Your okie accent

[MegaPoke]

svale of one to 10, how profound is it? If you have any question about it, have someone randomly record you speaking. It may surprise you.

Anytime I hear a recording of me talking, I'm quickly reminded that while moderately intelligent and educated, I'm still a south of the river Bixby farm boy. Way more accent than I hear when I'm actually speaking.

Anyone else experience this?

I'm not a great singer but I can listen to videos of myself singing all day. But speaking? Can't stand to hear myself.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

Everyone makes fun of me because when I talk to my dad or uncle I noticeably start speaking with a much deeper accent. Otherwise people say I don't have much of one.

 

[fasteddie]

Guilty <raises hand> I want to crawl under a rock when I hear a recording of myself speaking. I know my accent can get pretty thick. Sometimes when I'm on a phone call with someone in a different part of the country I have to remind myself to slow down and enunciate my words.

 

[mseabolt]

Everyone makes fun of me because when I talk to my dad or uncle I noticeably start speaking with a much deeper accent. Otherwise people say I don't have much of one.

I get this a lot as well

 

[MegaPoke]

I get this a lot as well

When I was in outside sales, I noticed myself doing this a lot. Unintentionally, but still, easily led into redneckery.

 

[EvilPOKES]

Having moved to Indiana, I am proud of my accent...though crappy Arkansas is in there, too. People know I am not from around here and it strikes up conversation.

 

[nathajw]

I don't think I have much of one but even if you don't and you've spent 100% of your life living in OK and TX it's shocking how much you actually do compared to other places. I spent a week in Boston awhile back and people were acting like I was Doyle Hargraves. "Linda, go on into the gee-rag and geet my gee-tar" I can only imagine their reaction if they had met some of the people from OK or TX I know.

 

[HighStickHarry]

I have none. I have asked people from across the country to evaluate it.

 

[Been Jammin]

As far as I know I do not have an accent. No one has ever told me that I do.

One thing that I have always found interesting....

When I got into vet school there were approximately 60 people in my class. Approximately 10 of those were out of state students. Of the remaining 50 (or so), I think 15 were people who grew up in OKC or Tulsa (including me). None of them had an accent. The rest of the class grew up in smaller towns in OK and all of them had a noticeable accent. I always thought it was interesting that there was an obvious difference between the "city folk" v. the "country folk" despite most of us growing up within 200 miles of each other.

 

[anon_ph7vrsh7abnty]

People overseas have said I don't have one.

I was a bit shocked that I didn't.

 

[SquinkY5786]

When I started at an large electric Co-op in NE Oklahoma I didn't have much of one. But working with some people that do has made it worse. I know I have a friend move to PA and he never had an accent or at least that anyone could tell. He said people up there thought he had a thick accent.

 

[squeak]

I work with people all over the country and when this subject comes up the comments I get are that I don't sound like someone from Oklahoma...although few have ever been here and some don't know where it's at.

 

[JonnyVito]

I actually have to go to Canada here in a week and a half and I fully plan on laying it on thick for everyone up there. When my wife's friend came down (she is from here) with her boyfriend he told me he was expecting to land on a dirt runway. He said he didn't expect what he saw in OKC. I was like ya we have cities here. I am going to use yall like it is going out of style.

 

[nathajw]

When my wife's friend came down (she is from here) with her boyfriend he told me he was expecting to land on a dirt runway.

When I was in DC in the 90s we were eating at a restaurant and this older gentleman was our waiter and we got to bullshittin' with him, told him we were from Oklahoma, etc. A lil' while into the conversation he asked us if the "indians ever give us much trouble". We didn't really know what he was talking about but we kept talking and he really wanted to know if we were ever threatened by them. As in, he thought we could be walking along and a gang of them would attack us on horseback.

 

[mseabolt]

When I was in DC in the 90s we were eating at a restaurant and this older gentleman was our waiter and we got to bullshittin' with him, told him we were from Oklahoma, etc. A lil' while into the conversation he asked us if the "indians ever give us much trouble". We didn't really know what he was talking about but we kept talking and he really wanted to know if we were ever threatened by them. As in, he thought we could be walking along and a gang of them would attack us on horseback.

Similar experience ..mid to late 80's I worked for a company out of NY .. I had never met the people in NY that supported me and once I had one ask me pretty much the same thing, "Are their Indians riding around all over the place on horseback?".

Of course, I said yes

 

[osu2082]

I am a well educated person who has done a bunch of public speaking at large events and get asked to MC things from time to time but man when I hear myself sometimes on video or audio recordings I cringe sometimes at the sound of my accent.

