> This reminded me of something very cool that happened to me when ahmoacah was here. We were talking about accents, and although I did not think she had any kind of an accent, she said that I had a trace of the cliche "aboot" thing going on. She said it wasn't as defined as "aboot", but rather, a rounding out of my o's on some words. When she told me this, I tried saying some of the words out loud, but the accent didn't come out... I then proceeded to use "our" in a sentence naturally, and it was there, and she pointed it out to me immediately, and I HEARD IT. It is one of the most surreal experiences I have ever had -- hearing my own accent as though I didn't have it myself. I never would have thought it was possible before this... I suspect the reason I could do it is because Canada is bombarded with so many different manners of speech through Canadian and American and British media, plus a melting pot of different people groups. Being exposed to so many other ways of speaking may help to make me used to them and think of them as natural, and thus be able to hear my own voice as unnatural when the right things are pointed out to me.
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> Anyway, it was really cool.
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> Don "Thanks ahmoacah!" Monkey

That is cool. I'm pretty curious about accents, and I often ask people who I think have accents if they think *I* have an accent.

Unfortunately, the answer is usually no. I attribute that to my 'accent' being the typical homogenized one (or lack of one, whichever) that is most favored by television for, oh, news anchors and stuff like that. Hence, it's already familiar enough because of that that the accent doesn't come across as being that different anymore. At least, that is how the people whom I have asked explained it to me.

I think if someone could tell me what to look (or listen) for in my speech that makes it more distinctive, then I could figure it out and maybe hear it myself for a moment, but I've yet to find anyone who could. Too bad, really...

As an aside, I also tend to pick up accents and alternative spellings pretty easily. After spending two weeks in England I could catch myself adding a slight British (no, I can't get more specific than that, nor could I tell you WHAT I was doing to get that sense in my voice) inflection in my speech, and since talking online to lots of Brits and Canadians I occasionally catch myself slipping into their spelling. And my French accent is pretty darn good.

Sosi"French pronounced as if it was Spanish is atrocious. Just thought I'd mention that."qui