Different American accents

[D_Tintagel_Demondong]

... all of pillow talk?

Some, yes. Some, no.

If you want details then we need to do lunch.

My Jack Kerouac experience wasn't quite what I had planned.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

My Jack Kerouac experience wasn't quite what I had planned.

Hmmm. Gore said the same thing.
Tu? W?

 

[D_Tintagel_Demondong]

Hmmm. Gore said the same thing.
Tu? W?

Wednesday, 2 PM. Your treat.... again. :wink:

 

[BobLeeSwagger]

Question for the Americans: Can you guys tell the difference between British accents at all? Irish is pretty distinct, and cockney - but Welsh, Scottish, Liverpudlian, Geordie (Newcastle) , Brummy (Brimingham) and Mancunian all sound pretty different too.

I can't tell the difference among a lot of the British accents. Scottish I know. Cockney I know. LIverpudlian I only know because that's how the Beatles sounded. All the other different accents are mysterious to me. Irish is easy. Occasionally I have trouble between Australians and New Zealanders, but I usually get it.

Why does Sarah Palin sound like she is from Minnesota when she lives in Alaska? Is that how all Alaskans sound?

Placing Sarah Palin's accent. - By Jesse Sheidlower - Slate Magazine

Very true. One thing I immediately noticed on moving to CA in the early 90's was that most Golden State natives ended their -ing words in -ine. So "going" sounds like "go-een" and "looking" sounds like "look-een".

I've lived in California my entire life and have never heard that.

It says I have a "Midland" accent, as in "no accent". Who the hell knows.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

Wednesday, 2 PM. Your treat.... again. :wink:

... and you'll pay in kind.
(So kind.)

 

[D_Kissimmee Coldsore]

I can't tell the difference among a lot of the British accents. Scottish I know. Cockney I know. LIverpudlian I only know because that's how the Beatles sounded. All the other different accents are mysterious to me. Irish is easy. Occasionally I have trouble between Australians and New Zealanders, but I usually get it.

Interestingly, the Liverpudlian or Scouse accent has changed quite a lot since the Beatles' day. Also their accent I think was pretty middle-class. Scouse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A lot of the Americans have mentioned being able to discern accents to a state-level, but here in the UK you can probably narrow somebody down to a 20/30 mile radius (possible exception in the SE of England). For example I can readily think of over a dozen quite distinct Scottish accents. Do the American accents change so drastically over similar distances?

 

[JustAsking]

Interestingly, the Liverpudlian or Scouse accent has changed quite a lot since the Beatles' day. Also their accent I think was pretty middle-class. Scouse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A lot of the Americans have mentioned being able to discern accents to a state-level, but here in the UK you can probably narrow somebody down to a 20/30 mile radius (possible exception in the SE of England). For example I can readily think of over a dozen quite distinct Scottish accents. Do the American accents change so drastically over similar distances?

Big parts of America are populated with people who have come from all over the country, so in general you don't have the kind of fine structure you are talking about. However, I do know you can tell what part of town most Bostonians are from if they were born and raised there. The same goes for the surrounding towns around Boston.

It might not be as pronounced as in the UK, but locals can tell the difference right away.

 

[Bbucko]

Big parts of America are populated with people who have come from all over the country, so in general you don't have the kind of fine structure you are talking about. However, I do know you can tell what part of town most Bostonians are from if they were born and raised there. The same goes for the surrounding towns around Boston.

It might not be as pronounced as in the UK, but locals can tell the difference right away.

Indeed. I grew up on the South Shore (about 15 miles from the edge of Boston) in Weymouth and could clearly differentiate that accent from that spoken by someone, say, in Malden or Everett (about the same distance north of Boston), but Bostonians are especially provincial (or land-fixed, depending on one's perspective).

 

[SilverTrain]

My accent changes, like a chameleon's skin. :wink:

 

[Bbucko]

My accent changes, like a chameleon's skin. :wink:

Mine rears its ugly head if I'm tired, had a coupla cocktails or when I'm with my sister. Otherwise it's just Northeast Unidentifiable (hint: "room" and "broom" do not rhyme when I say them unreflectingly) :wink:

//edited to add: I also have an appalling tendency to "aye-uhm"//

 

[SilverTrain]

I'm generally "American Newscaster", but I can fall into California dude, various Southern US, and even a few random UK accents, depending....

 

[Sergeant_Torpedo]

There are less regional variations in North American accents than in British accents. I have travelled extensively and can say, like the UK there is a definite "received" English in the US. You know the one: it is much enamoured by British actors (who just can't handle it) who get jobs in American mini series. It makes me cringe because it sounds like some pretensious member of the Murdoch family.

People speak as people speak: I wouldn't admomish a child for saing "I bumped my heed", but professional communicators should know better. The poeple who overvoice tv commercials and news reporters who exagerate the penultimate syllable could make me homicidal, where did they get it from. Listen to old American film and radio documenation and no one spoke like automatons until circa 1980s.

I think the best enunciated North American English is to be heard in the middle west and the west coast (the exception being those cool dudes in the valley who like hang out at the mall) but my penchant is for the Carolinas, the nearest thing Americans have to an aristocratic accent.

