Tuesday, October 27, 2009

A World Series of Bad Accents

The leaves are changing here in Baltimore, the weather is getting colder, and naturally, I am getting lazier. There are piles of cards scattered all around the house that need to be scanned & posted; some from trades, some from pack rips. So what am I going to do? I'm going to post about a World Series I find myself struggling to care about. It's not that the 2 best teams aren't playing each other, because they are. It's just that the one team I hate more than any team in the world (maybe even more than the Steelers) are playing a team that I feel nothing for.

I am curious about one thing... which horrible local accent will prevail?

Philadelphians have quite possibly the worst accent on the east coast, but that's only because the New York accent, which is equally as terrible has been made so commonplace through the popularity of mafia movies.

Wikipedia has entries on both dialects, which can be found here and here. There are also video examples posted below of each horrible accent. What I want you to do is tell me, which accent is worse?

PHILLY ACCENT *videos possibly contain foul language




NEW YORK ACCENT
*videos possibly contain foul language (it's New York, whadda ya want)




These are 2 of the most studied dialects in America, and it's fitting that they should both meet in the World Series. I have posted a poll for you to vote in, and am pumped to find out who you vote for to win the "World Series of Bad Accents". The winner is the team who's fans have the worst of the two accents. If you need more evidence before casting your vote, I have some recommendations for you. For the Philly accent, check out anything spoken by Bam Margera and his family. For New York, rent some mafia films or check out a Woody Allen flick. If that's still not enough, you can call my parents house and speak to my mother, who grew up on Staten Island.

Don't forget to cast your vote!

13 comments:

  1. Jeez, that girl is pretty creepy with the New York accent... Go Yanks!

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  2. When I moved to NY from CA people thought I had an accent? Fucking weird shit, dude, awesome, bogus,top of the line, to the extreme accent I must of had. Or do I still have it. In other words what about the west coast man!

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  3. nothing is as bad as a new york accent. Maybe someone trying to speak english from quebec. But that's about it.
    Even Newfie is better. And that's saying something.

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  4. New Yorks is the worst. But I'm not voting because I don't want New York to win anything. Even if it is bad.

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  5. I must be from Philadelphia, because, except for a couple of words, I thought they spoke like me, and everyone I grew up around. I guess I didn't grow up that far from Philly.

    New York accent meanwhile: so in your face. I don't think it's so much the sound, but how in your face the people are. That's just not me.

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  6. What about all of the hillbilly's from PA? Their accent is far superior than anybody from Brooklyn.

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  7. Dude. Pot, Kettle. The Baltimore accent is indescribably bad--easily the worst on the east coast. Not because it is annoying, because it is indecipherable to the point of being hilarious. A true Baltimore accent (a dying dialect, sadly) is a beacon of english language butchery. In your heart of hearts you know this to be true.

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  8. Absolutely. But Baltimore isn't in the World Series, now is it? I would have to argue that the South Philly accent is just as bad if not worse than the Bawlmer accent.

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  9. I agree that South Philly's is equivalently bad. It was this bit

    "Philadelphians have quite possibly the worst accent on the east coast, but that's only because the New York accent, which is equally as terrible has been made so commonplace through the popularity of mafia movies."

    that made me think that you were turning a blind eye to Baltimore, indicating that these are the two worst on the east coast. Apologies for taking that out of context. Certainly, New York and Philly both have terribly annoying accents, creating an epic linguistically bad world series matchup.

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  10. In this contest it's New York in a landslide. I don't know if Cleveland has an accent, but I suspect not because it seems like news anchors everywhere sound like me.

    The greatest accent ever? Definitely the Minnesota/N Dakota accent from Fargo.

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  11. If you can find my post about the Dundalk Flea Market, you'll notice I am not the least bit shy about admitting Bawltimorons have a speech problem. I'm personally grateful that I didn't end up with one myself (at least not a bad one)

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  12. New Yawk gets my vote. Horrible accent. The hellish Chicaaaaago accent and my hometown Bawlmer accent get write-ins!

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  13. I have to go with NY as well. Its just bad stuff period.

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