# Accents?



## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2014)

I've always been curious as to the origins of different accents.

We are watching a documentary on WWII and a woman who lives in Alabama has an accent that my husband has never heard before and he finds it's very curious. It sounded like a Louisiana accent to me but with a hint of a Boston accent.  No 'r's.    

What is your accent?


----------



## Falcon (Nov 7, 2014)

Don't have one.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2014)

Right, John.  Sounds like my sister who insists that she doesn't have an accent but the rest of the world does.  If someone in, say, France, heard you speak where would they place your (non)accent?


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2014)

I sat next to a lady on a plane leaving from Glasgow. We had a brief chat and she said I sounded like Great Lakes or Canada.  Good call but how did a Scot know that?  

I am still gobsmacked when someone here asks me how long I've lived here and when I reply 14 years they wonder why my accent hasn't changed.  Umm... Obviously if I've been here 14 years I moved here when I was well into my 40's (48) and an accent is pretty well set by then!


----------



## QuickSilver (Nov 7, 2014)

Here's a test for American accents!

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have

Here's what the test said about me!

You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?"  Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."

Honest!... Yep.. born and raised in Chi-Town.


----------



## Falcon (Nov 7, 2014)

Los Angelinos don't have any particular recognizable accent,  unlike Bostonians, Texans, etc.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2014)

Falcon said:


> Los Angelinos don't have any particular recognizable accent,  unlike Bostonians, Texans, etc.



Yes, but you're only talking about American accents.  I have a plain old midwest accent but I've been told by many here in the UK that I have a very strong American accent.  They would likely say the same about you.


----------



## QuickSilver (Nov 7, 2014)

Falcon said:


> Los Angelinos don't have any particular recognizable accent,  unlike Bostonians, Texans, etc.



HAH!!  That's what you think.  I can pick out a Southern California accent with ease.  We had relatives out there and it was very noticeable.


----------



## Falcon (Nov 7, 2014)

OK, I took the test. It says (for me) Southern Great Lakes region.  I was born and raised in Detroit, so I guess that's my accent.  But hardly pronounced.  LOL


----------



## hollydolly (Nov 7, 2014)

People tell me I have a very soft  Scottish accent ..it was quite a strong one until I left Scotland for England almost 40 years ago...


----------



## Kitties (Nov 7, 2014)

I didn't realize I had an accent until I was in another country and people recognized my "American Accent" I even had a woman who nailed me as being from California. Since I heard my mother speak all my life, I never could tell that she had an accent. I always forgot about it unless someone else mentioned it.

We all have accents I guess.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2014)

QuickSilver said:


> Here's a test for American accents!
> 
> http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have
> 
> ...



I've taken the test before and my responses have changed a bit.  It says I'm Midlands - but I'm Michigan - at least for 32 years of the 48 years I lived there. 

Scottish and English in-laws and friends tell me my accent has changed slightly since I've been here but they couldn't pinpoint how.  My dh says my 'o's are rounder and that I sound less nasal and whiny like Michiganders (cheeky!).  I do place the accent on a different part of a word now - like Argyll - the accent is on the -gyll.  I had to start saying twenty instead of twunnie.


----------



## QuickSilver (Nov 7, 2014)

I'll tell you what accent is really easy to pick up.. The American South!  I challenge anyone to spend some time down there and NOT come back with a drawl.


----------



## Sunny (Nov 7, 2014)

I think that Falcon probably doesn't have an accent, other than "standard American." I have a mid-east coast accent, having lived in NJ and MD for most of my life (with an 18-year interruption in the Pacific northwest, but I never lost the eastern accent.) Whenever I hear a Californian speak, they just sound neutral, like radio announcers, etc. That's probably because our "official" accent has been the California one since the earliest days of movie making.


----------



## QuickSilver (Nov 7, 2014)

Falcon should take the test..  never mind... he did!  lol!!


----------



## Mrs. Robinson (Nov 7, 2014)

Hmmm,California born and raised-so definitely not The Midland. But,it says no accent at all so that I believe....

*The Midland* 
95%

"You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent."  You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas.  You have a good voice for TV and radio.


----------



## Falcon (Nov 7, 2014)

My very good friend and Matey, Rainee (In OZ) can tell you. She's heard me speak on the phone.

How about it Rainee?


