…things one thinks about at one in the morning after a couple of glasses of wine…
Something the people who have met me in person know that most of you cannot is that I have a slight English accent. I acquired it from my parents, even though I was born and raised in Canada. I used to say I was born with an accent – I was teased relentlessly as a child for it. Most of it has disappeared but…
I was talking to myself at one this morning after a couple of glasses of wine (did I mention that?) and I said to myself, I wonder if I think in Canadian or English? And then I got to thinking.
What accent do we think in? Do we think how we speak? Or is there a language of thought?
In the immortal word of Bill and Ted on their excellent adventure, Whoa!!
October 26, 2015 at 8:39 pm
Lol Linda, I always say us Canadians don’t have an accent, everyone else does. 🙂
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October 26, 2015 at 10:25 pm
I know, eh? I wish I knew what everyone was talking aboot! 😉
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October 27, 2015 at 10:27 am
Lol, yup! 😉
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October 26, 2015 at 3:43 pm
I’m pretty sure I think in Southern….
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October 26, 2015 at 10:26 pm
…but do you speak in Northern?
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October 28, 2015 at 4:19 pm
OOOH no, dear, bless your heart! I’m as country as a turnip green! Lol!
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October 28, 2015 at 4:22 pm
Hahaha! 🙂
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October 26, 2015 at 10:51 am
Very interesting! I LOVE listening to different accents. They are like different instruments of the orchestra! I don’t think I have an accent, but maybe I do. My parents speak West Texan (and if you’re from Texas you know that’s very different from East Texan) and I think I pick some of that up from time to time, but generally I think I have no discernible accent. I don’t really like listening to my own voice, but I had to do it when I first started learning French. Ugh. Of course, I have an American accent when I speak French, but I think mostly I can make myself understood. It’s weird to think how an “American” accent must sound to a francophone…I love hearing French speakers speak English!
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October 26, 2015 at 10:28 pm
It’s funny, isn’t it? How some accents sound sort of romantic but we never think our own does.
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October 26, 2015 at 3:45 am
I’m sure we think in our speaking voice, I told me that in my head and it sounded just like me.
Furthermore, recent research suggests that animals have regional accents too, so cows that moo at you in Canada do so in a different dialect to the ones over the border in America.
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October 26, 2015 at 10:29 pm
I know… the cows around here say “Moo, eh?”
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October 25, 2015 at 10:57 pm
Hehehe… yep, I had a couple of glasses of wine too yesterday and had an interesting conversation with myself before falling asleep. Unfortunately I don’t remember what I was talking about with myself today… Oh well. Good question though: Do we think in accents or not… I think we think the way we speak… I guess so…
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October 26, 2015 at 10:30 pm
I think perhaps we both need to contemplate it over another glass of wine… 😉
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October 26, 2015 at 10:32 pm
We definitely should… 🍷
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October 26, 2015 at 10:34 pm
😀 I need that emoticon.
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October 26, 2015 at 10:37 pm
I want one with a glass of sparkling wine…
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October 26, 2015 at 10:40 pm
Oooh, that would be cool! Wine AND sparkles!
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October 27, 2015 at 12:01 am
The idea of a perfect evening…
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October 25, 2015 at 7:07 pm
I have been planning a blog post about accents. We’ve gotten so over the top politically correct that I’ve learned it makes people squeamish to admit that other people have accents. I don’t mean rudely exclaiming to someone, “Hey, you’ve got a weird accent!” but more along the line of calling up some IT help and getting someone in some far off country who has a heavy accent to their English. Some comedians have made jokes about this but if you remark upon it, say at work, people look uncomfortable! This was news to me. We ALL have accents. I have a midwestern newscaster accent, which is pretty much no regional American accent, but I sound like I have an accent to my Canadian and European friends!
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October 25, 2015 at 10:57 pm
Would love to read that!
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October 26, 2015 at 10:33 pm
It’s true! We all, like, pretend we don’t hear other people’s accents and the stronger they are, the more we try not to hear them. It’s weird.
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October 25, 2015 at 1:58 pm
My family is from Massachusetts so I speak with a slight Bostonian accent – especially when it comes to words like “roof” “garbage” and “wolf.” Ah well!
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October 26, 2015 at 10:39 pm
Ah Bostonian. One of those accents that’s so so regional. It always amazes me that small areas with distinct accents survive and are not watered down by newcomers. Does that make any sense?
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October 25, 2015 at 12:25 pm
And then it occurred to me, if they made a movie of my life I couldn’t play myself…. I don’t speak French.
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October 25, 2015 at 12:28 pm
Hahaha!
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October 25, 2015 at 10:57 pm
Hehehe
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October 25, 2015 at 11:19 am
I only speak 2 languages: English, and Bad English. I think in Bad English.
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October 25, 2015 at 12:27 pm
We all do, my dear. We all do.
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October 25, 2015 at 9:57 am
Very interesting. I love hearing different accents. I hate hearing myself, though…I sound like a slow talking, country hick with lots of Tx slang!
