So who are you all ????

[Demelza]

My friend used to chat on a forum. She chatted and argued and made up and talked and joked and laughed for hours and hours on end whilst she was bored at home. She told me that sometimes, while her husband was at work and the baby was in bed, she would feel like she was down at the pub on a night out with her cyber friends because they were all so friendly etc!!! So, anyway one day one of them suggested a 'party' and that they would all go from all over the country, to one person's place and have a party !! so they managed to arrange it and they did it. Actually she says they met in a field in the end because there were so many people. And my friend was so low at the time, hard life etc etc. and was excited about meeting the people that she had been chatting to and laughing with for the past few months............and wo-behold, she got so dissapointed. she told me that when you read posts on a forum you allways read it in your own accent, and then when you meet that someone in the flesh, it's bad enough jsut having the shock of what they look like, but when they start talking in a slurring brummy accent or a farmer giles devenshire accent it just threw her right off course !!! It just hadn't been how she had been reading their posts for the past 9 months !!! She said that it just didn't suit them....
so I was wondering what you really sound like? I am probably so wrong but when I read Shanazels posts i imagine a really strong south american accent and when I read Moons posts I imagine a soft but blunt european accent and sara as speaking in a real right yorkshire lass accent and A'isha Azhar as pronouncing her words very well.
This might just sound like a load of *** to you but I was just thinking about it and thought I'd write as I think as I do sometimes !! good night all, love demelza xxxx

 

[Amulya]

I can imagine it must be very strange to meet people from forums and suddenly they seem so different in reality. I know 3 people from this forum, but they don't seem very different from the way they post.
It might be funny to meet me ha ha, I have the weirdest accent people tell me. It is not always easily placable. It has elements of different accents, mostly because I travelled so much.

 

[Anatoliy]

Arnold Zhswarznegger's akzend multiplied 10 times, spiced with my own words creating (in Don King's style). I doubt you could understand a lot from what I would say Except if you speak Russian or Ukrainian

 

[Mair]

I sound pretty stereotypically New Jersey. You know that book/movie Like Water for Chocolate? I pronounce that "like waughter fer chawklit."

 

[Viv]

LOL!! I had a similar experience. There was a group of about four gals that I met through a fan board and we got to be really good friends over the years. We'd chat for hours three to five times a week, and even wrote short stories using each other as charecters. When we finally met in person we laughed about how each of us didn't sound a thing like what we imagined we would. That and we kept laughing that any minute we expected to see our words roll across each gals face in our custom chat colors and fonts because we were so used to reading everything off the screen.
I probably don't have much of an accent to speak of, but I tend to use interesting pronunciation of words. Combine pronounciations from notheastern US, with a southern drawl and a bit of a cowboy twang I guess...LOL!

 

[Gabi]

My biggest claim to fame is that I am and always will be a dog rescuer/entertainer. Needless to say my Downward Dog is fabulous and I have mostly mixed breeds

 

[Demelza]

People say that they don't have an accent when acctually they do to someone else !!

Now I think I speak the queen's finest English (! ) but I've been told that I've got a right Nottingham accent which is a bit rough to be honest !! and yet when I go anywhere North, people always say 'oohh don't you speak posh !!' and I would never have thought that I speak 'posh'.

I don't know about other parts of the world but here in the UK the accents change within very short distances. For someone who lives just 15 miles from where I live, they talk so different !! I'ts good I guess to clock where someone is from just from without having to ask them!

And we have words in my city that someone in the next city does not understand - like Mardy

 

[miss_shimmy]

hello!!

My biggest claim to fame is that I am and always will be a dog rescuer/entertainer. Needless to say my Downward Dog is fabulous and I have mostly mixed breeds

gabi thats awesome,we rescued our dog indee,she has been with us four days,she too is a cross breed.bless her sweet heart,she is so loving and greatful.

I am saying this in my finest and sweetest soft yorkshire english well spoken accent...he he he


love to all


miss shimmy
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[Zurah]

I’ve been more or less fluent in English since about age fourteen or so and write a lot better than I speak it – I usually talk pretty fast in Spanish, so I almost always do the same in English - needless to say that some days Shakespeare would roll over in his grave if he heard me. The funny thing is I actually worked as a translator for a few months. Also I’m South American and been living in Spain since 2002, so even in my mother tongue the first thing people notice is my accent – some people (like my brother) lose theirs after some time, but I’ve held onto mine, because the locals love it. Although after all this time living across the pond my Venezuelan relatives say I talk a bit funny.

 

[Moon]

Hi, I guess you can immediately hear I'm from Holland, but my accent isn't really that bad. When I speak to people who have English as first language, I try harder to pronounce the words right then when I'm talking English with a Dutch person (sounds strange but it sometimes happens at school) or with a foreigner. However you will quite often hear me pronounce the "th" like a "d" and pronounce the "d"at the end of words more or less like a "t". Also I think I mix up English and American pronounciation (and spelling).