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2014)

Kitties said:


> I didn't realize I had an accent until I was in another country and people recognized my "American Accent" I even had a woman who nailed me as being from California. Since I heard my mother speak all my life, I never could tell that she had an accent. I always forgot about it unless someone else mentioned it.
> 
> We all have accents I guess.



Everyone has an accent.  What country was your mother from?


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2014)

hollydolly said:


> People tell me I have a very soft  Scottish accent ..it was quite a strong one until I left Scotland for England almost 40 years ago...



My husband lived and worked in London for 18 years and he said he had to tone down his accent and stop using lowlands words so he'd be understood.  So I think his accent is quite mild.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2014)

QuickSilver said:


> I'll tell you what accent is really easy to pick up.. The American South!  I challenge anyone to spend some time down there and NOT come back with a drawl.



OMG yes!  I lived in East TN for 10 years (age 38 - 48) and I would often imitate the accent just for fun.  Well, I picked up a drawl that I didn't get rid of until I'd been in Scotland a couple of years.  

I'm not good at imitating accents (can't do Scottish or Irish) but I find an Aussie accent pretty easy.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2014)

Falcon said:


> My very good friend and Matey, Rainie (In OZ) can tell you. She's heard me speak on the phone.
> 
> How about it Rainie?



But will she say you have an American accent, a French accent, a Russian accent? Or no accent?


----------



## hollydolly (Nov 7, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> My husband lived and worked in London for 18 years and he said he had to tone down his accent and stop using lowlands words so he'd be understood.  So I think his accent is quite mild.




That's exactly what I had to do for the same reasons AS..because no-one could understand me at all. They'd look over my shoulder to someone else and say '' what IS she saying''...how rude, but anyway if I wanted to make myself understood I had to change a little, and now I've been here so long people generally think I'm English until they hear me get excited about something or angry then they say they can hear my Scottishness coming through..LOL

BTW I took the test too, and although I've never set foot in the USA, it says I probably come from North Jersey or Connecticut ...so maybe their accents are more like English than American IYSWIM


----------



## JustBonee (Nov 7, 2014)

I agree Ameriscot, I think we settle into our accent at some point as adults.

I grew up in NE Ohio, lived in Chicago, also as an adult in Phoenix, Baton Rouge and now Houston. ... 
taking QS's test I get this:
What American accent do you have? .. Your Result: *The Inland North*
93%*
*.... and I've lived in Houston for the last 36 years.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2014)

hollydolly said:


> That's exactly what I had to do for the same reasons AS..because no-one could understand me at all. They'd look over my shoulder to someone else and say '' what IS she saying''...how rude, but anyway if I wanted to make myself understood I had to change a little, and now I've been here so long people generally think I'm English until they hear me get excited about something or angry then they say they can hear my Scottishness coming through..LOL
> 
> BTW I took the test too, and although I've never set foot in the USA, it says I probably come from North Jersey or Connecticut ...so maybe their accents are more like English than American IYSWIM



That could be.  There's an area on the east coast that's a bit isolated where the people's accents haven't changed and they still have a rather unique kind of older English accent.  I'll look it up. 

My dh has a funny story from working in London.  He was headie (headmaster) for a special school and one of the kids was sent to his office for calling his teacher a name.  Dh asked the kid why he called the teacher a 'hoor'.  The English kid didn't understand and kept denying it.  Finally the kid said he didn't call the teacher a hoor he called her a whore!


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2014)

Bonnie said:


> I agree Ameriscot, I think we settle into our accent at some point as adults.
> 
> I grew up in NE Ohio, lived in Chicago, also as an adult in Phoenix, Baton Rouge and now Houston. ...
> taking QS's test I get this:
> ...



I've known people who've lived in Scotland for 40 or 50 years and still have the accent of their country - Belgium, Netherlands.  

My sister and I stayed at a B & B in Belgium about 8 years ago and the owner was surprised to learn we were sisters.  He said we have completely different accents.  Except for 7 years when we lived in other states as kids, she's always lived in Michigan.


----------



## Falcon (Nov 7, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> But will she say you have an American accent, a French accent, a Russian accent? Or no accent?



Well, I don't know about that; she just said she liked the SOUND of my voice.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2014)

Falcon said:


> Well, I don't know about that; she just said she liked the SOUND of my voice.



That's nice.


