the California accent (San Diego, Ontario, Orange: farm, population, outlets)

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by belmont22

No they don't say eh but what I mean is the vowel sounds and accents are similar, except Californians don't do that Scottish/Northern English type rounding of words like 'about' and 'house'.

Very true although our OU sound is still less flat than most other Americans.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by mateo45

That's another thing, that because so much of inland CA and the Central Valley was settled by the Okies and their descendants, doesn't that mean there are really at least three primary regional accents here (North, South and Inland)?

I'd agree with this. The Central Valley definitely has a different, more country sounding accent.

[hipcat]

Originally Posted by mateo45

That's another thing, that because so much of inland CA and the Central Valley was settled by the Okies and their descendants, doesn't that mean there are really at least three primary regional accents here (North, South and Inland)?

I hear Okie style accents in the IE too. There's many different accents in this state. The Chicano accent is distinct from a ESL Mexican accent, and Blacks from Oakland and LA have distinct accents from Blacks from other parts of the country. We actually pronounced our "Rs".

I heard Pasadena has a distinct accent from the Great Lakes descendants who moved there (Think Indiana).

The neutral California accent that's spoken on TV is mainly spoken by the middle/upper class in this state. That's the one most people not from California associates CA with(Aside from Surfer/VG).

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by hipcat

I hear Okie style accents in the IE too. There's many different accents in this state. The Chicano accent is distinct from a ESL Mexican accent, and Blacks from Oakland and LA have distinct accents from Blacks from other parts of the country. We actually pronounced our "Rs".

I heard Pasadena has a distinct accent from the Great Lakes descendants.(Think Indiana).

I agree with this too. To expand on it, I as a black man cannot understand many blacks in the Riverside area at all! It sounds completely foreign to me. Black accent vary slightly from city to city too even just here in the east bay. Many blacks in Berkeley have less of a drawl than those in Oakland and Richmond. Chicano accent is very different from ESL as well.

[hipcat]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

I agree with this too. To expand on it, I as a black man cannot understand many blacks in the Riverside area at all! It sounds completely foreign to me. Black accent vary slightly from city to city too even just here in the east bay. Many blacks in Berkeley have less of a drawl than those in Oakland and Richmond. Chicano accent is very different from ESL as well.

When I hear a word like car prounced.like " core". I know they are from.Oakland right away. Do Blacks in other parts of the Bay pronounce car like that?

I'm starting to hear a Hispanic influence in the way some Blacks speak here in the LA area like in the cadence and intonation.:

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by hipcat

When I hear a word like car prounced.like " core". I know they are from.Oakland right away. Do Blacks in other parts of the Bay pronounce car like that?

I'm starting to hear a Hispanic influence in the way some Blacks speak here in the LA area like in the cadence and intonation.:

In Richmond there is that drawl similar to Oakland. In Berkeley is almost east coastish but with the R's more pronounced, similar to the rapper Young MC. Funny you mentioned that Hispanic influence with blacks in LA. I actually picked it up after years in San Diego from what people tell me. Most of my friends there were Mexican.

[mateo45]

BTW, a very interesting site re: American regional accents, just click on each folder for a more detailed description of each. For example includes 4 types of California accents, including this one for NorCal, that begins, ''Imagine what a New Yorker would sound like if he lived in California for twenty years.''

Some regional accents I had never heard of before, like the Jello Belt (think Donny and Marie Osmond)!

American Accents - Television Tropes & Idioms

[Gentoo]

The slurred S often makes a Northern Californian sound perpetually drunk to non-natives

LMAO!!! I don't slur my S's but I do run things together in a way where non natives give me a bewildering look. Combine this with the things I picked up in San Diego LOL

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

Thee-uh-dur is how I pronounce it. I think a linguist would have a field day with me. Perhaps I'll head over to the National Archives or Library Congress and have them record me for posterity so they'll know what Californians sounded like before Valley Girls, SNL Californians, Kardashians, and all the other reality show celebs.

That would be how I pronouce it too. Third generation native here, all in socal. Four years in Oklahoma has just added a few bits of variation.

The difference would be that I tend to slur the whole word into one sylabile.

[Gentoo]

The northwestern one

Fairly common slang terms are spendy for expensive and windy (wine-dee) for winding.

I hear these sometimes and use "spendy" rather frequently myself.