# American accents



## madelynn

Would anyone from a country other than the US say that Americans have accents (other than southern)???

I once heard someone say that the American accent was "odd."

I've never thought that I had an accent!!!


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## Rach404

Everyone has an accent, whether they believe they do or not. People only think they don't because they're so used to how they speak and how everyone around them talk. But yeah, Americans definately do have accents. I went on a a skiing holiday to Vermont, and found that my instructor had a very strong American accents and a very particular way of talking. I don't know what it is, but part of the accent sounds fake to me in some way, maybe because the only time I heard people with an American accent was in films, but I'm not really sure...


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## sandzilg

I am from Spain living in the US for four years now. My husband is a ¨jersey guy¨and it was hard to follow his conversations with his friends at the beginning. I work in NYC and there is a very strong Brooklyn, Long Island, Staten Island -esque accent. People from the Midwest in general do have an accent, too. And so do Californians. I find it extremely interesting!


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## maxiogee

If people don't appear to have an accent then they aren't far enough from home!
Everyone has an accent - it's just that we don't realise that those we listen to every day actually speak with one. Just as there are accents within a country, so there are accents within those too. People in Dublin speak very differently from people in Belfast, and within Dublin there are differences too dependng on locality (and dare I say also, class).


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## Outsider

madelynn said:
			
		

> Would anyone from a country other than the US say that Americans have accents (other than southern)???
> 
> I once heard someone say that the American accent was "odd."


You forgot about the New York accent(s). 



			
				madelynn said:
			
		

> I've never thought that I had an accent!!!


Then this is for you.


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## danielfranco

We all have accents, and I'm happy to report that I think I have several of them all at once! I was born in Mexico, taught English by a British person, and learned conversational English in South Texas... It's always fun to meet someone from upstate and see the expression of their face when I speak to them.
Laters, y'all!


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## Residente Calle 13

Outsider said:
			
		

> You forgot about the New York accent(s).
> 
> Then this is for you.



Peopooh in New Yawk have an accent?


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## lablady

I think the first time I really became aware that everyone has an accent was many, many years ago when I complimented someone on her melodious accent and she responded, "Thank you. I like yours, too."


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## 3omer Sharabi al Yahoud

Residente Calle 13 said:
			
		

> Peopooh in New Yawk have an accent?


 Are you sure ure you're from ny? I never heard anyone say peepoh.

peoplez is more common.

peoplez in new yawk got en eksant? (the e is a heavy nasal a)

*
Mod Edit:* Please visit our rules page regarding the use of chat and SMS language.  This post has been edited to reflect proper usage.



> Except as a topic of discussion, chatspeak and SMS style are not acceptable. Members must do their best to write using standard language forms.


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## GenJen54

There are several distinct "American" accents, and variants within those accents. In fact, there really are almost too many to honestly count.

I am from a mid Southern-plains state. I have been told my accent is distinctly mid-western. I have also been told my accent is Southern. I have also been told I have no accent, or that my accent is "neutral." 

Friends I know from other countries (non English-speaking) were able to pick out general accent groups (Northeastern, Southern, for example), but they were not necessarily able to pick out the subtleties of those accent groups. 

All of them agreed, however, that Americans spoke with an accent that was paricular to the U.S. Many Europeans in particular have early and more frequent exposure to British English, and so the American accent - in all its variations - is somewhat obvious. (This was told to me by friends).


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## Alxmrphi

Americans have an incredibly obvious accent, if you thought you had a normal accent, well at least to brits, it's, next to French probably the most "strong" accent.

Allthough, there are some Americans I've seen on American films who don't appear to have an accent, quite a lot actually. but only about 5% I'd say.

That's really shocked me and made me think, an American thinking they didn't have a distinguishable accent.


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## MarcB

Many people have already stated that everyone has some kind of accent and I agree.
I do think however, that when we speak of accents we usually refer to one that is different from our own. I remember a British comedy when a man made comments about the foreigners while he was n France and his friend reminded him “here we are the foreigners”. The other issue is that when we speak about accents it is often the ones which are extreme. In North America (US and Canada) there are people who sound alike on both sides of the border and from a variety of geographic locations. Then there are those who are easily identified as coming from the US or Canada. Additionally we can identify people from Toronto, Ottawa, NY, Boston, Dallas, Chicago etc.
There are people living side by side with them who do not have obvious accents.
They can be identified as North Americans but their accents are neutral, in regards to a specific regional accent. The same is true in other English speaking countries.
Some English people have an English accent (country specific) while others can easily be identified as coming from Kent, Liverpool and London etc (regionally specific).
One can conclude that although we all have accents there are neutral accents which can be less obvious to pinpoint where one comes from apart from a country or continental classification.


