Could you tell which province or region a Filipino is a native of, by the way she or he speaks in Tagalog?

yeah, with tagalog , but not in english i can distinguish the ilocanos ,bikolanos, tagalogs specifically if they are from what area but among the visayas and mindanao region,only in general.One has to experienced knowing someone or being there before one can tell.It is not only in the Philippines but worldwide. We have different styles. it just puzzles me why people have different accents and choice of words, maybe the proximity to a certain region is one reason. For example, the tagalogs who have many visaya in their area will have an accent different with the tagalogs who have many ilocanos in their area. I find it amusing one time I visited a bikolana relative who lived among bisayas. We were talking in bikol but her accent was not of our town anymore but of the bisayans, hahah.

If you are of the same ethnicity, you may tell. Some claim that they can tell but actually they can only distinguish a percent of it. Not even more than 5%. If you are say, a Cebuano, you may not tell that I am an Ilocano unless you have mingled with me long enough that you may have noticed how I used Tagalog words. Even Tagalogs have different accents. Tagalog speakers from Batangas, Cavite, and Laguna speak differently that only them can distinguish. Native Manilans have different accents too. Whilst Tagalogs of Nueva Ecija and Tarlac may speak an Ilocano accent and mix some Ilocano words. Filipinos speaking English? You can only tell that they are Filipinos.

most of the time, yes. i was born in iloilo. after living in bacolod for years, then dumaguete, then manila, i am often mistaken for a native by the locals themselves. but that is because i do take the time to listen and to practice and to imitate how the locals speak. so i guess if one takes the effort to really blend in, and not just to be understood, one really can 'go native.' also, i can usually spot a tagalog even when he/she is speaking ilonggo or cebuano. and most americans, too, can tell if a person is from alabama, or texas, or new york, or chicago, or yes, from asia, by the way that person speaks english. so i suppose it is not an uncommon trait, retaining your way of speaking.

Yes, most often than not Batanguenos used the words 'ala eh' or used 'ga' to begin their sentence and 'eh' in ending it... like: "Ala eh" bat ganire ang kanin... Malata eh" Q: Ano ga ang ulam?.. Ans: "Eh pagtiyagan mo na, kagaya pa rin kahapon, Gata eh"

Filipinos who grew up, educated and spoke fluently with their local language have twisted tongues adapted to sound their local dialects. Tagalog who learned English will sound English with Tagalog accent, Batangas (Tagalog) will sound with Batangas tones and accentuation which goes with Visayan, Ilocano, Pangasinan and on and on and on. If a listener has observant ears he will notice it but there are listeners that are passive and does not even recognize those ethnic sounds and that is amazing to know. We cannot say that because person A could hear the accents it should also be recognized by B… heritage and origin is completely immaterial when it comes to recognizing tones and accents. Have you heard of American English from Southern USA and the West Coast USA English people talk… many non American hardly recognize it due to the fact that they are not English speaking people. Their ears are not inclined to notice the difference. Canadian English and American English are both English but uses different tones.. (Canadian Ehhh.. 0ohhh... from California HUH..) This is New York Yowe... From Carolina yew kneowwwwe

yes.. for somebody who is familiar with most of the sub-languages of the philippines and their accents.. he/she could tell the province of that filipino. Mostly it's in the accent and the pronunciation of words that differ..

One thing I have noticed with the Ilocanos, some usually, "pinalalamobt ang matigas, at pinatitigas and malambot" na sound or accent. Those from Visayan, they usually speak "very malambing".

It's pretty tough. Any filipino that didn't speak tagalog as the first language could easily practice the accent and thus sound like a tagalog native speaker.

In Region 4, a Tagalog speaking area, we can even tell which barangay a person comes from, by the way she/he speaks tagalog.