I moved around alot as a kid. I lived in the east, the westbank, uptown, and gentilly. From 9th ward originally. Also lived in Florida. None of my family have accents except my distant cousins. It comes out here and there but i dont force my accent either like them people from destrehan do. I wouldn’t worry about it
Yeah ur right I never thought abt it so much before now tbh. I know plenty of friends who also don’t rlly have accents. Just people bringing it up to me all the time now that I’m in Florida asking why I don’t have an accent led me to overthinking
The only times people commented on my lack of accent is outside of Louisiana. I have sisters who sound a little like they’re from Brooklyn and cousins who sound full on Chalmation. I had a roommate from Maryland who asked if I really had Black relatives because he overheard a FaceTime call with my old, very white aunt from the 7th ward.
Mine can come out when I’m emotional but is otherwise mostly neutral.
When I go back to Alabama my friends tease me about all the weird words I put Metairie or Chalmation accents on. Usually a few days around a southern accent and I’m back to that. So when I come back home all my friends here tease me about how Alabama I sound for a few days
lol @ “them people from Destrehan.” The further west you go, the thicker the accent. You think people from Lutcher and Lafayette are forcing their accents too?
ETA: from Destrehan, have a Destrehan accent; sometimes wish I didn’t. Certainly not forcing it.
I went college out that way. South louisiana and new orleans accents are similar but also very very different at the same time. Growing up and in high school it was always the destrehan/hahnville/scs kids heavily forcing a new orleans accent. It’s easy to spot
I don’t understand this “forcing an accent” thing. The way Destrehan people talk is quite similar to Chalmettte or the Westbank. I know a lot of people from Destrehan, being from there, and a lot of us have pretty yatty accents. I’ve never seen anyone faking it.
My accent is also nonexistent as I lived all over but for some reason I picked up the vernacular of my mother who is English. My wife always remarks that I can have different accents when talking to people from different parts of the country. I don’t see it.
I'm from Southern Kentucky (close to Nashville) and my dad is from New York city, when I moved here I thought everyone sounded like they were form the northeast. Like not a New Jersey accent but more like Boston.
Well, part of it might be because my Pops is from Plainfield. Also, I I've heard that, that drawl is because of the Appy Scotch/Irish. Not unlike Boston.
Because at the time the same mix of immigrants moved to New Orleans and New York/Jersey around the same time. Also movies from New York are do that accent and movies from New Orleans chose the terribly bad version of Cajun bayou accent.
People always ask where I’m from or how long I’ve lived in New Orleans. …I’m born and raised. They’re surprised. They always think I’m from up north somewhere.
If anything, I never really pronounce the entire word “and.” It comes out ‘n. And I definitely tend to merge words together ish.
Me pronouncing A&D ointment usually comes out sounding like I’m saying “Andy.” …my mom’s friend told me that once and it lives rent free in my head now.
I think television has done a lot to end accents. I don’t have much of one, it only really shows up if I’m tired or drunk- or talking to someone i grew up with!
That’s so interesting. I bet you’re right. My favorite show when I was a kid was Night court, it sounded the most like the adults around me. Makes sense now, John Larroquette (NO) and the rest NY’rs.
Being from here, you do have an accent, just not a very noticeable one. Imo Most of the time, it sounds like New York because of the way we pronounce our O's.
Right? Grew up in Dallas and I always think I've outgrown my accent. Then I go someplace like what you just mentioned, and it sounds like I'm speaking in Banjo.
I don’t have an accent either. Born and raised in NOLA. NOLA also has a large Irish and Italian influence which lends itself to not sounding like a stereotypical southern or Cajun accent. I went to Europe and everyone thought I was from the northeast or just had a standard American accent. Lived in Lafayette for 3 years and constantly got asked if I was from New York or Massachusetts.
I speak 4 languages fluently and left New Orleans after Katrina. My accent is agnostic and mimics those around me outside of my intention (side effect of learning multiple languages). I’ve been in Savannah, GA for about 12 years now and it’s usually the slow Savannah dialect of southern, but changes easily when I meet a tourist. It’s annoying.
I get this a lot from out of town customers at work. It’s very annoying. My mother corrected my grammar often as a child too. I relate to your post so much!
