The California accent (Irish, limit, Mexicans)

[pure_mercury]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

And i suppose you've also heard all folks in the military pronounce "tank" as if they're saying "tan" with a k on the end?

Almost. Tan and clan and tang and clang all have more of the sound more like Angstrom, which is NOT AYNG-strom. But for most people, tank is absolutely, positively not taingk, with a long A.

[pure_mercury]

Some Southern Californians (even wealthy whites with little contact with Mexicans) have the Chicano English t endency of pronouncing short i's as long e's. Like keeng for king.

[mike21b]

Originally Posted by pure_mercury

Some Southern Californians (even wealthy whites with little contact with Mexicans) have the Chicano English t endency of pronouncing short i's as long e's. Like keeng for king.

You have it exactly right. My wife is a native Californian and that's about the only thing you'll notice about the way she talks, and it never went away: "Climbing up the heel".

Another one, harder to catch, is how the word "pen" comes out - sometimes closer to "pin". That's more common in the Central Valley.

When I'm in California, I detect only a very slight difference from the neutral US English dialect that you would hear in places like Iowa. They'll be able to pick out my Pennsylvania Dutch modified words in long conversations, with a very slight Philly accent thrown in (think Elmer Fudd after speech lessons)

All in all, though, California English is fairly neutral. Place a native in any other state, and the listener will only notice that it's not New England, Southern, any of the major eastern cities, or upper midwest.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by pure_mercury

Almost. Tan and clan and tang and clang all have more of the sound more like Angstrom, which is NOT AYNG-strom. But for most people, tank is absolutely, positively not taingk, with a long A.

Yeah, I just read this thread, and in my entire life, living in both NorCal and SoCal, I've never heard long a sounds for any of these work. My sister in law from the Carolinas, however, talks like that.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by mike21b

You have it exactly right. My wife is a native Californian and that's about the only thing you'll notice about the way she talks, and it never went away: "Climbing up the heel".

Another one, harder to catch, is how the word "pen" comes out - sometimes closer to "pin". That's more common in the Central Valley.

When I'm in California, I detect only a very slight difference from the neutral US English dialect that you would hear in places like Iowa. They'll be able to pick out my Pennsylvania Dutch modified words in long conversations, with a very slight Philly accent thrown in (think Elmer Fudd after speech lessons)

All in all, though, California English is fairly neutral. Place a native in any other state, and the listener will only notice that it's not New England, Southern, any of the major eastern cities, or upper midwest.

RE: Pin-pen.

Among the original Mountain Men (who opened the trails) there were a good number of people originally from the Mid-South (KY, TN, etc). Couple that with the Confederate diaspora after the Civil War, couple that with the more recent Okie-Arkie influx. There you have it.

[Pincho-toot]

Some California accents, particularly So Cal ones have a slight English influence. Mainly the long O and I sounds like in "So" and "Right".. Sounds kinda Ozzie too. Maybe it's the surf!

[savoytruffle]

Originally Posted by belmont22

There's a lot of teenage girls who speak with flatter accents too though, like especially in the Northeast and South. I think it's somewhat overestimated that we are all "turning into Californians".

Not sure how anything in my post said that everyone is turning into Californians. I simply said that I noticed a similar accent in someone from Maryland. I have no idea if it's due to California influence or not. And I certainly did not say that all teenagers talk like that. Please read my posts more carefully.

[loveautumn]

The California accent I notice the most is very "sing song-y, a certain lilt at the end of the sentence where the voice inflection goes up. Kind of valley girl but not quite as annoying. I notice it almost exclusively with women.

[Harrier]

Originally Posted by nightbird47

But while I couldn't say exactly what it is, my new neighbor moved in recently. He didn't have to say he moved there from California. As a matter fact, he lived in Fresno, fairly close to Riverside where I last lived.

In what alternate universe is Fresno even remotely "fairly close" to Riverside?

[pure_mercury]

Originally Posted by hipcat

You would have been correct 20 years ago. But there's a new vowel shift spoken by the younger generation of Californians(Think neutralized Valley Girl) in the major cities, and a large number of Spanglish, and ESL speakers in this state that has shifted California away from the midwestern standard accent.

For me. The easy way is to tell is by the way a native Californian will say bad, sad, and have. It would sound more like bod , sod, and hauve than in the rest of the country, and words like ***** would sound like betch. There is also a certain drawl in So Cal where the vowels would be dragged like "Thots sewwww Sod" I've heard this in all types of younger Californians, and it's spread throughout the West Coast up to Seattle.

That is so common as to be called the California Vowel Shift.