What does an American accent sound like?

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by seelifein69, Nov 15, 2011.

  1. cobaltblue

    cobaltblue New Member

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    I agree.
     
  2. Smythe

    Smythe New Member

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    I am good at accents. I am English, so UK and European accents are easy for me, since they share similar linguistics bases. I can also do several American accents - identify and replicate. I tell you this because I don't know of many descriptors for accents. And can I just say, it's not just southern England that pronounces can and can't differently. In fact, there is a somewhat fierce discourse about how many words are pronounced, but mostly between north and south. Sure you can talk about missing letters, glottal stops, and schwa replacements (I have studied human speech), but even phonemes can be pronounced differently.

    I will add this though, for those who can read phonetically:

    British Southern - /sʌɵən/

    American Southern - /sʊdɜɹn/
     
  3. Smythe

    Smythe New Member

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    [Double Post]
     
  4. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    I suppose we poke fun at American accents in much the same way as Americans do, but more broad-brush. Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Cletus from The Simpsons, and the "Excuse me, I speak Jive" African American from Airplane were American inventions, but they are much how a Brit would poke fun at American accents. We're probably more likely to make fun of Southern and rural accents, although Chicago, Valley Girl and New York (especially New York Jewish) are marked enough for us to pick them out and possibly make fun of. A lot of American accents, though, are recognisable as American (mainly by a slightly different vowel quality) but not sufficiently to make fun of.

    As for culture, I don't think I can do better than the recent Cracked photo-manipulation competition on how the rest of the world sees Americans. Apart from the fact that we don't necessarily recognise US celebrities, this is a pretty accurate view of how we see America.
     
  5. seelifein69

    seelifein69 Active Member

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    Wow that's super funny!!!! Especially the one about the ketchup. But I didn't get the BBC one, did I miss that?
     
  6. seelifein69

    seelifein69 Active Member

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    Okay so in my mind, the only thing British people drink is tea. And that everyone is short with each other, and doesn't express emotion. And that Psychoville and Shaun of the Dead are normal British people/dialogue.

    (By the way, England, I just tried a Lion bar and an Areo candy bars, and wow. yummy)

    The French all smoke cigarettes and I think that they shave (nowadays JK!). All French people hate American's! lol

    All Italians are in love all the time, and they all have overweight mothers.

    And Canadians (C-eh-D-eh-N-eh) are all peaceful and chunky.
     
  7. James Berkley

    James Berkley Banned

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    "no discerneable accent" thats a joke right?
     
  8. seelifein69

    seelifein69 Active Member

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    Thats funny. You being from NY I'm sure you know about the range of great to annoying accents from the Great Apple.
     
  9. Prophetsnake

    Prophetsnake New Member

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    Heheh. He probably still would have pulled top of the poll after that Republican debate!
    I lived there long enough to figure out what you were called. :)
    In fact I lived in Pontiac. Close enough, though, eh?
    They all thought my accent was cute, anyhow. :)
    One thing I found amazing was how markedly different the Canadian accent was. Just by going through the tunnel to Windsor it was instant "Good day, eh." Little or no blend at all.
     
  10. m5roberts

    m5roberts Member

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    Actually, I was talking about Jennifer Granholm. She served the two term limit, so apparently it didn't bother everyone as much as it did me :) Of course, someone's linguistic choices do not have much to do with their politics, and it would be a silly reason to vote for/not vote for someone.

    One would think that she had too ;)

    I'd say so. My sister lives in Dearborn and she tells people Detroit.

    Ever been to Michigan's Upper Peninsula? Parts of the U.P. sound like that too :)
     
  11. Prophetsnake

    Prophetsnake New Member

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    No, i worked with a guy from Traverse city and a lot of folks I worked with went up that way for holidays, but I never made it.
     