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## Residente Calle 13

3omer Sharabi al Yahoud said:
			
		

> Are you sure ure you're from ny? I never heard anyone say peepoh.



You should listen a little closer, then. NY born and raised. Thirty-four years and counting.


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## fenixpollo

MarcB said:
			
		

> I do think however, that when we speak of accents we usually refer to one that is different from our own. ...One can conclude that although we all have accents there are neutral accents which can be less obvious to pinpoint where one comes from apart from a country or continental classification.


 It's true that when most people say "you speak with an accent", they mean one that is different from their own; but most people imagine that their accent is the most "neutral" one.  There is no such thing.  There is no one, correct, best accent in any language.  

If you think that there is a certain accent in the U.S. (Dan Rather is always used as the paragon, for some reason) that is more neutral or that sounds less obviously American to outsiders, then I think you're mistaken.

To paraphrase maxiogee: If you don't think you have an accent, then you're not far enough from home.


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## vince

here's a map of dialects of English in the U.S.:

http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/REF/images/diausa.gif

Article: http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/REF/dial-map.html


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## GenJen54

Vince,

Perhaps you did not read the very first sentence of the second link you posted.  It states very clearly:





> The term *accent* is often confused with *dialect*, but an accent refers only to the way words are pronounced, while a dialect has its own grammar, vocabulary, syntax, and common expressions, as well as pronunciation rules that make it unique from other dialects of the same language.


While one could effectively argue that there is a strong correlation between dialect and accent, the topic of this thread is specifically that of "accent" and whether English speakers from other countries would recognize distinct (U.S.) American accents, or even Canadian accents for that matter.


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## ireney

The answer is a definite yes (and that goes for Brits too by the way. It goes for all languages/nations/countries probably). 

Oh and it's also true that people do not understand it (i.e. a friend of mine from Arizona did agree that the Scottish (being general on purpose) accent of a common friend was lovely but flatly refused to believe she had one herself.)


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## Korena

I guess that it all has to do with linguistics, syntax, morphology, and lexicality.
But I haven't studied all of those enough to tell you whether or not I'm correct, it's just my guess.
-korena


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## MarcB

fenixpollo said:
			
		

> It's true that when most people say "you speak with an accent", they mean one that is different from their own; but most people imagine that their accent is the most "neutral" one. There is no such thing. There is no one, correct, best accent in any language.
> 
> If you think that there is a certain accent in the U.S. (Dan Rather is always used as the paragon, for some reason) that is more neutral or that sounds less obviously American to outsiders, then I think you're mistaken.
> 
> To paraphrase maxiogee: If you don't think you have an accent, then you're not far enough from home.


I am not sure if we understand each other. The first comment echoed what was already said about attitudes towards accents which you more or less repeated. As I explained so called neutral accents are still accents and are usually county specific a North American one can easily be distinguished from an Australian. Where as some extreme accents can be more regionally specific, coming from a certain part of a country or even a city and my point is those accents are easier to pinpoint. So neutral does not mean no accent, just one that is less specific. Just as in Ireland some people can be identified as obviously from Dublin and even a section there of while others have an Irish accent but their city of origin is less identifiable. So my point of a neutral accent means you can tell a person is American, English and Australian but not all accents reveal the exact location and others do. Dan Rather is a good example (he has an American accent; I never said an American accent is not obvious to anybody.) The fact that he is from Wharton, TX is not as obvious. Also before him Walter Cronkite was the reference, again obviously American, he could not be identified as coming from St Joseph, MO. This is not limited to broadcasters.


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## vince

It may not reveal anything if there are regions that use the neutral or prestige accent outside where it was initially developed. e.g. someone who grew up in Singapore but refined her English skills to match RP pronunciation.


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## fenixpollo

MarcB said:
			
		

> Where as some extreme accents can be more regionally specific, coming from a certain part of a country or even a city and my point is those accents are easier to pinpoint. So neutral does not mean no accent, just one that is less specific.


