American Accents

I never understood this whole "American Accent" thing. I live in and grew up in Massachusetts, and I'll give you an example of my "Accent":

"Hello, my name is anon. I park my car in harvard yard."

Read that aloud, and that's exactly what I sound like. I speak what I read. How can that be accented?

That's an example of the clean American accent, I'm from Cleveland and here it's split between clean and midwest accent.

>>926049
Sorry, I don't really understand what you're saying.

There are many different ways to pronounce your quote. These variations are often grouped by region or social class, which is what people are referring to when they talk about "accents".

Or are you shitposting again?

>>926049
"Hello, my name is anon. I park my car in harvard yard."
>Insert obvious Boston accent here.

>>926031
American midwest anon here, and I prefer American midwestern accent. IMO, the only American accent that doesn't sound like somebody has a mouth full of bubblegum.

Southerner here. I live in a heavily Yankeeized area and hate hearing your nasally accents everywhere I go. It's even spreading to our children.

Minnesotan here. I swim in Euro pussy don't ya know.

>>926070
People from the midwest have a pretty noticeable accent to me. The only people who sound 'standard' american (like newscasters) are people from the northwest.

>>926049
you mean you pahk ya cah in hahvahd yahd?

>>926088
Minneapolis checking in.

How are you swimming in Euro pussy?

We don't have all that much here.

Californian accents shit me off, they sound so whiney. I would much rather listen to a southern accent

I think that American accents are becoming greatly homogenized. Mass communication and standardized education has really reduced regional differences. Especially in the younger generations (with exceptions, of course). Young people in Texas sound more or less the same as people in Wisconsin or Indiana or Oregon or Florida. Or Canada for that matter.

That said, I think an educated Southern accent (as opposed to Texas twang) is beautiful to listen to.

>>926031
I hate the NYC accent
Midwestern accent is all right, but a deep Texas accent is the fucking bomb.

>>926135
This is truer in big cities. Move toward the outskirts and you'll hear stronger accents.

Is there a good, accurate video of accents comparison ?

I don't really dislike a specific accent. However, I dislike the fact that many Americans, especially women, TALK REALLY REALLY LOUD with a high pitch on their voice

North Carolina.. those people try too hard to sound southern... and they are not even in South Carolina... where we dont even talk as dumb as they do. Its like it goes NC... then skips SC and GA.. and back to the deep south.
FU North Carolina.

There are more American accents than just 'normal', southern and black?

>>926155
With women, also add vocal fry. Met a few in hostels and it's hard to keep listening when they do it, my mind just goes on an internal loop
>don't use vocal fry
>you sound like a bragging retard
>stop the damn vocal fry etc

>>926058
He's shitposting.

Can I bring up something semi-related that really annoys me? I lived in the UK on and off while growing up, so I've got a bit of a 'trans-Atlantic' accent going on. 8 out of 10 people I meet outside the US ask me if I'm Canadian, and it took me a while to understand why. Brits, Aussies, etc seem to think that just because Canada has the queen on its money, Canadians must sound like Americans but with a tinge of British. I don't hesitate to tell these people that Canadians sound, if anything, less British than Americans do. Canadian accents range from bland to bizarre to full-on Dudley Do-right. Many are perilously weird; none sound remotely English.
Am I correct in these assertions?

Actually I will admit Nova Scotians speak with a discernable Scottish brogue. But apart from that.

>>926164
Boston, NYC, midwestern, southern, texan, and ebonics

>>926192
Oh and Louisiana is distinct too
Probably more than that even

>>926192
>>926193
Significantly more. You find variations even within the state of NY, not just NYC.

>>926118
um.. this is a travel forum...

>>926189
And Newfoundlanders sound slightly Irish to my ears.

>>926189
ayyy nova scotian accents are out of this world

>>926169

Yeah, the vocal fry. I hate it. Why do American women speak like that?

As a Canadian I personally think that the accents in North America are the "cleanest" ones in the world. We don't slur our words which I find a huge issue with Brits or Aussies. I think the English spoken here is cleanest in other terms in that we don't use slang and don't shorten words when not needed to, our accents are easiest to understand by new immigrants but really any English speaker out there.

The only time I ever had trouble with an accent here in North America is when I was in the southern US and this couple who sounded like Boomhauer on King of the Hill were talking to each other. I couldn't understand about half of what they said. But generally speaking the accents here are very neutral, the most neutral of all is probably that of the west coast.

>>926189
Canadians west of Quebec practically all sound the same. There's a slight slight difference in the prairies but it's not like the "redneck" accents of middle America. The only noticeable accents in Canada are all on the east coast. Newfies are famous for theirs but this only applies to rural areas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vWlIvfQTck

But yeah, like you said, we don't have anything close to an English accent.

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Off topic thread.

