Happy Thread 5 (city, America, most, moving)

[Razza94]

Upper/middle class people often sound the same everywhere. There is a massive variety of accents among the working and lower/middle-classes.

[Razza94]

I can't even describe my accent. Speaking online people usually assume I'm either English or Australian

[nei]

Definitely not true of the US; growing up I could hear a NYC accent for much of my parents generation, a lot fewer for mine. I can think of families where each generation has a weaker accent. And the oldest one for one family grew up in a Yiddish speaking household. Boston accent is dying out even more, southern accent survives but has become weaker at least among the middle class. But I'd guess local varieties have disappeared.

The Great Lakes accent has gotten stronger and wasn't really there 70 years ago, maybe also true of California

[nei]

I met a guy from Belfast, took me a couple minutes to get used to his accent

[Razza94]

I often wonder if the Canadian accent is dying, the vast majority of them are indistinguishable from Americans to my ear.

[dunno what to put here]

Originally Posted by Razza94

I can't even describe my accent. Speaking online people usually assume I'm either English or Australian

Yeah, in my experience Welsh people who live near the border don't usually sound very Welsh, if at all.

I think accents changing is more dependent on people from outside the area moving in. Areas with more diverse/transient populations often have more subtle accents.

[snj90]

Originally Posted by Razza94

I often wonder if the Canadian accent is dying, the vast majority of them are indistinguishable from Americans to my ear.

I find Canadian accents somewhat easy to recognize.

[Razza94]

Originally Posted by snj90

I find Canadian accents somewhat easy to recognize.

I do when they say "There's a moose on the loose in the hoose", but the majority sound pretty neutral in most instances.

[Razza94]

Originally Posted by dunno what to put here

I think accents changing is more dependent on people from outside the area moving in. Areas with more diverse/transient populations often have more subtle accents.

A lot of English people around here, probably about 25% of my classmates were English. The scouse accent stretches along the coast as far as Rhyl.

The accent around here definitely has a kind of subtle twang, but is pretty neutral. Nobody can pinpoint exactly where I'm from unless I tell them, and their first guess is never somewhere in Wales.

[Razza94]

Do you have a typical Yorkshire accent? One of my managers is from Leeds, and his accent is very distinct.