The 50's and 60's Accent (England, 80s, military, weapons)

[majoun]

Originally Posted by Nighteyes

You are fighting a losing battle, my friend, much as did your namesake.

First, the Spanish term Angel is pronounced with a hard G, not as an H. Second, and speaking as one who actually lives and does business in the Los Angeles area (which I often intentionally misspell as "Lost Angeles"), the two most common pronunciations are "Los AN-juleez" (soft G) and "Los ANG-uleez" (hard G).

Having been born and raised in L.A., I can say the "es" in "Los Angeles" is pronounced more like "is", "iz", or "ez" (as in "fez"), with a soft G. Other than Sam Yorty and Arlo Guthrie I don't think anyone ever pronounced it "eez". Even elderly native Angelenos don't pronounce it like that. That pronounciation would definitely mark someone as a non-local (as well as the pronounciations of many of L.A.'s neighborhoods or streets, like "Los Feliz" etc.)

L.A. obviously has many people who know the correct Spanish pronunciation of the city/county's name and many of its streets....

[Lamplight]

Originally Posted by SCBaker

There is a distinct difference in southern accents depending on what area of the South a person has been raised I think the reason you don't hear a distinctive southern accent in the larger cities of the South is because those area are becoming more & more diverse. For decades people have been moving from all areas to the South for jobs.

I've speculated the same thing. I live in a large town, or perhaps you could call it a small city (100,000+ people) in TN and I notice two things:

1. I've lived in this town my entire life and, while I definitely have an accent, it's far less pronounced than most people from some of the smaller, more rural towns nearby. I have a friend who has lived all over the country, and she claims I barely have an accent at all, but I think she's just trying to be polite. I worked in Nashville for a little while, and while I would still hear plenty of Southern accents, much of the time they seemed even less pronounced than people from my town. But it was hard to say for sure because a lot of people work in Nashville but live in surrounding smaller towns.

2. The younger generations seem to be gradually losing their Southern accents, at least in the more populated areas. My brother is just four years my junior, yet he sounds a little less Southern than me. And I've worked we people considerably younger than me, and often times I'm surprised to learn they are from this town, just like me. However, I have several younger coworkers who are from much smaller, rural towns nearby, and their accents are almost always much more pronounced than mine. And sometimes, when I meet someone my age or older from one of these small, rural towns, I can barely understand what he/she is saying!

Concerning Southern accents in movies, I've noticed that actors often use the traditional, graceful, plantation-era Southern accent, even if the setting is modern. In my experience, this is a rare accent in real life. The few times I've heard such an accent it was always a very old person, and usually a woman.

One of the worst Southern accents I've ever heard in movies was Nicolas Cage in Conair. He would have been much better off just using his normal voice.

[:uli:]

Not trying to be mean, but the earlier commenter was correct. I'm hispanic and also a graduate student in linguistics, and I can confirm that the "ng" sound in Los Angeles as pronounced by a Spanish speaker does not contain a hard g. (If we want to get really technical, in Spanish words where the two letters are paired, it typically produces what's called a "velar" sound or: - like if you say "an" with the back of your tongue touching the uvula instead of the front of your mouth) No idea where actors from the '30s - '50s got "Los Anguleez" but it wasn't from us! ;-)

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by :uli:

Not trying to be mean, but the earlier commenter was correct. I'm hispanic and also a graduate student in linguistics, and I can confirm that the "ng" sound in Los Angeles as pronounced by a Spanish speaker does not contain a hard g. (If we want to get really technical, in Spanish words where the two letters are paired, it typically produces what's called a "velar" sound or: - like if you say "an" with the back of your tongue touching the uvula instead of the front of your mouth) No idea where actors from the '30s - '50s got "Los Anguleez" but it wasn't from us! ;-)

A huge population shift occured during that time, midwest to California, especially socal. There is a huge Iowa influence (probaby from the railroad?). Long Beach in the 30's and 40's was called 'Little Iowa' and have my Iowa family seems to have relocated. A lot of the 'california accent' of the sixties is heavily influenced by the wave of relocation from the midwest which altered the culture which preceeded it.

As a kid, people from the midwest, especially Iowa, would say I must be from there but I still never have been. I always called it la sangeles. Or L.A.

Californians tend to run words end to end which is noticed by people in places east where its not usual. But I've noticed the locals here and in Kansas where I've visited also do. That may also be a legacy.

[DewDropInn]

Originally Posted by :uli:

Not trying to be mean, but the earlier commenter was correct. I'm hispanic and also a graduate student in linguistics,

Welcome!

You will find any thread that is about accents/dialects will make you nuts. (I look forward to your input. )

[erasure]

Originally Posted by TropicalAussie

And, he spoke Mid-Atlantic English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ahh... it all makes sense now.

Mid-Atlantic English (sometimes called a Transatlantic accent) is a cultivated or acquired version of the English language that is not a typical idiom of any location. It blends American and British without being predominantly either.

That explains it. ( The way they sound in older movies is not really British English, but I can see now where the *hint*is coming from..)

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by nightbird47

A huge population shift occured during that time, midwest to California, especially socal. There is a huge Iowa influence (probaby from the railroad?). Long Beach in the 30's and 40's was called 'Little Iowa' and have my Iowa family seems to have relocated. A lot of the 'california accent' of the sixties is heavily influenced by the wave of relocation from the midwest which altered the culture which preceeded it.

I always thought the "Little Iowa" thing about Long Beach came from workers who relocated there during WWII to work in the port, refineries and manufacturing plants.

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

I always thought the "Little Iowa" thing about Long Beach came from workers who relocated there during WWII to work in the port, refineries and manufacturing plants.

There was a great exodus from Iowa to the Los Angeles region much earlier as well. The train ran direct and I can only guess that is why. I know my g grandfather worked for them and they kept the house in Iowa and the one in LA for awhile. All the kids were raised in LA but born in Iowa.

One of the big results of the influx there was that so much of Long Beach fell down during the quake. Must of it was build by midwesterners and they used the unreinforced methods they used at home. The building my g aunt and uncle were in was three stories and the whole thing collapsed and everyone ran for their lives. The primary method of building in much of socal was wood, which bends, but much of that area was unreinforced brick.

[DewDropInn]

Originally Posted by nightbird47

One of the big results of the influx there was that so much of Long Beach fell down during the quake.

And a lot of them migrated from Long Beach to North Orange County when the new housing tracts were built in the 50's. Anaheim, CA had an annual Iowa Day Picnic for years.

[Saintmarks]

In regards to the argument on how a Spanish speaker would say "Los Angeles," isn't there a pretty wide variation in Spanish pronunciations depending on where the Spanish speaker hails from? Doesn't proper Castillian from Spain differ from the differing countries in Latin America much like the Queen's English is different from the varying American accents... and with South African, Australian, Carribean, and other areas of the world that speak English?

In other words, could the differing opinions on how Los Angeles is properly pronounced in Spanish both be correct?