 

[D_Tintagel_Demondong]

People speak as people speak: I wouldn't admomish a child for saing "I bumped my heed", but professional communicators should know better. The poeple who overvoice tv commercials and news reporters who exagerate the penultimate syllable could make me homicidal, where did they get it from. Listen to old American film and radio documenation and no one spoke like automatons until circa 1980s.

I think that why RP is often referred to as "BBC English."

Assuming that stratification is, in part, enforced by one's accent, will a working class person with, say, a cockney accent suffer social sanctions (ridicule, teasing, etc.) or do they simply appear to be ambitious?

We no longer have upper-class accents in N. America, and I am not very familiar with this phenomenon. This is especially with the causal relationship, eg. does a cockney accent prevent one from getting a white collar job, or does having a white collar job prevent one from having a cockney accent?

 

[Calboner]

my penchant is for the Carolinas, the nearest thing Americans have to an aristocratic accent.

Perhaps this is the sort of accent that you have in mind (Sen. Fritz Hollings of South Carolina):

YouTube - beaver and buffcoat beavis butthead ernest fritz hollings

It seems to me, though, that this sort of accent is increasingly rare these days, at least among the college-educated. I have not lived in either of the Carolinas, but I know several people from those two states, and only one of them -- a native of Charlotte, NC -- has a recognizable regional accent; even so, it is not nearly as marked as that of Senator Hollings (e.g., no dropping of R). The others sound as if they could just as easily come from Connecticut or California or anyplace in between.

 

[gymfresh]

You know the one: it is much enamoured by British actors (who just can't handle it) who get jobs in American mini series. It makes me cringe because it sounds like some pretensious member of the Murdoch family.

For some odd yet unclear reason, female foreign actors seem to master an entirely credible American accent much better than the men. To wit, Rachel Griffiths, Rose Byrne (especially), Emma Thompson and even Melanie Lynskey (you try hiding a Kiwi accent!) do spectacularly well. The guys... not so much. I don't mention Cate Blanchett because she's a ringer; her dad, Robert, was a Texan.

And a number of my British friends commented on the very convincing, natural English accent of Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love -- and that was well before dating and marrying Chris Martin. Personally, I thought Leo diCaprio kicked ass with a South African accent in Blood Diamond.

Question for the Brits: how do American; Canadian, like Mike Myers (Austin Powers, Shrek); and Australian actors generally do in mastering English/Scottish/Welsh accents?

I think the best enunciated North American English is to be heard in the middle west and the west coast (the exception being those cool dudes in the valley who like hang out at the mall) but my penchant is for the Carolinas, the nearest thing Americans have to an aristocratic accent.

Don't leave out Richmond/Tidewater! The FFVs (First Families of Virginia) still talk like Confederate Colonels, especially at CCV.

I used to date a guy from Omaha who explained that the nation's most massive call centers were located there for two important reasons: the extensive fiber optic telecomms lines in place because of heavy investment by the military (and its retrenchment), and also that the Nebraskan "accent" (or lack thereof) had been repeatedly vetted through focus groups as the most neutral and pleasing speech.

 

[JohnnyS]

I can usually distinguish between the general areas of north, central and south British accents. e.g.; Manchester, London, Brighton. I can identify East Coast, Midwest, South and West coast accents , but I'm not always right with the exact state.

 

[185248]

I've noticed that USA citizens tend to accent and round off their 'R's' in speech. The same with Canadians, although to distinguish a Canadian from the US you need to listen a little more closely. Where do you think this rounding of the R's comes fom, and how did it start?

And don't bring Pirates into it ....Arrrrrrrrrgh

On a side note, I just learned that there were some American sailors captured by the Scotts when their ship was sunk in battle of the coast of Scotland a few hundred years ago, and imprisoned in Edinburgh castle. Something to do with supporting the British against the Scottish revolution. Not 100% sure.

 

[185248]

I've noticed that USA citizens tend to accent and round off their 'R's' in speech. The same with Canadians, although to distinguish a Canadian from the US you need to listen a little more closely. Where do you think this rounding of the R's comes fom, and how did it start?

And don't bring Pirates into it ....Arrrrrrrrrgh

On a side note, I just learned that there were some American sailors captured by the Scotts when their ship was sunk in battle of the coast of Scotland a few hundred years ago, and imprisoned in Edinburgh castle. Something to do with supporting the British against the Scottish revolution. Not 100% sure.

Sorry, the Americans were on the Irish side and the Scottish were on the British side. Where as before the Scottish were on the Irish side and the Americans were on the British side and the Scottish were against the British. If only all those people that died knew or had an inkling of how things turned out in the end, how they were being manipulated by the rich and powerful on all sides, I wonder if they would have thought being killed, their lives cut short was worth it?

 

[Notthe7]

The West Coast doesn't really have an accent, And by west coast, I mean California... because it's such a mix of every other state. Essentially you'll get a bunch of either hispanic, asian or slovic accents over there. Other wise, everyone else, is really plain-jane American.

Texan accents differ completely from SOUTHERN accents. I don't consider Texas the 'real' south. East Texas is completely different from southern Texas... one is very country boy, the other Tex-Mex accents and Mexican vernacular dominates.

East coast accents and Northern accents are the easiest to spot and poke fun at.
I'm starting to hear myself getting a Minnesota accent, ah, make it stop.
When i was in Boston i about fell in love with every guy because of the -way- they speak, not even the accent.