Has the Southern California accent made its way to Oregon? (company, place)

[Thom52]

of course the people from South CA do not think they have an accent.

And I am glad we are differentiating S CA from Northern CA, which used to to be worlds apart, but alas, are getting closer culturally year by year.

I will admit to being fairly new to Bend, but moving from deep in the PNW, I am getting a bit of culture shock with the amount of S CA influence in Central OR. Definitely noticing it. I am feeling like a country bumpkin Mountain Man in my heavily S CA influenced neighborhood.

Worse than the way of talking is the influence on clothing styles and car choices! shudddder
I walk around the neighborhood, usually wearing whatever I was wearing on the hike I just got back from, and tend to get the stink eye from the neighbors in their plaid golf shorts and neatly pressed shirts and spiffy, dust free shoes.

I have no idea what "vocal fry" is, and have never heard Kardashians speak, avoiding any TV shows that would feature them.

But I did notice at my last place of work in the Seattle area, we had a young intern from Southern CA and his accent seemed to be mostly a matter of fast, barely audible, mumble, literally blurring the words together. It was cringe worthy to hear him speak in an engineering meeting and the "accent" seemed anything but professional.

Most of the accent in the heart of the PNW seem to be heavily influenced by the midwest accent with a bit of valley girl creeping into one of my daughter's accent. I am definitely hearing more S CA influence in the Bend OR area, including slang and swear words that push my comfort zone, and I am pretty loose with language.

I am starting to understand why the long time locals of Central Oregon, which are more akin to the PNW than S CA, are somewhat resenting the cultural invasion of Southern CA. The S CA in general seem to want the locals adapt to their ways than to blend in. I hadn't realized how much I had assimilated into the PNW since I left the Bay Area over 30 years ago. Assimilation does not seem to be happening as much anymore.

[karlsch]

Originally Posted by Thom52

............

I have no idea what "vocal fry" is, and have never heard Kardashians speak,

I've noticed it's becoming common on NPR:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfgBgpFJYto

[StealthRabbit]

just prominent with slang "THE 5" (as in "the ventura freeway") rather than a more conventional "I-5"

radio and newscaster immigrants from CA are easily spotted this way. Also the new voices on OPB mis-pronouncing "Oregon"

[Phrogg]

pdxMIKEpdx, that's interesting, thanks.

jjpop, interesting about Springfield. I have relatives from Clatskanie and one of them especially has some vowel-raising-- "pink pen" becomes "peenk pin" (the Southern California accent would make it more like "penk pan"). That may be more like the opposite of the Spring-filled thing though. The "bu - er" thing is called a glottal stop! I can't think of how they say "butter" here, but some do an odd glottal stop thing with "important". It's kind of like "im - por - n". I kind of forget if that belongs more to the SoCal accent or the Chicano accent; have to listen some more and see.

Vic Romano, the accent I'm thinking of is definitely related to Valley Girl speech, but without the stereotypical '80s "like whoa, totally!" and hair-flipping, etc. Maybe it's the modern version of Valley Girl. A lot of people do think California has no accent, which makes me wonder if it simply sounds normal to them thanks to hearing people speak that way on TV. Then when I hear people say the whole West sounds the same, I worry the SoCal accent has permeated the whole place.


Thanks to everyone else, too!

[Yankeemama]

Originally Posted by Thom52

of course the people from South CA do not think they have an accent.

And I am glad we are differentiating S CA from Northern CA, which used to to be worlds apart, but alas, are getting closer culturally year by year.

I will admit to being fairly new to Bend, but moving from deep in the PNW, I am getting a bit of culture shock with the amount of S CA influence in Central OR. Definitely noticing it. I am feeling like a country bumpkin Mountain Man in my heavily S CA influenced neighborhood.

Worse than the way of talking is the influence on clothing styles and car choices! shudddder
I walk around the neighborhood, usually wearing whatever I was wearing on the hike I just got back from, and tend to get the stink eye from the neighbors in their plaid golf shorts and neatly pressed shirts and spiffy, dust free shoes.

I have no idea what "vocal fry" is, and have never heard Kardashians speak, avoiding any TV shows that would feature them.

But I did notice at my last place of work in the Seattle area, we had a young intern from Southern CA and his accent seemed to be mostly a matter of fast, barely audible, mumble, literally blurring the words together. It was cringe worthy to hear him speak in an engineering meeting and the "accent" seemed anything but professional.

Most of the accent in the heart of the PNW seem to be heavily influenced by the midwest accent with a bit of valley girl creeping into one of my daughter's accent. I am definitely hearing more S CA influence in the Bend OR area, including slang and swear words that push my comfort zone, and I am pretty loose with language.

I am starting to understand why the long time locals of Central Oregon, which are more akin to the PNW than S CA, are somewhat resenting the cultural invasion of Southern CA. The S CA in general seem to want the locals adapt to their ways than to blend in. I hadn't realized how much I had assimilated into the PNW since I left the Bay Area over 30 years ago. Assimilation does not seem to be happening as much anymore.

