Accents can be strange and I think here in the UK we do seem to have so many that people will always find a few that annoy them. I think with me I pick up on ways that people in certain areas say things and focus on that whether it is a nice way, a funny way, or a strange way.

I find that heavy accents can take a bit of getting used to and at first they can be exceptionally annoying as you have no idea what is being said, but after that I can often just let the annoyance pass me by and shut off my ears, but maybe because there are so many different accents around me they are just a minor irritation at times rather than anything worse.

I delight in British regional accents!

I depend on lipreading when talking to non-Deaf people, so any accent other than the Southern and generic American accent is a complete pain. 12 years of speech therapy is moot because it’s inflexible—it doesn’t make the rest of the country or world understandable.

The worst are English speakers from India or that region. Not only are their mouth movements completely undecipherable, they also keep talking nonstop after I tell them 10, 15 times that I can’t understand them. It’s as if they think continued speech will magically enter my head. Not sure why they are like that- my guess is some cultural programming makes their reactions different.

I love Aussie accents.

I consider accents to be just another descriptor of a person along the lines of height, weight, and gender.

That being said, I have always had difficulty understanding accents, and find communicating frustrating. My wife on the hand, is bilingual (I’m not) and rarely has trouble understanding accents.

I can’t stand Michigan accents, yet my partner is from there. And, I find that I’m picking up the accent some.

I love Boston accents. I’m not a fan of German accents. But, I do love an Icelandic accent.

So, it depends on the accent.

I find most accents quite charming as long as I can understand them without trouble. I do find the speed with which some people speak difficult to follow. It was amusing to both me and the taxi driver with the Cockney accent in London, that we both spoke English and neither of us could understand the other. He did manage to get us to our hotel and we parted laughing.

Everyone, even you, has an accent of some kind or other. I do not judge people by their accents. I delight instead in our differences.

Boston accents are tough to listen to because they often (not always – relax) are used to communicate extremely conservative or ill-informed opinions.

@marinelife I was going to say I am not judging but perhaps you are right? I just feel particularly if English is your first language it should be clear. . Or at least a little clear. Americans speak clearly. However, that does not explain my distaste for example a genuine bilingual person in my case. I think it’s a phobia. Odd I know.

Not all Americans speak clearly. There are some American accents that are quite hard to understand. I can’t say where exactly they’re from but I’ve watched documentaries where people from (I would guess) fairly rural areas are interviewed and it becomes fairly difficult to understand what they’re saying.

I like accents. They’re a little like wrinkles, part of the make-up of that person. An indicator of their roots and journey in life.

I love all the different accents. It’s a diverse world, I just enjoy the different ways people speak. I’ve been told I have a slow drawl.

Your accent sucks too.

No, I don’t. I grew up learning to parse an Indian accent, and I just love language in general and like hearing how different people speak the same language so differently.

Phase II of my research this summer will include learning to understand rural French accents!

@Shippy : Do you really think you might have a phobia of accents in English? A distaste is different from a phobia… Do they scare you so much that you try to avoid them?

@tinyfaery Whose accent sucks?

I’m not sure what “I don’t like accents” means, because everyone has an accent. You have one – do you dislike it?

To answer the question, I like certain accents a lot – Austrailian, Scottish, Irish, Southern US, and British. Too much of any accent can get annoying – certain British accents are goofy-sounding and a Southern US accent that is too pronounced just sounds stupid. Accents that get on my nerves are French, Russian, Middle Eastern, German, and some Northern US accents such as a Boston accent.

Many of the male celebrities I find attractive have accents – Gerard Butler, Robert Pattinson, Hugh Laurie, Jeremy Wade, and Chris Hemsworth. Though, I find that any accent on a hot guy is great and just makes the guy sexier.

I don’t have an accent. Everyone else has an accent though.

Understanding speech in an unfamiliar accent is a challenge to auditory processing centers in the brain. The worse someone’s auditory processing skills are, the harder it is for them to recognize words that are pronounced differently. Even regional dialects can vary enough to sound foreign to others from the same country. The more familiar one is with an accent, the easier it is to understand. English was my mother’s 4th or 5th language, and I barely hear her accent and understand German accents quite well. I learned how to understand people with Indian and Pakistani accents by working in a hospital with several staff from that part of the world. I have a tougher time with heavier accents from the Deep South of the USA! And I struggle mightily with French or Haitian-Creole accents. It’s not that I find the sound of the accent “distasteful” or unpleasant, just that I have a hard time recognizing English words among their utterances.

