Accents and dialects

Duck59

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As someone who studied linguistics, I am fascinated by not only words but how we use and pronounce them. The UK has a vast range of regional dialects and I'm sure this is the case in other parts of the world.

Does anyone here have a strong regional accent? Has moving around changed your accent? Are there dialect words you use that are peculiar to your part of the world? Just a few things to consider should you feel like contributing.
 
My own accent isn't strong - I've probably moved around too often to have one. It's not non-existent - I have a soft north-east of England accent that has remained over the years. Although I've lived in Scotland since 1992, I've not developed any kind of Scottish accent. I can put on a Leith accent (think Trainspotting) but that's about it.

My historian friend Dr Susie is an interesting case. She was born in Reading (about 40 miles west of London) and lived there until she went to Durham University when she was 18. Since then, she has lived in that area and now has an accent not too dissimilar to mine. It always amuses Catherine to hear Susie and I having a conversation. "You two sound like brother and sister," she observed.
 
I was born in New Jersey. I've also lived in Pittsburgh, PA and Cincinnati, OH (very close to where TastyReuben lives). I've spent most of my life in Texas.

I have no accent, and at the same time, multiple accents.

I can put on a thick Texas draw when I'm in the company of Texans, and a New York/New Jersey accent, when I'm in the right company. It's not fake, I just grew up with these accents, and can move between them.

The US has a wide variety of accents. Some are more pronounced than others. A Boston accent is easy to spot, as is a Minnesota accent. Texas and other Southern states have a distinct accent, although Southern Louisiana cajun has a different sound than the rest of the South.

Other US accents are harder to identify, like a Maine accent. It is distinct, but not everyone has heard it.

CD
 
As someone who studied linguistics, I am fascinated by not only words but how we use and pronounce them.
Oh what a splendid thread! Will follow the conversation with much interest!
Recently I was listening to Yorkshire accent, it not only sounds different, but it changes words or uses new ones. Fascinating.


In Croatia we find influences from abroad, e.g. a bag would locally colloquially in Dalmatia be Borsha, from the Italian Borsa, with the Sh ...which are very interesting ...however the accents are very difficult to copy. I would never be able to speak in a true Dalmatian fashion, being born and lived mostly in Zagreb.
 
I was born in New Jersey. I've also lived in Pittsburgh, PA and Cincinnati, OH (very close to where TastyReuben lives). I've spent most of my life in Texas.

I have no accent, and at the same time, multiple accents.

I can put on a thick Texas draw when I'm in the company of Texans, and a New York/New Jersey accent, when I'm in the right company. It's not fake, I just grew up with these accents, and can move between them.

The US has a wide variety of accents. Some are more pronounced than others. A Boston accent is easy to spot, as is a Minnesota accent. Texas and other Southern states have a distinct accent, although Southern Louisiana cajun has a different sound than the rest of the South.

Other US accents are harder to identify, like a Maine accent. It is distinct, but not everyone has heard it.

CD
Wonderful! Shall research.
 
Oh what a splendid thread! Will follow the conversation with much interest!
Recently I was listening to Yorkshire accent, it not only sounds different, but it changes words or uses new ones. Fascinating.


In Croatia we find influences from abroad, e.g. a bag would locally colloquially in Dalmatia be Borsha, from the Italian Borsa, with the Sh ...which are very interesting ...however the accents are very difficult to copy. I would never be able to speak in a true Dalmatian fashion, being born and lived mostly in Zagreb.
A "Yorkshire accent" can be many different things! Yorkshire is a large county and the accents vary greatly, so (for example) a Sheffield accent is very different to a Middlesbrough accent. Likewise, a Leeds or Bradford accent from the west of Yorkshire is totally different to a Hull accent from the eastern side of the county.

Accents can vary a fair bit even over short distances. I'll give you an example from my native region. The accent of my home city, Newcastle, is different to its near-neighbour (and rival), Sunderland, which is only eleven miles away. People with Sunderland accents are known as Mackems because of the way they say the words "make" and "take." They say mak and tak, whereas someone from Newcastle would say mayke and tayke with a very long a. It's never too hard to tell a Geordie from a Mackem!
 
I am from a region in Ontario called the Ottawa Valley which is just west of our Capital city..it is a rural area, for the most part which originated as farmers, settlers from Ireland, Scotland, Britain, Poland, the Netherlands,...you still see older generation immigrants here and can hear accents their accents every where you go..This has led to the people from the Ottawa Valley having quite the influence in the original dialect...I grew up with it, moved on for a few decades and have returned to embrace it...there was a time when I didn't want to sound like I was from The Valley, but I don't really care any more...everybody has an accent according to somebody..

I have a series of videos I post on our FB page if anybody wants to hear my Valley Twang..I don't hold back when speaking to the local market...
Lakeview Foods & Catering
 
Yeah, sure, we probably all do.

I had a very thick Kentucky-by-way-of-Ohio accent growing up, to the point that, after moving away, I took classes to train me out of (most) of it. Other people from other regions had a hard time understanding me. Nowadays, it's still there, but it's much softer. My wife says it comes back when I'm angry/excited/had too much to drink.

My wife's accent is noticeable as well. She's from up on the US/Canada border (New York state), and to an untrained ear, she could pass for being from Wisconsin, Minnesota or North Dakota (or Canada). It's that flattening of certain vowel sounds she has.

Two things that struck me about that area when I'd moved there - while it's obviously in the US, a lot of people there say "zed" for Z instead of "zee" and a common exclamation phrase is "Jeesum Crow!" like, "Jeesum Crow, I woke up dis mornin' and it was fookin' twenty-four below zero, dontcha know!"
 