Thank you based hide button.

the standard american `accent` is the only correct one

southern rednecks, aussies, britbongs, and other shit like indians or asians butchering the language all sound like garbage and irritate the shit out of me

>>926118

You guys have a REALLY distinct accent. It's a running joke with how you guys pronounce your own state (out of love of course).

I suppose it's fairly endearing to foreigners.

>>926366
It's easiest for foreigners to understand because all the language schools/programs teach with a north american accent due to north americans significantly making up the largest proportion of native english speakers as well as the prevalence of pop media.

>>926049
>Heelo, muh nerm is Aenon. I perk my car in Herverd yerd
fugging ebin benis :DDD

>>926049
>"I don't have an accent."
I hope you realise how retarded this is.

>>926787
Shh... lets see how long it takes him to figure it out.

Here's a very short and interesting vid describing the origins and types of Southern accents:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwwffKlvfOY

>>926532
That's true, I completely agree. But think about it logically, don't you think most of the accents in North America are a lot easier to understand than the accents in Britain or Australia or South Africa?

>>926807
No.

imo the clearest sounding english is bbc english. atleast it's closest to the grammatical standards.

the ideal english for most people learning ESL outside of europe though is unaccented american english. which is curious because so few americans actually have that accent. That's the one the OP referred to as the 'clean accent that can be mistaken for canadian.' though it's basically how urban western canadians and urban pacific northwesters speak. Though even there you need to filter out the prairie uptalk that is very common in the canadian prairie cities and the northern californian dudespeak that can show up so often in younger pac-nor westers.

also, urban ontarians DO NOT use the same accent as people do winnipeg and west. It seems like once you hit northern ontario everyone is speaking deep nasal and it slowly becomes more normal as you head east. Though even in ottawa people still screw their hard vowels.

personally I love to hear english spoken by louisiana cajun folk. I can't stand most of the north eastern accents. the boston and new york accents are by far and away the worst non-UK accents in existence. please, just start speaking like they did on friends. that accent can't die fast enough.

still nowhere near as bad as manchester english though.

Breaking news: there is no standard English accent.
Even in the UK no one's accent really sounds like RP English.
In fact, there are actually more exceptions than rules in English phonetics.

>>926367

Thanks for sharing

>>926135
> accents are becoming greatly homogenized. Mass communication and standardized education has really reduced regional differences.
This.

It's happening in other English-speaking countries too. England and Australia especially. Of course you still hear strong regional accents, but they are shrinking.

>>926189
Who the hell thinks we have an English accent? Our accent sounds vaguely 'American', although sharp ears could pick out the differences. Mostly it's in word choice, as Americans use some words we never or seldom would and vice versa. Comparing regions within Canada, some people do have a subtle 'aboot' thing going on when saying those longer OOOOO vowels, but it's not the stereotypical 'aboot'. Say 'who' and switch that vowel where double O appears, but quickened and not exaggerated. I have a friend from (eastern) Pennsylvania and she says it in a distinct nasally ab-OWt, there's a real opening of the mouth, whereas in Canada it's too cold, so it's like you'd prefer not to open your mouth too much when pronouncing words.

There is a slight Rural or Northern accent, often Natives have it, or just hicks who live in Northern Ontario/Manitoba, etc.

Newfs do sound slightly Irish, as their population founders were Brits and Irish and they grew in relative isolation for centuries. You have to go to the outport boonies to really find that nowadays though. Nova Scotia and the Maritimes in general (Cape Breton especially) have a similar twang going on, but not everyone has it. Think Trailer Park Boys. My dad's from Dartmouth and his 'east coast' accent is very subtle, but I have aunts and uncles who sound like the inbred fishermen they are. Urban educated folks tend not to have a very discernible accent. Working class or poorfags have a certain way of talking, but that's a socialect, not an accent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQc-ldoX3yI

This guy is laying it on a bit thick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoONQFm3Rfs
Most don't sound like that, but he's definitely within the spectrum of Canadian accens.

>>926812
>there is no standard English accent.
Of course not, it only depends on what the 'Prestige' accent is, to which all others are compared.

In Portuguese, a lot of international tech companies are using BR Portuguese as the standard just because there are more speakers, which naturally the European Portuguese weren't too thrilled about.

>>926049

>Read that aloud, and that's exactly what I sound like.

"'Ello, me name's Anon. Ah park me car in 'Arvud Yaard."

I didn't know that the Massachusetts accent was so similar to the Yorkshire accent

>>926153
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NriDTxseog

>>926835
Should be Mozambican Portguese

I lived in Mississippi for a while and have had foreign girls say that I have a cute accent and sound like Elvis.
That being said, I only have a partial accent, not full blown redneck.

How do you guys, (not other 'Muricans) feel about southern accents when they're used with proper English? (E.g. not, "Ayy man, do you gots any left ovuhr chicken from Mawmaw's cookout?")