I really despise american accents. But I love British accents, Russian accents, French accents.

Accents don’t bother me at all, though some are hard to understand. Australian accents sound wicked cool in my opinion though.

OP.

Don’t people realize that everyone has an accent.

Everyone except me, @tinyfaery. ; ~ )

@Mama_Cakes: You “love Boston accents”?!?! Come hang with me for a weekend and you can gorge on mine. :^)

Personally I enjoy accents (including my own). I’m particularly fond of Scottish, Argentine, and (my new favorite) Egyptian.

I’m terrified of accents. When people are speaking quickly and I can’t figure out what they’re saying, I just nod along with a smile.

(Also, I haven’t had the opportunity to speak with very many people across the globe ><)

@girassol Stop and ask if you don’t understand. Accents are tricky sometimes.

@Adirondackwannabe I do most of the time, but my own accent makes it hard for me to be understood too. D: But I love that funny “oh!” moment when we figure out what each other are saying.

@girassol Where are you from? I’m in rural upstate New York.

@Adirondackwannabe I’m from the little island of Singapore. (:

I love listening to people with accents, but I hate accents because I have a hard time understanding them!

As an American, I think British accents are the hardest to understand sometimes because they’re speaking ENGLISH, so it’s full speed, but accented. People that have an accent due to English not being their first language tend to speak slower and enunciate more clearly.

No. I find them interesting. I do find it funny when I hear someone say Tanksgiving instead of Thanksgiving, Tank you very much. I can’t help it. It makes me giggle But, I’ll be the first one to make fun of myself because I can’t role my r’s.

Generally I like accents. The more severe the accent usually means either English is a second langauge and likely the person learned English late in life, or Englisgh is their first language but the might be from a lower social class. This I would say about all languages in all countries. But, those generalizations don’t always apply. Sometimes it is also a dialect in with the accent that makes it difficult to understand or hard to listen to.

I like most British accents, I think most Amercians do. My husband is obsessed with the Itish accent and fancies Brittish and Scottish accents as well. He is Mexican, now American.

I guess I never would say I don’t like an accent, I would say I can’t understand the way they speak sometimes. That’s rare though.

As long as I can decode what the speaker means, I’m perfectly comfortable with accents. People who hate or distrust anyone they perceive as foreign or different is likely to hate accents.
Sadly such attitudes are too often exhibited or expressed by Americans. Republicans see to be more xenophobic than Democrats. I guess it goes with their conservative attitudes.

I love them, even though my auditory processing ability is not very good and I have a lot of trouble understanding most Southern and non-American English that is not spoken slowly and clearly. African-flavored English is the best; somehow the changed emphasis and modulations manage to make our normally flat and nasal language sound rich and delicious.

@tinyfaery Who said I had an accent? For example my mother had no accent nor dialogue. It took her years of practice to attain that. I do though have a faint mix of British and south African accent. (Yes, I hate thick SA accents too). Not saying it is OK. As I said earlier some accents if faint are charming. When it becomes unintelligible it becomes annoying to me. But anyway thanks for your intelligent input as usual. Typical to think everyone has accents really?

@Shippy

Accent
Noun
A distinctive mode of pronunciation of a language, esp. one associated with a particular nation, locality, or social class.

Everyone has an accent, unless they do not speak.

@livelaughlove21 No they don’t. My family didn’t just live in one country. So locality falls out of your theory. Plus as I said in my post. My mother had no dialect nor accent. You have never heard of that before? I am surprised. Had a good laugh at your social class comment. But yes, I agree in most people that is what an accent does it aligns them to a social class.

@Shippy, can you name someone else who doesn’t have an accent? So we can listen and see what it is you think is ‘accentless’ speech.

Yes, please, I’d love to hear what someone without an accent sounds like.

Oh, and @Shippy, that’s the definition of “accent”, not my own creation (regarding the social class comment).

