[Way OT] American Accents (and your favorite accents)

[Squirrel Havoc]

Ok, this was part of anther thread, but that thread was an announcement from Chip, and I doubt he would appreciate me going so far OT on his thread, so I started a new one.

American Accents: How do these sound to you people in different countries? I know we have regional accents here in the states, but most of them sound pretty similar. How do they sound for you guys?

Favorites: My favorite accents would have to be Austrian for female, and English for male.


What do you guys think?

[fisk0]

Ok, this was part of anther thread, but that thread was an announcement from Chip, and I doubt he would appreciate me going so far OT on his thread, so I started a new one.

American Accents: How do these sound to you people in different countries? I know we have regional accents here in the states, but most of them sound pretty similar. How do they sound for you guys?

Favorites: My favorite accents would have to be Austrian for female, and English for male.


What do you guys think?

I can't hear that much difference between american accents. Or, Texas accents makes me think of the guy riding on a nuclear bomb waving his hat in Dr. Strangelove.

I prefer that british (or perhaps London, as there are quite a lot of differences all over britain) accent both for females and males.
To me it sounds more "serious", and like they actually take time to pronounce the words properly, where (some?) american accents often sounds like someone joking about "generic american accents" ("Oh God, they can't speak like that for real? They got to be joking.").

[DavidN]

Well, they sound like... an American accent. Actually that's not quite true, I can easily identify people from the South of the USA by voice... I'm not quite sure about differentiating between American and Canadian voices, though.

When I am in America, people keep saying how great my accent is. This is a weird experience for me as for me, everyone else around me has the accent, so it really throws them when I reply "Thanks, yours isn't bad either".

[Squirrel Havoc]

I can't hear that much difference between american accents. Or, Texas accents makes me think of the guy riding on a nuclear bomb waving his hat in Dr. Strangelove.

Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaa!

I prefer that british (or perhaps London, as there are quite a lot of differences all over britain) accent both for females and males.
To me it sounds more "serious", and like they actually take time to pronounce the words properly, where (some?) american accents often sounds like someone joking about "generic american accents" ("Oh God, they can't speak like that for real? They got to be joking.").

Funny, I always thought some British accents so sound like they are slurring, like they leave out a syllable or 2 in a word. Funny thing is, that way of speaking came WAY before mine did.

[Squirrel Havoc]

I'm not quite sure about differentiating between American and Canadian voices, though.

Well if they live near the border, there really isn't much different, except an occasional "eh" at the end of a sentence (pronounced "ay"). But the farther north you get the more french it sounds.

You should hear a person from northern Minnesota talk so someone from Boston if you can't hear the difference in regions

"Yah, sure, how ya' doin', ok."
"Oh, Eye'm douin feiyn, how'bout'choo?"

Well you get the idea

Then again, if you havent heard people like that speak, it will all sound the same  :lol:

[rewbs]

Check this out:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/index.shtml

[fisk0]

Funny, I always thought some British accents so sound like they are slurring, like they leave out a syllable or 2 in a word. Funny thing is, that way of speaking came WAY before mine did.

It could be that many british accents have some pronounciation (oh god, how do one spell that word?) that sounds similiar to that in the swedish language. Like the letter "A". American accents often pronounce it like "aoow" or something, while many british accents pronouce it "aa" (I have no idea how english phonetics are written, this might just look like rubbish to you), which is very close to how it is pronounced in the swedish language (or, the northern accents of swedish anyway). Anyway, some british english and swedish vowels are pronounced somewhat similiar, which to me makes british english sound more "correct" than american english.

Oh, and also, the "rolling" R sound is also shared between some british accents and most swedish accents, where every american accent I've heard has pronounce R more like an W.

EDIT: Sorry, I guess this post does'nt make any sense to anyone but me.
I'm far from an language expert.

[Squirrel Havoc]

It could be that many british accents have some pronounciation (oh god, how do one spell that word?) that sounds similiar to that in the swedish language. Like the letter "A". American accents often pronounce it like "aoow" or something, while many british accents pronouce it "aa" (I have no idea how english phonetics are written, this might just look like rubbish to you)

at first I didn't get what you are saying, then you clarified that you don't know english phonetics. "A" as part of a word in english is pronounced "ahw" while by itself it's pronounced "ayee".

Oh, and also, the "rolling" R sound is also shared between some british accents and most swedish accents, where every american accent I've heard has pronounce R more like an W.

I had to think about that for a second, and you are right, it does sound like a W. I'm used to Hispanic sounding accents, I used to live in Arizona, so I am used to the rolling R sound. I took spanish, and although I cant speak it, if you put a spanish phrase in front of me, I can pronounce it right most of the time.

EDIT: Sorry, I guess this post does'nt make any sense to anyone but me.
I'm far from an language expert.

Well what better reason to learn? I'm no expert in other cultures IE other countries, so I ask questions until I become an expert. Sure, we learn about the Queen Mum in school, but I want to know what common people's lives are like, the hobbyist musician/programmer/web designer/whatever. I just like to learn, so I flood Chip's forum with odd questions that seem to come out of nowhere

[apple-joe]

I used to consider American as the real English language. I remember years ago when the teacher asked the class whether she'd use American or British accent. I thought American - and let me tell you; I wasn't alone.

I  used to think of the British accent as strange, but that's because I heard the American accent more often.

I'm not that good at telling the differences between accents within America, but I easily recognize an extreme Englishman.

The recent years the British accent has grown on my, I like it more and more, it's so... almost passionate.

I'm till quite 'new' to the Australian accent, but it's more like the British than the American?

[LPChip]

I think this is a quite funny topic. When I talk english, for some weird reason, (cus I really hate the sound of dutch people speaking english) I automatically try to speak like brittish people. I'm working on my accent to make it sound more like american people, but its very hard. If someone asks me something in english when I'm not expecting it, I sound like any other ordinairy dutch men, which I really hate

[Snu]

i think my favorite accent is the strong irish accent, especially with women, oh man... for men tho i guess it might be spanish.

[DavidN]

I used to consider American as the real English language.

Did the name "English" not give you a bit of a clue otherwise? =)

My home town is on that map of Britain! Click on Inverurie in the Northeast corner, and listen to the unintelligibility of it.

[Squirrel Havoc]

I've had a little bit more experience listening to male German accents, so I have to change my fave male to German. So forcefull and direct, serious and all that. But they can be funny

[Squirrel Havoc]

This isn't a bump, just an observation...

I just got Mad Max on DVD, and on the back it sais "Austrailian Surround/English Dubbed Mono", which really made me wonder, so when I got it home, I fired it up with Austrailian language track playing. And it was plain old english with a very heavy accent, while the english was of course english with a mild accent. Even the aussie slang was there in both audio tracks, so I don't see the difference.

Anyone know why they would do that? The Aussie track was considered theatrical audio, while the english was done later, so I dont know why someone would want to hear it in mono with crappy fake accents and stuff.