Mr R - 19 September 2011 02:00 AM

The UK accents have developed over many years from small towns; the US accents have developed a lot quicker.

Cali - no accent? I don’t think so. The Valley accent or the Oakland accent are both quite distinctly different to one another.

Well, this is California In General. There is the “Valley” accent, which is more affectation than anything - you don’t hear the adults speaking like that.

And I didn’t say that California had NO accent, I just said it was, linguistically, the closest to unaccented American English.

I recall reading a work on linguistics that claimed either Aberdeen or Inverness (I forget which) had the most accent-free English in all the English-speaking world.  I’m not so sure as to the accuracy of that claim, however. . .

Well, there’s British English, of course..

Really, once you get beyond national barriers, you have to caveat things. I’m pretty certain the Aussie contingent would agree they have a solid accent whencompared to the UK or the US, but there’s likely a noticable difference between someone from Perth and someone from Sydney…

I was rather pleased with myself that I recognized a Kiwi accent once.

I remember reading years and years ago, that a lot of call centers were located in Nebraska because because the natives spoke the most accent free English in the U.S. and were most likely to be understood by everyone.

It’s funny but there have been times over the years when people have said I have a New York City accent. But I’ve never been outside Australia. This hasn’t been said to be for some years though but then again I haven’t asked people for that long either.

In Melbourne Australia we have a diverse ethnic mix so we get a lot of different accents. But I think those people who were born here do have a definite accent but I only notice the difference when I talk to people from a different part of the country if that makes sense. Like I can tell if somebody has come from the state of Queensland as opposed to being from here in Victoria. For me the Queensland accent is easy to distinguish compared to other states.

I can tell a Queenslander but not really anyone else back home.

I’ve never thought I have much of an accent and since I’ve been here in Canada, I’ve been asked four times if I’m British. Odd.

Depending on how much telly I’ve been watching depends on how quickly I pick up American accents. If I’ve been watching a lot of US shows, I hardly notice it but if I haven’t I find it really noticable.

Nettie, you do sound somewhat British, but more Australian to me.  Not quite as thick as some Aussie accents, though!  I don’t think I have one, especially compared to folks from the South.

Acci and Robin, what is the ‘base’ from which all the other American differences in inflection or vowel rotation are determined?  I find this all a little confusing…..............because that means there has to be a set rhythm that is the ‘real’ or ‘root’ American English apparently and if there is, then all others are dialects sprung from that first base root. 

Unless, of course, this idea is that everyone is starting to sound the same?  So that would mean that the majority of people are somehow linguistically-inflected-dialected together?

In the end speech is a little bit like ‘texting’ as opposed to spelling words completely.  And I’m sure those English speaking folks from England would view every single American as accent deficient as ‘texting’ is to those who appreciate written language. 

I know that my older sister uses the term ‘pop’ when referring to soda, and I had a girlfriend who complained about having a ‘bowl’ under her arm which confused me until I realized she meant ‘boil’. 

hulitoons - 21 September 2011 07:51 PM

I know that my older sister uses the term ‘pop’ when referring to soda

Pop is a good northern-English term. Lancashire/Yorkshire areas and probably further north as well.

Mr R - 22 September 2011 02:05 AM

hulitoons - 21 September 2011 07:51 PM

I know that my older sister uses the term ‘pop’ when referring to soda

Pop is a good northern-English term. Lancashire/Yorkshire areas and probably further north as well.

That makes sense since she moved directly to Wisconsin when she returned to the States and that’s been nearly 50 years ago.  Most of my family is from the far northern regions and when those of us here (Maryland) visit with them (we’ve been here as long as they’ve been north), we note very clearly that they (these are siblings) have accents (or maybe we do) and odd terminology that, while we understand them, sometimes it takes a moment to put a term into perspective.

Nettie - 21 September 2011 07:09 PM

I can tell a Queenslander but not really anyone else back home.

I’ve never thought I have much of an accent and since I’ve been here in Canada, I’ve been asked four times if I’m British. Odd.

Depending on how much telly I’ve been watching depends on how quickly I pick up American accents. If I’ve been watching a lot of US shows, I hardly notice it but if I haven’t I find it really noticable.

I work with a couple of British guys and their accent is definitely different from yours.  Honestly I had expected yours to be a bit stronger like other Aussies I’ve met but you were totally understandable.  The one Brit we have here at work is almost incomprehensible sometimes.  When he gets excited his accent thickens and most of us have no idea what he is saying.