live on.

While I know this, I still argue that it makes no sense as "you ones" also makes no sense to say. Though as it came from non-native speakers that had separate words for singular and plural versions of you, I can see how it came about.

I'm not sure why I went through a phase where I actively worked on removing it from my vocabulary, probably something to do with it being "improper" English or something.

I somehow transitioned to using y'all and "all y'all" now which is odd as I've never lived in the south and rarely make it below the Mason-Dixon line.

At an earlier time in the history of English, the second person singular pronouns were "thou, thee, thine", etc., while the plural were "you, you, yours". When the theory of divine kingship came into vogue, kings spoke of themselves in the plural, both in English and in French, referring to themselves as a team of sorts comprising themselves and the deity. In a strategy of political subterfuge, the lords of the realm began doing the same thing to describe themselves and to address others. That eventually filtered down to the just-plain-folks, and eventually, the informal and singular forms pretty much went away and are used today only in the archaic language of the King James Bible (which was archaic already at the time it was translated) as implemented by certain insular religious groups. As a result, when it was found to be necessary to distinguish between one person and more than one, phrases like "you all" ("y'all"), and "youse" (a bastard pluralization of "you", one you, two youse... invented by the misapplication of a rule by non-native speakers coming into New York from Europe) were implemented.

So there, y'all. By the way, people who deprecate such constructions as "improper English" are merely exhibiting class or regional prejudice. But as my grandmother used to say, "Y'all ain't no better'n me, and if ya think y'are, I'll KNOCK YA DOWN!"

[StiffLegged]

...the informal and singular forms pretty much went away and are used today only in the archaic language of the King James Bible...

It’s funny how many people say the thees and thous put them off the KJV, assuming they are special holy words, not the singular of “you.” What Shakespeare knew and used in writing his plays, the KJV translators also used: no Bible version sounds so good to the ears because it was intended for public reading. Many modern versions are just cranky and jarring, whereas archaic 16th century English has a rhythm to it we remember, just as Shakespeare’s work lives on.

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth