San Francisco Accent... (places, ethnic, children)

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by jeffredo

Oklahoma/Texas/Arkansas/Missouri folks colored the speech in the San Joaquin Valley a little bit (especially amongst the older generations).

I love regional accents.

Careful there or Bayareahillbilly will show up with his youtube video of the government official with the "quintessential" central valley accent.

[BVitamin]

Originally Posted by jeffredo

Oklahoma/Texas/Arkansas/Missouri folks colored the speech in the San Joaquin Valley a little bit (especially amongst the older generations).

I love regional accents.

Pretty much a country accent, one of the varieties, I was kind of surprise to hear it in CA, having moved from O.C. to SJV.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by BVitamin

Pretty much a country accent, one of the varieties, I was kind of surprise to hear it in CA, having moved from O.C. to SJV.

A lot of the cast in the old show Hee Haw was from Bakersfield.

[majoun]

There definitely WAS a San Francisco accent a hundred years ago. Midwestern influenced and specifically similar to the Chicago accent - no surprise considering many of the same ethnic groups dominated SF and Chicago back then, Irish especially but also Germans, Italians, etc.

That accent was the basis of what's now known as the "California accent". The old Southern California accent which sounded more Texan got pushed to the rural areas of the state.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by majoun

The old Southern California accent which sounded more Texan got pushed to the rural areas of the state.

I'm definitely going to have to take issue with that one. The rural areas, as well as some areas of Southern California got their Southern accents largely from the Okies and Arkies who moved there in the 30s. Growing up there I knew a lot of old time Southern Californians who arrived before then, , including earlier generations of my family (who largely came there from CO and IA from 1900-1920) and I don't recall hearing any kind of a Texas accent. Closest thing would have been from the aforementiond Okies and Arkies.

[Nedely]

Originally Posted by jessemh431

So, I've heard there's a San Francisco accent, reflecting that of the East Coast. Is it true? Has anyone noticed it?

I think I know what you're talking about...

Several years ago I had seen an old movie with an actor sounding rather "New Englandish". After Googling him, I was surprised to find out he was from San Francisco, because I thought he may have been from Boston or some place over there! Well, through further reading, I discovered that there was once a San Francisco Irish accent. It's an accent that has virtually disappeared. Most natives who speak with this accent tend to be older, as in ages 50 and up.

Hope this helped.

[mini_cute]

If there is an SF accent, it probably has a hip-hop flavor to it. I've met some older white males in their 40s who talk very slightly with a ghetto style. It is weird... even my old boss who was a 40's white male, business executive, and Harvard MBA, sometimes has this hip hop/ghetto/slang manner of speaking slip out. Must be from when blacks used to live in SF.

[mayorhaggar]

I saw a Charlie Rose interview of Richard Serra, the sculptor, who was born in 1939 and raised in San Francisco. He kept saying "drawring" over and over, as well as saying "fer sure" a lot. Jerry Brown has that kind of accent too where you drop r's sometimes or put them in places they don't belong like "drawring."

[rah]

Originally Posted by mini_cute

If there is an SF accent, it probably has a hip-hop flavor to it. I've met some older white males in their 40s who talk very slightly with a ghetto style. It is weird... even my old boss who was a 40's white male, business executive, and Harvard MBA, sometimes has this hip hop/ghetto/slang manner of speaking slip out.

Yeah i've heard of that accent too. I read that it used to be compared to "Brooklynese", and i'm guessing it's the main basis for what SF accent still remains, which some people notice as sounding a little like it's from the "east coast". But when reading up on the subject, i've discovered that the Bay's speech patterns/accent is actually somewhat similar to some in the midwest, as that's where many of the region's original residents came from (i've read of some somewhat similar examples supposedly being Michigan and Ohio). But then again, this region has been so full of transplants and immigrants for it's entire history that it might be impossible to pin down one true "SF accent" and the sources behind it. Black people in SF also have a pretty distinct accent for example...similar to the typical Nor Cal and SF accent, but with southern influences as well.

Originally Posted by mini_cute

Must be from when blacks used to live in SF.

So the 50,000 blacks currently living in SF are fake black people then? Also, i'm kind of curious as to what you mean when you say some people here talk with a "hip hop flavor" and "ghetto style"?

As for myself, i'm an SF native, and I've also been asked before by a couple people if i'm from the east coast. I think to most people it's pretty obvious that i'm from CA, but there's something about the way some SF people talk that can throw people off every now and then. I have another SF native friend who has had people ask him if he's from the eat coast somewhere, but then i have other friends who never have experienced that. The accent level varies between people and it's usually pretty subtle...i think it comes out stronger in me when i'm drunk lol

[hgnmx]

As an east coaster I didn't notice any such "east coast accent" from anyone who wasn't from the east coast when I visited SF. Everyone seemed to have the typical california accent you hear in movies. Don't flatter yourselves

If anything I'd say you people sound like mid-westerns, which is NOT the east coast