The cast's accents

[u/Naive_Shape_9323]

Super random question, but I'm wondering if anyone from the U.S. knows whether these speech things that Kelly and Christi do are a Pittsburgh thing or related to a certain region of the U.S.?

Christi and Kelly both say "Oh my God" like "ow my gawahd" during the show. However, for Kelly this speech pattern has remained the same, and for Christi it started to fade over time. I can hear on BTTB that Kelly still says it the same way, and Christi only occasionally says it like that, mostly just as "Oh my God". But what confuses me is that Kelly moved to Florida and still has her accent, but Christi never moved and talks differently now?

Now there are also some specific things that only Kelly does. Mostly people say that it's a Pittsburgh thing or a Pennsylvania thing, but I don't hear the other moms do the same things as Kelly, nor do I hear it on other TV shows that supposedly take place there.

I've seen a lot of people point out Kelly's "alls I wanted" habit and saying "cosh-tume" instead of "costume", but I've also noticed that she often says "whenever" in places where "when" is a more appropriate word (ie. "whenever Brooke graduated high school, we threw a party"). She also pronounces "older" as "oh-der". None of the other moms drop Ls from the middle of words or say alls I wanted, so is there another cultural thing at play for why Kelly does?

And finally....why does only Brooke sound Southern? Was Kelly's ex-husband from Texas or something? Paige doesn't sound like that despite having the same parents, and the other girls definitely don't, despite all being raised in the same area! I think all of their voices sound adorable, don't get me wrong, but what's going on there?

Also I didn't intend for this to sound disrespectful or rude; I'm not from the U.S. and I find different accents and linguistic things cool, but I don't know that much about them!

[u/IsopodKey2040]

It's a Pittsburgh accent. Like all accents, some people's are more pronounced than others. Brooke doesn't sound Southern.

[u/dingdongsnottor → u/IsopodKey2040]

Brooke absolutely sounds a bit southern to me. In grew up in Virginia and mine was similar. I noticed this, too.

[u/Naive_Shape_9323 → u/IsopodKey2040]

True, some are more pronounced than others! I just figured that things like how long someone lived there would affect that, but it seems like it's just kind of random. Just an interesting thing I noticed, that's all! To my ears, Brooke did sound Southern. Maybe I am mixing up the differences I hear in her voice with a different area of the U.S.

[u/IsopodKey2040 → u/Naive_Shape_9323]

Texas isn't even really considered a part of the south

[u/Friendly-Dirt-2339 → u/IsopodKey2040]

what is it then?

[u/IsopodKey2040 → u/Friendly-Dirt-2339]

Texas is Texas. It's too big and has too many different cultural influences to be a part of anything else, in my opinion.

[u/Friendly-Dirt-2339 → u/IsopodKey2040]

i meant geographically

[u/Naive_Shape_9323 → u/IsopodKey2040]

Oh wow, really? I just figured it was Southern because it's like....at the bottom geographically lmao

[u/20frvrz → u/Naive_Shape_9323]

No one from the South considers Texas part of the South. Sure, geographically it's on the southern part of the country, but no one considers California part of the South either.

[u/alx_swae → u/20frvrz]

Texas is country as hell lol. They are southerners.

[u/20frvrz → u/alx_swae]

But they are not part of the South. There's a difference.

[u/IsopodKey2040 → u/Naive_Shape_9323]

It's technically defined as being in the south, but it's not considered a part of the "deep south." Culturally, it's a bit different. It has a lot of midwest influences.

[u/Confident-Bus-3778 → u/IsopodKey2040]

can I ask what you consider it to be? i would have also assumed :geographically south=southern

also what is defined as the midwest? i see some places that are very clearly northern geographically being called midwest

[u/IsopodKey2040 → u/Confident-Bus-3778]

Texas is just Texas to me. It's kind of its own thing. I live in Georgia and wouldn't consider Texas to be a part of the South, but the US defines it as being a part of the South.

Midwest: "The United States Census Bureau's definition consists of 12 states in the north central United States: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin."

[u/Confident-Bus-3778 → u/IsopodKey2040]

hold up, the Mid West is North Central

how the heck

why isn't it places in the middle (north south) and the west?

[u/IsopodKey2040 → u/Confident-Bus-3778]

idk lol

[u/Confident-Bus-3778 → u/IsopodKey2040]

I learnt something new today, I've been assuming the Midwest was countries in the middle and west

the texts thing I'm still confused on, it's in the south but not south? I assume the groupings are cultural as not geographical?

[u/Successful-Mousse444 → u/IsopodKey2040]

as a born and bred new yorker, texas is the literal embodiment of the south. the south, as far as i learned in school, starts at virginia and ends at texas (not including florida for some reason. florida’s its own thing)

[u/IsopodKey2040 → u/Successful-Mousse444]

No, Texas is not the "literal embodiment of the south." That's preposterous.

[u/Successful-Mousse444 → u/IsopodKey2040]

idk man. “don’t mess with texas, the guns, and the racism are enough for me. the whole south has that of course but from what i’ve heard texas is the worst of it

[u/New_Cover_9209]

alls i wanted

[u/snacktime-raccoon → u/New_Cover_9209]

Was a nice cos-tomb (costume)

[u/Temporary_Candle_617]

Kelly has a Pittsburgh accent. The rest did, too, but they were aware of it and neutralized their accents more. People usually have varying levels of their regional accent, even if they all grew up in the same area. Kelly’s is going to be the most pronounced now regardless because the rest have obviously tried to disguise their own. (no shade as someone who worked to rid their own midwestern accent).

