What's your local dialect?

[© tweed]

Western New England/Hudson Valley combination

Aren't you originally from NY?

[dazzleman]

Western New England/Hudson Valley combination

Aren't you originally from NY?

Yes, but not from the city.  I'm from Westchester, and native Westchesterites speak more like lower Hudson Valley people than people from New York City.

Where I lived, the speech patterns were always a mix of those who had moved from the city, who had either heavy or watered-down New York accents, and those who originated in Westchester, who did not speak with a New York accent.

The Hudson Valley sweeps over to Western New England north of New York city, so those from that area generally speak with a combination of the two dialects.

[Frodo]

I lived most of my formative years overseas in East Asia, so I never developed a regional accent (despite the fact I was born here).  My father was raised in SE Pennsylvania, and my mother was born in southern Japan -so probably that international mixture contributes to the fact why I don't have a regional accent, given the parental influence.

I speak the standard American English -presumably general Northern/American, since it probably comes closest.   

[Platypus]

This is rather odd from an Australia perspective. Australia was generally colonized all at the same time, and by the dsame people, so we have very very few regional distictions-western australians and south australians do have a bit of an accent, but you can generally only pick it up on a few words-the South Australians tend to pronounce consonants more sharply. The main variatons come from class. Australia is a generally classless society, much moreso then the UK or America, but we do have some class distinctions, and thats where regional accents generally form. The bush is generally working-calls, as is Queensland, and so in those areas you are more likely to find the "Broad" Asutralian accent; the extreme of which is the Okker accent, as spoken by Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee. Then, there is Cultivated Australian, very similar to the Australian ear to Triangle English/RP/Estuary/basically middle-upper to upper-class British, but not to the British . It is now spoken by less then 10% of the population, most of them in Sydney's North shore or in some parts of Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne. Malcolm and Tammy Fraser are perfect examples of this accent. In the middle is Generic/general Australian, spoken by about half the population at Federation and about three quarters now. It's common throughout Melbourne and Sydney, other major cities, rural Victoria and South Australia, and Tasmania.

That's just commentary on anglo-celtic people. Australia has a LOT of immigrants, so there are also obviously many accents from those cultures and from their offspring. The western suburbs of Sydney, especially, have a lot of people who speak Generic Australian to skips, but with their mates they'll tak in an accent that is a mix of many, many ethnic accents, as well as the Aussie one, that is often indecipherble to older Anglo-Celtic Australians or people who haven't grown up wuith it their wole lives. I can understand it, but my Aunty who speaks with a mild Cultivated accent and lives in a leafy Eastern Suburb that voted for the Coalition 2-1 has never been exposed to it really, and can't understand it at all. I think that's the purpose of it

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I thought you spoke some dialect called "Mackem"

Mackem and Pitmatic are *basically* the same

[Ronald Reagan]

My area is Pennsylvania Dutchified English.  I don't think I really speak it.