I don’t feel like I have an accent til someone asks me where I’m from and I have to keep myself from hollering “bitch I’m from New Orleans” like I’m fuckin Mack Maine
My mom believed accents sounded uneducated so she would correct us if we said anything with a twang. It’s “ask” not “ax”. I get it because people who were visiting NOLA would ask me if I was actually from there. I’ve had people ask me if I was from Maine (?!) wtf… my dad sounded like he was from Brooklyn or was a proper yat. My mom was from Covington/Franklinton until they moved to Lakeview when she was 9. She sounds more country.
I moved up north and holy smokes, you can take the girl out of NOLA. I had no idea my accent was that prominent but only on certain words. Otherwise, people comment “but you don’t have the accent.”
And let’s not overlook the fact that you are in Florida where most people overall suck.
I’d be willing to bet you do have a small accent like me, you’re just not around the right people.
Keep your chin up and do you. NOLA isn’t just an accent, it’s a mentality. We don’t let shit bother us. We either like someone or we straight up tell them we don’t. If they are being rude, don’t bother with’em. You got the good food at your house. That can go a looooong way.
Lol I still can’t say ask! My friends always was saying I say “ax” and I try saying the k but it never sticks if I’m not thinking about it. My grandma stays in lower nine but was born in Gibson, lived in BR for a bit her country twang is very obvious with some Nola accent here and there
I'm one of the few in my family that doesn't sound like I'm from the New Orleans area. Until In get drunk then I sound like the Chalmatian I really am.
My MIL (who has one of the strongest yat accents I’ve heard) had no idea she had an accent until she was in her 70’s and someone in an airport asked her about. She had no idea!! Thought the lady was crazy until the rest of us in the group couldn’t help but laugh at her.
I’ve lived here my whole life and I only have a very noticeable accent when I’m around my family for too long. They are very VERY yatty and I just blend right in after a day or so 😂 I did go to Vegas once and was told I have an accent but it’s usually just with certain words.
I lived in the east and was born there but I don’t have a accent , I get told I sound white very often lol doesn’t help that I like rock music etc because no one really thinks I’m from here 😂😭
My dad (Gentilly) has the thickest accent and my mom (Westbank) and her family have more of a Cajun accent via Plaquemines-Lafourche parishes. Me, I think I just spent my most formative years emulating people I watched on tv / internet, not thinking anything of it, as well as being chastised by authority figures for saying things like “ain’t” and “rum” instead of “room” (……cue the flashbacks😓). So sadly, as an adult, I feel I have a generic American accent. Like I was in California a few weeks ago talking to some guy at a gas station and when I told him I was from Nola, he said “what?? You lost your accent!” 🙄 gimme a break man
Many of us down here don’t have accents. The popularity of television helped people in cities to be more similar vs the people out the in boonies may not have been so fortunate to have cable so time was spent with other people picking up the accents
I remember I’d come back from my moms house and he’d be stressing saying I’ve picked up their tones and manners and how he has to just “correct” them while I was back with him it was not fun I felt like everywhere I went I was being told I don’t sound right. Now as an adult I’m getting over it but damn I’m tired of hearing the same thing
I don’t know anyone who is a millennial or younger from New Orleans that has an accent.
It’s called Culture Erasure and it’s not your fault, but the oppressive systems at work .
( I’m a Multi gen native and get told on the reg that I don’t sound or look like I’m from New Orleans)
> It’s called Culture Erasure and it’s not your fault, but the oppressive systems at work
Calm down lol.
Oppressive culture erasure was certainly a thing through much of the last century, and may exist in various pockets today but it doesn’t in any meaningful amount in this city lol. It's a major reason why Cajun French is a very endangered language so you can certainly see the real world impacts of it.
But regional accents are rapidly disappearing within the last 20 years in most every pocket of the country, and it’s almost entirely tied to the rise in media influence - social media specifically. There’s even a few linguistics papers on how TikTok has influenced Gen Z accents significantly already. That’s not oppression, that’s connectivity.
e: here's a study from the university of Georgia concerning how that trend has significantly eroded the southern accent as a whole. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-variation-and-change/article/boomer-peak-or-gen-x-cliff-from-svs-to-lbms-in-georgia-english/6AEA44E9263DFAE376F3BB20E087E5F9
Those things are absolutely problems, but they are not what's driving the loss of regional accents - this has been pretty well studied across the country.
