The Accents Guessing Game ...

 

So as mentioned previously, I transcribe the interviews for an independent marketing company. between pharma and either payers or clinicians, not just nationally, but globally -  and today, I had one where both the interviewer and respondents had British accents. 

The interviewer has a very nearly Queen's English, proper-London accent, but occasionally. she'd slip on a word or two, into another accent, that let me know she had adopted the "proper" accent, particularly for interviewing, and was actually from somewhere else in UK -  but where? 

At the end, there was some talk of the Tottenham VS. Wolves game. 

For starters, it took me some time to figure out who and what they were talking about, not being well versed in British FC lol.

(God, I hope I got all the names and locations right -  because Lord knows they take their "footie" very seriously, over there - and you just know they'd complain about not getting their soccer heroes' names right before they'd ever even think of complaining about how I spelled the pharmaceuticals lol.)

Regardless, as it turned out, the interviewer said she actually grew up in Liverpool.

The respondent said, "You don't have the accent."

She said, "Eh, I prob'ly could, if you needed, m'too," in that stereotypical, sing-song, up and down, slowed-down roller-coaster Liverpool way - LOL.

Aha!  Mystery solved lol. 

She said she hadn't lived there for 20 years, so she'd lost it, but can get it back if there/around others with it.

This makes me feel much better about my Cincinnati VS. Lexington accent mix, after living here for 30 years lol.  

If I'm around northerners, it's more Cincinnati, but when around Southerners, it's more Lexington.

However, if I need to be absolutely clear, for whatever reason, it's a pure Cincinnati   - because a Cincinnati accent is taught in universities nationwide as "the broadcasting accent," because it's essentially no accent - unless  of course I'm talking to Eastern Kentuckians, and then I let the Lexington accent rip or else they won't understand me lol.

Also, though my husband still has a very strong Detroit accent, even his own family says he speaks slower and some words have a  slight Southern drawl, and he's only lived here for 12 years lol.

Then again, when he's watching a hockey game or is back in Detroit, it's pure Detroit, "Eh? Geeez" ;) 

I mean, it just happens - with everybody. 

However, my older sister used to give me a lot of sh*t about it, after she moved to Chicago, 39 years ago, and I moved South 32 years ago.  

I don't know why  -  because "losing your accent" (and gaining it back when home) is a very common, innocuous thing that happens to everyone, after living somewhere else over time, it's human nature.

And yet because it's me, of course, she ascribes the worst motivations, in order to prove something to herself about me (usually something dastardly, so she can feel superior) - but I honest-to-God don't even know what her point and problem supposedly is, on that one lol.

Thus, I'd usually just tell the Ice Queen that she was welcome to get in her "CAAR" and drive back to "Sh'CAAHgo"   where it's "Coohld"  - the climate matching both her temperament and her capacity for mercy -  because those pronunciations that she's adopted of the words "car," "Chicago," and "Cold" aren't Cincinnatian,  either - they're exclusively Chicagoan ;)

(Da Bears lol).

That usually shut her up :)

Because instead, a true Cincinnati accent would be: "cahr," "cold" and "ShihCAHgo."  

PS - FYI, Lexington would be very similar, only more of a slight southern drawl -  "ca-uhr," "coh-eld" and "SheCAWHgo" or even "SheCAWga" if you're from rural Central Kentucky :)