@Bellatrix It is rare admittedly. Having no accent was not the main focus of this question. I also find it interesting how a mod on this page didn’t remove a personal attack to me. Saying my accent sucks? When specifically I had noted in the question this was not meant to offend anyone. My last say on the subject is, in my opinion if you can speak clearly especially if your first language is english, is preferable to me. You know for example. Wheel barrow, being said as Wheel barrrrrrahhhhh. Or I am going to the shops, as I’m gahnnna the shops. Simple really. I’m out of this question. Thanks to others for your replies.

We can’t mod threads we are in @Shippy. If you flag it someone else will mod it for you if it is considered to be a personal attack.

Furthermore, it would seem a number of people are unclear what you mean by ‘having no accent’. I’m guessing you can’t provide an example given you are leaving the thread. That’s a pity I would like to hear what you mean.

In actual fact if you just spend a couple of minutes online you will see there are a number of people that mention knowing somebody that speaks with no accent so it does happen.

It is also pretty well known that a number of singers will sing without an accent (thanks to accent being a result of intonation patterns and a lot of singers lose that when singing due to the rhythm etc) so the idea of someone speaking with no accent is perfectly reasonable. Also actors change their accent by altering various parts of their speech, so if you can alter them, then surely you can also remove them.

So can you provide an example so those of us who are unclear what @Shippy means can listen to such a person speak? Perhaps you can provide a link to the resources that say there are people with no accents too.

As to singers, @Shippy didn’t say people who sing with no accent. She also didn’t say actors who use different accents as part of their jobs. They are still speaking with an accent and they still have their natural accent. She said ‘speaking’ accents.

Nice of you to answer for @Shippy but I think it’s reasonable to ask for an example so we can hear what she means. I would seriously like to know what speaking with absolutely no accent sounds like and I would be happy for you (or someone else) to provide an example.

Sorry, didn’t read entire thread here.

But @Shippy, it sounds like (correct me if I’m wrong) you are claiming that there is such thing as “no accent”. This isn’t something to debate, really. I mean, the term “accent” by definition means that everyone has an accent. Arguing this point would be getting into “square circle” territory.

When I lived in New York, everybody made fun of my Texan accent. When I was in England, everybody fawned over my American accent. I don’t have a problem with most other accents, but there are a couple which cause me a negative knee-jerk reaction.

Interesting

@Bellatrix care to point out where I said that @Shippy mentioned singers? I was giving an example of where no accent is used and explained why that is the case due to the way that an accent is produced.

@TheProfoundPorcupine: “I was giving an example of where no accent is used…”

You gave an example of where a different accent is used.

@cookieman The Boston accent makes me think of the Kennedy’s. I just enjoy hearing it. :)

Also, love Scottish accents.

@tom_g nope try again please.

In actual fact to quote a professor of linguistics and speech

“We seem to lose our accents when singing because singing tends to distill the vowel sounds in speech, in particular, stretching out those parts of the vowels that we have in common.”

We learn vowel sounds, particularly in singing, in a way that allows us to project them to a loud audience. That means that the front of the mouth needs to be more open than it is in speech so it’s a bit like a megaphone. The vowels take on a different sound in terms of their timbre which is really what accent is. Therefore the vowels are being placed in a position for singing which is not the same as speech.

Oh and another example.

“I saw an operatic soprano a while back who, when she spoke, had a dripping Southern twang. But when she sang, there was no trace of an accent. A lack of accent is very much a sign of a well trained artist.”

What you can take from this is that accents can indeed be removed with the correct training and from this you can speak with a neutral voice with no local or regional tone to it and for this you can look at various English language courses.

To quote again.

“A neutral accent is one that is grammatically correct, but has no regional characteristics.” so if we take the description of an accent posted above which described an accent as “A distinctive mode of pronunciation of a language, esp. one associated with a particular nation, locality, or social class.” then by removing the way that words are pronounced so they have no sign of a particular nation, locality, or social class it is fair to say that you have no accent.

There are various videos online from companies that teach people how to speak English where they focus on a neutral voice to remove these regional or even national characteristics to leave you with an English speaking voice that is clear, contains perfect pronounciation and indeed has no discernible accent.

