Michelle

This is a cute topic, Demelza!
I suppose you could say that I have mutt English. First off, I live in Miami, Florida and if any of you have ever been here, you are most likely aware of the interesting accent one acquires from living here. It is a mixture of Spanish-speaking Americans and English-as-a-first-language foreigners. And although I truly don't hear it, I am immediately identified as being from Miami as soon as I travel anywhere north. And the funny thing is that out of everyone I know, my accent is much less pronounced. I also have the quirk that I tend to pick up other people's accents by accident. I have cousins from New Jersey and New York and whenever they visit, I inevitably end up sounding like them. In Spanish, it is even worse because although I am totally Cuban, I am surrounded by many different nationalities so my accent is usually difficult to identify. So yeah, you guys would most likely be surprised to hear me....hehe.

Maria_Aya

In the 10 years i was manager in International Backgammon Group, I've met people from all Earth. I never had that problem with them cause i was thinking them as different people and it was funny to listen them and see them from close after years.
But they were shocked with my accent lol
I'm greek - australian, so my english have an australian accent.
The 2 comments that I remember was:
a) i'm much much quiter person in real life than in internet
b) I type english with greek accent lol (he he, but you all understand me right?)

Kisses and hugs
Maria Aya

Yshka

Nice thread.

Maria, I love that you even write with a Greek accent, that's really cute! I'm smiling just reading you're Greek-accent-English posts

I think my case would be similar to Moon's. When speaking English I have just a slightly Dutch'ish accent, but that remains the same whoever I talk to.
I also tend to pronounce things more in an American sort of way than the English way for it feels much easier to me. I also speak English when speaking Dutch, I just tend to mix up words from both, though I have no English background or anything like that. I think English is just easier to say things in most cases, cause you'd need a whole story in Dutch to say something that in English requires only a few words.

Moon

I think that's because we Dutchies hear a lot of American on the television and the radio. (Our poor English teachers desperately try to let us say "âsk" instead of "aaeeesk", lol)

I do that too, sometimes it's even worse and than I use an English word instead of a Dutch one because I can't remember what it's called in my own language at that moment! :eek: I think this is because most of my university courses are in English, my study material is in English and I read a lot of English stuff on the internet (including this forum).

maariku

That is indeed a cool topic
Well, my tone of voice depends on the language I speak and generally English is on a more low end. Continental Europeans say my English is like proper British, Americans say I sound Australian and the Brits say that they can still hear an Estonian deep down there somewhere... Now I leave you to imagine what exactly would an Estonian sound like

Sara

Heyas

Well yea, I speak with a Yorksha dialect. And I love Yorkshire. I also Speak...French, Romanian, Romany, English Romany, German a bit, and Gaelic a bit too. Well from what I learnt.

I live near to Demelza, but I don't even understand half of Queens English. Sounds a bit confusing at time, or the long words do.

__________________
With a little bit of this and a little bit of that, now shake your bum.... :P

Shanazel

This thread is a really good idea. Demelza, if you mean you imagine my accent to be a southern United States accent, be advised that the real South usually only comes out after I've had a couple of glasses of wine, preferably with another southern-talking friend!

Of course, there are any number of southern accents. I spent most of my childhood living on the Texas/Mexico border, so my accent was as influenced by Spanish as anything else. When we moved north from south Texas to a small town near Galveston, I got teased about my accent! I said Brah-sos instead of Bray-zas (brasos) and Mon-sahn-to instead of Man-sayn-tah (Monsanto), etc. Then when we moved to California, I got hassled about my southern accent to the point where my forensics coach insisted I learn to speak without it so I would do better in competitive speaking events in a time and place where there was a considerable amount of prejudice against southerners. I can't tell you the number of times I got called redneck or hillbilly just because of how I talked.

Well, too much information again. I have sure enjoyed reading about other people, though. Great topic for a great group of folks!

Demelza

I've always been good at 'putting on' an accent.....I used to work in a call centre and I'd go through a whole half hour sales pitch pretending I was australian or american or a scouser from liverpool or scotisssshhhhh !!! I've even been out on nights and got through the whole night convincing the people that I am with that I am from Brazil or even iceland !!! lots of fun and mischief !! love it......
So thanks for all your replies guys, from now on I'll read your posts in your accents (to myself in my head of course !) xxxx keep posting love Demelza xx

ps. still not sure what the 'dog' thing was about though ????!xx

Yshka

SO I AM NOT ALONE!!! lol, I do this all the time. Sometimes I don't even try to speak Dutch anymore, I just say whatever comes up first
I think it also has to do with lots of non-Dutch friends and university studies, though many of my classmates just speak Dutch all the time. We dont't have many courses that are all-English, but the reading material usually is. Then also there's music, television, internet... All English.
For the English pronounciation, I am pretty good at accents as well, so sometimes I do put an effort into speaking 'proper' English, like in class or stuff, or if I really feel an English word sounds prettier the English way..

Yasmine Bint Al Nubia

Great Topic! If we were to meet in person, I would speak "proper English" with a flat almost nasal "Midwestern" accent. This works out well when I'm at work or need to conduct buiness. But after getting to know you, my accent would relax into "Ebonics" a form of urban African-American dialect.Where the "g's" would be missing from the end of words, such as "going" becomes"goin" and using words like "fixin to" meaning I'm going to do something or using nick names like "honey, sweetheart, baby and chile"
Yasmine