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.... a, umm... I dunno. I hesitate to say "Canadian accent", because American TV has half given the Canadian accent a yokel sound, and half given it an inbred sound. But really... I can hear a distinct difference in Anne's accent, even though it's very close to my own, so... A Midwestern American accent, maybe?

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" ).
Not to my knowledge. Although, I wonder if my pronuciation of sadist is correct. Because I heard someone else saying it... she said sad-ist, whereas I say say-dist.

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.
Nope. Wish I did, though.

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. )
I don't think so. It's a pretty common accent here. The only people with different accents I've heard come from out of the province.

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 ?
*giggles* Yeah. Lots. Actually... Of all of the accents I've heard, I think it's just a few Asian ones that I don't like.

6. Are there any foreign accents which make your language sound awful?
Yes. A couple Asian ones. Especially if it's broken English.

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


My brain has been swiss cheesed like Scott Bakula's on Quantum Leap