What kind of accent do I have?

[Ladya]

When meeting new people one of the first things they tell me is, "Oh, your accent is really strange/unusual/different. Where are you from? Your English is really good, though."

Now, this kinda hurts because my native tongue IS English. However, I cannot entirely fault others for not being able to identify my accent because I can't even place it myself. Whenever I tell them where I'm from and what my background is they go, " ... Hmm. Doesn't really sound like it."

I won't yet reveal my nationality or background because I'd like you guys to judge purely on my voice alone. If you were to categorize my accent, what would it be?

Attached is a snippet of a recording I did not too long ago for one of my classes. I hope the audio's clear enough. If not, let me know and I'll make a new recording.

 

[Tdol]

Could you record it a bit louder- with the volume cranked all the way up, I couldn't hear it very well.

 

[raindoctor]

I can't hear it. Take another sample. Before posting it, just check whether you can hear the recording or not.

Sure, your mother tongue is English. No one denies that. In India, you find a few million people whose mother tongue is English. When people say that you have an accent, it means that you don't have one of these accents: American, British, Australian or NZ. The latter set is considered 'native' accents by people from many countries other than the US, UK, Aus, NZ.

(1) A Chinese girl from Beijing can say that you have an accent. (2) Sure, since your mother tongue is English, you can claim that you don't have an accent.

Whenever there is an argument, the concepts used therein should be univocal. Otherwise, fallacy of equivocation is committed. Same thing happens here: in both (1) and (2), the word 'accent' refers to different things; therefore, a fallacy.

 

[birdeen's call]

I wasn't able to understand what you were saying either even though I made it very loud. My problem wasn't in loudness but in audio quality. It sounded as if you had re-recorded it several times.

 

[bagzi94]

I can't hear not even a word.