California accent? (accents, how to, American, strange)

[roxiemack]

Hey you all out there!! Do Californians have an accent? What do you think?

[Tek_Freek]

Totely, Dude!

[NCN]

Everybody has an accent unless they are living where they were born. Most of you would think I have a Southern accent, but I live in North Carolina, so most people around here talk just the way I do. If you don't talk like us, when you come here, you have an accent.

[canibeyou]

Originally Posted by Tek_Freek

Totely, Dude!

Perfect!!!!

[cottonwood2420]

Originally Posted by roxiemack

Hey you all out there!! Do Californians have an accent? What do you think?

I don't think so.

[Pikantari]

I agree with NCN up there.. if you are talking to someone who does not live in your region, they have an accent, and so do you... to them.

One time I had to talk to someone from California, and it was the funniest thing... he sounded like Tommy Chong... I thought this can not be for real.. lol I guess I sounded country on the other end

[BlueWillowPlate]

If they do, it's probably what I sound like, I learned how to speak in NorCal.

I guess, if it exists, it's just sort of a flat sound?

But California is a huge state with diverse communities: Japanese and Chinese-Americans, surfer dudes/Valley Girl types, African Americans--and isn't California where the term "Spanglish" comes from?

[MonaLisaVito]

Everyone has an accent except the people from the Midwest! (MI, OH, IL, IN, etc)

[NCN]

mjb68, you have got to be kidding. I once had a person from the Ohio region ask for something with the word "doll" in it and it took me about 15 minutes to figure out what she was saying. She said doll like I would say "dowel." I finally had to have her spell it for me. Midwest people have a Midwest accent. North Carolina has mountian, Outer Banks, plantation, etc. accents and the South has many different accents. Each region has its own way of talking. I think it is rather arrogant to think that ones region is the only one that speaks perfect diction.

I worked with a girl from Chicago and she definitely had an accent. She also had a strange sense of human values. She could not understand why so many Southerners went to church on Sunday. Her god seemed to be money.

[MonaLisaVito]

Well it has been my experience all over the country when traveling. It seems that the newscasters almost always speak in the same "accent" as the folks from the midwest. Down in Alabama here, most of the newscasters speak just like the people in Michigan, northern ohio, Illinois, etc. And when I traveled throughout the country, for the most part, when I would watch the news channels the newscasters there also spoke like folks from the states above.

I never said Midwest "accent" was "perfect diction". Please don't put words in my mouth