OK, so I have been told 5 times now that I have an accent? Have you been told this?

[Amy10223]

The words that made them tell me were "sausages", "coffee", and "New York" among some other ones. What do you mean, how I said "coffee"? Is there any other way to say it? Come, on. I don't have an acent!

[mstbooblover]

So what, you have an accent, as everyone actually does ;0) More seriously, very long ago, when we still were children, I remember my older brother saying that an accent is slowly sneaking into one's language without one noticing it. It's a normal adaptative phenomenon because of our environment. We just adapt unknowinly, or instinctively (I don't know exactly), the way we speak a particular language according the people we have around us generally.

[jjj101010]

Everyone has an accent. U just don’t hear your own because u use it everyday and are surrounded by people with a similar accent, once u travel u notice it more. U will have a national accent and a regional one

[Amy10223]

I stand out in the region wherre I am now. I didn't before, and so I never thought I had one.

[jjj101010]

Don’t worry about it, an accent isn’t a bad thing, it allows others to associate with u. Also u can change it

[Amy10223]

Change it into what? I'm not worried. I understand most people when they speak.

[jjj101010]

Accents often change when u relocate

[nolabels]

I can't recall where it was that I was told I have an accent, but it seems that I was somewhere where I was not detecting any particular accent in the speech of the people who were around me at the time.

I found that statement to be a bit strange to me.

Thinking about it over the years, the only explanation that I can think of is that the person who made the comment might have originally been from elsewhere in the world than where we were at the time, himself having assimilated the local accent which, again, was not in any way distinct to me, yet somehow this person found something in my speech to distinguish it from the local peoples. Was he comparing my speech to a latent image in his mind of being different than his hypothetically different lingual origin than mine or the local environment that we were in? If that makes any sense.

Who knows?

[Amy10223]

I'm from the northeast, and I am now in the mid-west. I can catch an accent every now and then from people who are from the Appalachia region where i am. It sounds very southern to me. I can't tell southern accents apart, they somehow sound different depending on where they're from. However, there are some people who have no accent here at all, and they have not mentioned anything to me. But I can tell they do not speak the way I am used to speaking.
What you said in your last paragraph seems true--if you are anywhere esle in the world, people will know where you are from or take a good guess. I was once on a subway in London (the Tube) and I was stared at by many as I spoke to a friend I was with. He was Dutch, and In guess they have many visitors from there--but I noticed one guy was looking at me talking and smiling to himself.

[nolabels]

Yeah, who knows?

I like the video that AmandaYVR provided a link to.
I've watched his content a few times over, just to try to discover things I may have missed on previous viewings.

Here's a link describing one of my favorite accents to poke innocent fun at.
Over the years, watching old movies, I began to wonder where some of the actors of the early to mid-20th century had grown up in order to produce the accents that I was hearing. Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, et al. I was amused at what I found out about their 'accents'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent

I love hearing different accents.

Cheers!

[Amy10223]

I didn't bother looking at the video when she said I was pendantic. I have seen videos like this anyway--when I once looked at accents from around the states. I know about regional accents, and I know about dialects. The point is--I didn't know that "coffee" was pronounced like "COH FEE" here where I am. I think that's where all the confusion came in.

[Amy10223]

I like hearing different accents too, by the way. I love he New England accents. Thanks for the link.

[nolabels]

You bet.

[NathanDavis]

oh yeah, some do say coffee... but others do say cawfee, lmao

[Amy10223]

That's how I pronounce it--caw-fee. You can't say CAH FEE, can you?

[Amy10223]

Yes but CAW FEE is the onyl correct way to say it. :D

[NathanDavis]

it is the one I like... lmfao

but I do say café or cafecito... lol

[Amy10223]

I say "Un cafecito, por favor!"

[DryGermanGuy]

You don't have an accent (in this case), you have a local dialect! As obviously everyone has. Not even the Queen spoke "Queen's English" all day.

[Midgetmcwidget]

Everyone has an accent, if I’ve been listening to danish and practising it, my accent changes and impacts my English, same with Maltese. Been trying to learn french but I keep speaking with a danish accent. 🤦🏼‍♀️

[AviatorTom]

Everyone has an accent. It just depends on where you are. @Amy10223 ... I bet if you visited Mississippi, people there would say that you have an accent.

[AmandaYVR]

You must have some elongated vowels.

Look up accent videos in youtube. There's lots of people with channels who explain the dialect differences.

[Amy10223]

I don't speak a different dialect; I speak English. I don't understand what you mean by elongated vowels. There are short and long vowels with distinct sounds.

[AmandaYVR]

www.youtube.com/watch

[Amy10223]

I believe accents are different from dialects. Don't dialects include words that ae not in one person's lexicon?

[AmandaYVR]

Wow are you pedantic.

What I should have typed was, "There's lots of people with channels who explain accent and dialect differences."

The point is, you do have an accent. I was just trying to help you to understand.

I'm done with this topic.

[Amy10223]

No, I'm not pedantic. I am saying that people's natural lexicons are deverloped from their experiences and where they are from. Dialects are a bit different from accents.

[purplepoppy]

You will have both and accent and a regional dialect. Everyone has.

[20yearsolder]

I'd have to hear your voice but I don't think I have an accident either but people say I do

[EaterPeter]

Yes.

[EaterPeter]

Where is this, at work place, in laws or somewhere else?

[EaterPeter]

Where are you from if I may ask?

[Amy10223]

I'm originally from NYC, and grew up in NJ since the age of 17. This is from people in this state--from an interest group I belong to (two people), to someone I met while getting my covid shot (at the time you had to wait 15 minutes afterwardss in the store), to a medical tecnician. All differrent people.

[EaterPeter]

Your parents are from somewhere else?