Michigan accent and other American accents thoughts?

[NeutralDrow]

I really need to record and listen to myself more. I'm a white guy from southern California, and got the impression of most of my speech being rather flat (not flat as in "unaccented," flat as in "oddly lacking in intonation"), but when I actually HAVE listened to my own voice recorded, I realized that I have a sort of nasal accent on some vowel sounds. No idea if that's SoCal influence or Wisconsin, though.

Ah rly need t' record 'n lissen t' m'self mor. A'm a white guy from suthern Kyalufornya, an' got thi impreshun uv most uv ma speech been rather flat, but wen Ai akchuly HYAV lissen'd t' mai own vois recorded, Ai reelaiz'd th' Ah hyav a sort 'a nyasl aaksent on sum vowl souns. No idea 'f that's SoCal influens 'r Wiskyansin, tho.

Also, I'm really fond of pointing this video out to people.


Yes, it's exaggerated, but not as much as you might think. I'm used to hearing this accent.

I live in Minnesota, and we have a fairly flat accent. It seems to surprise people because the only reference they have for Minnesotans is friggin' Fargo. NOBODY HERE TALKS LIKE THAT.

Don't worry, my impression of Minnesota speech actually comes from listening to <url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZdUyfmETVg>Linkara talk.

 

[chinangel]

I can't really offer much, beyond that I'm weird in that I love the stereotypical New Yorker accent. SO hawt.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I'm from western Oregon, we aren't known for any particular accent I guess. We are mainly known for our dirty hippies, failing schools, trigger happy police, shitty beer, and hipster douchebags. Idk about the eastern 2/3 of the state.

As for my thoughts upon accents, I like some. I like Australian girls, and British girls in particular. Angela White and Nigella Lawson rawr :3

Accents I can't stand could be narrowed down to 2 as well I think. The first is perhaps non-geographically specific, though it does seem to be exclusively female. Its where you end each sentence with a rising inflection? So that every statement becomes a question? Its super annoying? And I hear it on TV all the time, not just as a bit on Family Guy?

That shit needs to be stopped immediately.

The other I guess would best be described as DEEP, DEEEEEEEP, DERP, southern accent. Not a simple accent, or twang that some find endearing. I'm talking about people that make Boomhaur from King of the Hill sound intelligible. The kind of speech that isn't even a language to more than 40 people on the planet anymore. It sounds like the gibbering of Azathoth in the ultimate void.

You just hear it, and you have to stop what you are doing to give you full attention to determining what species of creature it was uttered by. Upon recognizing its source as being otherwise clearly human, an apparently modern allegedly English speaking American and not feral/an unfrozen caveman your mind recoils. It just cannot reconcile what it is seeing with what it is hearing, or the fact that it is on TV.

 

[Shraggler]

I'm from the Pacific Northwest, so we have a fairly flat, unaccented way of speaking (unless you consider the lack of an accent an accent). I actually find it rather jarring when I meet another American who actually has an accent because I'm so used to hearing everyone talk like me, considering its the way that most TV people speak as well.

Same here. Up in this corner of the United States, we have an extremely neutral accent. Shit, just look at Wikipedia regarding American regional accents (if you're bored enough); PNW is considered minimal compared to basically every other region (i.e. fitting the definition of General American English).

Even with our Canadian neighbors up north in Vancouver, I notice their accents every now and then. It's so incredibly subtle that we're practically interchangeable, but there are differences.

Although it'll appear that we have an accent to anyone external observer from a different region of the (Anglophone) world, we generally pronounce everything with fairly limited inflection or overall change in sound. So generally, for example, the only time a word would be confused with another in speech is when it is a true homophone (two/too/to, sleigh/slay, piece/peace, etc.) as opposed to other regional dialects where "dad" can sound like "day" or vowels are lengthened to such a degree that one word sounds like two.

While our accent is self-admittedly boring, at least we're fucking easy to understand.

However, despite our sonic simplicity, I've noticed that only a limited amount of people are cultured or learned enough to pronounce foreign words or figures of speech correctly. I'm sure that's relatively true almost everywhere across the country, so I can't really single this region out. People are stupid and lazy. There, generalizing.

 

[Trek1701a]

I have lived in a few places and talked to a number of people worldwide, so my accent is more on individual words then on speech in general. So when they all run together no one knows where I'm originally from, which is the Bronx, NY. I never did have a strong NY accent though.

Now I live in Pittsburgh, PA, so now I get people with strong accents and their own dialect...

 

[antidonkey]

I guess I have a slight Texas accent. I spent my early childhood in England and pretty much the rest of my life in Texas so the accents seem to have cancelled each other out. It's not really noticeable while in the south but it really stood out when I lived in California for a bit. Strangely enough, when liquored up, both accents become very prominent for randoms words at random times. It tends to weird out those around me and is quite hilarious.

 

[Aesir23]

Although I'm not American (not completely) my mother came from central Minnesota and it's resulted in me kind of having a bit of a hybrid accent as far as I can tell. My aunts have outright told me that my sister and I have midwestern accents which I can believe since I live in the same general region as well as fairly close to the border but I still don't pronounce some words the same way my mother does. At the same time I have a friend in Florida who has said that my 'Canadian accent' isn't nearly as strong as my brother's.

 

[Mr Fixit]

I should have a pretty thick southern drawl since I've lived in northeast Tennessee for 20 years now, I'm a transplant from central Florida, but I don't. The "natives" are always asking me where I'm from & they don't usually believe me when I tell them how long I've lived here. I can sound like a local, but I have to make myself do it.

 

[AnarchistFish]

I can only differentiate American accents between "Southern" and "Not Southern".

 

[Juste Goose]

I don't think I have an accent, but I grew up in New York, and apparently we speak very quickly. At least, that's what southerners tell me.