----------



## Oceana (Nov 8, 2014)

When I first moved to Canada from Scotland, I was asked in a store if I would "Please speak English!"  I wanted to say "why should I? You don't" - but realized they wouldn't understand that either. 40 years later I'm back in Canada (having lived various other places, not Scotland) and everyone seems to think I sound Irish - very strange!
My sons say they can't hear a Scottish accent, they just hear something in a voice that sounds familiar and they know it must be Scottish.


----------



## Warrigal (Nov 8, 2014)

I sound like Paul Hogan with a nasal twang, so hardly any accent at all. :yeahright:


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

Dame Warrigal said:


> I sound like Paul Hogan with a nasal twang, so hardly any accent at all. :yeahright:



My Dh's brother has lived in Melbourne since about age 22 and he's now 58. Glasgow accent still.

Their cousins in Sydney who went as young children on the £10 ships sound of course totally Aussie.


----------



## rkunsaw (Nov 9, 2014)

When the English first came to America they brought their language with them. As they spread through the colonies regional differences began to appear. Through the years the wise people of the southern states revised and improved the original English language until they got it perfect.


----------



## SifuPhil (Nov 9, 2014)

Just took the test - 

"The Inland North" - 93%



> Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."



No, I call them "soda".



> 87% Philadelphia
> 85% The Northeast



To my ear, Philadelphians have a distinctly different speech pattern - more like "YO, yo, wuchoo doin', man?" 

The rest of the answers - the Midland, the South, Boston, the West and North Central - are just plain wrong.

I spent the first half of my life (28 years) in New York, and except when I get excited you would be hard-pressed to figure it out - I do not have the typical "New Yawk" accent.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

rkunsaw said:


> When the English first came to America they brought their language with them. As they spread through the colonies regional differences began to appear. Through the years the wise people of the southern states revised and improved the original English language until they got it perfect.



When British people say Americans destroyed the language, I come back with how Americans improved it. I get sour looks.  

My sister gets very defensive about American terms and when I say things like 'trainers' and she says tennis shoes she assumes it's saying one word is better than the other. It's just different, not better.


----------



## Lee (Nov 9, 2014)

This is what I got.....not surprising that they mistake me for a Canadian....I am Canadian but  living just a hop, skip and a jump across the border from Detroit

"North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> Just took the test -
> 
> "The Inland North" - 93%
> 
> ...



Being from Michigan I always said pop, and when I moved to TN they always made fun of me for saying pop.  Yea, it was much better to call all of them 'coke'.   For some reason I started saying soda, although normally here it's fizzy drink or the brand name of the drink.

Oh and as for the name of the thing you push at the supermarket, Michigan was shopping cart, TN was buggy, and the UK is trolley.


----------



## Just plain me (Nov 9, 2014)

The test said and I quote "That's a Southern accent you've got there. You may love it, you may hate it, you may swear you don't have it, but whatever the case, we can hear it.". Being from Kentucky, it was right on. When I moved to Indiana.  Only 100+ miles from where I grew up. They used to really laugh at my accent. But I didn't care I was proud of it!


----------



## Just plain me (Nov 9, 2014)

My eyes are not as good as they used to be. That is why I increased the font size. Not yelling!


----------



## Debby (Nov 9, 2014)

Here's an example of a purely 'Canadian' accent that only occurs in a corner of the country that calls for endurance to live there.  Newfoundland!

No, I'm not a Newfie but we visited there once (wrong time of year in October, let me tell you).  The guy in this video is actually more understandable than a couple of old-timers that my husband talked to down on a dock in a little fishing village where we stayed for a week.  He wound up doing the old 'smile'n nod' routine because quite honestly, couldn't understand a word the guy was saying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQc43b4OsRg

and this one they discuss the different sounds from different regions of Newfoundland.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqLuIXwsLDw


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

Just plain me said:


> My eyes are not as good as they used to be. That is why I increased the font size. Not yelling!



That's okay.  Large is fine, it's all caps that does my head in!


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

Debby said:


> Here's an example of a purely 'Canadian' accent that only occurs in a corner of the country that calls for endurance to live there.  Newfoundland!
> 
> No, I'm not a Newfie but we visited there once (wrong time of year in October, let me tell you).  The guy in this video is actually more understandable than a couple of old-timers that my husband talked to down on a dock in a little fishing village where we stayed for a week.  He wound up doing the old 'smile'n nod' routine because quite honestly, couldn't understand a word the guy was saying.
> 
> ...



There are some wild accents out there!  I still have trouble with a thick Glasgwegian accent, but I don't live right in Glasgow. Hear it often enough though.