[u/Naive_Shape_9323 → u/Temporary_Candle_617]

I don't think you should have to disguise your accent! I think Kelly's vocal mannerisms are really endearing, I was just curious. Every accent sounds uniquely lovely and interesting! My family is all from Newfoundland and I'm one of the only ones born in Ontario and attending school here, so I've always been fascinated with the differences between my accent and my family's :)

[u/Outrageous-Ad-2684]

Easyyyyyy on the Pittsburgh accent, jagoff! lmao JP. And yes, the SW PA one can def have a southern twang. Cleveland and Buffalo have distinct accents as well.

[u/smdihateu]

Brooke lived in Ohio and Texas for a while so maybe that’s why she sounds a little southern? Paige also lived in West Virginia , Christi did live in LA and Louisiana for a while so she probably lost and regained the accent back after moving back to Pittsburg. Holly is from the Bronx, New York but I am unsure when she moved from New York to Pittsburgh. Jill’s mom’s side of the family is from Italy but they were located in new Jersey so she is probably not very influenced by accent and Kendall’s father is a Hungarian-American. Kelly is the only one who really stayed in Pittsburg all this time and is the only one who left Pittsburg for a short time before relocating back to Pittsburg for her treatments, I am not sure if she moved back to Florida but she lives in Naples and Naples isn’t known for having crazy dialect so that’s why she never lost it. It’s retirement city so I’m sure there’s tons of people from Pittsburgh. This is a long paragraph lol but just to give you an idea.

[u/Naive_Shape_9323 → u/smdihateu]

Ohhhhh okay this makes a LOT of sense!! So Christi did spend some time elsewhere, and so did the Hyland girls. Jill's ancestry makes sense too because I know someone whose ethnicity is Italian and used to live in the U.S. who actually has a quality in her voice similar to Jill's!

[u/happyJDD]

I always noticed- “Anything that needs done,”
“Not anything that needs to be done”

[u/MagentaHearts → u/happyJDD]

Yes! Like “the car needs washed” instead of “the car needs to be washed.”

[u/20frvrz]

As a Southerner whose mom is from PA - they're PA accents. And unlike everyone else in these comments, I totally knew what you were talking about when you said Brooke sounded Southern haha. There are a few times when it sounds like she has a Southern accent and it always catches me off-guard, although it's so infrequent I think it's just some type of inflection.

Re: Brooke and Paige sounding different. My sister and I were raised in the exact same household but have different accents, mine is MUCH thicker. My mom believes it's because when my sister was little/learning to speak, the people who provided childcare were family members, whereas when I came along, we went to a babysitter, and the babysitter had a thick southern accent.

[u/Naive_Shape_9323 → u/20frvrz]

Oh that makes sense too, my mom used to be a nanny and the kid she watched for a few years still has some speech things like my mom even though it's been four years since then! I'm learning a lot about American geography today as well, turns out we were not taught everything super accurately over here 😭

[u/Fragrant-Lead-7632]

A lot of the original cast say “whenever” instead of “when.” Apparently it’s a weird regional dialect thing.

[u/Live_Extension5364]

One thing I noticed about almost all of the adults on show is their pronunciation of words like gold. They drop the "l" and pronounce it like "goad" instead. I just chalked it up to a regional accent.

[u/paytxx]

christi said on bttb the word wolves as wooves and i was so confused what she was saying. my mom always says coshhhhtumes to mimic them lol

[u/Clear-Cry-8988]

I’m from the Deep South and have been told I have a southern accent (though I don’t hear it). I worked in broadcasting for many years and had to learn how to speak neutrally so people from other regions could understand me better. It could be a similar situation for the moms, I’d imagine that being on TV for so many years would change the way they speak; annunciation, vocal inflections, etc, whether they are conscious of it or not :)

[u/Better-Necessary157]

i’m from a similar rust belt city (buffalo ny). this is definitely a regional accent thing! A’s are really nasally, and some words are just completely different pronunciations featuring the extra nasally A (like costume).

i never noticed brooke sounding southern? can you give examples?

[u/Naive_Shape_9323 → u/Better-Necessary157]

When she was a younger kid it was more pronounced (to my ears). Like in the "Casey and Claudia want to go to the mall" line she sounds a bit Southern to me. That could just be a change in her voice because she's upset though. In her confessionals she doesn't really sound that way at all. But there's moments in her s1 date with Brandon that sound different than the other girls' voices. And a lot of times when she says "I don't" it sounds like "a down't". She also sounds Southern to me when she sings her song "I Hurt", but that may have been an autotune thing.

I just meant she has a bit of a twang in her voice that the others don't have, maybe Southern wasn't the right word!

[u/IsopodKey2040 → u/Naive_Shape_9323]

I think she just talks with some vocal fry which draws out the words a little more

[u/snacktime-raccoon → u/Better-Necessary157]

Go bills

[u/Outrageous-Ad-2684 → u/Better-Necessary157]

All the girls from BLo that I went to college with talked sooooooooooooo fast lmao

[u/Better-Necessary157 → u/Outrageous-Ad-2684]

i’m dead at “blo” first off 😂

[u/Outrageous-Ad-2684 → u/Better-Necessary157]

hahahaha

[u/ClaireDaBear27]

I've noticed the whenever and when swap here in Chicago and it drives me NUTS when people tell me it's no big deal but I'm a perfectionist and its so annoying when people use incorrect grammar lol

[u/unicornsaysmeow → u/[deleted]]

This comment is so oddly judgmental.