Accents

I don't know if it is this way for people from Wisconsin or Boston or Pittsburgh when they hear someone speak with the accent of their home, but when I hear someone here speaking with a Texas twang, it is surprisingly comforting. I definitely don't have an accent. The most Texas thing about my speech is that I say "y'all". But I've noticed people use it all over, so it doesn't seem at all exclusive to Texas. I remember the very first day of studio freshman year we were all going around and getting to know one another, and when I was speaking, I happened to employ what I thought was the possessive form of the contraction for you all, which of course, is "y'all's". Everyone was so amused by this, but come on! The word makes sense, right?!

I read somewhere that having a Texas accent might actually help you get a job in places like Dallas where a lot of people move in from out of state. Not that these Texas interviewers were looking for it, but they subconsciously thought better of people with the accent. From my perspective, I'm just happy to hear the accent because it brings back good memories and reminds me of people. It also just seems so authentic.

I found this archive of recordings of people from different regions in the US. The first half of the recording is the person reading a scripted story, and the second half she talks about where she's from. I put it out for those who aren't from Texas and might want to know what it sounds like sometimes. I also included a link for a person from Wisconsin for comparison since that accent is probably fairly close to the way my parents speak.

East Texas Accent
Wisconsin Accent

There is actually some diversity even from place to place in Texas. Certainly where I grew up in Dallas the Texas accent is fairly rare if it shows up at all. But here in East Texas, a lot of people have it. If you are really interested, there are recordings from other places. Here is a link.