  12. cobaltblue

    cobaltblue New Member

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    I believe you are thinking of the English ;)

    I love Shaun of the Dead.

    maia - of course you have an accent! just not one that narrows down the exact region of your upbringing.

    and if we're making fun of American culture: Americans have no fashion sense (plaid with stripes, socks pulled all the way up esp when worn with sandals), think their country is the only one of any real importance and are very loud and over the top about everything ;)

    The Scots of course are quietly grim (except when we've just watched Braveheart or had a good drink), tightfisted (isn't it your round?) and continually drunk.
     
  13. Lost_in_Thought

    Lost_in_Thought New Member

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    I use to live in a Igloo, but it melted :)
    I dislike how everyone thinks all Canadians say eh often. Well it no true thats only in Ontario people! I rarely say eh, i might say it like once a month at most. If you ever heard a Newfoundlander speak you would realize that everywhere in canada there is a different accent, like just a few hours north there is one town where they all sound like just off the boat Urkanians (and their like fourth generation and some of them are not even urkanian).
    so i don't say eh
    I say budder instead of butter.
     
  14. seelifein69

    seelifein69 Active Member

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    Haha, okay great to know. In FL we get a lot of Canadian tourists, and I also noticed another popular habit (I work at a jewelry store) is "OOOOOh yah, that's nice." and it makes me smile.
     
  15. Gracia Bee

    Gracia Bee Member

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    I think Americans accents sound HILARIOUS!!! I love them. Isn't it weird to think everybody has an accent but nobody thinks THEY have an accent themselves??? It's like "Your accent sounds so cute!!!" "Thanks but... I don't have an accent." -_- lol
     
  16. seelifein69

    seelifein69 Active Member

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    So do you guys 'mock' or 'caricature' our american accents, like it's popular here to do to other accents?
     
  17. Still Life

    Still Life Active Member

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    Not if you take into consideration that Americans find it tedious to watch things with English subtitles. ;) Not sure if it's true for the majority, but I remember watching Pride and Prejudice with my older sister, who threatened to leave if I didn't put on the "subs" so she could understand what everyone was saying, and even after that, her attention kept wandering elsewhere.

    As for American accents, I'm from L.A., and Hollywood has brainwashed us into thinking we're the "norm" around here. Some things I've said that people have pointed out/snickered at:

    Me saying, Sanozay, instead of San Jose; Sacramenno, instead of Sacramento; Hunington, instead of Huntington.

    A few others include:

    Comfortable = com-ter-bol

    environment = in-vira-ment

    going = gunna

    and = 'n

    get = git

    So I guess we Southern Californians tend to collapse syllables and slur words. I can't decide whether it's because we're lazy or if we're really convinced that this is how things are supposed to be pronounced.

    Oh, the younger crowd (myself included) can be very generous in peppering our dialog with "Dude!" and "No way!", but once I hit mid-twenties, I've learned to cut back. :)
     
  18. 281

    281 Active Member

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    I'm an American in Australia, but most Australians think I'm Irish when they hear me speak. I've also been asked if I come from France, Germany, Canada, Croatia and even Latvia.

    I've found when traveling that most people judge you first as an individual, and secondly as an American. But you still get stereotyped until you prove otherwise. I have friends who admit when they first met me, they expected a loud ignorant patriot. And when they learned I lived in Texas, added a right-wing Republican Evangelical Christian to the mix.

    So much US news, movies and TV is shown around the world now that people feel they have a familiar sense of America based on what they've seen on TV and the way the country is portrayed.
     
  19. topeka sal

    topeka sal New Member

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    I agree with this. I'm American but live in North East England. When I first arrived I thought everyone was speaking Dutch! The "Geordie" accent up here is even difficult for other English people to understand. One thing that's fascinating over here is how accents can change from town to town. You don't have to travel very far to hear a new accent or, in some cases, different vocabulary. And everyone makes fun of everyone else. The English love "doing" each other's accents.

    I think that for most Americans there are two English accents: Cockney (London) and "the Queen's" English (or BBC English). I might add Liverpool to the list a la Beatles fame. But we all have a tendency to caricature accents that are foreign to us.

