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I've known quite a few people from California and none of them sound like they were from Detroit. Detroit to me has a very neutral accent and a California accent stands out to me.
I've known quite a few people from California and none of them sound like they were from Detroit. Detroit to me has a very neutral accent and a California accent stands out to me.
What?? Black Americans in Detroit can either sound Northern as hell or have variable levels of Southern traits. Probably to levels heard in the Northeast. But they don't all share an accent. Some even have the Great Lakes accent.
To me I would say Minnesota's accent is similar to that heard in the Coal Valley region of Pennsylvania. These two areas share little in common except heavy Irish heritage. Scranton for example is NOT Scandinavian yet it shares similarities with the accept of Minnesota.
Other examples:
Philly and Cincinnati. Both share a split short A system where a word like gas has a different vowel sound than a word like gap. They also have HEAVY L-vocalization (Bengals are the Bengows), people insert the letter L in between vowels (I sawl it versus it I saw it). Both have positive anymore usage (it's cold anymore vs it's cold nowadays). They both have fronting of the Long O vowel (in a Southern English fashion both American and British Southern). Cincinnati however is caught- cot merged where Philly is NOT. Both have variable glide deletion before L and R (liquids).
As others have said: NYC and New Orleans. New Orleans just drops the R more frequently and they also front the O.
Downeast Maine and Outer Banks Hoi Toider: Both have similar English roots, only inverted. Downeast Maine has more East Anglia and Scottish influence (full caught-cot merged in the Scottish sense) and usage of nasal short A vowels (possible East Anglian influence). O remains conservative and backed in Downeast Maine. O is fronted in OBX. Hoi toiders show heavier West Country English influence. Fully rhotic where Downeast is not. A similar West Country sound exists along the Mid Atlantic from Jersey to North Carolina. West Country English settlers heavy there. Regardless the somewhat English sound of the East Coast dialects make them peculiar for the US. Similar short A nasal pronunciations are found in Boston and Charleston. Hoi toider does not employ this. Hoi Toider and Downeast Maine share a similar pronunciation of the long I with a sound resembling the Australian "oi".
Atlanta and the Midwest: Atlanta has a White accent that could come from Indianapolis. It literally sounds like the definition of Middle American. Atlanta has every system of Midland English of America. Island to itself. Does not resemble Upper Midwest dialects nor Great Lakes however. Biiiiiiiig difference.
California and Canada: Both places with similar vowel shifts. These vowel shifts are actually not identical but close enough. Actually Scots and Scotch Irish display similar vowels. Dialect influence? Possibly as Canada has lots of Scotch Irish influence. As for California? Well California has accent influences from everywhere. Could have been some early settlers who later got absorbed into the main population.
St. Louis and the Great Lakes: the only non Great Lakes Big City with a cousin dialect to that of the Rust Belt. This dialect has stronger Irish influence and merges card and cord as with the vowel of ä. Some Irish dialects have this feature. St. Louis also takes this vowel and puts before the letter I so joint becomes jynt.
Most surprising thing of most US accents is that with how prominent Germans are their dialect contributions are not that large.
I actually found California ever more similar to Minneapolis. Again for Black Americans.
Not for whites as a Minnesota accent and a California accent will be like inverted variations of each other.
Wouldn't Blacks in California have similarities to Northern dialects being that many California Blacks originated in Northern cities?
Although I will say West Coast Blacks sound more like White hillbillies to me than anything else. Especially in the Coastal cities. DJ Quik sounds pseudo Appalachian. Mack 10 sounds straight up Upper Southern. Tha Dogg Pound members all sound like White hillbillies.
If you ask me Blacks from out West sound like the closest approximation to White speech of the Upper South.
I will add that Cincinnati Blacks sound very similar to West Coast Blacks and Appalachian Whites. Cincinnati Blacks and Dayton Blacks keep that White hillbilly sound. I wonder if lots of them migrated out West because to me Cincy Blacks could pass as Californians or the other way around in speech. Probably the other way around since Cincy was there first.
Two comedians Katt Williams and Action Jaxon come to mind as Blacks from Southwest Ohio that talk like White hicks.
Last edited by EddieOlSkool; 09-22-2017 at 02:25 PM..
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