----------



## QuickSilver (Nov 9, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> Just took the test -
> 
> "The Inland North" - 93%
> 
> No, I call them "soda".




I called it Soda as a  little kid.. because my mom did.. her dad grew up in New York.   However, as I got older,  I started using the correct term.. which of course is POP


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

QuickSilver said:


> [/COLOR]
> I called it Soda as a  little kid.. because my mom did.. her dad grew up in New York.   However, as I got older,  I started using the correct term.. which of course is POP



I've always heard that pop was a Michigan or at least a midwest word, but then someone in England said they also used it.


----------



## QuickSilver (Nov 9, 2014)

rkunsaw said:


> When the English first came to America they brought their language with them. As they spread through the colonies regional differences began to appear. Through the years the wise people of the southern states revised and improved the original English language until they got it perfect.



I don't know about the "southern" accent being better... I can take a shower, fix my hair and get dressed before a Southerner can finish a sentence..  TOOOOOO SLOOOOOOW.      I will say the US DID improve English.. getting rid of the unnecessary OU in everything..  Colour... Flavour.. etc..


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

QuickSilver said:


> I don't know about the "southern" accent being better... I can take a shower, fix my hair and get dressed before a Southerner can finish a sentence..  TOOOOOO SLOOOOOOW.      I will say the US DID improve English.. getting rid of the unnecessary OU in everything..  Colour... Flavour.. etc..



LOL.  It's the original spelling of the words.  I've switched many words to the British spelling and now _color_ looks incorrect.  The one I'm sick of hearing about is in Britain it's aluminium, in the US it's aluminum.  So the British are always asking why Americans can't pronounce aluminium correctly. All are surprised that it is spelled differently.


----------



## Jackie22 (Nov 9, 2014)

QuickSilver said:


> I don't know about the "southern" accent being better... I can take a shower, fix my hair and get dressed before a Southerner can finish a sentence..  TOOOOOO SLOOOOOOW.      I will say the US DID improve English.. getting rid of the unnecessary OU in everything..  Colour... Flavour.. etc..



LOL.....now 'yall' know us Texans only speak SLOOOOOOOW.


----------



## QuickSilver (Nov 9, 2014)

Jackie22 said:


> LOL.....now 'yall' know us Texans only speak SLOOOOOOOW.



lol!!   My first husband's family lived in Alabama.. when we would visit them everyone wanted to hear me talk because "Ya'll talk so fast and crisp"  Crisp?   Guess cuz I actually ended my words... instead of drawling them out.  I liked to hear them talk..and I have to admit that I sometimes couldn't understand but every other word or so.. 

This is funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUFL2GT1-2g


----------



## Jackie22 (Nov 9, 2014)

QuickSilver said:


> lol!!   My first husband's family lived in Alabama.. when we would visit them everyone wanted to hear me talk because "Ya'll talk so fast and crisp"  Crisp?   Guess cuz I actually ended my words... instead of drawling them out.  I liked to hear them talk..and I have to admit that I sometimes couldn't understand but every other word or so..
> 
> This is funny!
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUFL2GT1-2g




Dern!  That was funny, Sugar.


----------



## Shirley (Nov 9, 2014)

So, what's your point, Shug? :lofl:


----------



## Twixie (Nov 9, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> When British people say Americans destroyed the language, I come back with how Americans improved it. I get sour looks.
> 
> My sister gets very defensive about American terms and when I say things like 'trainers' and she says tennis shoes she assumes it's saying one word is better than the other. It's just different, not better.



Have you ever heard the ''Geordie'' accent..even Brits can't understand it!


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

Twixie said:


> Have you ever heard the ''Geordie'' accent..even Brits can't understand it!



Aye!  I have a trouble with quite a few English accents.  I used to have trouble understanding a Welsh accent but not now. Guess I've heard enough of them on tv to become attuned to them, because I'm never around Welsh people.  I didn't have too much trouble in Yorkshire but then I've only visited York and Whitby.

If you've ever heard Charlie Hunnam who plays on Sons of Anarchy with an American accent, it's very hard to imagine that he actually comes from Newcastle.


----------



## Twixie (Nov 9, 2014)

Amazing places..did you visit York cathedral..all those Tudor Kings and Queens buried there..

