[Badgers77]

Recently, I was in Texas and a waitress asked me "What country are you from?" This shocked me, and I replied "Uh... Wisconsin, actually." She said she thought I was from another country because of my accent. I don't even have THAT noticable of a Wisconsin/Minnesota/Dakota accent, either.

Also, if you watched Conan last week, he constnatly ripped Chicago-ans on the way they talk, much like the SNL "Da Bears" skit.

With that said, do you think you have a strong midwestern accent?

 

[D-res]

i wouldnt say i do. i know what accent you're talking about though. thats the northern wisconsin/minn/UP accent. i havent heard many people from chicago talk like that. i hardly hear anyone talk like that anymore. Most of my friends, myself included all have that northern, well pronounced accent. Like the type of accents news anchors are supposed to have to be easily understood nationally. We dont pronounce 'the' like 'da' or anything like that. I'd say I pronounce all my words pretty much to their fullest.

 

[NaptownBoy]

I dont think so. I thought the Midwest was the "neutral" accent region. At least, it is preferred by broadcasters.

 

[cwilson758]

first of all, consider where you were...! Secondly, I know I have a definite "twang" to my voice. I didn't realize until I went to college that I had one. Since, when I have visited other english-speaking countries, it has been very evident. In Vancouver, I was told I was from either Illinois or Indiana! When I went to London, I was asked if I was from S. Africa???

Anyway, I have one, soi yes, I think the Midwest has a dialect that is noticable, but not always identifiable.

 

[JivecitySTL]

Urban areas of the Midwest tend to have unique dialects, especially the older central cities.

 

[Jason]

I believe I do. I've even been told so a number of times, as has my wife. The older I get, the more I seem to do it, and the more it seems like other people do it too.

Damian Miller from the Brewers is one that pops into my head as having a pretty thick upper-midwestern accent.

 

[nic158]

i was watching a Brewers-Cubs game the other week when milwaukee was at Wriggly. FSN interviewed a guy who added seats to the mid-rise building he owned just outside the stadium and he had a a very stereotypical chicago accent. As for wisconsin, yes, we do have accents. Although i had been told in college from northern wiscos and minnesotans that my "milwaukee accent" sounded a bit boston at times, but i don't hear it.

 

[Steely Dan]

i don't have a thick chicago accent, but i have been called out as being from chicago/midwest when traveling around the country. i think it mostly comes from our nasally "A"s. chicagoan's love their short "A" sounds to be extra-nasally and drawn-out compared to other english speakers. in older white blue-color/working class chicago neighborhoods you can still here those super-thick classic chicago accents as spoken by the SNL "superfans", but it is certainly more muted among the general populace, though still noticeable.

and black chicagoans have this whole other alabama thing going on that's completely different from the way white chicagoans talk.

 

[PigBoy]

I just have the general American accent, from Ohio. It's standard with half the population there- the other half is split between more northern accents in northern Ohio, and somewhat Appalachian accents in southern Ohio.

 

[nomarandlee]

Anyone remember that guy Sean from the Boston Real World? That guy had a HEAVY Wisconson accent. I am not sure if he was central or northern or what but until I heard him I hadn't realized just how heavy an accent some Wisconsinites can have.

Get about 45 minutes southeast of Chicago and I think you can often hear a "twang" in Indiana. To me it sounds a little differant then the central/southern Illinois twang you will pick up though. It has almost a it has a distinct sound and is generally distinct from southern speak.

In regards to friends, family, and myself I tend to think of us as speaking in talking almost broadcast speak. So if I have an accent I am pretty oblivious to it. Once I was in Brazil though and I was with a friend from South Africa when we ran into some folks from northern Indiana (me from Chicago area) and she said that we started talking to them that I and our new acquittances went into a specified hard-core accent once we started conversing to each other. She did an impersonation of us and it just sounded like a bunch of nasally and gratuitous sounds that are hard to comprehend let alone describe.

To most people ears do Chicago area people differ more notably from standard Midwest broadcasting tones more so then other midwesterners?

 

[Sirus]

I sometimes notice an accent. Long "O"s mostly, however it's really watered down unless you get out to more remote locations.

 

[Steely Dan]

^^ this completely false idea that people in the midwest talk with some standard "broadcasters" accent is ridiculous. i've lived in the midwest my entire life and i've never met one single person in this region that talks like ted koppel, peter jennings, tom brokaw, etc.

it's normal for people to "think" that they don't have accents, but everyone does, and this idea that midwestern speech patterns are normal or somehow standard is preposterous. we midwesterners sound every bit as ridiculous to southerners as they sound to us.

everybody has an accent to one degree or another. there's no such thing as not having an accent.

 

[flatiron94]

I notice myself having a minnesOtan accent sometimes on words with Os in them.
Also all my relitivs will say ya sure or you betcha. My grand parents have verry strong accents. Every time I hear them I think Uff-da.

 

[Minneapolis612]

I dont have an accent cause when i go out of the region and tell people im from minnesota they always say i dont sound like im from there.....yea the minnesotan long "O" accent is kind of dying down unless you go way out west or up north

 

[toog05]

I from Detroit and I have two friends from Chicago in which I recently met and they have a strong accent, before i couldnt even understand what they say but im use to it now so i dont have any problems understand them

 

[milwaukeeunseen]

I grew up with a thick accent, and it started to go away when I went to college and mixed with kids from all over the country. I was ripped on a lot for saying "'dere" instead of "there." I distinctly remember saying on the phone "Is [so and so] dere?" and calling Milwaukee "muhwaakee."

I'm sure I still have an accent, although I haven't had it pointed out to me a long time. Milwaukee is no longer the city it once was, and today Latinos and African Americans, who generally speaking do not have a "ya der hey" accent, outnumber Europeans. It's becoming increasingly rare to encounter someone with a thick, full-on "ya dere hey" accent. It still happens though from time to time ... .and I'm sure someone from, say, California could tell I talk differently. But then again, most people I know from California have a noticable accent too. ....

 

[i_am_hydrogen]

I'm pretty sure I don't have a midwestern accent. A few people I've met from other parts of the country have actually told me I didn't have an accent. And when I took that "What Dialect Do you Speak?" quiz on another thread a few weeks ago, it said I spoke like 20% Yankee and 0% Midwestern, even though I've never lived in the northeast. I'm not sure what my problem is.

 

[The anti-cheesehead]

I've done a lot of traveling and I've only had people comment on my accent twice.

In Canada, someone said that I "talk like a Yankee" and kept wanting me to repeat words. I'm still not sure what talking like a Yankee means.

In New York City, someone guessed that I was from California. I wasn't aware of a distinct California accent. I think when I said "dude", that must've thrown them off.

No one has ever pegged me as a midwesterner because of the way I talk.

 

[Lmichigan]

California does have a very nocitable accent, IMO. It's a very articulated, some may say overarticuled, accent, and this goes for most of the entire population, and most noticably Black and White Americans in Los Angeles in particular.

As for my accent, it's hard to say. It's really a hybrid and depends who I'm talking to, and this goes the same for many Black Americans. I'd say mine is a general "Northern" Black accent typical of the Midwest, but it's nothing like the much more Southern-sounding Black Chicago accent. I've noticed just pretty recently (past few years) my accented and heavy "R"s typical of Michigan speak, especially in a word like "Car" which turns out to be more like "Carrrgh." My California relatives kind of laugh at us because they think we talk a little funny, but I think they talk funny.

 

[NaptownBoy]

I dont know, no one ever told me I had an accent. Until I went down south and I was ridiculed about it...