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Break that down further, New York City itself has several; Brooklyn, and Bronx are distinct then theres another out on Long Island.
I think that's a bit of myth, I've never heard any borough difference, nor any Long Island vs city difference. Just weaker and stronger versions of the accent.
Finally, despite common references to "a Bronx accent", or "a Brooklyn accent", no published study has found any feature that varies internally beyond local names.
For the record, I've never done this. Usually, the opposite happens when I travel in the U.K.: I start conversing with someone and after about 10 seconds they ask, "Are you from the United States?"
You don't say.
^ That has always been my experience, too. I've never just been like, "HOWDY PARTNER! I'm an American, a-yup-yup! This here sure is a migh-tee-fine little country you guys got here!" to someone I'm asking for directions, nor have I seen anyone else do it.
It's more like:
"Excuse me, will this line take me to St. Paul's?"
"Yeah, it will, it's just a few more stops down."
"Wonderful, thank you!"
"So... are you from America?"
"Yeah, I am."
"Oh, what part?"
"Well... all of it... but I live in LA right now."
"Oh, right! I have a cousin who lives there. Do you ever see any movie stars?"
And it just goes from there.
Correct not at all apart of our culture, glad to see someone finally understands.
We go crazy over cross country road trips but not so much international travel.
If you guys are really desperate to see Americans traveling abroad watch Eurotrip.
Yep. The US seems a 'world unto itself'. It is geographically pretty isolated too. I've done the roadtrip from LA to Boston, next time over I plan to do a similar trip but across the central-northern instead of southern half of the country. Amazing country, definitely.
Correct not at all apart of our culture, glad to see someone finally understands.
We go crazy over cross country road trips but not so much international travel.
It seems like long road trips are a bigger deal in the middle of the country. I've mainly heard people do cross-country road trips if they are moving or have some other reason to go long-term to the other coast. Otherwise it's just too much.
people are always talking about this "american accent". im curious as to which "american accent" yall are referring to? is it the new york/eascoast accent? the southern drawl accent? the country southern accent? new orleans accent? chicago accent? st louis accent?
can someone please post a video so we can get an understanding of what yall describe as an "american accent" ?
Well foreigners just think of an American accent. Most know there are different kinds, like Southern, NY.etc, but they still all sound American. I think the accent we tend to hear most is the General or Standard American, which is still dominant over much of the country and the one you hear most in Hollywood or TV.etc. I don't think even most Americans could identify the 'St. Louis accent' if there is such a thing. They're all American accent, but the vanilla type is just the newscaster/Hollywood accent.
LA is very different from the rest of the west coast too. East Coasters tend to do better there but have a hard time with Seattle, the Bay Area and San Diego.
Odd since the latter three tend to have a more positive image out here than LA.
It seems like long road trips are a bigger deal in the middle of the country. I've mainly heard people do cross-country road trips if they are moving or have some other reason to go long-term to the other coast. Otherwise it's just too much.
I did it in 3 weeks and i'm not American. I've been through/to 17 states, which is more than many Americans. I've also driven round Australia, which took 4 months (would've been longer if I hadn't run out of money).
people are always talking about this "american accent". im curious as to which "american accent" yall are referring to? is it the new york/eascoast accent? the southern drawl accent? the country southern accent? new orleans accent? chicago accent? st louis accent?
can someone please post a video so we can get an understanding of what yall describe as an "american accent" ?
It's kind of true, actually I'm back in Massachusetts now; when I was a teen, I had a slight Boston accent but a lot of the people around me and many of my friends have pretty pronounced, obvious Boston accents. You still hear them when you're out and around, and still hear kids and teens who sound have it... however, when I'm out, I hear people - teenagers especially - talking to eachother and they sound absolutely no different from a gaggle of young people at a store in LA.
My fiercely-anti-California ex from Seattle sounds like she grew up in Irvine, and people have assumed that's where she's from in the past. When I drove across the country this summer, I heard people in Wyoming, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc who all could have passed for a Southern Californian.
It seems like long road trips are a bigger deal in the middle of the country. I've mainly heard people do cross-country road trips if they are moving or have some other reason to go long-term to the other coast. Otherwise it's just too much.
Man, in my thirty years, I've driven across the country three times as an adult, and up and down the west coast probably a dozen times... factoring in my childhood you've got another three trips across the US and countless on the West Coast. I've driven to the Navajo Reservation in AZ from LA and SF a few times on my days off... it's fun to me.
Odd since the latter three tend to have a more positive image out here than LA.
I always met lots of Bostonians in LA, but very few when I lived in SF and only one in Seattle.
Seattle's culture is very, very passive and introverted, to the degree that as an "introvert" by Mass standards, I was the most loudmouthed and obtrusive boor imaginable by Seattle standards. I was actually born in Seattle and spent about half my childhood there, but I definitely took more from Boston in that sense. It was really hard for me to feel comfortable living there again when I moved back in '08-09, so I left.
It's funny, I do hear people dump on LA out here, and I usually just say something like, "it's actually a wicked awesome place." Most people just parrot dislike for it, which is dumb... it's just that after 9/11 it became unacceptable to dump on NYC so the invective had to go somewhere
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I'm back in Massachusetts now; when I was a teen, I had a slight Boston accent but a lot of the people around me and many of my friends have pretty pronounced, obvious Boston accents. You still hear them when you're out and around, and still hear kids and teens who sound have it... however, when I'm out, I hear people - teenagers especially - talking to eachother and they sound absolutely no different from a gaggle of young people at a store in LA.
