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West coast black people sound less “southern” the further up the coast you go. Once you reach Seattle-they just sound like they’re from the northwest. Seattle blacks sound similar to Oaklands to me.
Cleveland blacks often sound totally northern too. Often but not always. I think you could say the same for Pittsburgh..
Steve Harvey and Bone Thugs all sound country to me!
There's nothing "New Orleans-ish" about Cassidy's pronunciation. Cassidy sounds overwhelmingly northern. Also, Black people from California in general sound very southern.
Everyone hears that slight southern twang except you.
Most of the posts over the past few pages focus on the variations within a distinctly southern derived accent/diction that dominates among black Americans. But there are many of us who dont have a hint of southern in our voice and are not distinguishable from non-blacks by speech. I find that it varies greatly by region. I have lived on both the east and west coast and can say that the middle-class western blacks tend not to have a strong southern derived speech. Whereas various east coast populations have obvious southern influence in speech, even as they vary regionally.
I find that broadly, the accent difference correlates with differences in culture, tastes and nuanced workings of the mind. The majority AA population with southern speech influence tend to also have other cultural affinities with southern roots (soul food, gospel music, protestant christianity, a bit of clannishness and ethno group insularity). Contrast that with the minority, distinctly non-southern AA population, who tend to have more eclectic tastes in music, culture and associate with other groups more fluidly.
Besides some areas of the west coast, you will also find areas of the upper midwest where a larger than average % of the black population has no discernable southern influence in speech and are not distinguishable from the whites in those regions.
Below is a clip from a gathering in Grand Rapids, MI. They dont sound much different from black Canadians like the actors in the 2nd clip.
The first video I didn’t hear an accent at all. The last Woman who is originally from Grand Rapids but moved to Atlanta was the only one who’s accent stuck out. Honestly most of the young Women on the first video sounded no different than Black Millennials who grow up in the suburbs of a lot of Southern metros. They had general standard American accents if anything.
The first video I didn’t hear an accent at all. The last Woman who is originally from Grand Rapids but moved to Atlanta was the only one who’s accent stuck out. Honestly most of the young Women on the first video sounded no different than Black Millennials who grow up in the suburbs of a lot of Southern metros. They had general standard American accents if anything.
Agree. They sound broadly middle class suburban. Could be from anywhere honestly.
From my experience the black Philly is similar to how the man holding the baby in this video sounds like. Especially when he said "start shooting". Somewhat of a twang but not completely southern.
You don't usually hear anyone saying it like him. He almost sounding like a Baltimorean when he said it. Makes me wonder if he was originally from here. We do have a lot of ppl from Baltimore living here that may pick up our accent, but they're own accent starts to crack through. I could be wrong, but that wasn't the norm.
Quote:
Originally Posted by citylove101
For the life of me, I cannot quite fathom why a thread about how black people talk and whether we mostly sound "southern" could go on for 87 pages. With everything else going on in thee world, is our speech really all that fascinating? Evidently it is, at least on C-D. Glad the real world isn't like this.
Relax bro. The post probably was started by an ignorant racists, who knows. It seems like most of us were just defending that notion. How can we not have different accents!?! Most movies never depicted our accents, just same southern accented actor portraying roles of urban cities the same way. No real coaching. It's a lot better today though, than back then. However, as a Philadelphian I've always been curious about how we talk in other cities. And, was shocked by how many west coast, and midwest cities do actually have country accents outside of the south. If I'm lying listen to Tiffany Haddish, or Tee Grizzly. It's like being from the Northeast is a different world because our accents shift city to city. And the Pacific Northwest has a broader accent that doesn't shift at all. But, both the NE and NW blacks lack a southern accent completely.
You don't usually hear anyone saying it like him. He almost sounding like a Baltimorean when he said it. Makes me wonder if he was originally from here. We do have a lot of ppl from Baltimore living here that may pick up our accent, but they're own accent starts to crack through. I could be wrong, but that wasn't the norm.
Relax bro. The post probably was started by an ignorant racists, who knows. It seems like most of us were just defending that notion. How can we not have different accents!?! Most movies never depicted our accents, just same southern accented actor portraying roles of urban cities the same way. No real coaching. It's a lot better today though, than back then. However, as a Philadelphian I've always been curious about how we talk in other cities. And, was shocked by how many west coast, and midwest cities do actually have country accents outside of the south. If I'm lying listen to Tiffany Haddish, or Tee Grizzly. It's like being from the Northeast is a different world because our accents shift city to city. And the Pacific Northwest has a broader accent that doesn't shift at all. But, both the NE and NW blacks lack a southern accent completely.
Nah! Blacks in Boston and NYC lack a southern accent completely. You are from Philly so its difficult to hear your own southern lite accent with certain words. Most New Yorkers and Bostonians think everyone sounds country.
Nah! Blacks in Boston and NYC lack a southern accent completely. You are from Philly so its difficult to hear your own southern lite accent with certain words. Most New Yorkers and Bostonians think everyone sounds country.
You're not lying. Most other black people definitely sound country to me.
Nah! Blacks in Boston and NYC lack a southern accent completely. You are from Philly so its difficult to hear your own southern lite accent with certain words. Most New Yorkers and Bostonians think everyone sounds country.
Facts. I know what you mean. But, out of all the major northeastern and mid Atlantic cities we have the most subtle southern in our accent that only they'd notice because 95% of our words and voice tone is mid Atlantic. To anyone living below us, or west of us usually will think we're from NY because they're not aware that we share some of their features.They'll think we're tryna copy them not realizing Philly has it's own accent that also includes those features. I had someone from Baltimore think I was from Boston, no cap. Once you get to Baltimore the more the southern increases. Once you hit DC the accent becomes full on southern.
Whenever, I was in New York they'd only comment on a few words I'd say here and there. Most of them thought I'd sounded regular. And, I'm not one of those ppl that tried to fade or exaggerate their accent to blend in or stand out. Lol. But I've heard it all. We get told we talk proper from anyone with a country accent, and our east coast bros up top will say we talk a little southern. But truthfully speaking, our accent is far from southern cus if it wasn't I shouldn't be able to hear how country Minneapolis, Flint, Detroit, Chicago, St Louis, or Columbus, or DC sounds. I would think we talk no different. No one is gonna ask someone from Philly, what part of Georgia are they from. DC would be a different story. I always thought blacks outside of Philly sounded country. I wish more linguist studied this, but they were too busy being biased on white speech and all. We need more black linguist!
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