I was in Whitby about a year ago..beautiful weather..and there was a kid's crab catching contest..They all got a line with a bit of bacon on it..and the winner won £10..they were crying..stealing crabs out of each others buckets...such fun to watch!!


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

Twixie said:


> Amazing places..did you visit York cathedral..all those Tudor Kings and Queens buried there..
> 
> I was in Whitby about a year ago..beautiful weather..and there was a kid's crab catching contest..They all got a line with a bit of bacon on it..and the winner won £10..they were crying..stealing crabs out of each others buckets...such fun to watch!!



I loved York and the cathedral!  Also loved Jorvik, except the smell.  layful:

I loved Whitby but made the mistake of going in August.  Wall to wall people.  I'd like to go back.  Magpie Cafe was a tie with a place in Scotland for the best fish and chips and mushy peas ever!  Also was charmed by Robin Hoods Bay.


----------



## Twixie (Nov 9, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> I loved York and the cathedral!  Also loved Jorvik, except the smell.  layful:
> 
> I loved Whitby but made the mistake of going in August.  Wall to wall people.  I'd like to go back.  Magpie Cafe was a tie with a place in Scotland for the best fish and chips and mushy peas ever!  Also was charmed by Robin Hoods Bay.


I didn't go to Jorvik..What made the Magpie cafe famous in England was the chef Rick Stein..who pronounced they were the best fish and chips he had ever tasted..so we queued up...just as we were getting near the door an old guy collapsed in front of us...I did CPR..whilst we were waiting for an ambulance...

We went to one nearby..it was nice..but it wasn't £15 a plate nice...


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

Twixie said:


> I didn't go to Jorvik..What made the Magpie cafe famous in England was the chef Rick Stein..who pronounced they were the best fish and chips he had ever tasted..so we queued up...just as we were getting near the door an old guy collapsed in front of us...I did CPR..whilst we were waiting for an ambulance...
> 
> We went to one nearby..it was nice..but it wasn't £15 a plate nice...



I had gone by myself as my dh had no interest in going.  I went in 2010 and it was £11 at the time.  I'd heard there were always long queues so I got there before 5pm.  Big piece of lovely fish, homemade chips, and the best mushy peas I've ever had.  It was worth any price, IMO.  Nice place, great service.  I tried hard to finish everything but I was about to burst, especially since I had a pint of beer with dinner.  Somehow managed to have an ice cream a couple of hours later.  Oink!  

The main reason I wanted to visit Whitby was because I'd read about the abbey and the Synod in the 7th century in a series of fictional books I had read - Sister Fidelma.


----------



## Twixie (Nov 9, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> I had gone by myself as my dh had no interest in going.  I went in 2010 and it was £11 at the time.  I'd heard there were always long queues so I got there before 5pm.  Big piece of lovely fish, homemade chips, and the best mushy peas I've ever had.  It was worth any price, IMO.  Nice place, great service.  I tried hard to finish everything but I was about to burst, especially since I had a pint of beer with dinner.  Somehow managed to have an ice cream a couple of hours later.  Oink!
> 
> The main reason I wanted to visit Whitby was because I'd read about the abbey and the Synod in the 7th century in a series of fictional books I had read - Sister Fidelma.



We went on the ''Goth'' weekend...they were all looking for Dracula..


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

Twixie said:


> We went on the ''Goth'' weekend...they were all looking for Dracula..



Oh, that would be very cool!

Whitby & Robin Hoods Bay are spectacular for photo taking!


----------



## AprilT (Nov 9, 2014)

I don't know what to think about the test, I took it twice changed one one or two answers as sometimes somethings just sound one way or the other to me.  I for sure don't in any way speak like a Philadelphian nor a southerner.  I checked the following site to check the phenetics and because through life, I had a great speaking voice and was often complimented on my enuciations.  As an adult when I lived up north, people would always ask where I was from because they couldn't place my accent, having lived in the south on and off for some 20 years now, people here can't place my accent, but for the most part they are sure I'm not from the south.  The second test placed me as being from the south.  So :dunno: I do admit to playing on a more NY accent in the past few years just to annoy my Floridian neighbors.

I listened to the pronunciations on,  http://www.forvo.com/ and over there is what I agreed how the words should be pronounced all except caught evedently has a different sound when Americans say it, on this site,  http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=caught&submit=Submit  which it seems should be pronounced cot on one site so I take it the site used for this test has it's own separate way of pronouncing words. The way one site pronounced some words for Americans, it sounds more like how a bostonian would pronounce it but oh well, I'll continue to pronounce it as if it sounds similar to aut in hautie tautie.   Seems once again, I come up undetectable or just more confuse.