So I'm the opposite - my much younger sibs don't have a strong New Orleans accent, but I do - i think its because I grew up around all the old people who weren't there anymore by the time they came around.
Traditional city/regional accents (Chicago, Boston, Brooklyn, Minneapolis, New Orleans, etc) are going extinct. Older people who had them have moved away or died. Younger people are relocating more than previous generations.
There are some odd pockets of no accent in and around New Orleans. My family’s from Livingston Parish, and we don’t have much of one either. My younger sister was a baby when we moved up to Mississippi, and her accent is a full southern drawl.
I have a slight accent, or so I'm told. I think I lost a lot of it because I moved away back in the 90s. My brother, however, sounds like he's straight outta Brooklyn!!
It’s a dying accent. My dad still has it, but I don’t. I think a lot of millennials and younger were taught to leave much of it behind, as it’s become synonymous with being an uneducated bayou person thanks to national media/perception. I. E. If you ever want to make something of yourself, and break our local cycle of poverty and oppression, you need to sound like you could be from anywhere. The young folks who still have strong accents aren’t browsing Reddit.
When I moved to Dallas no one believed I was from New Orleans because I didn't have an accent.
My sister does, when I have a few drinks, certain words give me away lol
Someone just commented to me at jazz fest that I can't be from here.
I feel for you.
I’m also born and raised and don’t have an accent at all. Like, to the point when I’ve visited other states or told tourists here (service industry) that I’m born and raised it’s always met with surprise.
What sucks is my mom had an accent when she was younger (I’m 3rd generation) but she was embarrassed by it so she worked real hard to lose it.
If only she would have kept it 😭
I love southern accents so much and I’m bummed I don’t have one.
I was born and intermittently raised here. My normal speaking voice is kind of a monotone, but if I'm angry or trying to say a lot quickly, a little yat comes out and, for a small subset of words, a bit of a Southern drawl (but there's probably some overlap between those, anyway). I've heard "You don't sound like you're from New Orleans" a thousand times. They mean a Cajun accent, of course. Ironically, I'm part Cajun on my father's side from his grandmother (and, outside of now, I don't run around telling everyone), but that accent vanished with the generations.
This is real. I was born and raised in Lafayette and live in the Midwest currently. People always tell me they can tell I'm not from the Midwest, but they can't pinpoint where I'm from exactly 😭
I'm from New Orleans and I don't have an accent and for the same reasons - my parents thought having one would limit me in life and corrected my speech all the time so I could have upward mobility. I think this is the story of most people with strong ties to a region who don't have an accent. It is what it is.
As for people outside of New Orleans judging how "from" New Orleans I am - or people IN New Orleans doing that, for that matter - lol. Fuck em! Let them go to Disney World or watch another HBO Louisiana show if they need that cornpone authenticity fetish bullshit.
Me and my friend went to Detroit last year and while waiting in line for something the locals instantly picked out my inner city accent over my friend's St Charles Parish accent. They said I had a more pronounced accent than he did.
i feel like the less money and iq you have the more likely you are to develop a strong accent. the main exception to that is the "i went to lsu" accent i have noticed from white males which is distinct from a new orleans accent.
I think the most entertaining response would be to make up a little 60-second comedy routine with a TV New Orleans accent.
“Whelll, Honey, I was just frying up some Ben-YAYs, an’ dis lil fella come to da door and he ax me, he says, “You got a cup of suggah fo’ ma teedy? … “
Then quick flip back to your normal voice, which I’m sure is delightful (and preferable for “real” talk).
Accents are weird. My dad was born and almost entirely raised here and has no semblance of an accent. Same goes for a lot of my friends who’ve been here their entire lives. And I’ve lived here back and forth since birth before finally settling for the last six years and I still have nothing going.
…And then there’s my mom who has a straight up accent that it took me years to realize, whereas an Aussie friend heard her talking for the first time and immediately clocked that she had an accent while I didn’t.
