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Are you able to recognize your own accent when someone else speaks it, or do you swear you and your kind don't have an accent?

I used to think that Oregonians had no accent. But working in Saudi Arabia, I was able to predict if a person on TV was from Oregon based on their accent. It seems kinda folksy and on-the-farm-like. With all the people moving to Portland and western Oregon over the years, I think the accent is becoming diluted, and some of the localisms are fading away. My dad says that in the old days, when logging dominated the economy, loggers would come into the bar, yelling "Timberrr!!!", which meant he was buying a round of drinks for everyone in the bar. I'd never heard this before, and I probably never will.

GlyndonD 7 Mar 5
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19 comments

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I can very easily identify when my maine accent comes through. For example hard is pronounced "haad" here. I spent years trying to rid myself of my accent though.

Geez, you probably don't even pronounce "Portland" right...

@GlyndonD I can't tell if you made a bad joke, or if you're being a dick.

'Twas a joke.

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I thought my accent was more muted, but I do recognize it when I talk with people from the Metro Washington, DC area. However, I've had multiple people from different parts of the U.S. think that I sound Canadian.

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I was born in the midwest but even people here say that I have some unidentified accent. 😀

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I'm told my accent is unplaceable. Some people think I'm from Scotland or Ireland when, in actuality, I'm from Northern Illinois, spent 15 years in Northern Minnesota, and now live in the PNW. I've no idea what I sound like to other folks.

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My grandmother insisted her cats in Wales had a different accent to our cats in England.

Jnei Level 8 Mar 5, 2018
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I moved to London UK when I was a year old and lived there for the next 40+ years so I have a London accent and no I don't sound like Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins, nobody does lol
Specifically I've got a south London accent, or sahf London, and me dear ol' muvva', gawd blees 'er cottons, was a cockney so it's a well entrenched London accent 🙂

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We all have accents, a liguist can probably pinpoint the county from which each of us hail. But to our own we sound normal.

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I'm sure I would recognize my own accent if I had one 😉

JimG Level 8 Mar 5, 2018
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I've lived in Washington DC for the last two months. Before that I've only lived in Texas. Im 52. I've noticed that everyone around me speaks about twice as fast as i do. I'd stay and talk about it longer but I left my horse parked on an anthill.

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I remember while I was still in high school hearing that many television newscasters were hired from the Pacific Northwest because of their lack of an accent. I also recall that while in high school kids from different neighborhoods sounded different and had different colloquialisms. As for myself, I've heard from others that the quality of my English and my clear diction identify me as someone from the US. Traveling abroad I sometimes hear what I perceive to be someone from the US speaking English but I've found myself to be wrong on numerous accounts.

SamL Level 7 Mar 5, 2018

I've lived in the PNW for a couple years, now, and they do sound like newscasters and such. There's a name for that accent, kind of the US equivalent to Received Pronunciation, but I can't remember what it is.

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When I was a teen I had someone ask me what part of the South I was from. I answered Southern Minnesota, I was born there but raised in Iowa and my family was from Southern IA, in fact my first home when we moved back to Iowa (I was ten days old) was the family farm at Birmingham IA, just outside of Fairfield IA. I am not real sure where the "Southern Accent" came from because to me I sound like everyone else around me.

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I have a mainly Cockney accent but with some shortened vowels from the time I spent in the north of England. My kids do a good impersonation of me and apparently my accent gets stronger when I'm annoyed. I grew up in London and spent the first 20 years of my life there but I'm in my late 50s now and havnt lived there for coming on 40 years! 🙂

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I think most of the time I sound exactly like the average American accent - which in TV and movies is considered "no accent".

Though when I was in college I had a roomate who insisted I spoke with a "Connecticut accent" and no I do not sound like Katherine Hepburn.

I can descend into a colloquilism or two though "Wicked awesome!"....

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Yes I can recognize it..though nearly everbody can recognize a Boston accent..lol

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Of course

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Mymother and sister have real Bostonaccents-Idon't.

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I am unaware when I have an accent, but American friends tell me I do, after I've been working alongside someone from New Zealand for months here in Thailand, or after traveling in Australia.

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I was convinced I didn't have an accent and most other people did when I was a child because I was raised to speak RP ("received pronounciation" ) English - I was very surprised when I found out that RP is in fact an accent, albeit a non-regional one.

Jnei Level 8 Mar 5, 2018
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I've traveled enough, and lived in enough places, that I recognize my accent, and everyone else's. I used to have a New Jersey accent, since that's pretty much where I was raised. When I first moved to the South, people rode me about my "Yankee" accent. After living in the South for 20+ years, I moved to Maine, and everyone up there gave me a hard time about having a Southern accent. Back in the South again, and a friend of mine says my "Jersey" comes out when I'm pissed off. I guess I'm just one of those people who will pick up whatever accent I'm exposed to for any length of time.

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