<p>What do you people mean, “I want to know if I have an accent?” Everyone has an accent.</p>
<p>^Well, I meant something besides a neutral American accent. Something as distinctive as a Southern or New York accent.</p>
<p>A neutral American accent? Who has that accent? Someone who has moved all over the States a lot?</p>
<p>I meant the kind where you can’t pinpoint exactly where someone is from.</p>
<p>^^When people say neutral American accent, they usually mean American newscaster accent or something not readily distinguishable from it by the average person. In general, this convers all “lighter” accents (eg: most Birmingham, AL accents I’ve heard, but not most Tuskegee, AL accents). The American newscaster accent is based on the Midwestern accent, but obviously wouldn’t cover, say, those Midwesterners who have very, very rhotic accents, among others.</p>
<p>Like how a neutral French accent would be Parisian and certainly not Southern.</p>
<p>That sounds like an arbitrary designation of “neutral,” but okay.</p>
<p>^It might be arbitrary, but it’s generally accepted. [General</a> American - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American]General”>General American English - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>This made me think of Tina Turner and her recently acquired English accent when she’s from the deep south. </p>
<p>Madonna also used to speak with a fake English accent for awhile. I don’t know if she still does–I tried to avoid tv shows that show her skeletor face. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, I guess I went off the thread topic because neither Madonna nor Tina Turner were ever my classmates. :(</p>
<p>^:(. The Southern accent, is, though, more related to the British than is the General American.</p>
<p>The idea of Tina Turner with a British accent cracks me up.</p>
<p>I understand what Sithis means about everyone having SOME kind of accent, noticeable or not, but like the rest of you said I still think there is a general “American accent” (common in newscasters like Millancad said) that isn’t particular to any specific region.</p>
<p>Obviously people with more distinct accents (southern, NY, etc.) are aware that they have an accent, but since I’m from South Jersey, any accent we have here isn’t THAT distinct compared to those, at least as far as I know. Also, my reason for phrasing the question (at first) as “do I have an accent” rather than “what does my accent sound like” is because everyone around me has the same accent as me, so I don’t realize that I have one at all (if in fact I do have one, given there is a general “American accent”).</p>
<p>
I HATE THAT! </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Like the accent in the movies.</p>
<p>New York -> NC = No accent. w00t.</p>
<p>My grandmother was from Alabama and had a strong Southern accent. Even though my dad does not really have an accent, he still says stuff strangely and it gets on my family’s nerves:</p>
<p>potato= puh-tay-tuh. tomato=tuh-may-tuh. mosquito=mus-keet-ah boil=bowl. friday=fry-dee. and so many other ones.</p>
<p>I knew I wasn’t the only one. And for the extreme Chinese accents (posts from page 1 I think), my friends (Chinese and Korean) were speaking ‘Asian’ in algebra.
“Kess me? Kess me?” for Excuse me
“fark-the-rice? Do we fark-the-rice?” for factorise
It was actually funny, but I’m pretty sure the teacher wasn’t too pleased :P</p>
<p>My friend fakes a British accent all the time.</p>
<p>She also claimed she was part black, because she’s half Italian, and Italy is “close” to North Africa. </p>
<p>…</p>
<p>^Pretty valid argument</p>
<p>Yeah… I used to be able to pull off a real good british accent.
Nowadays, people think I’m from somewhere in Europe.</p>
<p>^ Well, for what I know I might be from North Africa… but I know for sure deep down on my mom’s side there’s italian/french.</p>
<p>Why are people saying British or English accents? What’s that supposed to mean? My accent is completely different to a Welsh or Cumbrian accent, yet Wales and Cumbria are in Britain. If by British you mean Home Counties English, why not say as much?</p>
<p>Ok… an English accent. Welsh accents are thick for me.</p>
<p>^^Because it’s not necessary to do so to be understood in common American parlance. If one says British, it’s understood by most that one means Received Pronunciation.</p>