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 Dialect and Accents 
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I have always lived in the mountains of North Carolina, and have always had a bit of a "southern accent." However, I had never really thought about it until we started discussing it in class. It is very common for me to go outside of North Carolina and receive numerous comments on my accent. I have even been asked to pronounce certain words, only to have people laugh at me. I always thought they were just amused at the different ways in which we spoke, but is there more to it than I thought? Has anyone else ever experienced this?

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Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:48 am
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I have experienced this many times. I have been all over the eastern coast and have had many friends from many different places and most of them have mention something about my accent. I had a best friend from Canada when I played baseball and that was a very interesting time. He would get me to say the word oil, or aight, but I would get him to say ah at the end of a sentence. Coming to college made me change my accent a little but I will never fully have it gone, and I don't mind it.


Sat Jun 14, 2008 12:37 am
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I feel sad that you have felt judged because of your accent, but it really just confirms my belief that most people do not realize the importance language has in society. Just as those of you who are Souther may have felt judged because of your accent, I felt the same way when I came to App from Pennsylvania. I have been called a damn shit talking yankee meant in good fun, but I know the stigmas that are attached with Northern dialects. I'm really glad that we talked about this in class, and I hope that it opened some peoples' minds about how we judge people by the way they speak every day. Like all other forms of prejudice, it is not fair. I hope to try to make my students aware of the beauty of language, including all accents and dialects. I also think it is important to remember that as you may have felt judged by your speech, probably everyone has who has left their hometown, state, country, etc.


Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:48 pm
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I have experienced this as well but mostly when I was younger. For example, when our family would go on vacations, it never failed that I would always meet people who would have me repeat words or phrases. At the time I thought it was all in good fun but since it was brought up in class, I am not too sure if it was or not.

I have noticed now that since I have been in college, my dialect has gravitated more towards standard American English. Mostly because it used to be hard for people to understand me because I talked fast. Now that I have taken public speaking and have given numerous presentations, my speech is slower and more understandable.


Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:06 pm
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First of all Bronson, Canadians say eh not ah! Anyway, my friend from Canada who teaches here says that everyone even the kids make fun of her accent. She uses it as part her teaching tool. It helps kids to understand where people are from and why they talk the way they do. In my old school there where kids from Mexico who obviously spoke spanish and kids from Southeast Asia who spoke Hmong. All of these students had major accents and the other kids in the class sometimes had to help me understand. There is diversity everywhere and we need to accept it all!


Sun Jun 15, 2008 12:54 pm
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nobody ever understood what I was saying until I had been in NC for several years. First it was my Long Island accent (they thought I had a speech disorder b/c I didn't pronounce my "r"s), than it was my midwest/western accent (ask me to say both, somehow there's an l in it), and I finally got to speaking a relatively neutral standard american dialect to the point where most people now ask me "where are you from, you don't have any accent."

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Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:49 pm
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As we talked about, my accent fluctuates unconsciously. When I came home from spending 6 weeks at Governor's School, I said a lot of words differently and didn't know I was doing it. This happens also when I get around my god-father who is from NYC and has a thick Bronx accent. Coming to college, my accent has neutralized, but when I get home is goes right back to being as country-fied as can be. And to be honest, thats fine with me.


Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:25 pm
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My accent is relatively just standard american english, and occasion slips into a more southernish accent around certain people. I've been much more aware of my dialect though than my accent, whenever i go up north or as i like to call it "pop country" i get a little freaked out about the term pop for coke and etc.

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Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:58 pm
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