----------



## Twixie (Nov 9, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> Oh, that would be very cool!
> 
> Whitby & Robin Hoods Bay are spectacular for photo taking!



I know..Robin Hoods bay was a place for smugglers.they would hold lamps up and guide the ship to the rocks.pillage the ships..no-one could understand why they were so rich..


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

AprilT said:


> I don't know what to think about the test, I took it twice changed one one or two answers as sometimes somethings just sound one way or the other to me.  I for sure don't in any way speak like a Philadelphian nor a southerner.  I checked the following site to check the phenetics and because through life, I had a great speaking voice and was often complimented on my enuciations.  As an adult when I lived up north, people would always ask where I was from because they couldn't place my accent, having lived in the south on and off for some 20 years now, people here can't place my accent, but for the most part they are sure I'm not from the south.  The second test placed me as being from the south.  So :dunno: I do admit to playing on a more NY accent in the past few years just to annoy my Floridian neighbors.
> 
> I listened to the pronunciations on,  http://www.forvo.com/ and over there is what I agreed how the words should be pronounced all except caught evedently has a different sound when Americans say it, on this site,  http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=caught&submit=Submit  which it seems should be pronounced cot on one site so I take it the site used for this test has it's own separate way of pronouncing words. The way one site pronounced some words for Americans, it sounds more like how a bostonian would pronounce it but oh well, I'll continue to pronounce it as if it sounds similar to aut in hautie tautie.   Seems once again, I come up undetectable or just more confuse.



People ask me if I'm Canadian quite a lot and several have asked if I was Irish.  Can't figure that one out at all but I've known several Americans here who have been asked the same thing.  As neutral as my accent sounds to me, I found it strange that when we went to Uganda people had a lot more trouble understanding me than my Scottish husband!

My dh likes to point out how I pronounce things the wrong way - new - I say noo, he says nU.  And that I say mary, merry, marry all the same. Loads more, but I just tell him deal with it.  You married a yank.

As for FL I lived in Jax when I was a kid and it seems the only southern accents I heard were those who came from Georgia.


----------



## AprilT (Nov 9, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> People ask me if I'm Canadian quite a lot and several have asked if I was Irish.  Can't figure that one out at all but I've known several Americans here who have been asked the same thing.  As neutral as my accent sounds to me, I found it strange that when we went to Uganda people had a lot more trouble understanding me than my Scottish husband!
> 
> My dh likes to point out how I pronounce things the wrong way - new - I say noo, he says nU.  And that I say mary, merry, marry all the same. Loads more, but I just tell him deal with it.  You married a yank.
> 
> As for FL I lived in Jax when I was a kid and it seems the only southern accents I heard were those who came from Georgia.



What was funny to me, I couldn't quite answer the, Mary, merry, marry as I wanted, because,.   to me Mary and marry sounds the same, but they didn't give that as an answer, it was, did they all sound the same or did Mary and merry sound the same, something like that.


----------



## QuickSilver (Nov 9, 2014)

Jackie22 said:


> Dern!  That was funny, Sugar.




One thing I know.... When a Southern woman says "Bless your heart"...... it's about as far away as being sweet as you can get..  lol!!


----------



## AprilT (Nov 9, 2014)

QuickSilver said:


> One thing I know.... When a Southern woman says "Bless your heart"...... it's about as far away as being sweet as you can get..  lol!!



This is true.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

Twixie said:


> I know..Robin Hoods bay was a place for smugglers.they would hold lamps up and guide the ship to the rocks.pillage the ships..no-one could understand why they were so rich..



Yes, I heard that.  I loved the black stones as well - lots of jewelry with it.


----------



## Shirley (Nov 9, 2014)

QuickSilver said:


> One thing I know.... When a Southern woman says "Bless your heart"...... it's about as far away as being sweet as you can get..  lol!!




  Not necessarily.  It's all in the delivery. If someone falls and breaks their leg, the  "Bless your heart" is sincere. 

If someone is constantly bragging about their perfect children, their expensive possessions or their extensive travels, you raise your right eyebrow ever so slightly and say, "Oh, really? Well, bless your heart."  Which means, "Well, la-de-damn-dah.  That just impresses the hell out of me."