    As for making fun... as an American in England, I do provide laughs for the native speakers, and they for me. Mostly they do terrible American accents: nasal, loud, flat, harsh... like President Kennedy if he lived in Kentucky.

    One interesting thing: when I meet new people, the first thing they ask is if I'm Canadian. The reason: they don't want to insult Canadians by calling them American!!
     
  20. Prophetsnake

    Prophetsnake New Member

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    Yes, I get a similar thing abroad. they often assume I am english and when I point out that I'm irish, there are often profuse apologies, especially in France.
    Have you seen the Postman Pat 'Boro accent thing on Youtube? If you haven't do yourself a favour and have a look for it. It's hilarious!
    There is a good reason that people from the east of England often sound Dutch. England is one of the younger European countries.It's only a little over a thousand years old. The language is basically a low germanic tongue brought over by invading german tribes from Jutland, and later, Saxony. The Normans they took it from were also Germanic (though they lived in the north of what is now France, they originated in Germanic lands) so the language and culture is rooted in these tribes with miscelannaeous influences from the rest of Europe. Little survived of the local languages, although vestiges of the Celtic language spoken there can be seen in the wide use of silent letters in the written word ( the Normans did this as well and some of those came from their written language, which is not a million miles from modern french). A lot of other influences were introduced in the following millenium. It's an ever changing thing though, particularly in England, where it probably changes faster than any place else it's spoken. In the last thirty years or so the changes are marked.
    Eddie Izzard did a program called "Mongrel nation" a few years ago and learned some basic English as it was spoken a thousand years ago. he then went to the Freisen Islands in Holland and did a business deal ( bought a cow) from a farmer there who on;y spoke that old dialect. While the conversation wasn't exactly bubbly, they were able to manage it.
    Interesting thing, language.
     
  21. seelifein69

    seelifein69 Active Member

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    Yeah, maybe it's a chick thing, because I tend to get lost in a lot of different accents.

    For instance, there's a show on HBO or something called Deadwood, and it's really good, but it's a very harsh Western accent, and sometimes I just fade out for a few minutes, and then it's hard to understand what's going on. I really want to start watching the Tudors, and I hope that won't happen with this show, I can tend to understand 'old english' about the same as 'modern english' but either way I am still straining.


    I also slur my words a lot and use all of those examples that you showed! How funny.

    I am 19, and unfortunately in my generation here in the States the bad rap phase has really been taking hold (everything on the radio's is just total s**t here, but it's sad most people like it, but whatever!) so lots of slang is in my vocab.

    "Homie, yo, what'up, dude" and all the other embarrassing slang that we young-ens in the States use.

    I work with a lot of Muslims and they laugh at me every time I say "Oh my God" or "Jesus Christ", and they don't understand why I say that, and why so much! haha
     
  22. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    The problem works the other way, too. We Brits are probably exposed more to US accents than Americans are to British accents, but I gave up on No Ordinary Family after one episode because I simply couldn't understand what they were saying -- they just seemed to be mumbling incoherently.
     
  23. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    And of course, all Americans pronounce "nuclear" as "nukular", don't that? Eh? What do you mean, they don't???
     
  24. seelifein69

    seelifein69 Active Member

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    I guess it's just mashed up and said a little faster.

    instead of "nu-cle-ar" bomb it's a "nu-clear" bomb
     
  25. rainshine

    rainshine New Member

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    I had two american class mates in the past, I loved both of their accents, one black american whos drawl you could listen to forever, even the teacher went weak at the knees. Every so often he would say could you repeat that maaam so polite. The other was a girl called liz , I could never imitate their accents they were nice people and I wouldn't have the vocal range it would be so bad. The girls used to ask liz to repeat words they liked such as tomato, and potato, they loved the difference in sounds and would try and fail to repeat them.
    oh and not forgetting anne from alaska, going to uni in alaska, nice girl, American accents sound normal to me its only the extremes like southern accents, and mixed Irish American or Italian American that sound different.
     

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