@TheProfoundPorcupine: ”@tom_g nope try again please.”

Ok. I will. I’ll completely admit that I might be looking at this at a level that might not be appropriate for discussing common usage – but then again, maybe it is.

I’m reading your post and seeing things like “losing our accents”, but I’m not seeing a description of what that actually means. If an accent is…

“A distinctive mode of pronunciation of a language, esp. one associated with a particular nation, locality, or social class.”

…then, this means that everyone who speaks an audible language is subject to this (I’m not sure if this type of thing applies to sign language).

The way it seems we commonly use this term is to describe someone who has a different accent from us as “having an accent”. But when we visit this person’s town, we’re the one with the accent.

Every single thing you are describing is a description of “losing” an accent by developing another. It’s a relative thing. In other words, relative to the common way of speaking in my geographic location, person x has an accent.

When you describe the marketing speak for removing accents, what you seem to be describing is a way to develop the accent of a national news anchor for this particular time (this will change – go back and check out news reports from the 60s). I get this. I grew up with a Boston accent and spent considerable effort in college to “remove it”. But really, what I was doing was mimicking the accent that is commonly found in other parts of the country or on television – in particular, accents that happen to pronounce the letter “r”.

Let’s try this: where can you find a region in the U.S. that doesn’t have an accent?

@tom_g you are going back to the idea of the accent being linked to a region and I have already discussed that. Oh and not everybody is from the US by the way.

@TheProfoundPorcupine: ”@tom_g you are going back to the idea of the accent being linked to a region and I have already discussed that.”

I’m not “going back to” – this is the core of the definition of the term “accent”, and I fail to see an alternate definition or concept that has been proposed here or elsewhere.

@TheProfoundPorcupine: “Oh and not everybody is from the US by the way.”

Great. Even better. Pick your country and name a regional accent that is the correct one – or in your terms, “has no accent”.

@tom_g Well, in England there used to be what is called the BBC accent which was the standard that people were supposed to learn if they wanted to work in the media. Nowadays there, more regional accents are acceptable on the radio and in public life generally. I think accents in England, while regional, are also used as a delimiter of class – there are definitley upperclass twit, i.e., OxBridge accents that you hear.

@janbb: “I think accents in England, while regional, are also used as a delimiter of class”

That’s very much the case here in Massachusetts as well. If you hope to work anywhere but your local Walmart, you’ll lose that accent, use the letter “r” and stop saying “irregahdless”. And on the flipside, there are communities that embrace, celebrate, and exaggerate the Boston accent as a political and cultural statement.

@tom_g Yes, I think that idea has grown in England too. Certainly some leftwing politicians and labor leaders flaunt their working class accents.

And don’t get me started on people who tell me I’m from “Joisey!”

@janbb You hit the nail on the head. My mother would listen to the BBC constantly to fine tune her way of speaking. Over here we had I think Radio One. It’s so long ago, I could be incorrect. But through this she lost her dialect. Plus her accent was extremely neutral. Quite a mission of a woman who was born Geordie. Although I myself was born in the North of England, I never lived there for extended periods. Upon meeting some Geordie’s here in SA I could not understand a word they were saying.

Possibly accents here too are an indicator of class or lack thereof. I personally find mostly uneducated people break into deep accented ways of speaking. Overall I find it annoying. I guess I am a snob. sorry folks

@tom_g considering I come from Scotland where we are swamped with accents where I can identify more than 5 distinct accents within less than 50 miles of me then that is like asking somebody from New York to pick a neutral accent from within the city.

^^ @TheProfoundPorcupine – I think we’re completely talking past each other. Not sure we’re even talking about the same thing. Did you even read my comments above?

I love accents. There are a few I don’t like but, in general, I find regional accents far more interesting than generic ones (like the “BBC British” for example – I find that boring at the best and pretentious at the worst). Most of the people I know have, what is known here, as west country accents, myself included. West country accents are from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire with Cornwall and Devon being the strongest. I have more of a Somerset accent which can be a little bit softer.