----------



## AprilT (Nov 9, 2014)

Shirley said:


> Not necessarily.  It's all in the delivery. If someone falls and breaks their leg, the  "Bless your heart" is sincere.
> 
> If someone is constantly bragging about their perfect children, their expensive possessions or their extensive travels, you raise your right eyebrow ever so slightly and say, "Oh, really? Well, bless your heart."  Which means, "Well, la-de-damn-dah.  That just impresses the hell out of me."



That too is true.   I'mma tell ya somtin else, well maybe later, yesum, all true.


----------



## SifuPhil (Nov 9, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> I've always heard that pop was a Michigan or at least a midwest word, but then someone in England said they also used it.



Actually my Mom was from Michigan, and I was totally baffled as a kid when everyone up there said "pop". When they took me to a restaurant and I ordered a "soda" (my New York upbringing) they brought me an ice-cream soda.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> Actually my Mom was from Michigan, and I was totally baffled as a kid when everyone up there said "pop". When they took me to a restaurant and I ordered a "soda" (my New York upbringing) they brought me an ice-cream soda.



Yup, ya gotta speak the lingo.    I ordered an iced coffee in Australia not realizing it was a coffee milkshake!


----------



## SifuPhil (Nov 9, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> Yup, ya gotta speak the lingo.    I ordered an iced coffee in Australia not realizing it was a coffee milkshake!



Well, you know how those Aussies have everything upside-down ...


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> Well, you know how those Aussies have everything upside-down ...



Yea, and they put beets on everything - burgers, sandwiches.  Can't knock their BBQ's though!  Mmm....


----------



## SifuPhil (Nov 9, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> Yea, and they put beets on everything - burgers, sandwiches.  Can't knock their BBQ's though!  Mmm....



EEEeeewwwww - beets? 

Haven't had BBQ in years - maybe I'll have to run down there and check it out ... what is it - koala? Tasmanian Devil? layful:


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 9, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> EEEeeewwwww - beets?
> 
> Haven't had BBQ in years - maybe I'll have to run down there and check it out ... what is it - koala? Tasmanian Devil? layful:



Yea, slices on your sandwiches and burgers.  Where's our Aussie pals?

Dh has relatives there so we stay with them.  BIL had a huge BBQ grill and will put 4 kinds of meat on it for dinners.  Burgers, chicken, sausages, and usually one more.  First trip there I was still vegetarian.  Second trip there I had gone back to the dark side.  Yum.


----------



## Oceana (Nov 10, 2014)

Was given a Balmain Bug (sp?) when visiting my cousin in Oz. Thought it was salmon, but when it was hard, so I turned it over ... and there it was, legs all curled up - I shrieked and just couldn't eat it - which delighted her son, because he then got an extra one. Now why can't these Aussies just eat good old haggis like me?


----------



## Warrigal (Nov 10, 2014)

I've eaten haggis at a Burns Might celebration. Once. Perhaps if I had partaken of the sauce ?...

Balmain bugs are like crabs, hardly worth all the effort to get a bit of meat and we never ever put beetroot on a pizza. We turn pumpkin into soup and putting pineapple in or on any food dish allows you to call it Hawaiian.

Food cooked on the barbie may include any of the following: steak, lamb chops, sausages. rissoles, kebabs (meat on skewers) fish, chicken pieces and various species of seafood. All of them with or without marinade. And that's just the BBQs of the common folk.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 11, 2014)

Dame Warrigal said:


> I've eaten haggis at a Burns Might celebration. Once. Perhaps if I had partaken of the sauce ?...
> 
> 
> .



I've yet to attend a proper Burns night but I've had haggis a few times. Ate it like stuffing with gravy on top. It's okay. Just okay.


----------



## Warrigal (Nov 11, 2014)

I was referring to the whisky that is used to toast the poet's health.
Okay is an overstatement IMO.


----------



## Ralphy1 (Nov 11, 2014)

My New England accent was very amusing to guys I met in the service from other parts of the country...


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 11, 2014)

Dame Warrigal said:


> I was referring to the whisky that is used to toast the poet's health.
> Okay is an overstatement IMO.



I like whisky but it has to have lots of water and some ice. Frowned on when drinking good Scotch. My dh likes it straight.


----------



## JustBonee (Nov 11, 2014)

Ralphy1 said:


> My New England accent was very amusing to guys I met in the service from other parts of the country...



