A bit of fun with accents in English

Do you speak English with an accent?  You don't?  Are you sure?  When I pose that same question to a group, I generally get a few comments from second language speakers, a few outright denials, and a few who catch on quickly to the point I am trying to make.

The truth of the matter is that anyone who speaks English, or any other language for that matter, speaks with a certain accent.  Accent in this sense refers to the way that speakers pronounce words (phonetic and phonological distinctions, in more formal terms).  What I find interesting about accents is how quickly we notice when someone else has a different accent from ours.  And, how in our heart of hearts, we truly feel that our accent is the "right" accent.  We are correct; everyone else is a little weird!

A recent holiday trip to the northern part of my home state of Texas to visit friends and family brought the topic of accents to my attention. I was speaking with my "correct" El Paso accent, and almost everyone else was speaking with their Texas drawl! ( El Paso is located in the far west corner of Texas and has borders with both Mexico and New Mexico.)  

I was reminded of my husband Wayne's young cousin who, when we first met years ago, looked up at me and commented, "You have a funny accent."  If I wouldn't have been trying to make a good impression on my in-laws, I might have informed that rude youngster that his accent sounded pretty comical to me too!

The British accent we sometimes hear on television and in movies can be a challenge for Americans to understand.   In reality, many different accents can be heard in Britain. Here is a clip of a woman speaking British English with seventeen different accents   And yet we Americans tend to think a British accent is classy, at least I do, even if I have to turn on closed captioning on TV to understand all the details.  You may enjoy this recent short spoof on accents, Downton Abbey scene done with American accent as much as I did.

But we really can't help ourselves from finding some accents more pleasing than others.  To me, a Canadian English accent is pure and devoid of distractions.  I enjoy hearing it.    I also like a Southern drawl, like President Jimmy Carter's speech.  New Zealand and Australian English bring back fond memories. The Scottish "r"  puts a smile on my face.  But the English spoken by moonshiners on one of my husband's favorite TV reality shows makes me long to hit the mute button.  Sorry!

Listening to different accents from the English-speaking world can be entertaining if we set aside our preconceived notions of the "right" way to say something.  What are some of your favorite accents?