If I went to college in the south would I get an accent?

<p>Don't worry, this won't really affect my decision, I'm just wondering because I love southern accents and think it would be cool to have one. I lived in GA for the first 2 years of my life then moved to New England and ended up sounding like a New Englander, this always made me sad because I wished I had ended up sounding more southern. Would going to school in the south give me a southern accent?</p>

<p>If you want to get a southern accent, you can get one, and it’s helpful if you are living all around people who talk the way you want to talk. (Your northern friends will just roll their eyes when you start talking, however).</p>

<p>It would help you adopt one, yes. If you live there for a long time (like, if you stay on after college), you’ll definitely end up with one.</p>

<p>You have to like be attempting to get one though. I lived in Florida for six years (though not in a place where too many people had accents, though they were definitely there) and all that happened to me was I picked up the use of the word “y’all.” I don’t think it just rubs off on you that much, although that’s just my personal experience.</p>

<p>It could, if you wanted it to. You’ll probably never sound like a “fluent” southerner, but you’ll pick up enough of it to fool northerners :p. </p>

<p>When I moved to America from England, I lost my British accent pretty quickly and adopted a midwestern accent. When I moved to California, I never picked up the valley girl accent despite being immersed in it. Apparently my British accent comes back when I’m drunk though. Meh.</p>

<p>It takes a while to completely pick up an accent (or when you are younger and more impressionable). I was told that when I was younger I had a slight southern accent due to living in Georgia and Louisiana…however sometime between then and 5th grade I lost it. I don’t think I have an accent, though I have been told I have a slight midwestern one, and I would say it takes at least 4 years to pick one up…since I generally lived somewhere for three years and then moved.</p>

<p>If you are the type of person who picks up the accents of people you are speaking with, then you will definitely get a southern accent, but likely only when in the south.</p>

<p>I attend school in the south and will occasionally speak with a southern accent without thinking about it or when talking to a person with a strong southern accent. I have been asked if I’m a local because of this. However, when I’m back home in the Pacific Northwest, people comment about how I do not have a southern accent and retain much of the PNW accent minus a few of the linguistic tendencies that make some people from the PNW sound Canadian.</p>

<p>The best thing you can do is to make your accent sound understandable to all English speakers. I’ve met people from all areas who seem to speak in a way that is understandable only to people used to that accent. For example, some southerners tend to pronounce pen as pin, which confuses many northerners.</p>

<p>You’re looking for a General American accent then, SEA_tide.</p>

<p>Maybe. Varies from person to person. Given enough time most people develop an accent without trying. Some people however never really get the accent down. Its there but its kind of like a watered down version. Again it takes time to develop an accent anywhere, unless you actively Try to get it. It’ll still take time, just not as much.</p>

<p>Haha yeah, I lived in Georgia for the first two years of my life, but not I don’t really have any accent, apparently I say a few words differently but the only one who even noticed that was my brother since he’s know me for so long. I’m hoping that maybe it’s still there sub-consciously and if I’m in the south I’ll just kind of pick it up.</p>

<p>You lose/gain accents more readily when you’re young (say pre-puberty). After that, it’s possible to lose/gain one in late teenage years although takes a lot longer. By twenties or so it’s near-impossible, even if you live in a place for twenty+ years.</p>

<p>I and many others I know have lived in the south all our lives. None of us have southern accents.</p>

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<p>The majority of my friends attend Southern schools, and none of their friends from other regions have acquired an accent. (And neither did my mom, despite leaving New York for North Carolina at 18.) I’ve never heard of that happening–though I did pick up a few Midwestern tendencies after camp there. I imagine the most that would happen is you’d start saying “y’all” out of convenience.</p>

<p>Also, this:</p>

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<p>The title of the topic made me smile :)</p>

<p>Lol. I moved to the South when I was 10 (20 now) and I don’t have an accent. I use y’all but that’s it.</p>

<p>Are you sure you want a Southern accent?</p>

<p>That sounds like a young girl saying she wants glasses, just because of how they look, not realizing it actually sucks to have bad eyes.</p>

<p>i think having a sort of high-class, governor/plantation owner accent would be okay. Backwoods meth lab owner accent? Not so much.</p>

<p>Some girls dig the traditional southern gentleman accent…</p>

<p>there is hardly anyone with an accent unless you’re in the countryside/ghetto or happen to meet people from there…you might pick up some of our slang, but that’s it.</p>

<p>^at least in big cities, lol.</p>