is this a Chicagoland?north Illinois accent? (university, places)

[scottyr]

In this video, what accent does the guy that speaks from 2:18 to 2:35 and from 3:45 until the end have?


YouTube - University of Illinois Gone Google!

It does sound somewhat Chicagoan to me, but there's something else i can't quite put my finger on.

i realize the video is from Illinois, but people can migrate from anywhere. It sounds a bit Boston to me, maybe even a bit mexican like at 2:21 when he says "go back to my"

thanks to anyone who can tell

[MannheimMadman]

Great lakes vowel shift. Could be many places.

[thePR]

He sounds like he does have some sort of foreign accent so that makes it hard to say.

[ToriaT]

Sounds like he might be a native speaker from here but perhaps his parents have an accent which he faintly picked up on. He may speak two or more languages. I would guess Russian or Ukrainian.

[Odina_123]

There is def an eastern European accent there, my guess is he is either born here or came here as a kid long time ago.

[scottyr]

thanks for the replies...yeah, i agree i hear something foreign in his voice...can't put my finger on what though....what pronounciations/speech traits that he said sounded eastern european/russian to you?

[Odina_123]

The "r"'s sound slightly harder in the way he pronounces them, since uhm alot of eastern european languages have this hard r sound (and ive heard this alot) (and which is very hard to get rid of ) also have this like yu when they say to he almost says to like tyu...then uhm there is a tone and the way he pronounces words which alot of slavic people have. Its very uhm slight in his case.

[savalas]

It doesn't sound like a Chicago accent at all. It sounds like the guy spent time on the east coast somewhere.

[linicx]

I hear a lot of downstate, one student that is probably Middle Easernt and another that is most likely has roots in India.

[chicagomama]

It is for sure Eastern European. I would guess Polish or Lithuanian.