You have the Kennedy touch?  ...  Park the Car = Pahk the Cah


----------



## Butterfly (Nov 11, 2014)

The quiz says I have a "midland" accent, but I've never really lived in what it calls the "midland."  Maybe because I moved around a lot??  Husband was military and we lived everywhere.


----------



## Oceana (Nov 11, 2014)

The whisky on haggis, that I am familiar with, was on fire! Nothing like a haggis supper from the chippie though - what I always get the very first day I'm back in Scotland.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 12, 2014)

Oceana said:


> The whisky on haggis, that I am familiar with, was on fire! Nothing like a haggis supper from the chippie though - what I always get the very first day I'm back in Scotland.



Do you like black pudding as well?  I like that better than haggis.


----------



## Bee (Nov 12, 2014)

I love black pudding...........my father was a Scotsman,  every Sunday when he wasn't working he cooked breakfast and black pudding was always included.


----------



## Warrigal (Nov 12, 2014)

I've eaten black pudding too. Once.


----------



## AprilT (Nov 12, 2014)

I've eaten Jello chocolate pudding does that count for anything.


----------



## Shirley (Nov 12, 2014)

Hey, it's chocolate, ain't it?!?!?


----------



## AprilT (Nov 12, 2014)

Shirley said:


> Hey, it's chocolate, ain't it?!?!?



Ah gee thanks.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 12, 2014)

AprilT said:


> I've eaten Jello chocolate pudding does that count for anything.



LOL!  Black pudding is also called blood pudding.  Black pudding is a blend of onions, pork fat, oatmeal, flavourings - and blood (usually from a pig). As long as animals have been slaughtered to provide food, blood sausages like black pudding have been in existence.


----------



## Shirley (Nov 12, 2014)

I think I'd rather have chocolate pudding.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 12, 2014)

Shirley said:


> I think I'd rather have chocolate pudding.



Understandable! Over here pudding is the term to mean dessert in general.  Except for black pudding of course.


----------



## AprilT (Nov 12, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> LOL!  Black pudding is also called blood pudding.  Black pudding is a blend of onions, pork fat, oatmeal, flavourings - and blood (usually from a pig). As long as animals have been slaughtered to provide food, blood sausages like black pudding have been in existence.



I thought that was something called blood pudding or blood sausage.  OOPS!  I see you did mention the blood sausage.  When I read black pudding, I kind of thought I was on the wrong trail, blame that Shirley woman.  LOL


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 12, 2014)

AprilT said:


> I thought that was something called blood pudding or blood sausage.



It's called black or blood pudding.  I hear it called black pudding much more often.


----------



## AprilT (Nov 12, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> It's called black or blood pudding.  I hear it called black pudding much more often.



I've seen it featured on a few shows in the past, I can't recall which ones, but on one of the shows the guest wasn't looking forward to the meal on other shows the people were salivating in anticipation of the meal.


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 12, 2014)

AprilT said:


> I've seen it featured on a few shows in the past, I can't recall which ones, but on one of the shows the guest wasn't looking forward to the meal on other shows the people were salivating in anticipation of the meal.



I like it okay but wouldn't call it a favourite food.  It is often served with breakfast at B & B's here, and a friend of ours will put it on top of pork and serve it with gravy.


----------



## GeorgiaXplant (Nov 12, 2014)

The Midland for me. Hm. I didn't know that.

Whatsisname, the Father of My Children, has the most perfectly accentless speech I ever heard. It could have something to do with the fact that he spent some time in broadcasting school back in the day, where any accent from anywhere was drummed right out of the students. It didn't matter where he worked...Upper Peninsula, West Virginia, New Mexico, nobody ever guessed where he was from.

For me, nobody ever said I sounded like a Yooper; mostly people would say I sounded like I was either from Canada or Virginia. My mother corrected us whenever we spoke "Yooper" because she hated the sound. Canada? Well, there are those who call the UP "South Canada". Maybe I learned that from my grandparents, who emigrated from Canada. But Virginians? They say things like "hoose" for "house" and "aboot" for "about". Mother would have raised Cain if I'd done that.


----------



## Butterfly (Nov 12, 2014)

I will happily pass on the black pudding!

What's a yooper?


----------



## Ameriscot (Nov 13, 2014)

Butterfly said:


> I will happily pass on the black pudding!
> 
> What's a yooper?



Someone from the UP - upper peninsula - of Michigan.


----------

