<p>I've always been fascinated by accents and how you could "tell" where someone comes from by hearing how they say something.</p>
<p>I recently learned that my region of the USA is one of the only places in the country where "bubbler" is almost always substituted for "water fountain." Nowhere else besides my hometown and a handful of its satellites do you hear someone ask to "use the bubbler." Weird, no?</p>
<p>Maybe I'll elaborate on more things as discussion picks up, but in the meantime: </p>
<p>What do you consider <em>your</em> accent to be. How do people talk where you live? What are their linguistic idiosyncrasies? Can you identify an outsider by the way they speak?</p>
<p>I’m in New Jersey. A lot of the Italian/Irish American folk have that distinct New York Accent. There’s also that so called “Jew York” accent that’s slightly prevalent among pretty much everyone, including myself, despite being of Indian origin.</p>
<p>And by so called, it’s what it’s called in my town anyway.</p>
seriously, i wouldn’t say i have an accent… but i probably do, considering a lot of my friends growing up sounded neutral to me unless they were british or american or learning english.</p>
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we say sex when we mean six… apparently?</p>
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yes! haha and when the brits try the “nyu zulun” accent, it sounds so strange. like someone on some corny australian sit-com or something? haha. it’s national not regional though.</p>
<p>irrelevant but…
i really like welsh, irish and mild south african accents!</p>
<p>I’m from Los Angeles and some of my friends from Boston have said that the people here say “like” intermittently when they are having a conversation… Does this count? :)</p>
<p>I know people from my “area” pronounce t’s as d’s when they are in the middle of words. For example, latin = ladin. I don’t know how widespread it is but I think it’s sort of a New England thing.</p>
<p>^Interesting. Apparently, there’s this decently large city to the south of me (;)) that’s infamously known for its corruption of the “th” sound. Instead of “these and the” it’s “dese and da.”</p>
<p>Naturally, we hear a little bit of that up here as well.</p>
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<p>Yea, it’s fun, but you don’t realize that nobody else uses it until you leave town and ask where the bubbler is. That’s when people lookitcha funny.</p>
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<p>That sounds like it could cause some problems. Lol</p>
<p>^We must be from nearby regions. Bubbler’s one (not as frequently used as water fountain, but certainly understood), and frappe (being different from a milkshake) is another. “Wicked” as a modifier (wicked awesome, e.g.). I think you can probably tell where I’m from.</p>
<p>Well, that <em>is</em> the Cali Valley stereotype. It’s not so bad though, where I’m from, everyone assumes we sound like Sarah Palin. There are a handful of those strong, Danish-influenced accents but they are a small minority.</p>
<p>My cousins from Texas have said that we say “milk” differently. I guess we kinda do. We tend to pronounce it “melk.” But don’t even get me started on the accent of the common Texan… </p>
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<p>Are you from Mil-town? If not, I’m going to guess the Seattle area for no other reason than you mentioned frappes and I guess they’re big on coffee over there.</p>
<p>I hate hate hate country accents, so I’m just oh so lucky to live in Louisiana. There are other Louisianian accents, but the area I live in has a predominately country accent. I’ve tried really hard to drop the accent, and people often give me funny looks- for example, if I pronounce “dog” correctly, as opposed to “dawg.” People also commonly drop the “g” at the end of -ing, like “goin’ to town” or “workin’ on my essay.”</p>
<p>I’m trying to think of specific words we use that aren’t common elsewhere. Shopping carts are called “buggies.” Most cold drinks are just referred to as “coke.” It’s funny because I remember when I was young and my mom would go to the gas station, I’d say “Bring me back a coke!” and my mom would say, “What kind?”</p>
<p>“Creek” is actually pronounced how it’s spelled instead of the way I’ve heard some northerners pronounce it, “crick.”</p>
<p>If I wasn’t from here and I heard someone say “caught,” I’d think it was spelled “kawt.”</p>
<p>Yard sales = “garage sales” and sub sandwiches/hoagies/etc = “poboys.”</p>
<p>Live in MD, suburbs south of baltimore. “Hon” is something I have learned to deal with. But “Where you at” is used by EVERYONE. It is soo hard to hear educated people say “where you at?” on the phone. I have not run into this phrase being used as frequently in any other state/community I have lived in. Like nails on a chalkboard.</p>
<p>“Y’all,” and the replacement of “ing” with “n” is prominent where I live. The accent is a strong country one.</p>
<p>Like butaneVeins said, we call shoppng carts buggies, and classify any kind of soft drink as a “Coke.” “Tea” exclusively means iced tea, and some sandwiches are called poboys, especially in more southern regions of the state.</p>
<p>That’s pretty bizarre about calling every soda product a “coke.”</p>
<p>Most of the midwest uses “pop.” Yet, once again, my region stands out in using the more generic “soda” more than anything else.</p>
<p>If you asked for a “coke” up here, you’d occasionally be asked if “Pepsi’s okay?” But most times, you get your delicious, Cola-flavored beverage with no questions asked.</p>
<p>Depending on the circles you run in, you could receive some powdery white stuff as well. ;)</p>
<p>I grew up and live in the Philadelphia area. I lives there many years and summers, and now I live in Levittown. Anyway, Levittown is supposedly the only place in the county to refer to neighborhoods as “sections.” and in Philly/Suburbs we say “jimmies” for sprinkle on ice cream. And we pronounce water as “wooder.” My grandmother whos from upstate (yet has lived here for 50 years now) argues with me nonstop about that. Lol!</p>
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