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The problem is that this is a dying accent though. I don't hear ANY of my twenty-something peers saying "heyna or no", "couple two tree", "up da line", "down da 'pike", "wahk da dahg", "bat-tree" (instead of battery), etc. It's mostly those in the middle-aged or older generations with the VERY rare circumstance that I meet a younger local like this. The NEPA twang is going the way of the Dodo.
I know I don't say certain things like "hayna" and "bat-tree" or "fill-um," but I guarantee both of us both have a NEPA accent in the way we pronounce certain words....with any accent, you don't really think about how you say it when you talk....it just comes naturally. Some of the NEPA lingo may be dying, but the accent is alive and well, some people more extreme than others.
Chicago has a very strong accent (think Chris Farly "da bears").
Houston and Phoenix and Denver are all pretty neutral.
A very, very small percentage of descendants from Polish immigrants have this accent. It's so rare as to be impossible to find these days.
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Originally Posted by spaceboyzero
I hate to break it to you all but as a Chicagoan I have to say we have a very distinct accent. I have a friend who is a voice over actor who isn't from here and he points out the things I say all the time.
If you don't believe me try saying the word "five" and notice how hard you hit the "I."
Or...say the word "bottle" and notice how it comes out "ba-ttle"
Or...say the word "hang" and notice how the "a" sounds comes out as a "long a", when it should be a "short a" because it's one vowel not at the end of the word.
My dad is the epitome of Da Superfans with Chris Farley, he is always going to "da jewels" to buy some "sassage" before "da bears."
However, I do agree that every region has an accent, it's just not always as pronounced.
I hate to break it to you, but as someone born and raised in Chicago I do none of the above. Nor does anyone I grew up with, went to school with, or associated with in my years in the city. Anyone in this nation who has had even a cursory education in English should have been taught the proper ways to pronounce.
I've seriously never encountered these accents. It's this Northern Cities Vowel Shift bull**** all over again. I'm not sure if you're pulling it from somewhere to insult Chicagoans or simply to prove that midwesterners have accents, but this bizarre obsession with attributing frontal vowel warpings to the midwest is completely unfounded.
Last but not least, there is no way in hell Houston has a "moderate" accent. I'll accept regional variations, because "neutral" as an adjective describes a span of outliers averaged together, but Houston has a very clear and marked accent. I'm not sure if or how it would differ from other areas of Texas, but it's decidedly southern.
A very, very small percentage of descendants from Polish immigrants have this accent. It's so rare as to be impossible to find these days.
I hate to break it to you, but as someone born and raised in Chicago I do none of the above. Nor does anyone I grew up with, went to school with, or associated with in my years in the city. Anyone in this nation who has had even a cursory education in English should have been taught the proper ways to pronounce.
I've seriously never encountered these accents. It's this Northern Cities Vowel Shift bull**** all over again. I'm not sure if you're pulling it from somewhere to insult Chicagoans or simply to prove that midwesterners have accents, but this bizarre obsession with attributing frontal vowel warpings to the midwest is completely unfounded.
Last but not least, there is no way in hell Houston has a "moderate" accent. I'll accept regional variations, because "neutral" as an adjective describes a span of outliers averaged together, but Houston has a very clear and marked accent. I'm not sure if or how it would differ from other areas of Texas, but it's decidedly southern.
I honestly cannot believe you have never encountered anyone in Chicago who spoke like that. Maybe you hear it so much you just don't notice it. Virtually EVERYONE I know from Chicago (a fairly large number of people as I lived in Champaign where there were a lot of students from Chi-town) talks like that. Your Lt. Governor talks like that. Blago, OTOH, does not.
I honestly cannot believe you have never encountered anyone in Chicago who spoke like that. Maybe you hear it so much you just don't notice it. Virtually EVERYONE I know from Chicago (a fairly large number of people as I lived in Champaign where there were a lot of students from Chi-town) talks like that. Your Lt. Governor talks like that. Blago, OTOH, does not.
I spent several years in NYC, Paris, Tokyo and Los Angeles. I even have native fluency in three other languages.
Still have yet to encounter the NCVS in midwesterners.
Different Chicago neighborhoods have different accents often depending on ethnicity. We were Irish from the West Side and my father made fun of South Siders who went "by" someone's house rather than to it. He made fun of North Siders too, know what I mean? And nobody in our neighborhood talked like the "superfans" on Saturday Night, that was an angle street thing, Milwaukee Avenue or Archer, know what I mean?
The Irish in Chicago have a tendancy to talk fast and "wise".
Many Chicago people have saw-sage for breakfast and saa-sage for lunch.
I spent several years in NYC, Paris, Tokyo and Los Angeles. I even have native fluency in three other languages.
Still have yet to encounter the NCVS in midwesterners.
Uh, native fluency in three other languages? But you're a native of the US, no? I think you over-estimate your abilities, and you are not listening in Chicago. Go listen to your Lt. Gov.
Different Chicago neighborhoods have different accents often depending on ethnicity. We were Irish from the West Side and my father made fun of South Siders who went "by" someone's house rather than to it. He made fun of North Siders too, know what I mean?
The Irish in Chicago have a tendancy to talk fast and "wise".
Many Chicago people have saw-sage for breakfast and saa-sage for lunch.
Saw-sage is the only way I've ever heard it pronounced.
I'm not offended by this attribution of accents... nor do I see why accents are necessarily an insult. But never in my life have I encountered the accents people try to push on the midwest. Michigan, for example, has the clearest and most precise English I've ever heard. One of the operating partners of the Chicago office of my law firm is from Michigan, and there have been times where Europeans, Asians and Southern Americans relied her extensively because she was the only person everyone understood.
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