MetaChat - I have an accent?

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23 September 2011

I have an accent? It's been pointed out by a few people over the past year that I have slowly adopted a strange RP-British-Midwestern American accent that's thick enough to cause people to ask where I'm from. →[More:]

I blame the months in England and the British husband but apparently it came into being last year and I can't hear it but people who haven't heard from me in like 3 yeas are all 'Wow John you sound totally, completely different" and I'm not sure how that happened or how I should feel about that. Having heard myself, unless I'm making an effort to sound Mid-Atlantic American OR lightly accented British, the result is a weird campy mishmash., although I have been told it's more my vocabulary that throws people off, so there is that.

Language is weird you guys.

post by: The Whelk at: 20:37 | 15 comments

I'd hate to think I'm being unconsciously pretensions.

posted by The Whelk 23 September | 20:44

Be consciously pretentious!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 23 September | 20:54

the British husband

Ding ding ding! I would bet on this as the largest factor.

posted by Elsa 23 September | 20:55

If he's drunk he goes all Yorkshire and I learn all my favorite insults!

posted by The Whelk 23 September | 20:58

If he's drunk he goes all Yorkshire

HOT.

posted by Elsa 23 September | 21:01

NOT TOO FAR FROM REALITY

posted by The Whelk 23 September | 21:08

(And then I got all giggly.)

posted by Elsa 23 September | 21:10

Which lead to a very funny situation where I was translating for my Mom when she tried to order chicken and chips in Leeds.

posted by The Whelk 23 September | 21:10

"nhewany?" "He means how many" "Oh, just one" "jut unease"

posted by The Whelk 23 September | 21:12

Welcome to my world, Whelkie-poo. I am one of those people who spent years trying to fit in, only to discover that my attempts were actually cause for amusement for others. It took me thirty-odd years to figure out that I'm happy not being from one place or another (although I don't come off in English as well as I do in another language), so I really know what you mean. I've used British-isms with Americans and sounded like a dork, and American-isms with British (or their current colonials) and sounded like a twat. Take your fekking pick.
Welcome to the proud world of sounding like an idiot. You are now one of Our Own.

posted by msali 23 September | 22:11

I come from an island in the middle of the Atlantic where American and Briticisms are equally found.

posted by The Whelk 23 September | 23:10

awwwdorable.

He's a lovely gentleman, and quite disarming. =)

posted by Eideteker 24 September | 06:33

You and your hubby need to get drunk and teach us some of your favorite insults!

posted by moonshine 24 September | 14:07

And post it on YouTube, okthxbai.

posted by deborah 24 September | 16:37

Jonathan Harris: I'm not British, just affected.

For those living under a rock for lo these many decades he played Dr. Zachary Smith on Lost in Space.

posted by Splunge 25 September | 07:47

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