P.S. Dear other southerners, please remember that there is an 'R' in further, thanks.

>>926031
standard american accent is definitely a west coast one, and you can thank Hollywood for that. Since most television/movies are coming out of California, that's the perception of what an American sounds like.

>>927044
Go read about accents in movies, they often send actors somewhere else to learn to speak for movies. I don't remember where, they may have stopped, but I read an article about it a while back.

>>927021
Uh no, the point is that Brazil has far more speakers.

>>927024
Only other native English speakers (or very good 2nd language speakers) can really detect accents anyway. Non-American might not even be able to 'place' the accent even if they can detect one. There's nothing inherently wrong with a Southern accent, it just has a social stigma in the US thanks to confederacy, slavery, KKK, lingering inbred conservatards today, etc. Even saying 'proper English' is a bit misleading.

>>926031
I like all accents. It's funny to here real life people speak television English. Boston English and cowboy speak are two accents I enjoy hearing.

>>926067
>Hellah, mah name is anahn. I pahk mah cah in havahd yahd.

>>927061
>lingering inbred conservatards
>new congressional majority
>new conservative congress one of the most diverse racially, by gender and by income
>libtards about to get BTFO the White House
>lingering

>>927386
We're talking about international perceptions, not /pol/tier buzzpoints.

>implying there's any big difference between Republicans and Democrats
I'm not American. but it only shows how stupid and gullible the American populace is.

>>927400
The entire post he replied to was talking about America. You taking the context from America to global is your own autistic fault. Also you're on an American imageboard. So just sit on that thought for a bit.

>>927400
>implying Americans can only be Republican or Democrat

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>>927410
> You taking the context from America to global is your own autistic fault
1) He was replying to me. 2) The question (in >>927024) was addressed to non-Americans. 3) 'Autistic' has completely lost any meaning thanks to genuine retards like you.

I stated that many non-Americans (especially non-native English speakers in general) cannot even accurately 'place' regional accents anyway, if they can detect an accent in the first place.

And further, I said that the southern accent IS NOT bad, but it just has a bad stigma, i.e. the accent HAS THOSE PERCEPTIONS, regardless of the truth of them. Wipe that sand out of your vagina, and learn to read. You're like fucking flies to a shitpile, so easily riled up and can't even discern what's even being discussed and just making a fool of yourself.

/trv/ has always been much more international than the likes of say, /k/ or /sp/. Deal with it.

>>927411
>implying America isn't a toxically partisan-as-fuck binary landscape.
The biggest joke being that the reds and blues aren't even that different. Obviously political nuances run the course, but at the end of the day you have only two poor choices to pick from. The only alternatives with much momentum are the lunatic fringe.

>>926833
no by the Newfoundland is strong as ever, and these are byes from about 10 minutes from town
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM_0TkyuHUg

US accents really break down between those you can't pin down to one place (pretty much the same as most Canadian accents; like every North American accent mixed together) and regional accents. As for the latter they petty much work like English-language accents in the UK and everywhere else: in that they betray the class/education of the speaker immediately. A high-class accent sounds nice everywhere, while a low-class one sounds poor/backwards/shit.

I'm pretty bad at pinning down accents, but I'd say:

- Irish accents are the hardest to understand, even more-so than Caribbean/African/Indian English, although those can be tough as well
- Most British accents sound TERRIBLE; as in PLEASE take elocution lessons to learn how to speak the language properly terrible
- Aussie, Kiwi, and South African accents are pretty much interchangeable; I can usually tell one from another if I focus but they're mostly the same
- Most Canadians and a lot of Americans (especially from the Western US) sound pretty much identical, and are the easiest for everyone to understand. Only knock against is they're 'boring' accents. Interesting that it takes a really keen ear to tell Toronto and LA apart despite being so far apart.

>>927526
Canadians and americans sound alike (much to the chagrin of Canadacucks) the thing I have noticed is Canadians say "Absooolutly" for the affirmation of things, and "fer shur" as well.
I'm a Newfoundlander and I can pick out a Canadian accent from a mile away, we don't talk anything like Canadians, nor do we wish to.
We have the most unique (barring Quebec) accent in North America I would hazard a guess.

>>926833
That stereotypical "Canadian" accent is really a Norther Ontario and Manitoba thing, and bleeds over into the neighbouring regions of the US.

Telling a Canadian from an American usually comes down to vocab'. Zed vs. Zee being the surest give-away.

>>927527
Yea that or Southern U.S

>>927526
>Most British accents sound TERRIBLE; as in PLEASE take elocution lessons to learn how to speak the language properly terrible

Thank you for confirming that you, just like 99% of all tourists that come here stayed in London and London only. Go to the Home Counties or East Anglia or the South-West.