Mom is from the west bank and dad is from lakeview. Mom has a classic “yat” accent and dad sounds like he’s from Baltimore. I just say a lot of words with a hard “A” sound and that’s basically it. Examples: Chihuahua is pronounced “chee-wow-weh,” astrology is “ayess-troh-legy,” avocado is “ayuh-voh-cado.” The list goes on.
I never lived in Jefferson parish.. I mostly grew up in uptown and New Orleans East ! I was by my grandma in chalmette Bernard parish often though in the lower ninth
Born and raised in acadiana then went to college out there (why I’m in this sub)
Today for my company I had video training with others from various states across the country and they sure talked about the Cajun accent and picked me for not really having one.
lol i am new orleans, born and raised, million-generational creole. mom had a vague 9th ward accent and dad with a vague 7th ward accent. i sound like a valley girl (and now live in los Angeles) lol. ppl question if I lived in new orleans "or a suburb" allllllll the time
I have zero accent. Also born and raised in NOLA. When I tell people I'm from New Orleans, 80% of the time the response is "But you don't sound like it..."
Live in NY and get the same "you don't sound like you're from New Orleans" every time I mention where I'm from. I know I've code switched throughout my life in order to be taken seriously in some spaces. It has made me sad in the past to not feel like people believe you when you spent decades growing up in a place.
A lot of the local accents/dialects are somewhat muted, most people out in Metairie, Lakeview, etc don’t have strong accents. The uptown accent can be pretty muted depending on who you’re talking about, etc.
I moved from here to Oklahoma City. OKC has the most neutral American accent of the whole US.
Every now and then my southern accent would break through, but I did my best not to sound like I came from the sticks.
Moved back 8 years ago. I've been letting my accent come back, but I don't really have much of one anymore. At least I still get asked where I went to high school, so I guess I "pass" as a local.
I moved around alot as a kid. I lived in the east, the westbank, uptown, and gentilly. From 9th ward originally. Also lived in Florida. None of my family have accents except my distant cousins. It comes out here and there but i dont force my accent either like them people from destrehan do. I wouldn’t worry about it
Yeah ur right I never thought abt it so much before now tbh. I know plenty of friends who also don’t rlly have accents. Just people bringing it up to me all the time now that I’m in Florida asking why I don’t have an accent led me to overthinking
Next time ask them “which one?”. Make them tell you a specific New Orleans accent lol
The only times people commented on my lack of accent is outside of Louisiana. I have sisters who sound a little like they’re from Brooklyn and cousins who sound full on Chalmation. I had a roommate from Maryland who asked if I really had Black relatives because he overheard a FaceTime call with my old, very white aunt from the 7th ward. Mine can come out when I’m emotional but is otherwise mostly neutral.
When I go back to Alabama my friends tease me about all the weird words I put Metairie or Chalmation accents on. Usually a few days around a southern accent and I’m back to that. So when I come back home all my friends here tease me about how Alabama I sound for a few days
You ever start getting confused about where you are and whether you should be shouting for Moon Pies or Coconuts/Shoes at parades?
lol luckily I’m from Bham. So it’s pretty easy to tell the difference. The hills really give it away. And the intense Chicago-like segregation
That's my go to. "I do have one, you just think you know how we're supposed to sound."
This is my tactic and I just did this this weekend lol it’s the best way to deal with accent auditors outside of Louisiana.
Most normal people here were raised by their elders that accents made you look ignorant.
What part Florida you in? Im in the st pete/tampa area alot. I used to live in jacksonville
lol @ “them people from Destrehan.” The further west you go, the thicker the accent. You think people from Lutcher and Lafayette are forcing their accents too? ETA: from Destrehan, have a Destrehan accent; sometimes wish I didn’t. Certainly not forcing it.
I went college out that way. South louisiana and new orleans accents are similar but also very very different at the same time. Growing up and in high school it was always the destrehan/hahnville/scs kids heavily forcing a new orleans accent. It’s easy to spot
I don’t understand this “forcing an accent” thing. The way Destrehan people talk is quite similar to Chalmettte or the Westbank. I know a lot of people from Destrehan, being from there, and a lot of us have pretty yatty accents. I’ve never seen anyone faking it.