 

[shortbus]

I've done a lot of radio and tv and I can tell sometimes but others it's not so bad. I do however always think, man that doesn't sound like me at all! I really hate the sound of my voice when I listen to it outside of my own head!

I get comments a lot on my accent when out of state but I think it's because it gets bad when I've been drinking. Otherwise I suppose I'm conscious of it enough to keep it at bay.

 

[AC_Exotic]

I do a lot of pubic speaking. The Okie Accent works for me.

 

[osutater]

When I was in DC in the 90s we were eating at a restaurant and this older gentleman was our waiter and we got to bullshittin' with him, told him we were from Oklahoma, etc. A lil' while into the conversation he asked us if the "indians ever give us much trouble". We didn't really know what he was talking about but we kept talking and he really wanted to know if we were ever threatened by them. As in, he thought we could be walking along and a gang of them would attack us on horseback.

Had this experience in Vegas playing cards with a dude from Boston. He kept asking me about teepees and horses. I told him you couldn't leave your car in NW OK because that was Indian territory and people were scalped. He totally believed it.

 

[dtspoke]

I get to speak nationally a decent amount and the accent is still there, but more subdued.

Then I start talking with my dad and I go full Mannford.

 

[BigBobBarker]

I feel mine has diminished quite a bit, to the point it is close to gone.
I remember going on vacation with my parents as a kid and people would ask where in the world that accent is from. I haven't been asked that in years. Many of my attendings in residency were trained in great Britain so I drop an "afternoon theater" in for fun when talking about afternoon OR cases.

 

[JimmyBob]

Creek county growing up, 3+ years nawfook/navy, 35 years Dallas; mine's always been bad. I'll always blame it on "nawfook". At this point in life, it doesn't make a rat's ass to me!

 

[hollywood]

I worked hard on mine to make it a bit more neutral. Get me drinking and it comes back out, or at least it used to.

The crazy thing is, put me in and around people from another region/country and subconsciously I start picking up bits and pieces of accent/dialect from them.

I definitely notice it in some "okies" while many others seem to have no regional dialect at all. Just last week I went into a local business and I could barely understand the owner (older gentleman) it was so strong. But I don't notice it so much with younger (under 30) crowd at all.

 

[Rulz]

I do a lot of pubic speaking. The Okie Accent works for me.

I did some pubic speaking last night, my wife loved the accent.

 

[anon_xl72qcu5isp39]

I have a strong, multi-generation, country-ass Oklahoma accent. It works for me, but I cringe at my twang. Brits think it's "charming." One gal on a date (native Ohioan) said my accent sounded "under educated." Wuddabitch.

I can tell differences between an East Texas vs. West Texas accent almost instantly - they're totally different to me. Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma is sort of indistinguishable to me. I sweat eastern v. western Oklahoma shifts from twang to drawl, but other people don't hear it.

I think the media has homogenized our speech with the younger set and that's a pity.

 

[MegaPoke]

I have a strong, multi-generation, country-ass Oklahoma accent. It works for me, but I cringe at my twang. Brits think it's "charming." One gal on a date (native Ohioan) said my accent sounded "under educated." Wuddabitch.

I can tell differences between an East Texas vs. West Texas accent almost instantly - they're totally different to me. Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma is sort of indistinguishable to me. I sweat eastern v. western Oklahoma shifts from twang to drawl, but other people don't hear it.

I think the media has homogenized our speech with the younger set and that's a pity.

There's a lot of truth in the homogenized thing, but I think country kids still sound pretty country. I've read that kids pick up their dialect from their peers more than their parents, and I'll tell you this - being a Bixby guy, I've seen a radical shift in the way a native Bixbian speaks from my grandparents to my kids. I think that happens as what was once a small farm town gets gobbled up by a metro area and suburbanized though.

 

[nathajw]

It's funny how alcohol affects it too. Got a good buddy from rural southern Louisiana that has lived in Dallas metro now for 10 years and you can hardly tell he has much of an accent. He puts down half a fifth of bourbon and its:

"Brah we waz bow fishin' at night and you can see all dem gaydaz eyez out Der in da whoa-da' jus' lookin' etcha"

 

[MajorMike_Ret]

Mine is mostly word pronunciation.

For example...
How do you say 'half'. Do you say the L ? No.
How do you say 'calf'. Do you say the L? No.
Therefore I say 'woof' when speaking wolf.

When you put something in the ground, you 'burry' it. Berry is something that grows on a tree.

 

[JohnVoight]

Same here with the word pronunciation. When I 1st moved to the West Coast, a frequent comment I would hear was "you don't sound like your from OK?". Growing up in an OKC suburb, that's probably not very surprising (although I had a lot of exposure to accents on both sides of my family).

