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Comment by js2 | Hacker News Reader

I was raised in Miami, parents from New Jersey. I don't have an accent. (edit: I mean "General American with no obvious southern, northern, eastern, or western features.")

But there's still some tells like "soda" vs "pop" and you can pry "y'all" out of my cold dead hands. My wife and I had been living in Atlanta a couple years when I was speaking over the phone to a coworker in Syracuse, NY. Toward the end of the call she told me I had a lovely southern accent. Hung up the phone, called my wife, "Honey, it's time to move." :-)

Fun fact: I'm told that in Dallas, TX "y'all" is singular, the plural of which is "all y'all."

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Of course you have an accent, everyone does. What you mean is you have an generic American "TV accent."

Through personal study, I've come to the scientific conclusion that "generic American TV accent" means the person is from Iowa or Kansas more often than not.

My poorly made point was that I didn't have anything distinguishing me as being from the south growing up, but that I picked up an accent (at least to a Syracuse person's ears) while living in Atlanta. It surprised me given I'd only been there a couple years and that you don't hear southern accents very often in Atlanta in any case.

>point was that I didn't have anything distinguishing me as being from the south growing up, but that I picked up an accent (at least to a Syracuse person's ears) while living in Atlanta. It surprised me given I'd only been there a couple years

That tends to happen a good amount, I think. I've seen it happen to me (subconciously picking up the use of certain accents or local words), after moving from one region of India to another, say between central / northern / southern parts, and also to other people (Indian colleagues) when we went to Malaysia. Within a few weeks, some of them were adding -la (pronounced lah) to the ends of their sentences, which is a thing that local people do there.

To be fair, it's very easy to forget that you have an accent.

I remember talking on a conference call many years ago with people from (I think) Intel and after I'd been speaking for a bit someone announced "Who is that on the call with the really thick Scottish accent - I can't understand a word he is saying".

My difficulties with Siri (and I tried really hard to get it to recognise 'Hey Siri' and only got slightly angry) leads me to suspect that my accent may still be there.

Very true. Honestly, unless I really listen for it, I don't notice when someone has my own area's accent vs a "generic TV" accent. And they're pretty different! I do notice if it's not mine, though. I'm from North Carolina, and the "Deep South" accent sounds as weird to me as it does to anyone else, although I'm sure someone else might think we sound similar.

It's the entire reason I can't get into House of Cards. Frank Underwood is supposed to be from my area of the country, and speaks with some kind of Charleston-ish non-rhotic accent.

> I don't have an accent

As I'm sure you are aware, of course you do. Everybody has an accent. To my European ears, all Americans most certainly have heavy ones.

> Fun fact: I'm told that in Dallas, TX "y'all" is singular, the plural of which is "all y'all."

False fact. Source: life long DFW resident. It is plural in basically all uses.

And I learned there's a subtle distinction between "y'all" and "all y'all". If I ask, "Do y'all have a ride?" I mean "Do you have a car and/or get a ride with someone who has a car?" Whereas if I ask "Do all y'all have a ride?" I mean "Do each of you people here own a car?"

Correct. In a sense:

group of people : bunch of people :: y'all : all y'all

The former being an associated collective.

What is with Yankees and the persistent myth of the singular "y'all".

There may be some small, isolated spots in the South where that's true, but they're not common, and, as someone born and raised there, Dallas is definitely not one of them.

Huh, I learned about singular y'all about 15 years ago by someone from Dallas who used "all y'all" to address groups. She claimed this was common usage in Dallas.

Well, it is kinda working class phrase I guess.

I've heard it for the plural in Dallas and Houston but in less salubrious parts of town.

All y'all is used (rarely) for emphasis, not to pluralize. "I got presents for y'all!" is plural. "I got presents for all y'all!!" is also plural. It's just emphasizing the number of people to underscore, say, generosity.

That being said, not everyone in DFW talks that way. Many prefer a more subdued midwestern style. The metroplex is full of transplants from all over, so there isn't a lot of pressure to talk like a local or something.

Not sure why people are downvoting you for sharing your opinion on a light subject. (Even though I'm sure you have an accent!)

It took me a lot of work/traveling around the U.S. to detect my own bastardized Michigan accent, which people on both coasts think is very cute and very Canadian+Chicagoan. When I'm feeling playing playful I take it full Fargo to make 'em laugh. My accent is very apparent to me now, and it's made me appreciate all the flavors and refrain from stereotyping.

I really enjoy trying to pinpoint geographic origins from people who have the "TV accent", since there are always subtle indicators that often surprise me after I inquire further into someone's background.

(I agree 100% on "Y'all". Y'all is an awesome contraction; should be considered a legit word and imported north. "You guys" seems clunky compared to y'all, latter of which is one syllable and sounds right.)

But there is a Miami accent that I can hear. Not everyone in Miami has it, I don't and I was also raised there. I hear it more in the first generation children of Spanish-speaking immigrants (which I am one but I never picked the accent up)

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