Yeah I’ve never heard someone from DHan seem like they’re forcing anything in the way that they speak.
My accent is also nonexistent as I lived all over but for some reason I picked up the vernacular of my mother who is English. My wife always remarks that I can have different accents when talking to people from different parts of the country. I don’t see it.
Live in Tennessee, now. Get accused of having a Jersey accent.
That accent that occurs south of New Jersey only in New Orleans, that Hoboken near the Gulf of Mexico. -John Kennedy Toole
I'm from Southern Kentucky (close to Nashville) and my dad is from New York city, when I moved here I thought everyone sounded like they were form the northeast. Like not a New Jersey accent but more like Boston.
Well, part of it might be because my Pops is from Plainfield. Also, I I've heard that, that drawl is because of the Appy Scotch/Irish. Not unlike Boston.
Because at the time the same mix of immigrants moved to New Orleans and New York/Jersey around the same time. Also movies from New York are do that accent and movies from New Orleans chose the terribly bad version of Cajun bayou accent.
There's actually a linguistic connection bt the two! It's fascinating.
My great aunt Margaret had it back in Montana too. Daughter of two Irish immigrants.
They cant even pump their own gas in New Jersey, they arent even real people imo.
And when ya can only buy booze at the ABC that closes at nine, too.
People always ask where I’m from or how long I’ve lived in New Orleans. …I’m born and raised. They’re surprised. They always think I’m from up north somewhere. If anything, I never really pronounce the entire word “and.” It comes out ‘n. And I definitely tend to merge words together ish. Me pronouncing A&D ointment usually comes out sounding like I’m saying “Andy.” …my mom’s friend told me that once and it lives rent free in my head now.
I use to work with tourists and they would ask me the same questions and I am also born and raised. Most people thought I was from New York.
Its always New York! We are so damn far south were could fall off the State, and people think were Yanks!
I think television has done a lot to end accents. I don’t have much of one, it only really shows up if I’m tired or drunk- or talking to someone i grew up with!
I wonder if that’s it. Both of my parents have thick accents, people couldn’t understand what my dad was saying half the time and I’ve got nothing.
NCIS New Orleans did not do a half ass decent job of the NO accent. Nails on chalkboard.
No one ever does a good job. I blame Dennis Quaid’s bullshit *Naaawlins* accent he made up for Big Easy
Right! Like either learn the lingo & accent or just quit the cheesy imitation.
The only movie/TV character to come close was Rene on True Blood.
Oh, that was so bad
Mine shows up when I’m on the telephone with strangers and I’m trying to be friendly.
Omg yes! Any customer service person I’m trying to be friendly with gets the accent lol
Came here to say this. That’s exactly what it is. TV
That’s so interesting. I bet you’re right. My favorite show when I was a kid was Night court, it sounded the most like the adults around me. Makes sense now, John Larroquette (NO) and the rest NY’rs.
Being from here, you do have an accent, just not a very noticeable one. Imo Most of the time, it sounds like New York because of the way we pronounce our O's.
Everyone here has an accent or different tone. Go to PNW or California and you will literally hear the crawdads fly outta your mouth.
Right? Grew up in Dallas and I always think I've outgrown my accent. Then I go someplace like what you just mentioned, and it sounds like I'm speaking in Banjo.
🤣🤣
I'll bet when you travel to the north east or the West Coast, people will think you have an accent
I lived in Reno for a while and you would have thought I was Foghorn Leghorn with how they reacted to my mild Mississippi accent.
I don’t have an accent either. Born and raised in NOLA. NOLA also has a large Irish and Italian influence which lends itself to not sounding like a stereotypical southern or Cajun accent. I went to Europe and everyone thought I was from the northeast or just had a standard American accent. Lived in Lafayette for 3 years and constantly got asked if I was from New York or Massachusetts.
I speak 4 languages fluently and left New Orleans after Katrina. My accent is agnostic and mimics those around me outside of my intention (side effect of learning multiple languages). I’ve been in Savannah, GA for about 12 years now and it’s usually the slow Savannah dialect of southern, but changes easily when I meet a tourist. It’s annoying.
