the California accent (Bostonia: title, cars, summer)

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

BAH, thanks for switching the topic back to Mr. Hanson. I was really getting sick and tired of the endless "hella" discussion.

I can switch it back

[BacktoBlue]

I have never noticed an accent, but maybe that's because I've lived here all my life and am just used to hearing it all the time. I notice the valley girl talk and the surfer talk and all the dude, like, and those words. Reading through this thread the long vowels and the way words are pronounced here in SoCal seem true to me and I have been told by people in other states that I have a "weird accent" and then they ask if I'm from California

[Widowmaker2k]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Since most people don't read through the whole thread, here again I give this:


YouTube - Victor Davis Hanson - Is the "War on Terror" Really a War?

This is the "real" traditional accent of California.

It is mostly lost in most urban areas (although individuals with it, such as myself, still survive in the urban areas).

Now, if you go somewhere like Susanville, Round Valley, or Taft, you'll certainly hear it in abundance.

It's essentially a slightly "flattened" version of the good old "Southwestern Cowboy Twang."

Interestingly, even a shrinking remnant of Anglos from the Western part of San Francisco speak like this.

What a contrast with many other current urban manners of speaking.

This is how I speak, and pretty much how all of my relatives speak. I'm a 6th generation Californian, and I speak more like my grandfather than the folks I grew up with. I don't really consider it to be an accent, however, to me it's just neutral (though when I venture into the city, I often get accused of having a bit of twang in my speech). It's interesting, the native California 'accent' is very Inter-mountain West in that it has very soft edges and a natural meter (almost lyrical quality) to it, but the vocabulary is larger than one would expect from a 'frontier' way of speaking, and likely reflects Northern California's status as a cultural and intellectual hub for the last 100+ years (Southern California is this too, but is generally more recently settled).

Another note, one of my father's best friends is routinely accused of having a Southern accent (though I can't hear it), but he was born and raised in S.F. Also, the Okie influence is alive an well here. Many of my friends from school would say "crick" instead of "creek," and "holler" instead of "hollow." They weren't trying to be 'country' or anything (back then it wasn't cool like today), it was simply how they were raised.

[bentstrider]

I never noticed CA having a distinct accent, and I still don't know where that comedian Gabriel Iglesias got the idea that a CHP officer would automatically speak with a Texan accent.

[LexusNexus]

In silicon valley, Los Gatos is pronounced by the locals as "Las Gadiss." I always thought this derived from a hillbilly, hick bumpkin culture that existed here before the high-tech explosion.

Hard to ignore the excessive use of "like", "OMG", and "cool" among many here too.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Alexus

In silicon valley, Los Gatos is pronounced by the locals as "Las Gadiss." I always thought this derived from a hillbilly, hick bumpkin culture that existed here before the high-tech explosion.

Hard to ignore the excessive use of "like", "OMG", and "cool" among many here too.

Las gadiss I think is common throughout the bay area. I used to here it that way all the time in the east bay. I remember using "like" a lot in Berkeley as OMG (but fully pronounced, not said as Oh-Em-Gee) was fairly common as well.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by KC6ZLV

Walnut Creek was much more middle class back then than it is now. (income has increased over the years).

I spent quite a bit of time in San Francisco and heard it, but it wasn't used like it was in Southern California. I spent some time living in Fresno and everything people liked was "baaaad."

The thing to remember about regional slang is it quickly becomes American slang when it is used in a movie. I think the popularity of bad came from Cheech & Chong, as well as a few of those goofy disco musicals back then.

And from James Brown even before Cheech and Chong. The Godfather of Soul was not a native Californian but did have a house in L.A. during the 1960s and 1970s. Not sure where.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Some linguists might argue that SW OH has a modified "Highland South" (aka Appalachian) accent. So it would make sense that a state which arose quite early from the Western migration might have a similar accent. Why is that? Well, if you look at the origins of at least some of the mountain men and military men who participated in the Bear Flag revolt and other actions in the late 1840s, a good many of them are "Highland Southern" (or their parents were) in terms of proximate American origin. The "Highland South" was the original "frontier" and therefore, a "cottage industry" in opening newer, further West frontiers naturally arose out of it. And that's all she wrote.

The same linguistic studies of California circa 1900 that stated that the Southern California accent of the time sounded like Central Texas did state that the Northern California accent of the time sounded Midwestern. Hanson's accent is very Lower Midwest, and that accent does sound distinctly like older people in the rural north. The same studies said that the San Francisco accent of the time resembled that of Chicago, most likely because of a large number of many of the same ethnic groups. Although it's interesting that the large number of Irish, Italians, etc. in old SF didn't result in The City getting a Northeastern accent, as was the case with New Orleans getting an accent that sounded like Philadelphia's.

[mateo45]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Some linguists might argue that SW OH has a modified "Highland South" (aka Appalachian) accent. So it would make sense that a state which arose quite early from the Western migration might have a similar accent. Why is that? Well, if you look at the origins of at least some of the mountain men and military men who participated in the Bear Flag revolt and other actions in the late 1840s, a good many of them are "Highland Southern" (or their parents were) in terms of proximate American origin. The "Highland South" was the original "frontier" and therefore, a "cottage industry" in opening newer, further West frontiers naturally arose out of it. And that's all she wrote.

Originally Posted by majoun

The same linguistic studies of California circa 1900 that stated that the Southern California accent of the time sounded like Central Texas did state that the Northern California accent of the time sounded Midwestern. Hanson's accent is very Lower Midwest, and that accent does sound distinctly like older people in the rural north. The same studies said that the San Francisco accent of the time resembled that of Chicago, most likely because of a large number of many of the same ethnic groups. Although it's interesting that the large number of Irish, Italians, etc. in old SF didn't result in The City getting a Northeastern accent, as was the case with New Orleans getting an accent that sounded like Philadelphia's.

Probably also has alot to do with all the "Okies" who later moved to California from the plains states after the Depression. And their roots come straight from the South and Appalachia. There are still many parts of the Central Valley where it's very common to hear that Arkansas or East TX "twang" (not to mention the "cultural" differences). Might be because of the negative images, but IMHO, the eventual impact of the Okies on Cali has been largely unrecognized, yet huge (linguistically, politically, and otherwise). Wiki: Okie dialect and Southern American English

[bentstrider]

Originally Posted by Widowmaker2k

This is how I speak, and pretty much how all of my relatives speak. I'm a 6th generation Californian, and I speak more like my grandfather than the folks I grew up with. I don't really consider it to be an accent, however, to me it's just neutral (though when I venture into the city, I often get accused of having a bit of twang in my speech). It's interesting, the native California 'accent' is very Inter-mountain West in that it has very soft edges and a natural meter (almost lyrical quality) to it, but the vocabulary is larger than one would expect from a 'frontier' way of speaking, and likely reflects Northern California's status as a cultural and intellectual hub for the last 100+ years (Southern California is this too, but is generally more recently settled).

Another note, one of my father's best friends is routinely accused of having a Southern accent (though I can't hear it), but he was born and raised in S.F. Also, the Okie influence is alive an well here. Many of my friends from school would say "crick" instead of "creek," and "holler" instead of "hollow." They weren't trying to be 'country' or anything (back then it wasn't cool like today), it was simply how they were raised.

So true. native-born Californians all speak like Mr Van Driessen off of Beavis and Butthead? Sweet.

As for myself, everyone usually places my accent within the area I was born in, rural IL near the IN border.