Non-american forum ppl: what's your stereotype american accent?

[Hercules286]

The accent you hear on the Simpsons can be very annoying, I have no idea which region it belongs to.

[Having A Wonderful Time]

I heard somewhere that everything west of Denver (with the exception of The Valley in LA) is more or less the same accent, not accounting for sub-culture. We're just sorta conformist like that.

[Blind_Io]

There are differences, but the intermountain region has a distinct accent. I think that once you are in the area the accents are broken up by latitude. Southwestern states have a stronger Mexican influence and closer to the Canadian border tends to be more remote wilderness and fewer (and smaller) cities. The big difference about the intermoutain dialect is rate of speech; we tend to speak slower than our coastal brethren. The pace of life out here is just a little different, we don't have 200 people crammed into one building or a thousand per block. We have wide open spaces and there is less of a "hustle! hustle! GO! GO! GO!" attitude like you tend to get on the coasts. The pacific coast is a bit better than the east coast, but only marginally.

[eMKay]

Here is a question for non-english speaking foreigners, which accent is easiest to understand? Here in Buffalo we speak a mix of Brooklyn, Canadian, and midwest but it's mostly midwest with a large emphasis on "R"s. especially if it has an A in front of it, like car, bar, yard, etc. But we speak much faster than the standard midwest is spoken. I found in Europe that everyone understood me perfectly if I spoke slowly, but if I spoke fast they looked at me as if I were from Mars.

[trpnbillie11]

Originally Posted by bobo_1314

Arnold Schwarzenegger accent?

I love AH-nold. If only he were allowed to run for President.....sigh...



*Holy moly this is an old thread.

[vanMould]

I think I might be speaking for alot of swedes when I say that I didn't know there were different american accents. Just different levels of hillbilly...

[FATMOUSE]

For me, I've always considered the stereotype as being the neutral newsreader style accent you find on CNN.

[Gman333-X-ferrari]

Originally Posted by vanMould

[...]I didn't know there were different american accents. Just different levels of hillbilly...

Exactly.

[Quiky]

Originally Posted by Gman333-X-ferrari

Exactly.

Y'all are gonna dai fo sayn them thangs liek thet... we iznt hillbillees. Ou new sitee hahl jus gawt moovd inta plase las weak... Itz gawt 2 axlez n' a fif-wheel hookkup. Reel nahce n' faenci.

[Gman333-X-ferrari]

Originally Posted by Quiky

Y'all are gonna dai fo sayn them thangs liek thet... we iznt hillbillees. Ou new sitee hahl jus gawt moovd inta plase las weak... Itz gawt 2 axlez n' a fif-wheel hookkup. Reel nahce n' faenci.

[jakifirbec]

Originally Posted by Quiky

Y'all are gonna dai fo sayn them thangs liek thet... we iznt hillbillees. Ou new sitee hahl jus gawt moovd inta plase las weak... Itz gawt 2 axlez n' a fif-wheel hookkup. Reel nahce n' faenci.

Could you translate all that? I'm sure it's funny and all...
All I got was that we were all going to die. Which is true btw.

[Roman]

Mostly Midwestern (got a bunch of friends over there) but leave me in an environment with people from an area for more than two days and I take on the local color rather quickly.
Makes it easier being understood and I like to play around with vocabulary and pronunciation.

[No Boss]

Originally Posted by Roman

Mostly Midwestern (got a bunch of friends over there) but leave me in an environment with people from an area for more than two days and I take on the local color rather quickly.
Makes it easier being understood and I like to play around with vocabulary and pronunciation.

How I usually am too. Unless I'm in New York... I HATE those bloody accents.

/"Luke a'dis fuggin guey!?!"
//"Look at this fucking guy!?"

[Gman333-X-ferrari]

This thread reminded me of this:

+ YouTube Video

[edkwon]

Originally Posted by vanMould

I think I might be speaking for alot of swedes when I say that I didn't know there were different american accents. Just different levels of hillbilly...

so youre saying that a gangster/mafia italian american characters (like Al Pacino's Godfather) sounds the same as a Cowboy?

