The American Accent (living in, vs, areas)

[Trimac20]

Originally Posted by mcatp

Those places you mention might not have a specific accent but they do use words that can pinpoint where they are from. For example, Montana saying "crick" for a creek. So maybe they aren't discernible accents but there are key words that can help determine where they are from.

I think 'crick' is just a difference in the way they say 'creek', not another word.

[aeaznj]

I have a Jersey accent and sound a good deal like Vito from Jersey.
I live in Arizona right now and there is a big difference in between the way I talk and the way they do here. I've met a lot of people from California out here, but can't tell the AZ and CA speakers apart. It would probably be like someone telling my accent apart from a New Yorker -- hard to do if you're not from the area. Even then, it's only certain words that really give me away I think (saying things like chawclate, cawfee, tawk, dawg, etc.)

[mcatp]

Originally Posted by Trimac20

I think 'crick' is just a difference in the way they say 'creek', not another word.

I guess I should have better explained myself. Typing crick is just an easier way to write how they say creek.
That is just a word that helps identify where they are from thus them having an accent.

[tmac9wr]

I don't really have a strong Boston accent...though if I have a few drinks I often speak with a stronger accent.

This past fall when I was visiting my former college in South Carolina, a couple people asked if I was from Ireland haha.

[David Alleyne]

I'm from the deep South but I a lot of people confuse me from being somewhere else because I don't have the heavy classic drawl (and twang) and I...don't...taalk..like...this. I grew up hearing different accents anyway and that can only influence my speech. I take pride in being a rhotic speaker but you put me in a room with some of my relatives and that'll kill what I learned in 1st & 2nd grade speech classes, easily. Hey Tmac, what does that Charleston, SC accent sound like (I assume you've been there plenty of times)?

[verdecove]

My husband, who is from Germany always said we Americans sound like we have our mouth full of chewing gum when we speak.
Now I don't know if he only meant the southern accents, since I'm from Texas. Well, I need to admit the southern states have sure their own accent.
But one thing I can tell, he surely adopted quite a bit to this "mouth full of chewing gum" accent after him living here for more than 3 years.

[thepinksquid]

I've had family in Ireland tell me that I "have much less of an accent" than the average American--and that my accent is 'much more subtle' than how, to them, a typical American speaks. I've lived in the US my whole life. What's funny is that I've been told here in America that I have an accent that 'is hard to place' and I know that, for whatever reason, I enunciate my words very clearly when I talk. I mostly grew up in Florida, but both my parents have pretty strong Boston accents. I don't speak like them one bit.

I find all this linguistics stuff interesting...

[j33]

I find all this linguistics stuff interesting too and have read a bit about it here and there. Growing up of course, like many naive kids, I was convinced I didn't have much of an accent beyond generic American. When I went to college in the southern Midwest I was promptly informed by a nice young southern man that after a couple of drinks I sounded like the bastard child of Chicago and Boston when I spoke (which given my family background and where I was raised would make sense). Several years, much travel, and two linguistics classes later, I have to concede this fact to be partially true given the consistency of which I've been told this. So much for my 'generic American' accent Anyway, I celebrate regional accents and think that the world would be a lessor place without them.

Verdecove - I liked your comments, it isn't as easy to get the impressions of non-English speakers of the various English accents for obvious reasons, and it is something I'm curious about (assuming said speaker could tell them apart, which I doubt, given that I cannot tell the differences between the various German accents when visiting German speaking countries, even though in theory I know they are different as night and day to a native German speaker).

One funny experience I had when I lived in the UK for a bit was talking to some kids I was teaching and hearing their impression of the 'American accent' which was undeniably an attempt at a southern accent. I then asked them if that is was I sounded like and they said 'no', but nevertheless, that was their impression of the 'American accent.' I should have responded back with my impression of an English accent being a broad Cockney accent (I was in southern England and these kids were rather posh) and then insisted that was an "English accent" despite that they sounded nothing like that whatsoever and taught them a lesson, but honestly, I couldn't stop laughing at them long enough to do so, and I don't think that it would have mattered much either.

[jknic]

Originally Posted by DailyJournalist

This is my American accent:


YouTube - Vito From Jersey -- Americans traveling in Italy

This is how about half my family sounds, and how I sound when I'm mad/explaining something.

[midnite rider]

there are so many dialects...........there is no true American accent...........akin to Australian accents...........from a a wide spectrum of regional language............you cannot pin it down.