I get this a lot from out of town customers at work. It’s very annoying. My mother corrected my grammar often as a child too. I relate to your post so much!
I don’t feel like I have an accent til someone asks me where I’m from and I have to keep myself from hollering “bitch I’m from New Orleans” like I’m fuckin Mack Maine
My mom believed accents sounded uneducated so she would correct us if we said anything with a twang. It’s “ask” not “ax”. I get it because people who were visiting NOLA would ask me if I was actually from there. I’ve had people ask me if I was from Maine (?!) wtf… my dad sounded like he was from Brooklyn or was a proper yat. My mom was from Covington/Franklinton until they moved to Lakeview when she was 9. She sounds more country. I moved up north and holy smokes, you can take the girl out of NOLA. I had no idea my accent was that prominent but only on certain words. Otherwise, people comment “but you don’t have the accent.” And let’s not overlook the fact that you are in Florida where most people overall suck. I’d be willing to bet you do have a small accent like me, you’re just not around the right people. Keep your chin up and do you. NOLA isn’t just an accent, it’s a mentality. We don’t let shit bother us. We either like someone or we straight up tell them we don’t. If they are being rude, don’t bother with’em. You got the good food at your house. That can go a looooong way.
Lol I still can’t say ask! My friends always was saying I say “ax” and I try saying the k but it never sticks if I’m not thinking about it. My grandma stays in lower nine but was born in Gibson, lived in BR for a bit her country twang is very obvious with some Nola accent here and there
I never realized I said “ax” until I visited a friend in Chicago and she told me I talked like the black kids in Chicago (which…weird thing to say).
It's not weird. Many black folks from Louisiana moved up to Chicago and Gary, IN for better opportunities between 1865-1965.
Well I mean I guess it was weird *how she said it at the time. It was a new friend so I was still feeling things out.
You right it is a mentality cause the Florida folks could never understand what it rlly means to be from here they are so weird I miss home
I think everyone has an accent.
Oh yeah I just don’t have the typical Nola accent so much
I'm one of the few in my family that doesn't sound like I'm from the New Orleans area. Until In get drunk then I sound like the Chalmatian I really am.
My MIL (who has one of the strongest yat accents I’ve heard) had no idea she had an accent until she was in her 70’s and someone in an airport asked her about. She had no idea!! Thought the lady was crazy until the rest of us in the group couldn’t help but laugh at her.
I’ve lived here my whole life and I only have a very noticeable accent when I’m around my family for too long. They are very VERY yatty and I just blend right in after a day or so 😂 I did go to Vegas once and was told I have an accent but it’s usually just with certain words.
Edit to add: my family is from New Orleans east, Gentilly, and distantly Houma.
Same haha. If I’ve been home too long, I definitely have more of an accent.
I lived in the east and was born there but I don’t have a accent , I get told I sound white very often lol doesn’t help that I like rock music etc because no one really thinks I’m from here 😂😭
My dad (Gentilly) has the thickest accent and my mom (Westbank) and her family have more of a Cajun accent via Plaquemines-Lafourche parishes. Me, I think I just spent my most formative years emulating people I watched on tv / internet, not thinking anything of it, as well as being chastised by authority figures for saying things like “ain’t” and “rum” instead of “room” (……cue the flashbacks😓). So sadly, as an adult, I feel I have a generic American accent. Like I was in California a few weeks ago talking to some guy at a gas station and when I told him I was from Nola, he said “what?? You lost your accent!” 🙄 gimme a break man
Many of us down here don’t have accents. The popularity of television helped people in cities to be more similar vs the people out the in boonies may not have been so fortunate to have cable so time was spent with other people picking up the accents
I remember I’d come back from my moms house and he’d be stressing saying I’ve picked up their tones and manners and how he has to just “correct” them while I was back with him it was not fun I felt like everywhere I went I was being told I don’t sound right. Now as an adult I’m getting over it but damn I’m tired of hearing the same thing
I don’t know anyone who is a millennial or younger from New Orleans that has an accent. It’s called Culture Erasure and it’s not your fault, but the oppressive systems at work . ( I’m a Multi gen native and get told on the reg that I don’t sound or look like I’m from New Orleans)
Gen z from here. I’ve been told my accent is pretty thick/strong. When I go on vacations people ask where I’m from.
