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A California accent. Like Chicagoans, Californians generally claim they have no accent. I can tell when certain people are from CA, although they also might be from near by Western states. Here's a CA accent:
A California accent. Like Chicagoans, Californians generally claim they have no accent. I can tell when certain people are from CA, although they also might be from near by Western states. Here's a CA accent:
She honestly has no discernible accent. Her son Bostin has a stronger California (Bay Area) accent than she.
I guess I can hear it in her pronunciation of "mom" but she doesn't show any California Vowel Shift. Not any that I hear at least. She sounds like a typical Midwestern woman to me (not Chicago obviously). She could be from Indiana though.
Yes, many Chicagoans have an accent, more pronounced with the women than with the men. I can immediately tell when people are from Chicago. I am curious about Tampa area of Florida which is felt to have a totally neutral accent. For example, listen to Pam Bondi who is Florida Attorney General and who was born, raised and educated in Tampa. I hear Detroit, or perhaps a little bit of Chicago or Rochester NY in her way of speaking (Northern Cities shift). And Tampa is right down the highway from Detroit. By the way, the sassage example is totally accurate for Chicago for sausage.
I don't understand "sahsage". It's like we in Chicago say "saw" with a more closed mouth sound so I don't know why some say the first vowel of sausage with such an open mouth vowel. It honestly makes no sense whatsoever. It has the same written vowel as "caught" yet people pronounce it with the "cot" vowel as if they were from Wisconsin.
It's like saying "shomburg" for Schaumburg instead of "SHAWmburg". The latter makes sense while the former does not.
The Northeast and the South have distinct accents so they're out of the question. But anywhere else is pretty neutral, except some rural areas of the West have an accent.
Minneapolis? You are kidding right? They have the most bizarre accent ever - they could pass as almost Canadians.
Minneapolis? You are kidding right? They have the most bizarre accent ever - they could pass as almost Canadians.
I certainly don’t know how familiar you may be with Minneapolis, so I can’t attest to what kinds of accents you may have heard if you’ve ever been here. However, I would caution people not to take pop-culture impressions of any city too seriously.
“Fargo” was a fun movie, but there are two things to remember about that particular accent. Firstly, it is a deliberate exaggeration—that’s part of the satire! Secondly, to the extent that the accent does exist, it is largely an accent derived from a pidgin used by Scandinavian settlers in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries, and heard today primarily in rural parts of Northwestern Minnesota and Eastern North Dakota.
I was born in Minneapolis, and I’ve lived here most of my life. In all of that time, ironic humor aside, I’ve only known one person who spoke with that accent, and he was a farmer from North Dakota who relocated to the city after his wife died. In Minneapolis (or Saint Paul) you are far more likely to hear East African, Central American, or East Asian accents than you are the infamous “Fargo” accent.
With that said, there are some moderate vowel shifts and a tendency to drop the “g” on the end of words that can be heard in some native-born urban Minnesotans. However, the accent most of us have is far more neutral than many of the caricatures would suggest.
I've met people from Minnesota. They definitely do have noticeable accents. It sounds kinda funny actually. I guess if you're from Minnesota or the Midwest it's less noticeable. I'm from NYC and I don't think I have that strong of an accent although there's definitely something there. People in California, Seattle, the Carolinas, and Toronto have noticed it on me.
Last edited by That_One_Guy; 09-09-2017 at 03:12 PM..
Reason: Spelling
Minneapolis? You are kidding right? They have the most bizarre accent ever - they could pass as almost Canadians.
I've heard a Minnesotans speak. They have an accent to me. They sound a little bit like one accent in Canada, in that area, but nothing like the other accents in Canada.
It's funny, because I've only heard Americans say that Minnesotans sound Canadian, Canadians for the most part don't think so.
You could argue that when someone is doing an over the top exaggeration of accents, such as they do in Comedy, think the Mckenzie Brothers, there are some slight similarities. Again, if a Minnesotan were to walk into a shop here and start speaking, they would be asked where are you from?
Columbus, OH and Indianapolis should be at the top of the list.
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