Do american accents sound weird to non americans?

[Panzer_God]

Other Americans think that american accents are annoying. Except the midwest, most of them don't really have an accent. It's creepy

 

[chief failing]

would not doubt it

 

[Naal]

I'm an American born and raised in California, but moved to Georgia when I was 18. I find Southern accents kind of annoying, but few can be cute. They sound very lazy.

I live in Central Georgia where there aren't too many people with a southern accent, but I work in Northern Georgia. They have THICK accents, and most of the time I can't understand them. It's very much a "You got a purdy mouth." accent.

As for the OP: I think it's funny that someone else has thought of that. I always think about how I sound to my Irish pen pal.

 

[ideitbawx]

not really to canadian's (I would know) but of course different regions have different accents so anyone from washington (I can't spell right) or any other close to it have little to no difference to me but most texan's probably will.
Here's a question: do canadians generally sound the same as americans from the northen states?
and to kinda answer the above question they don't generally sound wierd to canadians but again it depends how thick it sounds (I know a kid from the UK who I couldn't for the life of me understand for at least 2 weeks)

i think we canadians put more emphasis on r's, at least in ontario. if you compare, say, a bronx accent to someone from toronto (say, the kids in the hall), you'll hear the difference.

i always thought quebecers kinda sounded like french-speaking new yorkers, but it's not like i spend a lot of time there. plus they differ in accent from france, as well. know anyone who can help me on this?

all I know is I have an obscure negative pre-dispostion for french canadians. Does that help?

that's obscure?

i dunno, every french person i've met has been alright, but maybe because i don't speak french. they could have called me a donkey's assboil for all i knew

 

[Guitar Gamer]

not really to canadian's (I would know) but of course different regions have different accents so anyone from washington (I can't spell right) or any other close to it have little to no difference to me but most texan's probably will.
Here's a question: do canadians generally sound the same as americans from the northen states?
and to kinda answer the above question they don't generally sound wierd to canadians but again it depends how thick it sounds (I know a kid from the UK who I couldn't for the life of me understand for at least 2 weeks)

i think we canadians put more emphasis on r's, at least in ontario. if you compare, say, a bronx accent to someone from toronto (say, the kids in the hall), you'll hear the difference.

i always thought quebecers kinda sounded like french-speaking new yorkers, but it's not like i spend a lot of time there. plus they differ in accent from france, as well. know anyone who can help me on this?

all I know is I have an obscure negative pre-dispostion for french canadians. Does that help?

that's obscure?

i dunno, every french person i've met has been alright, but maybe because i don't speak french. they could have called me a donkey's assboil for all i knew

thats why I'm still giving a atemt (spelling?) to learn french..........................but maybe I don't like the quebecians cause all the french canadians I've met are snobby jerks who wont take a compliment or annoying twats who wont shut up...........not to say all of them are like that but they are all I have to go on and I hope one of them proves me wrong

 

[Ancalagon]

Australia is still part of the British Commonwealth is it not? Then the Queen is still save-worthy ^___^

I knew it was a former colony, but I was not under the impression that it is still part of the British Commonwealth.

It is, but it's not called the British Commonwealth, just 'The Commonwealth'. It has 53 member countries, most of whom don't still have the Queen as Head of State. They do, however, all accept the Queen as "symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and, as such, Head of the Commonwealth". The Queen is, however, still the Head of State of sixteen of those countries, including Australia. I used to work on Commonwealth publications, which was fun.

 

[jboking]

Australia is still part of the British Commonwealth is it not? Then the Queen is still save-worthy ^___^

I knew it was a former colony, but I was not under the impression that it is still part of the British Commonwealth.

It is, but it's not called the British Commonwealth, just 'The Commonwealth'. It has 53 member countries, most of whom don't still have the Queen as Head of State. They do, however, all accept the Queen as "symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and, as such, Head of the Commonwealth". The Queen is, however, still the Head of State of sixteen of those countries, including Australia. I used to work on Commonwealth publications, which was fun.

Oh interesting. I guess the only thing left that makes the sniper seem fake is his occasionally shitty accent.

 

[OneBig Man]

I would imagine any foreign accent would sound strange to anybody.