However, I would pronounce things here and there, possibly incorrectly, that would raise a few eyebrows in the office. One I remember specifically is the word "insurance". I formerly placed the emphasis on -In- as opposed to -sur-. I've made an effort to correct this and think it's mostly corrected now.

And the term "catty-corner". West coasters say kitty-corner instead. Will never get used to it.

 

[TPOKE]

It's funny how alcohol affects it too. Got a good buddy from rural southern Louisiana that has lived in Dallas metro now for 10 years and you can hardly tell he has much of an accent. He puts down half a fifth of bourbon and its:

"Brah we waz bow fishin' at night and you can see all dem gaydaz eyez out Der in da whoa-da' jus' lookin' etcha"

I can relate. The more my wife drinks, the further south her accent goes. I always know when she starts turning one syllable words into two it's time to call it a night. In all fairness she was a product of Plano High.

 

[CarrolltonPoke]

My experience is similar to Jammin's. I grew up in Tulsa and don't really think I have a noticeable accent. I moved to Southern California right after college and nobody ever asked if I was from Oklahoma or Texas. I worked with a water well drilling crew back in 1996 or so and two of them were former oilfield guys from small town Oklahoma (Red Oak and KANGfisher, I think). They were shocked when I said I was from Oklahoma, and they asked where I grew up. When I said Tulsa they both reacted with this knowing nod and said "Ah, city boy."

 

[nathajw]

My experience is similar to Jammin's. I grew up in Tulsa and don't really think I have a noticeable accent. I moved to Southern California right after college and nobody ever asked if I was from Oklahoma or Texas. I worked with a water well drilling crew back in 1996 or so and two of them were former oilfield guys from small town Oklahoma (Red Oak and KANGfisher, I think). They were shocked when I said I was from Oklahoma, and they asked where I grew up. When I said Tulsa they both reacted with this knowing nod and said "Ah, city boy."

It's not just the rural part vs the city. It's north and south too imo. I can't vouch for any part of Oklahoma west of OKC though.

I lived in OKC for two years, grew up in Green Country, and spent a decent amount of time in southeast Oklahoma and I'll say this. People from southeast Oklahoma have the most redneck accent out of the state by far. My best friend played football at Southeastern in "Doo-rant" so I spent several weekends visiting him and it was stereotypical Oklahoma bad.

 

[fasteddie]

I came by mine honest I have an old recording of my grandma talking about my grandpa going to the city to get tires (tars) and batteries (bat-trees) for the tractor. Another big one for my grandparents was "youins" in place of y'all

 

[Deepfork]

I used to know a guy that could pretty much tell you what part of Oklahoma you were from by your accent. I used to hate to hear myself on tape when I was in the studio. Still do but I'm not in the studio much anymore. Nothing like an Okie accent on digital audio through a Sennheiser mic!

 

[HighStickHarry]

What I dont understand is people who type y'all in an email.

 

[davidallen]

Usually a 1
Back home for a week jumps to a 7

 

[Bitter Creek]

svale of one to 10, how profound is it? If you have any question about it, have someone randomly record you speaking. It may surprise you.

Anytime I hear a recording of me talking, I'm quickly reminded that while moderately intelligent and educated, I'm still a south of the river Bixby farm boy. Way more accent than I hear when I'm actually speaking.

Anyone else experience this?

I'm not a great singer but I can listen to videos of myself singing all day. But speaking? Can't stand to hear myself.

I went to Nebraska the last time we played up there. About 5 mins into the bar scene I had three young ladies just listening to me intently like I had a charm around my neck. I eventually asked them why they were hanging on everything I said, they all said I had a fun southern accent that they liked.

 

[OSUIvan]

Everyone makes fun of me because when I talk to my dad or uncle I noticeably start speaking with a much deeper accent. Otherwise people say I don't have much of one.

I used to have a coworker at a call center where I could tell who he was talking to just by his accent or tone. If he was talking to a field guy he would redneck it up, if it was with a guy in the corp office he was professional, and if it was a girl he thought he was Rico Suave

 

[MegaPoke]

I used to have a coworker at a call center where I could tell who he was talking to just by his accent or tone. If he was talking to a field guy he would redneck it up, if it was with a guy in the corp office he was professional, and if it was a girl he thought he was Rico Suave

This was my tactic when I was in sales. Worked pretty well usually.

 

[JonnyVito]

Piggy backing on this. I find it funny how everyone not in the south thinks everyone form the south listens to nothing but country music.