@Shippy – That doesn’t mean that your mother had no accent, because to American or Australian ears, she would be identified as British. Every language has ‘standard’ pronunciations, but there are still variances between speakers and Standard American English is very different from any standardized British pronunciation.

My favorite accents are UK—British, Irish, Scottish.

@Shippy Absolutely everyone has an accent.

@Shippy they’re right, everyone has an accent.

@hearkat She certainly did not sound British, to anyone. I can assure you. @JLeslie Don’t agree sorry. @ibstubro who’s they? still don’t agree.

@Shippy I wonder if you are conflating regional accents and accents?

@janbb No, if it had been regional it would have had Geordie hints in it? Anyway we were an interesting family, dad was Geordie, in his speaking, my mom, neutral, I was mix SA and cockney and my brother full cockney!!

@Shippy: “still don’t agree.”

You’ve read the comments above which describe in detail the confusion, and you still disagree? What exactly do you disagree with?
I’m stumped.

@Shippy – Did she sound American? Did she sound South African? If she modeled her pronunciation after the BBC announcers, she would sound British. If she modeled her pronunciation after American news announcers, she would sound American. These pronunciations of the same English words are noticeably different.

My Bachelor’s degree is in Communication Sciences, so we studied speech, phonemes, morphemes, diphthongs, and articulation. I had to learn Standard American English pronunciation in order to conduct word recognition testing, and people ask me where I’m from. Everyone has an accent.

@Shippy If you were to post a clip of your voice here, I guarantee that we would hear an accent in your voice. Accents are relative things! What sounds “normal” to you would sound heavily accented to me thousands of miles away. As has been said over and over here – we all have accents from someone’s point of view.

I have to confess, I am disappointed to hear you express such negativity to people who sound different from the way that you think they should sound (particularly in saying that they sound “retarted” – the word retarded is a very ugly slur in North America, though perhaps you are unaware of this). The way a person pronounces their words is not representative of their intelligence or experience. It only tells you something about where they grew up – I think we can all agree that we shouldn’t be judging people according to their nationality or culture, can we not?

I leave you with these relevant accent stories from QI (beginning about 50 seconds into the clip).

@glacial Oh sure I have an accent, I have two mixed actually. But I am intelligible, and you can understand what I am saying. Watching a lot of documentaries I have to say some sound like chipmunks hungry for their next nut. I half expect them to start swinging from trees any minute.

@Shippy: “Oh sure I have an accent, I have two mixed actually.”

Ok. I guess this is what may have confused some of us…

@Shippy: “My mother had no dialect nor accent.”

I was looking for an example of how this could be possible, and @TheProfoundPorcupine attempted to make a case for this. It seems now, however, that this may have just been a misunderstanding?

This (long) thread has primarily focused on 2 issues: 1) Is there such thing as “no accent”, and 2) Do others’ accents sound annoying or silly. I was primarily interested in clearing up what I felt to be confusion about #1. We might actually be in agreement after all – except for the possibility that you meant what you said about your mother having “no accent”?

I’m pretty sure if I heard your Mom talk, she would have an accent to me.

Anyhow, I’d love to hear Leanne’s accent. The way that she describes it sounds lovely.

I generally like accents but there’s one or two British regional ones that I can’t stand. I won’t say what they are in case someone here has one of them!

Here’s an accent I love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xljcPxP_xpc

@Mama_Cakes The thought had occurred to me to raise her from the dead, so to speak. As friend of mine has videos of her!

Sorry to hear that she is gone.

Bwahaha. This thread is ridiculous.

@tinyfaery Yup sure is.

LOL!

All arguments aside…

I do not have issues with accents in general. It can be frustrating, at times, in trying to understand someone who has a very strong accent (it can also be humorous). However, I do not get angry at them for it..or think any less of the person. I’m positive I sound weird to many people too (even in my own locale). The only accents which have made me question my sanity are the very strong deep south ones, in the US, and the Newfoundlander mumbo jumbo of Newfoundland, in Canada. They are probably what a Neanderthal cross with a Homo sapien might sound like. I’m not saying these people are unintelligent. They just sound that way often times.

I like Newfie accents. Have you ever seen The Shipping News? Great flick.

@Mama_Cakes Oh, they can be very amusing. No doubt there, lol. They just make me go “wtf?” in my head.