I've had many people tell me I have a faint Russian accent (I really have no idea where it came from); this coupled with my indifference to cold temperatures (I don't feel the cold until it gets below 40°F / 4.4°C) makes people think I'm Russian.

The majority of guys at my school dont wear long pants and jackets until it is around 40F (I'm from the midwest around Chicago). I think we are all idiots

 

[Shurikens and Lightning]

Wow, I cant believe how opinionated people are on this.

But i could not believe that some people called american accents thick. I always pictured thick being some former soviet soldier with a 3rd grade education trying to read shakespeare.

 

[BBQ Platypus]

Yeah american accents get on my tits a bit. especially when you pronounce words wrong and even more so when you correct me on my pronunciation when it was our country who founded the basis for your tangential language. ITS NOT PRONOUNCED SKEDULE THERES A C WHICH MAKES IT A 'SHH' SOUND. Also irks me when in writing people go out of the way to show that brits pronounce the word lieutenant 'lef'tenant for example in CoD4. For christ sake we modified the french word to our liking before you had the chance to steal it back and let the french have their little linguistic victory. Also i have no idea how u came to say aluminum. Aluminum cans, aluminum foil. Everyone knows its pronounced 'tin'

Yeah, the reason we have a different dialect is because we're STUPID.


Fucking asshole.

I must agree with BBQ platypus, you are being a bit of an asshole. its pronounced 'aluminium' by the way, everyone knows its pronounced aluminium because thats how its correctly spelt.

True - "aluminium" is the official IUPAC spelling. But the average American citizen doesn't really care about what IUPAC says.

It is rather irksome that Americans try and spell words differently to English people in an attempt at their own dialect. And that this is imposed upon everyone by virtue of the spellchecker, which ONLY accepts American, not English.


btw, the little leftenant sequence in CoD4 is kinda gay,but at least they do acknowledge that British troops pronounce it correctly...

I could get angry about this and start railing on about arrogance, but I won't. I know you aren't trying to offend anybody here, and I honestly don't care about his issue that much.

I find the notion that only the Brits truly spell words correctly to be rather mind-boggling to tell you the truth. I honestly don't care that much about it - as long as you have a system in place and spell words consistently within the rules of that system, does it really matter whether a few vowels are present or not?

In any case, differences in American spelling can largely be traced to Noah Webster, who championed several different spelling changes, in part because he wanted to create a distinct American linguistic identity, and partly because he believed in consistency in spelling and pronunciation (although he didn't apply this consistently, as evidenced by the spelling irregularities that remain in both British and American English).

In truth, the English language has some pretty fucked-up spelling rules, which is part of the reason why it's so difficult for foreigners to learn. There are even a few folks today who want to completely overhaul the way English words are spelled.


As for "lieutenant," Webster argued that the current American pronunciation was appropriate due to consistency with the word's French roots. This doesn't make it the "right" pronunciation. If you ask me, both are acceptable.


(BTW, it is possible to set your spellchecker to British English - American English is just the default).

ahh well

gotta accept America view themselves as their own country

Well, we are. 240 years is more than enough time for plenty of cultural and linguistic drift to take place. Nothing unusual from a linguistic standpoint.

But I don't think we Americans should ever forget the historical link we have with our cousins across the pond. Everybody should remember where they came from - after all, even our Founding Fathers were once British subjects.

Hell, I've got quite a few ancestors from England (somewhere in the South - I forget where). They were actually part of the first wave of settlers in Virginia. It's a fact I'm rather proud of, actually.

 

[Low Key]

Describe "American".

The Southern: Self explanitory. Also knows as the Redneck or Hillbilly.

You do know there are a lot more Southern accents than just the redneck or hillbilly, right? Yeah.

Personally, I can't stand American accents from the northern parts of the United States, from New England over to Minnesota, especially NY/NJ, Boston, the Chicago area, and northern Minnesota, and some Canadian accents (like the one my friend from around IIRC Sudsbury has--the short 'a' is really nasal like Minnesota accents). It just sounds odd. Also odd is Americans speaking Japanese. If they have a strong accent, it sounds terrible. Ditto with Australian speaking Japanese. It's just horribly wrong.

