Do peoples' Accents appear to show up in their posts?

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Sometimes I can tell if a person has an Accent, just by reading their posts. Does anybody else experience the same thing? Am I strange?

I do think it is a bit stereotypical, but you may be able to judge their accents depending on grammar, spelling, maybe the avatar and/or location of the user.

Certain colloquial phrases will give you way every time. I usually notice grammar, especially mistakes as a way to tell a little about people's locale. I try not to dwell on it, because if we're here, we're all friends, right?

If I say "I'm fixin' to" do something, you can be pretty sure I was Texas born. People who say "pretty sure" give themselves away also.

I dunno. I say "pretty sure" and so does my girlfriend, and neither of us are from Texas (I'm not even American). I don't think it's possible to pick up an 'accent' via text unless the person deliberately attempts to convey the accent via spelling. But I suppose there are some phrases that might at least give away, say, a person who is British rather than American. Regional accents are a little more difficult to pick up on, because most people in a country will use basically the same words, even if they pronounce them differently. Some phrases may be regional giveaways, but it's hit-and-miss, because people pick up phrases on the internet and use them all the time. Doesn't mean they speak that way 'in real life'.

I'm from a different planet.

Dude! Like I don't know what you mean, like....DUDE! This whole thread is like bugging me out or something.... Gnarly Dude!! !

...righteous post, Scr'eap. Solid!

I think accents only come through if you deliberately portray it (as someone else pointed out above) or if English (since we're primarily and English site) is a new language. I have a friend on another site who uses a lot of Aussie-isms, and English grammar throws her sometimes (the "be" verbs drive her nuts) and she won't type a non-possessive contraction because they're hard. Some well-meaning person told her the rule, AGAIN, which is when you make a contraction, you put the apostrophe in for the missing letters. She comes back "Thanks, now if I could figure out WHICH letters get taken out WHERE I'd be all set." She knows in theory where the apostrophe goes, but in practice, spelling's a pain! Because of some syntax and grammar errors, you can tell she's not a native speaker.

There are some things that are giveaways if they're part of a dialect, and for instance there are a few giveaways that separate English from American English ('Mum' and 'Mom' is an extremely simple one) and of course if English is not one's native language there will always be certain things to indicate as such. But I can't tell specific accents from posts - I can't tell accents offline either, unless they're strong anyway!

I tell ee dreckly.

Damnit, ignore.

I haf no idea.