[Phinn]

I tend to find accents are only a small part of how different people speak, especially within the small country. The Valley accent for example needs "like" or "totally" in every other sentence in order to work. It's more to do with slang and speech patterns. As for the poll, I put Valley down as it's the accent I use when doing an impression of an American, although it's probably just more airhead blonde a la Paris Hilton.

It's odd that English speaking people cannot understand English spoken with other accents. I have no problem understanding anyone as long as they're speaking even an approximation of English. I guess it's based on exposure. British people can understand American accents no problem because of films and TV. Americans on the other hand have trouble with ours, especially when they're not Hugh Grant style public schoolboy accents.

For the record, the most unattractive English accent in the world is chav.

[vanMould]

Originally Posted by edkwon

so youre saying that a gangster/mafia italian american characters (like Al Pacino's Godfather) sounds the same as a Cowboy?

I'd say they speak with italian accents, which isn't really american.

[Quiky]

Originally Posted by Quiky

Y'all are gonna dai fo sayn them thangs liek thet... we iznt hillbillees. Ou new sitee hahl jus gawt moovd inta plase las weak... Itz gawt 2 axlez n' a fif-wheel hookkup. Reel nahce n' faenci.

Originally Posted by jakifirbec

Could you translate all that? I'm sure it's funny and all...
All I got was that we were all going to die. Which is true btw.

Heh, your being serious?

In colonial english for you:
"Pip Pip, you all shall die for your treason against the queen. We are not uncultured apes, such as our brothers who preach incest. Our splendiferous castle has been constructed using the finest of materials, and is transportable in the event we become under siege by other kingdoms."

[Hiro11]

Different non-ethnically-related (in other words, geographic) American Accents I can think of:

Boston: Pahk the cah in Havahd Yahd. mayor Quimby from the Simpsons or Marky Mark in The Departed. Actually, within Boston, it's really only people from South Boston, Revere, Lynn or Charlestown who have this accent. "The Perfect Storm" has some good Boston accents as well.

Maine: Yeh cahn't get theyah from heyah. Very distinct accent, once you've heard it, it's unique.

Manhattan/Connecticut/ Long Island prep school Posh: Yeeahs, we summehr ouht at the Hamptons. (see the movie Metropolitan for this one)

Brooklyn: Tony Manero, Abe Vigoda

Delaware/Philadelphia: (very nasally) Oy'm goehing hoeme. Dead give-away: pronouncing water "wohter". If you've ever met anyone from Delaware, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

West Virginia/Kentucky hick. See above or watch "Coal Miner's Daughter". Jodie Foster does a good one in Silence of the Lambs.

Posh Tennesee/North Carolina/Georgia: the "classy" southern accent. Sounds terrific, especially from women. Think Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind.

The Deep South: Alabama/Mississippi. Watch Mississippi Burning. Jerry Reed in Smokey and the Bandit is another good one.

Cajun/ Southern Lousiana: very famous accent, listen to any Dr. John album.

South Texas: GWB or James Dean in "Giant"

North Texas/Austin: Matthew McConnaughey

Chicago: watch any Superfans (Da Bears) skit or listen to Drew Peterson on the news, the wife-killing cop (allegedly). The accent in the 'burbs is less strong but easy to identify.

Wisconsin: "Over by dere". Laverne and Shirley had some passable ones.

Scandinavian/ Minnesota/ the Dakotas: Fargo. Q: "How ya doin' dere?" A: "Real good, real good".

The Flatlander: Kansas/Iowa: slightly southern twang but ovberriding Midwesten flattened out A's. Think the beginning of "Superman".

The San Fernando Valley/ surfer. Jeff Spicoli. Actually in real life, it sounds more like "Dogtown and Z Boys".

Your standard American accent: most everywhere else. Particularly the Pacific Northwest, most of the southwest and most of California.

[Donington]

Originally Posted by Hiro11

Boston: Pahk the cah in Havahd Yahd.

I always thought Boston was pronounced one of two ways

1.Bwoast'n

2. YANKEES SUCK!