>>926049
I understand completely. It blows my mind.

>>927519
I meant more that really thick fisher-hick accent. I do think almost everyone has an accent, but it's not always so strong in the 5 or so times I've been to the rock. I've got an aunt from Corner Brook, total Newfie accent...

>>927526
There are some working-class northern England or Scottish accents that are far more impenetrable than Irish. Get a toothless working stiff from Glasgow and you'll be asking the Irishman wtf is being said. British accents (which includes Scottish, Welsh, Manx, etc) run a range, and most likely you don't even know what you're talking about.

>Aussie, Kiwi, and South African accents are pretty much interchangeable
This is so facepalminly wrong. Aussie and Kiwi are very close, but there are key differences. Seth Efrikinn eccents are totally different m8.

I'm from Toronto, and people from LA do not speak like people here. They stick out quite obviously. You probably can't tell the difference, non-Canadians seldom can, but to Canadians it's pretty clear. It's more in word choice (every day items and slang words) and some subtle pronunciation differences.

>>927535
The Essex accent is among the most annoying I've ever heard.

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just leaving this here.

>>927632
>Essex

That's what you get for talking to literal sub-humans.

>>926161

fuck you

>>926161
Uh no, SC has a hick-as-fuck accent. It's not like everyone has it everywhere the South, but people in SC and GA definitely have southern accents (too). Get off your carpetbagging yankee high-horse, faggot.

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>>926070
>mfw I notice I say "ain't" a lot

>>926833
canadian living in Sweden here, 75% of people think I'm Australian. Don't know if our accents are similar or if it's just swarmed with bogans during high season, but it bugs me. I find being compared to an australian extremely insulting.

>>926049
Torontonian here. We have a pretty neutral accent, a lot of people say it's a "hollywood" accent, but this is pretty close to what it sounds like.

"hello, maname is anon. I parrk my carr in harrverd yarrd."

Usually I find the more time people spend on the internet the closer they are to the neutral "hollywood" accent. Skype and Xbox live? You can tell a scandinavian gamer/nerd because they usually have spot on US accents.

>>929198
Well, foreigners are generally shit at detected/placing accents, unless they have a high proficiency, plus a lot of experience or exposure. Foreigners are too busy trying to understand words and meaning in a second language to pick up accents. So I'd say it's probably more to do with the Aussies in Sweden, as well as some wishful thinking on the part of Swedes. Australia = sunshine and kangaroos, whereas Sweden = dark, cold misery. Also the fact that hardly anyone ever thinks to guess 'Canadian' first when hearing English spoken.

I've lived in Germany for four and a half years now, and it's only in the past year I'm able to really pick up on regional accents, and German spoken with other foreign accents (Spaniards speaking German are fucking impossible for me to understand).

>>929200
On the flipside though, it's cringing-as-fuck when you hear foreigners speaking english that is heavily inflected with chan-speak or other internet/vidya slang. I have experienced this several times and it almost makes me want to quietly take them out back and shoot them in the back of the head Of Mice and Men style. I think foreigners may not realize that we don't really talk like that IRL, it's only (or mostly) a written vocabulary.

>>927044
No its not. It is the accent heard on the national news, outta the mid-western states. Not west coast caliFORhrnya speak.

>>929202
>canadian living in Sweden
>foreigners are shit at accents
>people living in their home country are foreigners
>do I look like a minority to you kyle?

>>926049
Are you retarded? You must be fucking stupid

>>929207
> foreigners speaking english that is heavily inflected with chan-speak or other internet/vidya slang
Jesus christ
can you give an example?

>>929215
>>929215
there is a notorious swedish manchild who hees and haws while playing childrens video games online and is the msot popular vlogger in the world currently. He's not even worth mentioning by name.

>>929211
Well I was obviously speaking about it from YOUR perspective, and used the word 'foreigners' because they are not English native-speakers and thus 'foreign' to you, regardless of where you live (even in their country where you are the foreigner). If you prefer, we can say Non-Native English-speakers, or Learners-of-the-English-Language.
>eye roll

>can you give an example?
Travelled through Hungary and met up with an acquaintance I've got on my chan-friendly Skype account. Pretty normal dude, by chan-standards. Met a bunch of his friends, and it was obvious that a few of them had learned a lot of English from video games and the internet, using certain meme phrases, and way too liberal with jovial (not necessarily pejorative) use of the words 'faggot' and 'nigger', as well as tard, bro and mate. They weren't racist or angry hateful people or whatever -- they've just picked the words up from overuse here. So for all the usage of such words on 4chan, I'd bet my left nut that 4 out of 5 that will type nigger or faggot wouldn't actually say it in front of their family or friends. But still, like I said, I felt really embarrassed for them. If they went to an English-speaking country sounding like they did... god help them.