Sorry. Didn’t mean to criticise. Just a feeble attempt at humour. 
Wot!
'lucky if I can spel et al moz daz?
Well, I can only speak for myself, and I believe it is based on having had parents who not only spoke British English, but Spanish, Chinese and a bit of French, and moving from one section of the country to another every few years in the US, but I have what is generously called an ‘elastic’ accent… it depends on what I hear around me… LOL!
I have a genuine (that’s genn-you-eye-n) coon-arse Cajun friend who pulls me into the sweet twang whenever we’re together. It’s got to be funny to hear, as it certainly gets me giggling when I catch myself. I’m pretty much at home language wise whereever I’ve been.
I do not do so to impress anyone, though, because I don’t think it is impressive at all, just natural… for me. I’ve been exposed to all sorts of languages all through my 52 (come Friday!) years, so I think I’ve earned some right to speak as I speak… however, whenever, with whomever that is.
It always amazes me when I see “British English”.
Well, if you’ve heard some of the “American English”, you might not find the distinction so surprizing… there is a BIG difference! And I didn’t invent the term, LOL!.. It’s been used for many decades, far more than I’ve been around. An earlier version would be “the Queen’s English”
I find it a bit laughable that there is this tendancy to dismiss anyone’s heritage unless they stayed in the same spot throughout their life. Not as many people actually do that anymore, in case nobody noticed. I find it interesting that there is such an aversion to giving creedance to the lives, accents, playing styles, joke bank, etc. of anyone who isn’t on the soil they were born on or that their parents/ancestors came from. My location (or yours) doesn’t negate my heritage.
There’s really no US “southern accent” as TV would have one believe. There are many “southern” accents. Two of my favorites are the East Kentucky accent Missy spoke of and what I call the Virginia Blue Blood accent which consists mostly of ignoring the letter “R” and moving your lips as little as possible.
I’m also fond of the North West Minnesota accent as popularized by the movie “Fargo”.
When I was about 12 we lived in Texas for a couple years. My sister and I picked up the accent unknowingly. When we moved back to Michigan all our relatives laughed at the way we talked.
What a coincidence.
http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/southern/sounds/
Like Fishie, I use the word “grand” quite a lot, and have done ever since my first trip to Ireland over (golly) ten years ago. It seems to carry the right spirit where “wonderful” “marvellous” “super” “splendid” etc are over the top, and “OK” “good” “fine” are a little too dry.
I’m not attempting to sound “Oirish” though. I can imitate various UK dialects (and a few continental ones) well enough to fool anyone not from that land, i.e. my Scottish accent wouldn’t fool a Scot. My American accent wouldn’t fool a toddler.
The danger in imitating accents is that the dialect is more than just the accent, but also the use of local turns of phrase, which are usually in a state of constant flux.
I suspect that we Chiffers as a group are better at imitation than the general populace (poor things), as it requires a musical ear.
I don’t have an accent at all, and never have, but we used to confuse the living daylights out of the Filipinos, when we lived over there, as most of them had thick accents.
Yeah… when I was twelve, we moved from the midwest to Maryland… I sounded funny (and looked it too, apparently) to the East Coasters, and a day or two later, upon calling friends back home, was asked why I sounded so funny to them! 
‘Danged if ya do, danged if ya don’t’ !
Most of that was as others hear it, but it wasn’t far off the mark. As in the South, Minnesota accents vary depending on the region, and some are thicker than others. To my ear, the only real-sounding Minnesota speech in the whole movie was from a character who was shoveling snow from his driveway. Maybe he was from Minneapolis.
I was disappointed by the accents in “Fargo”. Not a “Yumpin’ Yimminy” amongst the lot. 
djm
It’s “yom-pin yim-miny”, actually. Gotta stress the first syllable for that faux Nordique effect. And do you know, I actually say it sometimes?
In that movie’s case, the humor may have been more geographically identifying than the accents - my friends, from Minneapolis, were the only ones in the theatre laughing out loud and having a great time through the movie… They found that fact just as entertaining…
Quite so. To be honest, at first I found the movie offensive, finding the characters portrayed as clumsy-sounding provincial bumpkins. Then I remembered that we ARE.
anniemcu wrote:
“the humor may have been more geographically identifying than the accents”
Actually, that’s my theory on why the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour” is so successful - it’s people laughing at themselves! I once gave my ex a Jeff Foxworthy “365 day calendar” and checked off the ones that applied to him - I think I had over half of them checked off!
Here’s one of those accent stories that really puzzle me.
I teach a lot of American exchange students and a few Americans who just happen to be living in Wollongong. In one tutorial a few years back there were two Americans; one was a pleasant, conservative, New York jock, the other was a young women who I’d guess to be from somewhere in the midwest—she had that fairly neutral newsreader accent that’s easy on the easily offended ear. The woman had been living in Wollongong maybe two or three years and her accent hadn’t noticably changed. Both were very talkative in class and often argued with eachother.
After the very last tute of the semester I was talking to both of them together and it suddenly dawned on us that the guy from New York didn’t realise the woman was American. We were both flabbergasted. Her accent and speech rhythms weren’t even the tiniest bit Australian.
Now, how could anyone miss something that obvious? Any ideas?
Accent deaf? Similar to being tone deaf?
Not very bright?