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Yes, I've been asked thousands of times if I'm from either Boston or Nova Scotia. I was born in New Mexico and raised in Michigan. Can you explain that, because I can't. Must be my Irish ancestry. But my folks didn't speak this way. Any other Michiganians have this problem?
I grew up in PA and moved to NJ when I was 18. People would always ask me if I was from Scotland? Now I'm in SC and everyone can tell I'm from NJ/NY area.
I have a bit of Virginia Tidewater accent and I can't tell you how many people have asked me if I were from England.
I did political phone calling where I call people from the midwest and other areas outside Virginia and they thought I was an Englishman.
This one lady who was visiting with a group of musicians I know from Portland, Oregon said I sounded British too, and didn't think it was Southern. Until I said "Ah guess". Then she said she could hear it.
The accents are right similar perhaps, but its still Southern.. I guess because it has that lilt to it.
No one has ever mistaken me for a foreigner due to my regional Chicago/Midwestern accent
Same here, due to my St. Louis/Midwestern accent. However, I must admit to often confusing people from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan with Canadians. Northern Illinois, Extreme Northern Indiana and Extreme Northern Ohio sound a tad, tad, tad, Canadian with a limited number of words, but their accents are generally very flat and easily distinguishable as American. When I was younger, people from Boston sounded British somewhat to me, and I often got New Yorkers mixed up with Bostonians. Is it me, or do New Yorkers and New Englanders sound a lot alike. I know there are some key differences in pronunctiation of some terms but in general I think they can both be grouped together as a Northeast dialect types. The Northeast dialect seems to be kind of a big mismash of Dutch, Italian, American, and English all thrown together to create a single accent. Southern dialect in the Deep South to my ear sounds like a very fancy derivative of British dialect.
People will often ask me if I am from Minnesota or Wisconsin because of the "accent" they think I have. Everyone has an accent whether they want to admit it or not. I just happen to have that stereotypical northern cities shift accent. I have lived both in the lower Midwest and Upper Midwest, but am currently moving to NH.
To answer the OPs question, no, I have not been mistaken as a foreigner.
Virginia and South Carolina are extremely similar on the coast with our "oot" "aboot" and "hoos" And it ain't Canadian either because they dont say it like that..
At least not to my ears.
And also, I heard that the actors in Gone With The Wind were able to affect the Georgia Piedmont accents because the southern accents here are very similar to the old English accents.
If you listen to some of those movies on PBS they do sound a tad Southern. I think the Brits talked slower back then. At least in how they are presented in period pieces.
But I can't deny the African influences in the South- which is probably what makes it so unique.
It's strange, but when I lived in PA there were a few people that thought I was from New York or Minnesota. However, when I moved to CA some people recognized that I was from Pittsburgh, New York, or elsewhere in the east. When I was young in PA I never thought I had an accent, but I can recognize that I do today.
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