Accent question

[Grape]

A strange question, possibly, but I've been having telephone coversations with an American and I was wondering where he was likely to be from. He had a tendency to pronounce the letter 'a' as an 'e' in some words (such as flag as fleg and tag as teg). I can recognise certain American accents but I've never heard an American pronounce words in such a way. In general, his accent struck me as being a 'normal' American accent (I know there are multiple accents but you know what I mean), it was just those 2 words in particular that stood out.

Any ideas?

[Mod City]

Sept 23, 2018 10:25:51 GMT -5 Grape said:

A strange question, possibly, but I've been having telephone coversations with an American and I was wondering where he was likely to be from. He had a tendency to pronounce the letter 'a' as an 'e' in some words (such as flag as fleg and tag as teg). I can recognise certain American accents but I've never heard an American pronounce words in such a way. In general, his accent struck me as being a 'normal' American accent (I know there are multiple accents but you know what I mean), it was just those 2 words in particular that stood out.

Any ideas?

I've been thinking about this for a day or so and what I've come to realize is that it's tough to imagine an accent as described by someone through a text post

It may not necessarily be a regional thing. I know some people who pronounce "milk" as "malk" or "melk." Sometimes the variance is a single person who just pronounces words differently for some reason.

Can you tell for sure what it kind of accent it is not. Do you know what region the person was from/in? Could help eliminate some guesses.

Accents are interesting. My mom was originally from Maine, and one time we were in Florida at a nice restaurant for dinner. The waiter was talking to us and taking our order, and my mom smiled and asked "What part of Maine are you from?" He was surprised and said he was from so-and-so, can't remember what town he said he was from, but it was, indeed, Maine. He asked if she was from Maine, and she replied "Ah-yuh!"

It was a cool little moment. My dad, my brother and I didn't pick up any accent from him at all, but mom did immediately. It was kind of weird because after 30 years of living in South Dakota, mom had dropped most of her Maine accent. But when she talked to this guy, both their accents really came out.

[continosbuckle]

Sept 23, 2018 10:25:51 GMT -5 Grape said:

A strange question, possibly, but I've been having telephone coversations with an American and I was wondering where he was likely to be from. He had a tendency to pronounce the letter 'a' as an 'e' in some words (such as flag as fleg and tag as teg). I can recognise certain American accents but I've never heard an American pronounce words in such a way. In general, his accent struck me as being a 'normal' American accent (I know there are multiple accents but you know what I mean), it was just those 2 words in particular that stood out.

Any ideas?

Not sure if it's what you're talking about, but the woman who played Janice in the Sopranos, Aida Turturro, pronounces leg like "layeg", or at least she did in the show. If that's how she normally pronounces it, or hell, if that's how she was told to say it for the show, that would make that accent one coming from Brooklyn or greater NYC.

Here's an example. It's at roughly 40 seconds in the video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE13zb4Xc3Q

And here's one where she says it a ton:

youtu.be/LN4hPzZxTqg?t=172

[Grape]

Thanks, both. The only thing I know that he works in EST time. Of course, that doesn't mean he lives in the east or that he's from the east, so in conclusion, I'm no help at all. Glad to be os services!

The more I think about the way he pronounces those 2 words, they more they sound like a way a South African would pronounce them (particulaly if they're from an Afrikaans background).

I'm due to speak to him on Monday and Tuesday, so I'll see if there's a subtle way of saying "Oi! You pronounce flag and tag strangely. Where are you from?" I suspect that I may struggle.

[Grape]

Oh, one other thing. My apologies to you both for not replying sooner.

[gerswin]

I'm American and if I hear an interesting accent in another American, I always ask where they're from. Maybe say something like "I'm not American and your accent is really cool, what part of the states are you from?" Depends on how formal the call is, though, I suppose.

[gerswin]

For that matter, now that I think about it, people ask all the time where I'm from. I'm from Georgia but I live in Seattle, so I get asked about once a month if I'm from Texas or Georgia.

[Grape]

It turns out that the chap in question is from the Seattle area.