:) Haha I hear ya. They’re the friendliest of folks.

@Mama_Cakes I don’t think I’ve seen that movie. I’ll check it out though.

Neglected to mention that when I moved back to Texas, my home state, after living in New York for 10 years, my friends made fun of my “New York accent.” Accent wise, I couldn’t catch a break no matter where I lived. ;-)

@Shippy Some of my friends in MI insisted they don’t have accents either. Their defense was the media uses their accent. Thing is, by their accent I can tell where they are from. If I heard your voice I would assume you have an accent related to the part of the world you are from. It isn’t like one particular accent is the “right” one and everyone else is wrong. However, it is arguable that extreme accents tend to be related to income level and literacy rates. Even if the community is more literate now, if historically the area was less educated then the accent has carried down. Knowing how something is spelled helps aid in pronounciation. But, even still, many places pronounce differently even when very literate in the society. These things evolve over time. In America another big influence is the country of original that is predominant in the community. Russians speak English different than Italians, etc.

@Mama_Cakes Have you seen Doc Martin? It’s a British drama based in Cornwall. Anyway, some of the accents on that are similar to my own, although maybe a little stronger!

I love Doc Martin. Are they still making that @Leanne1986?

Ah, this guy has a wonderful Cornwall accent. Very cool. :)

Wouldn’t it be damned boring if we all sounded the same. I love accents. Even the ones I find challenging to understand.

Here in the UK we have what is called received pronunciation which is considered the standard pronunciation though it is actually the accent of the south of England where our national broadcaster was based. I don’t mind it unless it is used, as it sometimes is, to indicate superiority.

@Bellatrix I believe there will be a new series out this year at some point.
@Mama_Cakes His accent is similar to mine! My boyfriend has a much stronger West Country accent.

People from the U.S., what accent is this? From the documentary “Grey Gardens”. I hear a bit of Boston in there. Am I wrong?

Anyhow, I love it.

It sounds a lot like my Dad’s Brooklynese to me.

I love it!!!

@flutherother now that the HQ of the BBC has moved to Salford, I think Received Pronunciation will be officially replaced with the Manchester accent! :) Members of the Royal Family will shortly be visiting a Crumpsall council estate for elocution lessons.

I love dialects and accents. When French people for example speak German, ah, simply wonderful. I like the way Scots talk. Or people in India. Like Raj from Big Bang Theory…

Man, people getting all worked up over accents? This place can be pretty fucking weird some times.

Man, people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over accents? This place can be pretty fucking weird some times.

Man, people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over people getting all worked up over accents? This place can be pretty fucking weird some times.

Perhaps nothing grates on my ears more than hearing a Middle Eastern man shouting into a cellphone.

Well, New York accents are like fingernails on a chalkboard to this Confederate as well.

European visitors often ask me why I don’t have an “American” accent.

What is your criteria for “accents?” I mean, what non-accented speech do you compare them to? I don’t think I have an accent, but when I go North, like to Washington, I’m told I have a soft drawl. I, in turn,think they talk a little funny.

I appreciate accents unless they’re so heavy you can’t understand what they’re saying, especially if they’re American speaking to Americans. The other day we were watching some dumb show where the producers went to the deep, deep south searching for alligators in the bayous. When this one gal, native to the bayous, was talking, they actually put up subtitles at the bottom of the screen, and she was speaking “English.”
It’s annoying to get customer service reps on the phone with such heavy, deep south accents that every other word you’re saying “What?”

^There’s an Apple tech support facility just south of Atlanta.

I’ve had no trouble ever.

I consider the accent problem to merely be one of the growing pains associated with our developing world economy.

Many nations require English as a second language in school, great.

But what second language should Americans be required to learn for the best possible future for us in the new world?

Years ago I would have said Japanese. I’d say Chinese now.

Spanish does not represent forward step.

But China needs to completely dismantle it’s notorious counterfeit products industry before they will earn my respect.

Not ALL deep southern accents are difficult to understand @SecondHandStoke. You can have two people who grew up next door to each other, but for whatever reason, one of them mumbles or whatever , on top of a thick accent, and is difficult to understand.