What does an American accent sound like?

I'd really like to know what impressions an American accent gives, or what it "feels like" to other nationalities/different native language speakers. To me Chinese sounds sharp and quick, British english sounds old world and slightly over-proper, Irish english is pleasant, "rolling" and soft, Australian english is similar to British except somehow rougher and lazier (not that I don't like it!) and Spanish is also sharp but musical.

If you were brought up with anything other than an American English accent, what does it 'sound' like and what does it 'feel' like? (ie, the pure physical sound may be different from your associations with that sound).

And if you are American, you can give your imput on any other languages/accents you are generally UNfamiliar with but have heard in person from multiple people.

ps. Post where you're FROM! I'm PA suburbs, USA. 

shockwave, i'm not saying there's "no commonality."  just that the commonality isn't particularly strong (and nowhere near as strong as in england, which is much smaller geographically and much older and more linguistically homogenous).

i will leave the thread, feanor, because it's your thread and you asked me to.  but first i will mention that i have been erroneously identified as "american" by my accent many times while travelling abroad, often by "americans".  if i'm wrong in assuming that by "american" you meant United States of America, please correct me, but i'm pretty sure you weren't including guatemala and peru, and if you weren't including guatemala and peru, you weren't including canada.

I really don't get what your point is, but fine we'll leave it at that.

Heh, when I was in Japan talking to some high school students who had lived abroad, one girl spoke English with a Brit accent, and it sounded so cute!  Most Japanese who speak English sound more American, not Brit.

I wonder if anyone has done a test in which Japanese listen to a string of sound samples of people speaking from different English nations or regions and they try to identify where the speaker is from.

p.s. And by the way, I'm from the US midwest.  We "have no accent" here~

msheeran: Wisconsin is midwest... I'd definitely say there's an accent there.

I'm from Birmingham, England

Whenever I watch an American programme with an English character in it, they always speak Queens English. There are so many more accents over here like scouse, cockney, brummie, Geordie etc. I could travel just a few miles from my home and people will talk differently.

I used to work with a girl from Detroit. Whenever she spoke it sounded like she was draggng out her words, like 'Trash' was 'Traaash' as if there was a lot of effort in them. She also missed out vowels or changed then, for example Caramel became Caaar-mul'  I loved listening to her speak.

I work in a motorway service station now and its very interesting to hear everyones accents

 

i'm from CT, where everyone sounds like a newscaster. ever notice that newscasters tend to sound the same wherever you are? i live in Boston, and none of our newscasters pahk their cahs, but the average joes around here definitely do.

i spent five months in australia, and i found that whenever australians would immitate an "american accent" they'd make us sound nerdy and nasal. like "lets put the beeee-ER in the cool-ER."

i liked being the one with the accent for once :)

I recently asked my Australian friends to comment on all of "our" accents.  Which was funny because the rest of us in the group were from France, Wisconsin, Poland, California (me!) and Pennsylvania.  My friend said that I was the one that articulated my syllables the most, and therefore did not really have an accent. 

Do the rest of the Americans here find themselves mimicking other's accents?  I do.  I catch myself following the speech pattern of every foreign friend I know.  My worse accent is Polish.  The other day I was talking about putting on my blinker and said "In-deee-CAY-tor" just like my friend Jola.

Original Post by jules817:


i spent five months in australia, and i found that whenever australians would immitate an "american accent" they'd make us sound nerdy and nasal. like "lets put the beeee-ER in the cool-ER."

 

LMAO!!!!!  Mick was saying "40 Beeeeeeeers" and the rest of us were looking at him funny, we thought he was talking about a bra size or something like 40B's.

Kiwi I know said "beer" and it sounded like bear to me.

As for earlier comments, sorry if other English-speaking countries label the accent "American" but that's what they do. They could be lumping Canadians in there with Americans... but not necessarily.

IMO people in other countries usually realise that Canada and the USA are two different countries, unlike many people stateside that are unable to differentiate between Australia and New Zealand.

When we moved back to the states after 10 years in Aus. my oldest was asked if she found it difficult to learn to the language... ha ha ha ha.

haha laura, an ex of mine was born and raised in MA (certain areas of MA have strong accents, and certain areas don't). he had a pretty heavy one, and when i brought him to CT, he said something about beers, but my friends thought he was saying BEARS.  

I saw a show on PBS once about the linguistic heritage differences between the southern states and the new england states.

One of the main points illustrated in the show was that New England was settled more by people from the south of England, while the southern states were settled more by people from the north of England and Scotland.  This helps explain why people in the south of England and in the northeast of the U.S. might pahk a cah, while people in the south of the U.S. and people in Scotland definitely parrrk uh carrr.

