Terminalcoffee discussion

Interesting article on language and the brain and how a woman, after some dental work, developed a different accent...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/...

Also, I know this is a different language-oriented issue...but...have you ever faked an accent? Did you pull it off?

Every now and then, When I'm annoyed with my lesbian best friend who I am secretly in love with, I break out into a russian accent under my breath. I don't know why it happens but it does. Is is what it is.(sorry Phil).

I used to play a game with a friend where we would call each other at work and pretend to be unhappy customers (yay retail!); we would use foreign accents to throw each other off the scent. I fooled him a few times, and he got me quite a bit too.

occasionally i will try to sound like i am from alabama

After I lived in Texas for a while, I found myself just naturally starting to talk like a Texan. It was scary. But that's what you tend to do in order to be understood by the local verbal community. It's operant conditioning at work in the real world.

We had a thread about this maybe two weeks ago. Retread.

Phil wrote: "We had a thread about this maybe two weeks ago. Retread."

By all means, Phil, link it here...I may have not been paying attention that week...

Oh, here it is, yes, I hadn't read through this one...I'll cover Philly this time...

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

I will do a northern Wisconsin accent once in awhile, it is way different than the southern Wisconsin accent.

I think I've got a pretty convincing Dutch accent.

I guess the burden is now on you to prove it.

I agree. Voice recording required.

I'm not very good at accents. My father has a tendency to pick up the accent of wherever he's living. He does it very quickly, I think because he feels public speaking connects better in a familiar voice.

I've never faked an accent to deliberately mislead anyone, but I sometimes play with them for fun.

I only do live performances.

Dang. *checks on price of plane tickets*

Every time I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I speak in the Southern vernacular for weeks. I love those words: warn't, ain't, vittles, y'all, etc.

I was trying to demonstrate a southern accent for my 7 year old niece and it was really hard, as I haven't been in the Deep South for awhile. We would go visit relatives and come back north with our southern accents.

I sometimes do the scary midwestern twang in order to frighten people back East.

wait....scary midwestern twang? i have a twang?

Not everyone in the midwest has it. It depends on your precise location, as well as other factors. Actually I have heard you on videotape and I don't remember you having it.

whew!

As you discussed how a fried turkey reminded you of prom night.

Really Keven has been heard on video? Wahhhh hahah, I must have missed that one.

You missed the video of Kevin and the turkey fry? It was a classic, Gail. Is it still on You Tube, Kevin?

janine wrote: "I think I've got a pretty convincing Dutch accent."

Yes, this is true. I can attest to it.

*jealous*

Many flights to Amsterdam every day, Larry. You should pick yourself up and go. Seriously: you'd love it.

Oh I found it, thanks guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Ba2O...

Bummer. I can't watch it until lunch time.

It'll keep.

But do watch it. Kevin's brilliant.

uh....kokomo turkey fry. look it up :)

my brother is the star of the video

I found it already thanks Kevin.

You do sound exaxtly like your brother don't you?

i do? he's my younger brother by a lot (like 13 yrs). man, he is funny

Only when I'm making fun of some jerk. Oh I have faked a southern accent just to get my way. lol
Normally I reject the southern accent, if I'm down south too much or talk to someone with it too much, I get a really strong northern one.

Kevin "El Liso Grande" wrote: "i do? he's my younger brother by a lot (like 13 yrs). man, he is funny"

No he doesn't sound like you. Hooley dooley. Does your brother still have all his fingers? He is dangerous with an electric knife. I couldn't watch.

Sarah Pi wrote: "I'm not very good at accents. My father has a tendency to pick up the accent of wherever he's living. He does it very quickly, I think because he feels public speaking connects better in a familiar..."

my mama will pick up the cali accent every time she talks to one of my aunts on the phone.....and god forbid when they come to tn for an extended visit. we tease her about it relentlessly, to which she politely and very lady-like will reply 'fuck you'.

My mom still shows her Central Pennsylvania accent when she uses certain words, even though she hasn't lived there since she was 8 years old.

I've never faked an accent, that's too theatrical for me. I get horribly embarrassed when attention is drawn to me. But, whenever we go up to Seattle to visit our English friends my husband says I talk funny (I lived in England for a few years), and whenever I talk to my friends from Texas on the phone, apparently I talk funny then too. (I lived there for quite a few years on and off since HS graduation in 1989.)

It was fun faking accents in an improv class I was in.

Back when my daughter was 8 or 9 we had the "Bulgarian Lady" a person I used to "channel" while I drove us on our neverending errands. She liked to harrass Emily about Bulgarian Stew. We also had the Save-A-Lot girl. She was lot of fun, too.

I fake a thick German accent sometimes if I don't want to talk to someone I don't know, and pretend not to speak much English.

Good idea!

I'm taking a certification class for adult mentoring at the local literacy council. One of the activities was to try to read a poem and echo the instructor's pace (who was whispering it in our ears). He was British, so my poem came out in a British accent, as well. Whoops!

English is not the first language of my father's side of the family. Because I grew up in the US, however, it was the only language I learned. When I was little and would visit my dad's family abroad, I had a tough time communicating with them and the little English they knew, but I figured out that if I spoke with their accent and grammar, they could understand me better.

Although it is not as strong anymore, I still do it instinctively when I am around them. Even when I speak to my father, my vowels have a tendency to change. My friends used to all go quiet whenever I was on the phone with him, because they wanted to hear the change in my accent which I barely noticed! I don't know if this counts as faking an accent, although it's definitely not my native one.

Besides that, however, I have noticed over the years that whenever I encounter someone with a different accent and spend an extended period of time in that person's company, my accent (usually the vowels) changes slightly to match their own. It's really not something I do consciously; to the contrary, I have to consciously prevent myself from doing it.

Welcome to TC ccsharumun.

^Thank you! :)

There was a silly show that I used to get a kick out of called Dharma and Greg. D & her best friend used to go shopping as German tourists and talk total rubbish to people. I thought it was hilarious and wish I could be that theatrical. I have the PERFECT friend to go with, she could totally pull it off. I never could.

Amelia wrote: "There was a silly show that I used to get a kick out of called Dharma and Greg. D & her best friend used to go shopping as German tourists and talk total rubbish to people. I thought it was hilar..."

Absolutely Looooved Dharma and Greg!!! I was so sad when it ended.

That show was pretty hilarious!

Took me a long time to buy him as Mr. Serious FBI profiler guy in Criminal Minds...

Amelia wrote: "Took me a long time to buy him as Mr. Serious FBI profiler guy in Criminal Minds..."

Same here.

24/7 I put on your basic Amurrican to hide my boston.