We have lived in Rhode Island for three years now.
After living here and fully immersing ourselves in good ol' Little Rhody and New England culture, I can finally see what everyone was talking about:
People in the midwest have accents.
I know. I'm shocked too.
When I first came out to Rhode Island for training in 2006, I was the center of every.single.joke. I was laughed at and imitated constantly because of my "accent".
I would retaliate by saying, "Umm, you have NO idea what you're talking about. They send newscasters and actors to the midwest to learn how to speak without an accent!!!" (This was always my defense.)
Well. I can finally see clearly now, or hear rather. Just about every time I talk to someone from back home, I can hear it! Not Southern. Not twangy. Not even country. Just Midwestern.
So there. I admit it. I have an accent gosh darnit.
What do the accents sound like here? They add "r"s where they're not needed and take them away when they are! Like "idear" instead of "idea" or "pock" instead of "park".
Case in point:
I was looking at one of my second grader's writing assignments yesterday, and this is what I saw:
"When I was walking yesterday, I sore some geese."
I can imagine this is so confusing for little RI-ers!
Have any of you been told you have a strong accent, and you didn't think you did?
10 comments:
That's too funny because I give voices to all my blog buddies when I'm reading their posts, I'll have to give you a RI accent :)
tooo funny... I know when I visit the states I always notice different accents. I guess it even happens here in Canada...
How funny! I get teased about my accent a lot. I'm from southeast Oklahoma, and living in the OKC metro now, and LOTS of people comment about mine. I didn't think it was that bad!
When I moved from Ontario to Alberta, my now husband made fun of my accent all the time. If we go to visit my family in Ontario, he makes fun of our accent. It's definitely not as bad as some!
haha!! this made me laugh! poor little second graders much seriously be confused!! the RI accent pretty much drives me nuts.
I know the exact accent you're talking about! My Boston relatives have the same one. And my ballet teacher used to call me Sarer instead of Sarah :) Dropping the R and adding it elsewhere...
I was once told that I had a New Hampshire accent? I don't even know what that means... A Boston one peaks through once in a while but New Hampshire?!?
I moved from WV to AL and I got teased about my accent every single day. When I moved back people were like oh you're from AL so yeah... they have no idea what their talking about.
That is so cute...spelling must be hard!! I try really hard not to have an okie accent, but it never fails when I'm out of state I get told I do! Haha!
WHAT?!?!?!?! That is not what I was expecting to hear you say on your blog this morning when I read it! I'm shockeD!! ;)
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