They played clips of Scottish people saying something and then Appalachian people saying the same thing and while it was different, you could definitely hear the similarities and contrasts to when they played clips of people in the south of England and the northeast U.S. saying the same thing.

I wish I could remember the name of that program.  But I did find this on PBS, which you might find interesting.

I'm half English, but grew up in the American south. Half my family is southern and half is English (mostly in Kent).  So I can speak in whatever way people around me are speaking. 

But my perception of foreign languages:

Spanish - fast, sexy
French - fast, sexy
Italian - not quite so fast, way sexy
German - harsh, not really sexy at all
Russian - harsh, powerful
Japanese - fast but sort of broken sounding
Chinese - I don't know but I think we should learn it

 

Original Post by alibuch:

msheeran: Wisconsin is midwest... I'd definitely say there's an accent there.

 

This is actually a pretty common misconception.  Surprisingly enough, we don't all sound like the movie Fargo (I realize that's not in WI but for whatever reason people seem to think that's what we sound like)

I have never in my life said "doncha know" or "eh?" unless I was making fun of people from Northern Wisconsin.  Man, those people do have weird accents ;)

I have cousins in Wisconsin and they definately have an accent!  To them it isn't a boat but a boooat where it is a long o.  I am from St. Louis and I have heard that St. Louis has no accent, yet the rest of Missouri does, and it is Missouri NOT Missoura.  I hate that!  And it is a potato, not a potata.  (although I am guilty of saying Illinois pronouncing the "s" at the end, when I know that is wrong).

anyway, my favorite accent is the Spanish accent, like Antonio Banderas.  He is not a good looking man, but his accent makes him sexy.  But I mean Spanish, NOT Mexican.  The Mexican accent on the other hand is one of the most un-sexy ones that exist. 

To me, I can't tell the difference between Japanese, Korean, or Chinese.  To me it sounds like they keep saying Doy Dong Kong Chow Bong.  But languages is  not my strong suit, I just wish the whole world spoke English, then it would be so much simpler.

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

Russian - harsh, powerful

Weird, this is why I find it so sexy... because it's so harsh.

Anyway I grew up in the Boston area and let me just say there is no "New England" accent. In fact, I think the only places with accents are the eastern part of MA (western MA west of say... Worcester, doesn't seem to have an accent to me) and Maine. Maine accents and MA accents are nothing alike. It would be like saying someone from Quebec and someone from Paris had the same accent.

Edited to add: Anyone who watches Family Guy... Lois' voice is exactly like my mothers voice, but my mom is not nasal sounding at all. "Pee-dah!"

nomo: We had to watch that PBS thing in my Geography class in college.

disease of ease: I like Russian too. I studied it for a long time and love it... Most people I know find it so ugly.

I think Korean is an ugly language... very whiny sounding. However, I still find it fun. (the link is a show of foreign girls here speaking Korean)  

And nomo... I agree about learning Chinese.

Awesome post msheeran. Really informative :)

I speak (well spoke really, so out of practice) english, french & spanish and am familiar with german.

French definitely has pronunciations that are easiest on the ears. :)

I do however take exception to saying that german isn't sexy. Whenever the wife does her hair up in braided ponytails and speaks naughty german... well... let's just say I'm not put off by it.

Original Post by mykanosdelight:

Do the rest of the Americans here find themselves mimicking other's accents?  I do.  I catch myself following the speech pattern of every foreign friend I know.  My worse accent is Polish.  The other day I was talking about putting on my blinker and said "In-deee-CAY-tor" just like my friend Jola.

I definitely do.  Everytime I travel somewhere else, whether it is within the US or to another country, I always find myself picking up different pronunciations.  Such as in Minnesooooohta.  Although I will revert back to my normal speech (Texas)eventually when I get back home. 

I don't have a strong Texas drawl, though, being from Central Texas - East and West TX accents are much more pronounced.  Whenever I travel people are often surprised that I am from Texas because they say I don't sound like it.  Although I do use certain phrases that are typical of a Southern/Texas dialect.  "fixin' to" and "big ol'", etc.

Original Post by alibuch:

disease of ease: I like Russian too. I studied it for a long time and love it... Most people I know find it so ugly.

Yay, I'm not a freak! Everyone always thinks I'm so weird for loving it.

Original Post by ignayshus:

I do however take exception to saying that german isn't sexy. Whenever the wife does her hair up in braided ponytails and speaks naughty german... well... let's just say I'm not put off by it.

::giggles @ iggy::

*is reminded of Jamie Lee Curtis in A Fish Called Wanda*