 

[Michelle]

This is a cute topic, Demelza!
I suppose you could say that I have mutt English. First off, I live in Miami, Florida and if any of you have ever been here, you are most likely aware of the interesting accent one acquires from living here. It is a mixture of Spanish-speaking Americans and English-as-a-first-language foreigners. And although I truly don't hear it, I am immediately identified as being from Miami as soon as I travel anywhere north. And the funny thing is that out of everyone I know, my accent is much less pronounced. I also have the quirk that I tend to pick up other people's accents by accident. I have cousins from New Jersey and New York and whenever they visit, I inevitably end up sounding like them. In Spanish, it is even worse because although I am totally Cuban, I am surrounded by many different nationalities so my accent is usually difficult to identify. So yeah, you guys would most likely be surprised to hear me....hehe.

 

[Maria_Aya]

In the 10 years i was manager in International Backgammon Group, I've met people from all Earth. I never had that problem with them cause i was thinking them as different people and it was funny to listen them and see them from close after years.
But they were shocked with my accent lol
I'm greek - australian, so my english have an australian accent.
The 2 comments that I remember was:
a) i'm much much quiter person in real life than in internet
b) I type english with greek accent lol (he he, but you all understand me right?)

Kisses and hugs
Maria Aya

 

[Yshka]

Nice thread.

Maria, I love that you even write with a Greek accent, that's really cute! I'm smiling just reading you're Greek-accent-English posts

I think my case would be similar to Moon's. When speaking English I have just a slightly Dutch'ish accent, but that remains the same whoever I talk to.
I also tend to pronounce things more in an American sort of way than the English way for it feels much easier to me. I also speak English when speaking Dutch, I just tend to mix up words from both, though I have no English background or anything like that. I think English is just easier to say things in most cases, cause you'd need a whole story in Dutch to say something that in English requires only a few words.

 

[Moon]

also tend to pronounce things more in an American sort of way than the English way for it feels much easier to me.

I think that's because we Dutchies hear a lot of American on the television and the radio. (Our poor English teachers desperately try to let us say "âsk" instead of "aaeeesk", lol)

I also speak English when speaking Dutch, I just tend to mix up words from both, though I have no English background or anything like that.

I do that too, sometimes it's even worse and than I use an English word instead of a Dutch one because I can't remember what it's called in my own language at that moment! I think this is because most of my university courses are in English, my study material is in English and I read a lot of English stuff on the internet (including this forum).

 

[Safran]

That is indeed a cool topic
Well, my tone of voice depends on the language I speak and generally English is on a more low end. Continental Europeans say my English is like proper British, Americans say I sound Australian and the Brits say that they can still hear an Estonian deep down there somewhere... Now I leave you to imagine what exactly would an Estonian sound like

 

[Sara]

Heyas

Well yea, I speak with a Yorksha dialect. And I love Yorkshire. I also Speak...French, Romanian, Romany, English Romany, German a bit, and Gaelic a bit too. Well from what I learnt.

I live near to Demelza, but I don't even understand half of Queens English. Sounds a bit confusing at time, or the long words do.

 

[Shanazel]

This thread is a really good idea. Demelza, if you mean you imagine my accent to be a southern United States accent, be advised that the real South usually only comes out after I've had a couple of glasses of wine, preferably with another southern-talking friend!

Of course, there are any number of southern accents. I spent most of my childhood living on the Texas/Mexico border, so my accent was as influenced by Spanish as anything else. When we moved north from south Texas to a small town near Galveston, I got teased about my accent! I said Brah-sos instead of Bray-zas (brasos) and Mon-sahn-to instead of Man-sayn-tah (Monsanto), etc. Then when we moved to California, I got hassled about my southern accent to the point where my forensics coach insisted I learn to speak without it so I would do better in competitive speaking events in a time and place where there was a considerable amount of prejudice against southerners. I can't tell you the number of times I got called redneck or hillbilly just because of how I talked.

Well, too much information again. I have sure enjoyed reading about other people, though. Great topic for a great group of folks!

 

[Demelza]

I've always been good at 'putting on' an accent.....I used to work in a call centre and I'd go through a whole half hour sales pitch pretending I was australian or american or a scouser from liverpool or scotisssshhhhh !!! I've even been out on nights and got through the whole night convincing the people that I am with that I am from Brazil or even iceland !!! lots of fun and mischief !! love it......
So thanks for all your replies guys, from now on I'll read your posts in your accents (to myself in my head of course !) xxxx keep posting love Demelza xx

ps. still not sure what the 'dog' thing was about though ????!xx

 

[Yshka]

I use an English word instead of a Dutch one because I can't remember what it's called in my own language at that moment!

SO I AM NOT ALONE!!! lol, I do this all the time. Sometimes I don't even try to speak Dutch anymore, I just say whatever comes up first
I think it also has to do with lots of non-Dutch friends and university studies, though many of my classmates just speak Dutch all the time. We dont't have many courses that are all-English, but the reading material usually is. Then also there's music, television, internet... All English.
For the English pronounciation, I am pretty good at accents as well, so sometimes I do put an effort into speaking 'proper' English, like in class or stuff, or if I really feel an English word sounds prettier the English way..

 

[Yasmine Bint Al Nubia]

Great Topic! If we were to meet in person, I would speak "proper English" with a flat almost nasal "Midwestern" accent. This works out well when I'm at work or need to conduct buiness. But after getting to know you, my accent would relax into "Ebonics" a form of urban African-American dialect.Where the "g's" would be missing from the end of words, such as "going" becomes"goin" and using words like "fixin to" meaning I'm going to do something or using nick names like "honey, sweetheart, baby and chile"
Yasmine