I never paid too much attention to my Milanese accent until it was pointed out to me when I was in other parts of Italy. The first question I was asked was and still is, 'you are from Milan, aren't you?', well more like a confirmation than a real question. I don't speak Milanese dialect, apart from a few words or sayings that are now part of my way of expressing myself. My accent immediately jumps to the ears of non-Milanese friends and relatives who, listening to me, make fun of me a bit because the peculiarity of my accent (not so marked, however) is to have very open vowels. So when I say for example 'cotoletta' (cutlet), it sounds like 'cotoleeeetta', with a very long E that sounds almost like an A, 'cotolaaaaatta'. Or even when I ask 'perché?' (why?) it sounds like 'perchéééééé?' for the same reason.

In my own region there are so many different dialects and I don't speak any of them, nor do I understand them. The dialect of Bergamo (northern Lombardy, about 50 km from Milan) is completely different from Milanese, as is the dialect of Lodi (southern Lombardy, about 40 km from Milan). The Bergamo accent is rather harsh and with closed, contracted vowels and consonants. There's like a diphthong that keeps popping up like 'ou'.

I really struggle to understand other dialects outside Lombardy, apart from Neapolitan, Apulian and Sardinian. Venetian, Marche or Calabrian leave me astonished.

When I'm in Sardinia or Puglia or Rome, I immediately pick up their accents and my Milanese gets a little lost.

I like the Tuscan cadence, but not that of the whole of Tuscany. I find the Florence accent a bit too strong, while the Tuscan of the Grosseto area (southern Tuscany) is softer. In any case, Tuscans have this peculiarity everywhere: they don't pronounce the consonant C, but pronounce it as H. So Casa (home) becomes Hasa.

I have a strong liking both for the Bolognese accent and for the Ligurian accent (especially the Genoese one). The Genoese one is very similar to Portuguese, it has a soft and musical cadence. I don't understand the Genoese dialect (although my genoese friends keep learning it to me), but I learnt some phrases and idioms by listening to the Genoese singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André.

I lived in Bologna for a while for work many years ago, their accent is so nice...the Bolognese, as well as in general all of Emilia Romagna, pronounce the Z as S and the G as Z. So they pronounce Parmigiano Reggiano as 'Parmizano Rezzano'. I also started to pronounce it like this when in Bologna. When I came back to Milan, I spoke with a strong Bolognese accent.
 
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When I first moved away from Ohio, one thing that many people made fun of me over was my use of the word "fix," as in "I'm about to fix supper," and also something like, "I'm fixing to go to Little Bob's."
 
I never paid too much attention to my Milanese accent until it was pointed out to me when I was in other parts of Italy. The first question I was asked was and still is, 'you are from Milan, aren't you?', well more like a confirmation than a real question. I don't speak Milanese dialect, apart from a few words or sayings that are now part of my way of expressing myself. My accent immediately jumps to the ears of non-Milanese friends and relatives who, listening to me, make fun of me a bit because the peculiarity of my accent (not so marked, however) is to have very open vowels. So when I say for example 'cotoletta' (cutlet), it sounds like 'cotoleeeetta', with a very long E that sounds almost like an A, 'cotolaaaaatta'. Or even when I ask 'perché?' (why?) it sounds like 'perchéééééé?' for the same reason.

In my own region there are so many different dialects and I don't speak any of them, nor do I understand them. The dialect of Bergamo (northern Lombardy, about 50 km from Milan) is completely different from Milanese, as is the dialect of Lodi (southern Lombardy, about 40 km from Milan). The Bergamo accent is rather harsh and with closed, contracted vowels and consonants. There's like a diphthong that keeps popping up like 'ou'.

I really struggle to understand other dialects outside Lombardy, apart from Neapolitan, Apulian and Sardinian. Venetian, Marche or Calabrian leave me astonished.

When I'm in Sardinia or Puglia or Rome, I immediately pick up their accents and my Milanese gets a little lost.

I like the Tuscan cadence, but not that of the whole of Tuscany. I find the Florence accent a bit too strong, while the Tuscan of the Grosseto area (southern Tuscany) is softer. In any case, Tuscans have this peculiarity everywhere: they don't pronounce the consonant C, but pronounce it as H. So Casa (home) becomes Hasa.

I have a strong liking both for the Ligurian (especially the Genoese one) and Bolognese accent. It is very similar to Portuguese, it has a soft and musical cadence. I don't understand the Genoese dialect (although my genoese friends keep learning it to me), but I learnt some phrases and idioms by listening to the Genoese singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André.

I lived in Bologna for a while for work many years ago, their accent is so nice...the Bolognese, as well as in general all of Emilia Romagna, pronounce the Z as S and the G as Z. So they pronounce Parmigiano Reggiano as 'Parmizano Rezzano'. I also started to pronounce it like this when in Bologna. When I came back to Milan, I spoke with a strong Bolognese accent.
I spent three years in Frosinone..the dialect is ciociaria...I have been back home for many years and when I happen to speak with an Italian, they have a hard time understanding me between my foreign accent and having learned Italian with the ciorciarian dialect...lol..
 
I spent three years in Frosinone..the dialect is ciociaria...I have been back home for many years and when I happen to speak with an Italian, they have a hard time understanding me between my foreign accent and having learned Italian with the ciorciarian dialect...lol..

lol
Frosinone, I miss visiting Ciociaria, I've never been there yet. But I know their accent and it's funny.

Oh, I can imagine the mix, it must be fun to hear you speak the Ciociaro dialect

Do you also say "fusse che fusse a vorta bbona? lol :laugh:
 
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