I have a far more important question: are there any people from other countries who find our accent sexy???

I'm not sure about sexy, but it seems like almost everyone I've met from England and Australia, male and female, has found my Southern accent to be really, really cute. British guys and Australian women especially seemed to go nuts over it. Go fig.

Nasal sounding? Are you talking about the Iron Range? In the Twin Cities, we all have the same accent you hear from your network newscaster.

 

[teisjm]

I'm from Denmark, and the majority of the english i hear is from american music or TV, so i guess it's what i'm used to. No i don't find it weird.

 

[scotth266]

There is no such thing as the American accent. Each area has a different dialect!

I like the Brooklyn accent myself.

 

[Jharry5]

It depends on whereabouts you visited...(?)
There are some I have trouble understanding as well, and I've lived here all my life!

I've pretty much been all over England, but I spent the most time in London, which seemed to have the most diverse variety of accents of all the cities I visited. The ones that were difficult for me were much more guttural than I'm used to.

Ah, that'll explain it then. Northern accents are much more friendly, in my opinion.
The usual Cockney accent is one I can't abide...

Aww, do you have something against London? It was a fun place to travel around!
Though the rest of the country was fun, too; I'm kind of just in love with England in general.
I don't remember any accents sounding "friendlier" but it's entirely possible that I'm oblivious to slight distinctions.

I've not got anthing against London; I've been and it is a pretty good place to go around. =) I just remember getting the odd strange look from a few Londoners because of my own accent (pretty different to the Cockney one, for sure). By friendlier, I meat it seems so to me... I don't get some of the slang from that area...

 

[Lunatic_Monk]

Which America?! Or do you mean all of the Americas?
I'm just asking, I happen to live in one of the Americas.

 

[Straitjacketeering]

I always thought Chicago accents were way out there.


GED IN DA FACKEN CAH.

"You want me to get in the car?"

YAH DA CAH.

 

[ConstantJoe]

Yes, but its always more noticable with people from the Southern States.

Yes, but there's nothing wrong with it

Question to the americans: Do British accents sound odd to you?

I'm from Britain and a lot of other British Accents sound odd to me!

I'm Irish, and the accent in the city half an hour away from me sounds odd to me =P

 

[seamusotorain]

Just to point out, there are a lot of varieties of the "American" accent... I personally find the southern accent very annoying, even more so from women for some reason, i'm not sure why.

Ha do yoo lack Miss Hippy?
(How do you like Mississippi?)

Yeah, you all sound hilarious.

I have a far more important question: are there any people from other countries who find our accent sexy???

Sweet Jesus, no. It's kinda cute, as in "Aww, they can't speak proper...who can't speak proper? You can't! You can't!". But not sexy.

 

[juliett_lima]

Australia is still part of the British Commonwealth is it not? Then the Queen is still save-worthy ^___^

I knew it was a former colony, but I was not under the impression that it is still part of the British Commonwealth.

i thiiink they still participate in the commonwealth games... and yup, i just checked on wikipedia and australia, canada and new zealand (and a lot of the carribean) are all under the commonwealth, meaning they fall under the sovereign rule of Queen Elizabeth II

yay!

 

[jboking]

Australia is still part of the British Commonwealth is it not? Then the Queen is still save-worthy ^___^

I knew it was a former colony, but I was not under the impression that it is still part of the British Commonwealth.

i thiiink they still participate in the commonwealth games... and yup, i just checked on wikipedia and australia, canada and new zealand (and a lot of the carribean) are all under the commonwealth, meaning they fall under the sovereign rule of Queen Elizabeth II

yay!

Refer too this for a more clear answer on this matter,

Australia is still part of the British Commonwealth is it not? Then the Queen is still save-worthy ^___^

I knew it was a former colony, but I was not under the impression that it is still part of the British Commonwealth.

It is, but it's not called the British Commonwealth, just 'The Commonwealth'. It has 53 member countries, most of whom don't still have the Queen as Head of State. They do, however, all accept the Queen as "symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and, as such, Head of the Commonwealth". The Queen is, however, still the Head of State of sixteen of those countries, including Australia. I used to work on Commonwealth publications, which was fun.