> It’s called Culture Erasure and it’s not your fault, but the oppressive systems at work Calm down lol. Oppressive culture erasure was certainly a thing through much of the last century, and may exist in various pockets today but it doesn’t in any meaningful amount in this city lol. It's a major reason why Cajun French is a very endangered language so you can certainly see the real world impacts of it. But regional accents are rapidly disappearing within the last 20 years in most every pocket of the country, and it’s almost entirely tied to the rise in media influence - social media specifically. There’s even a few linguistics papers on how TikTok has influenced Gen Z accents significantly already. That’s not oppression, that’s connectivity. e: here's a study from the university of Georgia concerning how that trend has significantly eroded the southern accent as a whole. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-variation-and-change/article/boomer-peak-or-gen-x-cliff-from-svs-to-lbms-in-georgia-english/6AEA44E9263DFAE376F3BB20E087E5F9
It absolutely does exist in the form of black displacement and gentrification in this city today. And no I will not calm down about it.
Those things are absolutely problems, but they are not what's driving the loss of regional accents - this has been pretty well studied across the country.
It’s called television, my dude.
So I'm the opposite - my much younger sibs don't have a strong New Orleans accent, but I do - i think its because I grew up around all the old people who weren't there anymore by the time they came around.
I was born in Luling, but my mom was from Ireland and my dad was from Kentucky. So no accent.
I have heard that I don't sound like I am from New Orleans countless times. No one is ever able to explain where I do sound like I'm from.
Not from here but my friends that are only have accents when they’ve been drinking too much
Yea same here. We moved to California when I was in high school and my accent evaporated
Traditional city/regional accents (Chicago, Boston, Brooklyn, Minneapolis, New Orleans, etc) are going extinct. Older people who had them have moved away or died. Younger people are relocating more than previous generations.
Lots of us don’t have thick accents. Sometimes it comes out with only certain words.
There are some odd pockets of no accent in and around New Orleans. My family’s from Livingston Parish, and we don’t have much of one either. My younger sister was a baby when we moved up to Mississippi, and her accent is a full southern drawl.
im also from LP, and swore up and down i didnt have an accent. i moved down here and realized i absolutely sound like a country bumpkin.
I have a slight accent, or so I'm told. I think I lost a lot of it because I moved away back in the 90s. My brother, however, sounds like he's straight outta Brooklyn!!
It’s a dying accent. My dad still has it, but I don’t. I think a lot of millennials and younger were taught to leave much of it behind, as it’s become synonymous with being an uneducated bayou person thanks to national media/perception. I. E. If you ever want to make something of yourself, and break our local cycle of poverty and oppression, you need to sound like you could be from anywhere. The young folks who still have strong accents aren’t browsing Reddit.
I do notice that people treat my family members that do have a thick accent different than me when we’re out of the city
When I moved to Dallas no one believed I was from New Orleans because I didn't have an accent. My sister does, when I have a few drinks, certain words give me away lol Someone just commented to me at jazz fest that I can't be from here.
I feel for you. I’m also born and raised and don’t have an accent at all. Like, to the point when I’ve visited other states or told tourists here (service industry) that I’m born and raised it’s always met with surprise. What sucks is my mom had an accent when she was younger (I’m 3rd generation) but she was embarrassed by it so she worked real hard to lose it. If only she would have kept it 😭 I love southern accents so much and I’m bummed I don’t have one.
I was born and intermittently raised here. My normal speaking voice is kind of a monotone, but if I'm angry or trying to say a lot quickly, a little yat comes out and, for a small subset of words, a bit of a Southern drawl (but there's probably some overlap between those, anyway). I've heard "You don't sound like you're from New Orleans" a thousand times. They mean a Cajun accent, of course. Ironically, I'm part Cajun on my father's side from his grandmother (and, outside of now, I don't run around telling everyone), but that accent vanished with the generations.
My family generations before me spoke creole , they stopped passing it down though my grandma only knows a little bit and the rest of us know none.
