"She has an accent"

singleagain

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 6:57 am

Neighbors of ours told us that my Sabba AH had a heavy accent, and was hard to understand Both me and my mom were confused bc we always understood him just fine.. yes he had an accent but not one that was hard to understand... But that's just cause we grew up with it.

Ema of 5

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 7:04 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Huh? Of course not everyone has an accent. If you were born and raised in the same country you live in, why would you have an accent?

I disagree. People from different regions of the same country have different accents. For example I was born in Wisconsin, was raised in Miami, and have lived in NY since I got married. Each region has a different accent. If you live in the place where you were raised you may not notice it, but everyone has some type of accent. You notice accents when someone has a different one than you.

Ema of 5

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 7:05 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Ok, rhat makes sense. But that only makes sense if you are chatting with someone from a different place.
So what I said still stands. Two people talking, from the same place, no accent. So, no, not everyone has an accent.

Of course they have an accent, they just have the same one so they don’t notice it as different. It still exists even if it’s not recognized.

OBnursemom

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 7:10 am

I live in town now, but am from another part of the country. My kids and I have been subjected to this since we moved here. I like my accent. I’m not sure what it has to be mentioned so frequently.

Duh

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 9:02 am

Even within the same town, different communities have different accents. Chassidish and litvish living on the same block speak differently.

Busybee5

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 9:12 am

Duh wrote:

Even within the same town, different communities have different accents. Chassidish and litvish living on the same block speak differently.

Exactly, and definitely non Jews speak very different to us. In England anyway.

HeartyAppetite

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 9:40 am

I’ve been told o have a chassidish accent.
And even the different chassidus have different accents.
And there is also the Brooklyn accent, different than a New York accent.

singleagain

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 9:50 am

I just remembered another story about accents. I went to camp and came home saying the word carrots with a Midwestern accent. I remember my siblings making fun of me but I didn't really think about it because I had met someone in camp and that's how she said carrots and I just kind of started subconsciously imitating her.

You know it's just funny how like even your own accent can end up being an amalgamation of others.. I mean there are still plenty of words that I say with specific accents because that's the way I first heard it. Or that's just the way it sounds prettiest to me

Java

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 9:52 am

sequoia wrote:

“Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?”

This verbal class distinction, by now should be antique!

Busybee5

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 10:31 am

Ema of 5 wrote:

True. People from london and Gateshead speak a bit different to us mancs Smile

Think good

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 10:36 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Huh? Of course not everyone has an accent. If you were born and raised in the same country you live in, why would you have an accent?

Because EVERYONE has an accent local to them, or based on something else.

Think good

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 10:38 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Or, everyone has the local accents.
Which makes it likely not to be labeled as "having an accent" at that place, but go somewhere else and you'll "have an accent" 😉

Think good

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 10:44 am

esther7 wrote:

Lol! I'm European and always found this amusing...
Many north Americans have told me "I don't have an accent." They feel that anyone who speaks different from the way they specifically speak had an accent but not them.
Of course everyone has an accent! Even within the states there's many different regional accents

Interestingly, I've found Israelis to have the same mindset as Americans in this

zaq

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 11:00 am

Some people from region or society A who find themselves in region or society B will gradually and unconsciously incorporate elements of the B speech into their own, with the result that they will sound like B-ites to A-ites while still sounding like A-ites to B-ites. It can be as simple as flattening or sharpening, or dropping or retaining, a few vowels or consonants. All it takes for a Noo Yawkuh to sound like an OOT-er to other Noo Yawkuhs is to change the aw in cawfee, awffice, and chawcolate to an ah and to restore the r to mother, York, more, and store. She will still sound like a Yankee to a Southerner, but not obviously New York.

And some people will deliberately work on changing their accent in order to better fit into their surroundings. It's the verbal equivalent of wearing black when you visit Meah Shearim even though IRL you wear many colors.

SephardiChef

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 11:03 am

Everyone has a slight accent. People from New york have an accent , people from Texas have an accent , people from California have an accent.. ect. Its part living in different places.

zaq

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 11:04 am

An "accent" is simply the mode of pronunication. A "regional accent" is the mode of pronunication in a given region. Wherever you are, if you're a native, you speak in the local accent. You just don't think of it as such.

It's like saying you don't have temperature. Everyone has temperature. Even a cadaver has temperature. Even ice has temperature. A cold one. What you mean when you say you have temperature is that yours is elevated.

zaq

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 11:14 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Sorry, everyone has an accent. An accent is simply a mode of pronunciation. But when folks around you speak the same way as you, you don't think of them or yourself as having one. What we tend to think of as "an accent" is really a foreign accent, "foreign" meaning "from somewhere other than here." That can be a different country, different neighborhood, or even a different social group.