My Russian friends and other Russians whom I am introduced to have all noticed that, in the past year or so, I've started speaking with a Moscow accent. Now, my gf is from Moscow, and although she hasn't noticed a change in my intonation, HER friends and other people are now telling her that she's losing the slight NY accent she has when she speaks English. This evening, as we were leaving a party in Manhattan (pronounced mn-HAT-n if you live in the area), she said she's now started speaking English with "an Iowa accent" ...

So...here are some questions:

1. What accent do you speak in when you speak your native language? Don't tell me you don't have one, because everyone has an accent, even if it's the "standard" accent for the language in question.

I speak in a West Nashvillian accent. Not quite Belle Meade, since I live 20 miles further west, but the accent of those in their 20s and 30s who grew up in the Greater Nashville Metropolitan Area is apparently distinct. I had a doctor comment it on it once when I was living in Florida. She said it wasn't a "Southern" accent per se that I had, but she had known some from Nashville and we all apparently placed a flat tone on the end of certain words, like -ville. Others who aren't familiar with that accent (and there are many in the Nashville area, due to all sorts of people migrating in from both Tennessee, other Southern states, and the Upper Midwest) have said that I sound like a cross between a Michigan native and a Southerner (due to my "R" pronunciations from time to time).

2. Do you mispronounce words because of your accent? I'm not talking about simple variant pronunciation. I'm talking about the way people in Boston say the word "career" like "Korea" and "Korea" like "career" (or, for example, the way Billy Joel sings about "Brender & Eddie" in "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" ).

I pronounce interesting as either (EYE-ther, although that's uncommon for the region) "in-TRA-sting" or "in-tuh-REST-ing" depending on my mood or the context. Always pronounce the -ing though.

3. Do you speak any other languages fluently enough to have a distinctive local accent in that language? For example, my Moscow accent, my friend's Parisian accent when he speaks French, etc.

I speak Spanish like a Colombian when I remember the words correctly.

4. Are any of your accents "looked down" upon? (For example, Cockney or similar accents in England, Algerian accents in French, Caucasus accents in Russian, Long Island accents in American English, etc., etc., etc. )

Southern accents tend to be frowned upon

5. As long as we're speaking about accents, are there any foreign accents which, when you hear your native language spoken in, turn you on/sound pretty ?

Cuban, Colombian, Yank

6. Are there any foreign accents which make your language sound awful?

Southern...southern...Applachian

Okay, that's it. 'Twas a short survey.

And I'll add one more:

Not only do I recognize accents in English, but I also recognize Spanish accents. I happen to prefer Colombian/Venezuelan accents best, because those are slower and more distinct for me. Cubans chop off the ends of words and run them together. Mexicans have a slight -h- slur to some of their words, and Argentians and Uruguayans are almost incomprehensible. "plasha" instead of "playa" indeed!



Dylanfanatic

Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie

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