Bay Area Native here in Portland area where I don't hear the SoCal speak as much as I thought I would when I moved from Portland to Beaverton. Beaverton is considered "little CA" by many locals so I actually try and listen to younger people speak when I am at the mall. I have heard the ,"OH...MY...GOD", from teenagers but other than that... not so much. I live somewhere with a good deal of transplants from all over the country and the world, really, but only a few neighbors from SoCal. I did find Bend to feel like a SoCal suburb in the middle of the country. I do think Bend is influenced more by SoCal than NorCal and Portland has a large NorCal population, which has assimilated into Portland culture pretty well.

[Phrogg]

Originally Posted by Thom52

of course the people from South CA do not think they have an accent.

And I am glad we are differentiating S CA from Northern CA, which used to to be worlds apart, but alas, are getting closer culturally year by year.

I will admit to being fairly new to Bend, but moving from deep in the PNW, I am getting a bit of culture shock with the amount of S CA influence in Central OR. Definitely noticing it. I am feeling like a country bumpkin Mountain Man in my heavily S CA influenced neighborhood.

Worse than the way of talking is the influence on clothing styles and car choices! shudddder
I walk around the neighborhood, usually wearing whatever I was wearing on the hike I just got back from, and tend to get the stink eye from the neighbors in their plaid golf shorts and neatly pressed shirts and spiffy, dust free shoes.

I have no idea what "vocal fry" is, and have never heard Kardashians speak, avoiding any TV shows that would feature them.

But I did notice at my last place of work in the Seattle area, we had a young intern from Southern CA and his accent seemed to be mostly a matter of fast, barely audible, mumble, literally blurring the words together. It was cringe worthy to hear him speak in an engineering meeting and the "accent" seemed anything but professional.

Most of the accent in the heart of the PNW seem to be heavily influenced by the midwest accent with a bit of valley girl creeping into one of my daughter's accent. I am definitely hearing more S CA influence in the Bend OR area, including slang and swear words that push my comfort zone, and I am pretty loose with language.

I am starting to understand why the long time locals of Central Oregon, which are more akin to the PNW than S CA, are somewhat resenting the cultural invasion of Southern CA. The S CA in general seem to want the locals adapt to their ways than to blend in. I hadn't realized how much I had assimilated into the PNW since I left the Bay Area over 30 years ago. Assimilation does not seem to be happening as much anymore.

Thanks a lot, this was a really interesting (and concerning) reply. ("Vocal fry" is also known as "creaky voice"-- it's usually but not always young women, affecting the second halves of their sentences with a creaky, witchy-sounding voice. I think it's supposed to be cute. If you've never heard it, stay that way!)

Interesting and unfortunate about the slang and swear words, too. I'm not too prudish about language and certainly don't mind a well-placed bad word, but the extreme overuse of swear words down here-- quite literally every sentence in some cases-- is something I never used to hear in Oregon.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Thom52

But I did notice at my last place of work in the Seattle area, we had a young intern from Southern CA and his accent seemed to be mostly a matter of fast, barely audible, mumble, literally blurring the words together. It was cringe worthy to hear him speak in an engineering meeting and the "accent" seemed anything but professional.

I think that may be a matter of age rather than dialect. I have noticed that among young people for quite a while, and it seems to clear up as they get older. I had a niece who was nearly unintelligible because she talked like she had a mouth full of oatmeal. Twenty years later, she is professional and elocutes just fine. I remember my elders telling me to enunciate better when I was young. It's just part of being human.

[Radio Flyer]

Has the dreaded "Hella" made it's way up to Oregon?

I really hate the ever present and grammatically incorrect, "Where you at?" It's become so common place that now I hear newscasters and so-called professional people using it.

[McFrostyJ]

Originally Posted by Radio Flyer

Has the dreaded "Hella" made it's way up to Oregon?

"Hella" came here well over a decade ago along with "that's the bomb". Heard it a lot from young people. Then it faded away. Every once in awhile I still hear someone say it.

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by Phrogg

pdxMIKEpdx, that's interesting, thanks.

jjpop, interesting about Springfield. I have relatives from Clatskanie and one of them especially has some vowel-raising-- "pink pen" becomes "peenk pin" (the Southern California accent would make it more like "penk pan"). That may be more like the opposite of the Spring-filled thing though. The "bu - er" thing is called a glottal stop! I can't think of how they say "butter" here, but some do an odd glottal stop thing with "important". It's kind of like "im - por - n". I kind of forget if that belongs more to the SoCal accent or the Chicano accent; have to listen some more and see.

Vic Romano, the accent I'm thinking of is definitely related to Valley Girl speech, but without the stereotypical '80s "like whoa, totally!" and hair-flipping, etc. Maybe it's the modern version of Valley Girl. A lot of people do think California has no accent, which makes me wonder if it simply sounds normal to them thanks to hearing people speak that way on TV. Then when I hear people say the whole West sounds the same, I worry the SoCal accent has permeated the whole place.


Thanks to everyone else, too!

The "important" example is a very good one. Glottal stop is it! In my 50-some years I never heard people other than Brits use it, then about 5 years ago I heard a friend's son (about 25 years old at the time) use it. In fact, I think it was the word "important." His was more like "im-por-en." Now I hear it all over TV.