What do you do?

Yes!
I grew up not far from Chicago and everyone knows that the minute I open my mouth! @Hoggirl almost 36 years in DC area have not erased it!

But my kids have no discernible accents. I have also noticed that with many of their friends.

@deb922 My son is a college freshman in OH. We are east coasters/mid-Atlantic. One of the notable things he said after being there a few days was that ā€œthe kids here are really nice but they talk funny.ā€ I think itā€™s really apparent with certain words with an O, like ā€œconstantlyā€ and ā€œpop.ā€

Milk also! Thatā€™s definitely pronounced different.

But saying pop instead of soda is like trunk to boot. A different word for the same item.

And Ohio is ohi-ah. Iā€™m from Ohi-ah! (Could be just me :wink:)

@FallGirl did your kids grow up in the DC area? I did, but my father is from OH and my mother is from Boston. In the DC suburb where I grew up, most of the families who bought homes there in the 60s moved to the DC area rom other parts of the country (lots of federal workers in my childhood ā€˜burb). I think as a result, kids growing up didnā€™t have a regional accent as we were kind of a melting pot. Now if you go closer to Baltimore, the Eastern Shore or southern MD there is definitely a ā€œtwangā€ to the way they speak.

My husband grew up in the Bay Area. I think anyone who met us would not be able to tell where either of us are from. He says a couple of words differently than I do, but neither of us has a strong, discernible accent despite growing up on opposite coasts. I think if we are in certain areas of the country people would notice we clearly are not from there (like say NY, Boston or the South), but they would not be able to tell by the way we talk where we are from.

@deb22 Yes, we say soda here and they say pop, but itā€™s not just the different word for the same thing. Itā€™s the pronunciation of the word ā€œpopā€that is noticeably different than how we would say that word here in MD.

@4kids4us - yes my kids were born and raised here in DC.

Iā€™m from NY (not NYC) and H is from VA/NC. Our kids were all born in FL. We moved to PA when they were toddlers/baby. Middle son had speech issues, so had a PA speech teacher, plus they all grew up here in PA from toddlerhood on (age 3 for middle son). When he had a linguistics class from a top expert in the field in college he was one of only two that the prof couldnā€™t place based upon saying a certain sentence (or two) - and this among students from around the planet. He called us that night, super impressed with the prof and a little proud that he couldnā€™t be traced from his accent!

We give credit to ā€œSouthernā€ dad and ā€œNorthern ā€˜Middle of Nowhereā€™ vs common accentā€ mom with a mix of PA tossed in.

Pretty much anyone can place H from the south, though not deep south. Most ask me where Iā€™m from because they donā€™t detect a known accent. Where Iā€™m from I sometimes have to ā€œtranslateā€ for H to locals. Typically they canā€™t understand when he says ā€œriceā€ vs ā€œfriesā€ and things like that. He can get aggravated. The rest of us are amused.

I lived in the midwest for 10-11 years and then the DC area. My parents grew up in NYC. I moved to southern VA after college, and most people (outside of the south) say I have a country bumpkin accent. H definitely does, though not near as much as his parents who grew up in the mountains of NC/TN. H says they have hillbilly accents.

But my kids donā€™t seem to have much of a southern accent to me. At younger Sā€™ large in-state public uni, he said his friends canā€™t believe heā€™s from the same place as another one of his friends. Now that friend definitely has a strong southern accent! And they went to the same school for K-8. His parents probably do have a stronger accent than H & I however.

Thatā€™s interesting that pop is pronounced differently. Iā€™ve only ever heard why do we call soda, pop? :grin:

In parts of Ohio its pronounced like that. But not all. Generally it tends to be the southern part of the state.

I heard on some news show about a year ago that the ā€œglottal stopā€ (when people drop the ā€œtā€ in words like ā€œcertainā€ so it sounds like ā€œcer ainā€) is becoming increasingly common among all English speakers. The person reporting (ā€œrepor ingā€) on i lamen ed that once you star listening for i, you hear i everywhere.

Really true. It is fascinating. I never noticed it before.

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