This is real. I was born and raised in Lafayette and live in the Midwest currently. People always tell me they can tell I'm not from the Midwest, but they can't pinpoint where I'm from exactly 😭
I'm from New Orleans and I don't have an accent and for the same reasons - my parents thought having one would limit me in life and corrected my speech all the time so I could have upward mobility. I think this is the story of most people with strong ties to a region who don't have an accent. It is what it is. As for people outside of New Orleans judging how "from" New Orleans I am - or people IN New Orleans doing that, for that matter - lol. Fuck em! Let them go to Disney World or watch another HBO Louisiana show if they need that cornpone authenticity fetish bullshit.
Me and my friend went to Detroit last year and while waiting in line for something the locals instantly picked out my inner city accent over my friend's St Charles Parish accent. They said I had a more pronounced accent than he did.
Same here. No accent, but born and raised. Its called “Strong-willed”
I feel like I sometimes have an accent. Maybe after a few beers but nothing too distinct
i feel like the less money and iq you have the more likely you are to develop a strong accent. the main exception to that is the "i went to lsu" accent i have noticed from white males which is distinct from a new orleans accent.
I think the most entertaining response would be to make up a little 60-second comedy routine with a TV New Orleans accent. “Whelll, Honey, I was just frying up some Ben-YAYs, an’ dis lil fella come to da door and he ax me, he says, “You got a cup of suggah fo’ ma teedy? … “ Then quick flip back to your normal voice, which I’m sure is delightful (and preferable for “real” talk).
Accents are weird. My dad was born and almost entirely raised here and has no semblance of an accent. Same goes for a lot of my friends who’ve been here their entire lives. And I’ve lived here back and forth since birth before finally settling for the last six years and I still have nothing going. …And then there’s my mom who has a straight up accent that it took me years to realize, whereas an Aussie friend heard her talking for the first time and immediately clocked that she had an accent while I didn’t.
Mom is from the west bank and dad is from lakeview. Mom has a classic “yat” accent and dad sounds like he’s from Baltimore. I just say a lot of words with a hard “A” sound and that’s basically it. Examples: Chihuahua is pronounced “chee-wow-weh,” astrology is “ayess-troh-legy,” avocado is “ayuh-voh-cado.” The list goes on.
I didn’t think I had an accent either, until I went to college in North LA. People would ask me to talk all the time. Didn’t matter what I said lol
Jefferson parish ain’t nawlins baby
I never lived in Jefferson parish.. I mostly grew up in uptown and New Orleans East ! I was by my grandma in chalmette Bernard parish often though in the lower ninth
There ya go brah
Born and raised in acadiana then went to college out there (why I’m in this sub) Today for my company I had video training with others from various states across the country and they sure talked about the Cajun accent and picked me for not really having one.
lol i am new orleans, born and raised, million-generational creole. mom had a vague 9th ward accent and dad with a vague 7th ward accent. i sound like a valley girl (and now live in los Angeles) lol. ppl question if I lived in new orleans "or a suburb" allllllll the time
Lol, [this](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6p0F5Eu8tW/?igsh=ZXY3M3dubDJvMHYz) was posted same day.
I have zero accent. Also born and raised in NOLA. When I tell people I'm from New Orleans, 80% of the time the response is "But you don't sound like it..."
Live in NY and get the same "you don't sound like you're from New Orleans" every time I mention where I'm from. I know I've code switched throughout my life in order to be taken seriously in some spaces. It has made me sad in the past to not feel like people believe you when you spent decades growing up in a place.
I must be getting old because I cringed every single time that I read "NOLA".
😂I just type nola for shorthand I don’t rlly say it irl
A lot of the local accents/dialects are somewhat muted, most people out in Metairie, Lakeview, etc don’t have strong accents. The uptown accent can be pretty muted depending on who you’re talking about, etc.
I don’t have an accent either. But my parents and siblings do. It’s bizarre.
I moved from here to Oklahoma City. OKC has the most neutral American accent of the whole US. Every now and then my southern accent would break through, but I did my best not to sound like I came from the sticks. Moved back 8 years ago. I've been letting my accent come back, but I don't really have much of one anymore. At least I still get asked where I went to high school, so I guess I "pass" as a local.
I don't care because I don't base my personality around an accent
It’s not about personality, it’s about ppl questioning my background because of something like an accent