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October 25, 2015 at 12:26 pm
I find my accent on tape appalling. Yours sounds like it would be great though! Very calming, in fact.
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October 25, 2015 at 9:34 am
My thought-accent depends on who has spoken to me last. I pick up accents very easily. Right now I’m writing in a Canadian-English accent.
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October 25, 2015 at 12:23 pm
Hahaha! I’ll get you a spot of tea and a poutine, eh?
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October 25, 2015 at 9:24 am
Hhmmm, things that make you go hmmm! One thing I know for sure: if anyone could hear my thoughts they would run screaming into the night! I know sometimes I want to . . .
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October 25, 2015 at 12:21 pm
Hahaha! Yeah, mine too, Pamela.
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October 25, 2015 at 9:11 am
My brain hurts after that…
The only thing I know for certain is I have music running through my head all the time I’m awake. Usually the same song all day. Today it’s “Free as a Bird” by The Beatles.
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October 25, 2015 at 12:21 pm
Ugh, I hate ear worms. Don’t you? They usually last a day for me too, but some, like the one I have today (“Cities In Dust,” the chorus) can last a week.
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October 25, 2015 at 7:26 am
For me, it changes constantly. With each geographic move, I pick up a bit of the local accent and voice mannerisms. Folks who meet me…have no idea where I might be from…and I love that. ☺
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October 25, 2015 at 12:18 pm
I do think some people are more susceptible to picking up the local accent than others. It’s a talent, kind of like being able to do impressions. 🙂
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October 25, 2015 at 3:18 pm
☺☺☺
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October 26, 2015 at 1:36 am
My eldest daughter, at age 16, went to spend a year with her mother’s parents in Birmingham, UK. She returned with a thick Midlands accent and it took the better part of a year to get her “talkin’ Texan” again. Bless her heart, we had to keep her hid for most of that time.
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October 26, 2015 at 10:42 pm
Hahaha! Poor thing. 😉
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October 25, 2015 at 4:51 am
I have a hard time identifying myself on tape. Interesting question Linda. Who was that masked man?
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October 25, 2015 at 12:17 pm
I remember wondering who was talking the first time I heard myself on tape, so we have that in common.
I think it was George Carlin… 😛
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October 25, 2015 at 1:02 pm
Bwahaha! Snot – the original glue. ha!
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October 25, 2015 at 1:07 pm
Bleghh!! 😛
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October 25, 2015 at 3:36 am
I still hate hearing myself talk but for years I’ve had to on supervision.
A colleague whose mother tongue is French dated a fella from Aussie. Well! It was so funny to hear her speak English with the cute Aussie accent. My mom took English courses at McGill by a Prof who had a British accent. So she spoke English with a slight British accent
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October 25, 2015 at 12:12 pm
Yes! I remember a couple I knew when I was living on the Quebec side (friends of the ex-in-laws) – she was English from England and he was from Paris. She spoke French with a Parisian accent and he spoke English with a British one. It was so weird.
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October 25, 2015 at 12:23 pm
I remember years ago, when I went on a trip to UK and the tour guide responding to my comment that he had such a beautiful accent, “Oh! Accent? I don’t have an accent but you Canadians do have a lovely accent.”
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October 25, 2015 at 12:24 pm
Canadians don’t have an accent! Everyone else does though. 😉
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October 25, 2015 at 1:23 pm
Haha!!! I remember living on Toronto most people said I had a French accent. Anglos from Qc just speak a different dialect. Now maritimers. Their unique dialects are a treasure. Language is so interesting
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October 25, 2015 at 3:23 am
I so hate listening to myself on tape. This puts me at a distinct disadvantage – if I make written notes, I can rarely read them, and if I make notes into a recording device, I can’t bear to hear them back!
As to accent, my mid-Devon gave way to an amalgam of accents from the various places I have lived, although I like to think it is now neutral with a slight leaning to the westcountry. How do I think? Probably a lot more neutral than I actually speak.
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October 25, 2015 at 12:09 pm
I think we all think our accent is neutral. It’s weird when someone comments on an accent we think isn’t an accent… but we all have them.
I suppose you must rely on your memory a lot. That’s probably a good thing. It keeps the wheels greased, so to speak.
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October 25, 2015 at 2:46 am
Interesting…I like this idea that we could be a completely different person within out minds. Our voice could be different, but would we be able to tell? I mean we’ve grown up with it so it became a part of us, it’s hard to find irregular patterns in something that has always been with you.
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October 25, 2015 at 12:06 pm
Exactly. It’s like being able to understand your mother tongue – you don’t have to think about it, you just know it.
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October 25, 2015 at 1:53 am
I think in a generic English accent, how I imagine that I talk, I suppose, although it’s not necessarily how I actually do talk!
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October 25, 2015 at 2:27 am
Have you ever listened to yourself on tape? It’s not at all how you think you sound! 😛
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October 25, 2015 at 4:39 am
I know, I sound bloody awful!
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October 25, 2015 at 12:04 pm
Me too!
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