American Accent

[delsully]

I don't think so. The "Southern" American accent (which is the stereotypical American accent in German and very easy to imitate) is clearly different from the one of people from, let's say, New York.
Britain surely has more distinct accents, or rather dialects, but that doesn't really neglect the American ones.

Sure it does. Don't you know the Brits are the best at everything, including accents?

 

[aaminion00]

According to a recent poll in USA today, most Americans consider themselves to be of German ancestry, often closely followed by Irish. I think that pretty much explains it.

 

[Xen]

first off, let me say that I have just returned from the british isles, and perhaps have a unique position in that, with the excpetion of N. Ireland, I have heard at least the major accents of the isles- that said, Welsh one can barelly understand somtimes, but the pronounciation is rather close, welsh people are just intelligble when talking.

Scots end thier words in the pronounciation as we of the states do, at least they do very often, and Irish is perhaps the closest over all really, and in fact, Irelland has quite a few cultural similarities with rural America- in particuler N. Carolina, and it close neighbors

 

[Xen]

that said, I want to speak with a British accent. it kicks ass. (well, there are a few native accents I like, such as "Surfer", though I dispise most, in specific, all things southern sounding.)

 

[Vietcong]

not every texan has that texas acent, i for one dont, and only the rednecks realy have that acent. i have a speach problem, so ppl offen think im from germany, franch, uk or some other place.

 

[Hundegesicht]

I thought you lived in Vietnam?

 

[cgannon64]

There's definetely not an American accent. I suppose there is a generic one, but I'd say that's just normal English, and I'm sure that's xenophobic of me.

Every region has their own accent, and even in that there are subregions that have their own accent...Staten Island comes to mind.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

But, on a topic related to the two of us, I hear there is a Chicago accent. Can someone (proably someone from within the States) describe it to me. I hear it involves overly-emphasized vowels or something.

Think Southwest suburbs. Like what they speak in Berwyn, or phrases like "da coach" or "da mare" (for mayor).

The "Chicago accent" is actually considered highly unprestigious in Chicago itself, but is highly prestigious in areas to the southwest.

 

[Steph]

I don't see any sense in it. I don't believe it. I've heard many people say it, but that doesn't make it any more likely to me. I mean, really, where's the sense in it?

I'm not sure about the accent, but it's true about the words. In Quebec, they still use old words and way of putting sentences that we no longer use in France. The sense is easy to understand. France has been mixed in European history, with many other language and accent, and a lot of immigrants from colonies, earlier than Quebec. So there was more mixing. Second, and probably more important, in Quebec they fought to keep and preserve their language over English, so it was more likely to remain "pure". In France, we didn't have to do that, and we incorporated more words from foreign language

 

[bobgote]

There's definetely not an American accent. I suppose there is a generic one, but I'd say that's just normal English, and I'm sure that's xenophobic of me.

Whilst it may differ place to place, it is very difficult to confuse an american accent with anything else. occasionally with certain canadian accents, but otherwise its fairly blatant when someone is american. i don't think you'd get the possible confusion as between aus/uk/nz/south african etc.

 

[CivCube]

Fine then, a American accent. On another note, here's an interesting speech accent archive that lets you hear what each accent sounds like.