 Yes, we agree that everyone has an accent.  But this idea of a "neutral" accent is what I disagree with.  The kind of accent you're describing may be shared by a large population or within a wide area, but that just means it's a more common accent, not a "neutral" one.


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## maxiogee

fenixpollo said:
			
		

> Yes, we agree that everyone has an accent.  But this idea of a "neutral" accent is what I disagree with.  The kind of accent you're describing may be shared by a large population or within a wide area, but that just means it's a more common accent, not a "neutral" one.



Indeed!
Plonk someone with RP into a rural pub in the middle of Co. Kerry (where some of the most "Irish" Irish accents can be found) and see who has a "neutral" accent!


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## MarcB

fenixpollo said:
			
		

> Yes, we agree that everyone has an accent. But this idea of a "neutral" accent is what I disagree with. The kind of accent you're describing may be shared by a large population or within a wide area, but that just means it's a more common accent, not a "neutral" one.


So in fact we agree (I think) on all points, except the word “neutral”.
There are in most countries an accent which defines people as coming from a large area
Such as a country or more than one which have common characteristics and possibly a border. While others have a local accent limited to a small area. So is there a widely accepted term that you agree with to describe this accent. If I say someone has an accent from Perth, Nashville, Manchester, Kingston or Cardiff that seems fine. What should we call the other category, for England, North America or New Zealand?


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## maxiogee

MarcB said:
			
		

> There are in most countries an accent which defines people as coming from a large area



*That's* where I fall out with you.
An Irish comedian called _Niall Toibín_ did an act where he did the accents for every county in the country, and in some of those he did more than one accent.
I don't know of any country which speaks English (and this probably holds true for other languages too) where someone cannot be placed quite specifically into a relatively tight geographic area by a well-tuned listener. (Of course some of that skill will not just be based on accent, but on word usage, but that's all part of 'accent' as far as I'm concerned.)


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## Outsider

MarcB said:
			
		

> There are in most countries an accent which defines people as coming from a large area
> Such as a country or more than one which have common characteristics and possibly a border. While others have a local accent limited to a small area.


That is apparently the case in the U.S., but don't assume that it holds true of other countries. In Europe, the standard accent -- if you don't mind my using this word -- was often chosen because it was the accent of the capital city, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is the accent with the largest number of speakers in the country. There may even not be any accent with more speakers than all others in the country.


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## fenixpollo

MarcB said:
			
		

> So is there a widely accepted term that you agree with to describe this accent.


 I think the terms used to describe these "widely-spoken" accents would be words like _standard_ (that's the term that is often used to describe Dan Rather's).  That's a value statement, and I think valuing one accent over another is the issue that we've been discussing in this thread.  Naming an accent by the region where it's commonly spoken is the best way to go, as far as I'm concerned.


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## Korena

Is all I have to say is that I like accents/dialects of all kinds. Whether it's Southern American or French or any other kind, I think they're all unique and interesting!
-Korena


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## moodywop

fenixpollo said:
			
		

> I think the terms used to describe these "widely-spoken" accents would be words like _standard_ (that's the term that is often used to describe Dan Rather's). That's a value statement, and I think valuing one accent over another is the issue that we've been discussing in this thread. Naming an accent by the region where it's commonly spoken is the best way to go, as far as I'm concerned.


 
I agree with you. Actually it would be interesting to start a separate thread on "valuing one accent over the other" in all countries, including the idea that only the so-called standard accent should be used on national TV channels and that regional pronunciations are "incorrect"(a view still held by many in Italy).

As Outsider said, in Europe the "standard" accent is usually the one associated with the capital city(in Italy it's the Tuscan accent, because of the literary prestige of the Tuscan dialect Italian is based on). The interesting exception is RP, which was defined by the phonetician who coined it as spoken by those "educated at the great public boarding schools". Which is why it is described as a "social", rather than "regional", accent. This has weakened its acceptance as "standard":

_By the 1990s, attitudes had begun to change, with conservative RP attracting negative attitudes, such as 'posh' and 'distant'...The number of people using a classical RP accent has fallen greatly, as a consequence. Estimates of usage in the 1980s were that between three and five percent of the British population still used it - around two million. This must be now less than two percent and falling. _
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/yourvoice/feature2_4.shtml


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