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People often say that Californians don't have an accent or that the "generic accent" is based on the way people talk in California, but I don't really agree. My family is from California and I can definitely pick out regional "California-isms" in the way they say things - things I've lost since moving to the Northwest.
I've never heard anyone claim that California has the "general American" accent before. I have heard that many newscasters base their accents on how people talk in Omaha, however.
I've never heard anyone claim that California has the "general American" accent before. I have heard that many newscasters base their accents on how people talk in Omaha, however.
There is an accent, but it's terribly exaggerated in this thread.
Here are SoCal people talking, from a random Youtube video. Accent or not--perceived, real or not--this is what I hear. You can judge whether it's a distinct accent for yourself.
By the way, if you speak English, you have an accent, whether you think you do or not. That's one of the features of the English language--everyone has an accent.
That's a feature of ANY language. Just based off the languages I have working knowledge of:
Mexican Spanish, like American English, is considered the easiest to understand out of all the Spanish accents because it's spoken a bit more slowly than other accents in Spanish. Other forms of Spanish: Spain Spanish has more of a "lisp", and Argentinian Spanish is pretty much an Italian accent with Spanish words in it (most foreigners hearing it could confuse it with Italian).
Egyptian Arabic is closest to "standard Arabic" because of it's use in the media (and being the most populated Arab country). Other forms of Arabic: Moroccan Arabic is heavily infused with French (as in, it's basically Arabic with a French accent and words like "souffrance" and "merci" sprinkled in), Gulf Arabic (khaleeji) uses a lot of anachronisms that aren't present in the rest of the Arab world (think Southern United States, but Arabic).
German.....ehhh, nothing really standard here. Media wise, Northern German accents are more commonly used than Southern German accents because they are less heavy.
For Asia, all the "accents" are so different because well, most of the "dialects" are in fact different languages. This is excepting Japan and Korea, which have both done a good job in standardizing their languages. Though Okinawa still has its own language/dialect (depending on who you ask), and one of the things that North Korea has done is made the language as "pure" as possible, so it uses a lot of words and sentence structure that isn't present in South Korea, which has been more willing to accept foreign influence.
There's definitely a discernible California accent.
Also, you hear a low-back merger, too (at least that's what I think it's called), so the vowel sound in words like bath and hat are slightly deeper and more drawn out than the General American pronunciations, but not nearly as deep or low as in, say, Boston or British English. This is, I think, the basis of the California surfer accent with the long, drawn-out vowel sounds.
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That's the most distinguishing feature of California(And West Coast in general accents). Another is the rising terminal(aka valley girl inflection) where the end of the sentence sounds like a question. It's spread around the US. But most common in So Cal. Especially with a certain demographic of women. I had an English teacher in college who straight up sounded like a Valley Girl.
The word I hear the accent most in is "that". Everyone in California says "thot". "Whot? I don't tohk like thot."
You're saying Californians rhyme "that" and "what" with "hot"? Nonsense. They don't either. Or if some do, it is a very very small minority in some location nowhere near where I live.
There's definitely a California accent. I think it's actually getting thicker with time. Californians won't hear it because it sounds normal to you, but it's absolutely there. California is undergoing a vowel shift. "That" ends up sounding kind of like "thot" but not exactly. "Snap chat" ends up sounding a little bit like "snop chot".
So being a native means I can't tell the difference between two distinct vowel sounds?
I've definitely heard "Nev-Aw-da" before. But everything else you said is false or generalized.
It's not generalized; it's definitely a noticeable feature of the West Coast accent. It's a thing. I hear it when California natives speak. I hear it on TV. Why would I hear what I hear if it's illusionary?
Quote:
Originally Posted by saibot
You're saying Californians rhyme "that" and "what" with "hot"? Nonsense. They don't either. Or if some do, it is a very very small minority in some location nowhere near where I live.
None of those words rhyme with each other.
I didn't necessarily imply that all of those words rhyme, per se. It's obviously more subtle than "thot" and "whot"; the sound is kind of like an inbetween of "that" and "thot". But because the right mix of letters don't exist to express that exact sound, I have to write it as "thot".
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