What dialect of English would you consider to be the one with the least amount of accent?

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Bozono

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Aug 17, 2005
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I went to Washington State once and couldn't understand a damn person. From what I can tell most northern Eastern Seaboard Statespeoples talk relatively normal sounding to me. I'm going to have to say that us Canucks, all in all, have a more natural sounding (N)American English.
 
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ribbon13

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2005
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Pacific Northwest for the win. But if you can't understand what were saying, it's because you haven't drank enough of Seattle's Best or Starbucks. Not our fault. :laugh:
 
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KRandor

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Jan 7, 2003
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Wrong, wrong, wrong - (well, mostly wrong for some)....

It's been proven in a study a local university did some time ago that the area of the UK in which I live (Leicestershire - (Loughborough) contains the most amount of people without an accent. The historical reason for this, is because this is the area where 'modern' English came from - i.e. it's where most of the parties ended up meeting - (vikings/saxons/normans etc.) - creating the melting pot which has grown into English.

For instance I myself don't have much of an accent at all, and I know a lot of other people who speak it pretty flat. Though of course, there are a lot of others with local regional dialects too, it's just there seems to be more people who speak it flat, without an accent (like me) than anywhere else...
 
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KRandor

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Jan 7, 2003
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I was hoping I'd be able to find a copy of the front page article the Leicester Mercury ran on this very subject - (related to my previous post) - but I can't :(
 
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Exsomnis

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Nov 21, 2005
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Originally posted by: Mickey Eye
Originally posted by: Exsomnis
BBC English has the least accent, Scousers have even more accent than Americans.
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The BBC stopped using BBC english in the 1970s
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There was never a true "BBC English", it's just a slang term for what we know as "proper English" which isn't quite Queen's English but isn't far from it.
 
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Mickey Eye

Senior member
Apr 14, 2005
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BBC English
n.
A pronunciation of British English based on the speech of the upper class of southeastern England, formerly used as a broadcast standard in British media.
 
DanTMWTMP

DanTMWTMP

Lifer
Oct 7, 2001
15,908
19
81
Originally posted by: KRandor
Wrong, wrong, wrong - (well, mostly wrong for some)....

It's been proven in a study a local university did some time ago that the area of the UK in which I live (Leicestershire - (Loughborough) contains the most amount of people without an accent. The historical reason for this, is because this is the area where 'modern' English came from - i.e. it's where most of the parties ended up meeting - (vikings/saxons/normans etc.) - creating the melting pot which has grown into English.

For instance I myself don't have much of an accent at all, and I know a lot of other people who speak it pretty flat. Though of course, there are a lot of others with local regional dialects too, it's just there seems to be more people who speak it flat, without an accent (like me) than anywhere else...
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really how does that sound? :confused:

Brits have that accent, it's so obvious. I think NA english "accent" is just very flat sounding. we don't say "cont" for "can't"

I'm wondering how the NA "accent" came to be and its origins. I mean US's roots is in Britain no? I guess they tried to be different accent wise since the Brit accent sounds so damn arrogant? Then shouldn't we sound like Aussie's since, well, they have their roots from the brits as well? :confused: bah someone inform me lol.

The most annoying accent has to be southern california teenagers/early college students.

phok, if I hear the word "like" again, I'm going to punch that person. the word "like" is used in every single phokking sentence by a lot of young people in so. cal.

pisses me off.

"and he's all like..and i'm like.. yaya and then like.." phokking!!!!!

it took me awhile to get rid of it, but i still have residual traces of it left. pisses me off when i catch myself doing it.
 
Triumph

Triumph

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,031
14
81
Wikipedia to the rescue!

In many ways, compared to British English, American English is conservative in its phonology. The conservatism of American English is largely the result of the fact that it represents a mixture of various dialects from the British Isles. Dialect in North America is most distinctive on the East Coast of the continent; this is largely because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of British English at a time when those varieties were undergoing changes. The interior of the country was settled by people who were no longer closely connected to England, as they had no access to the ocean during a time when journeys to Britain were always by sea. As such the inland speech is much more homogeneous than the East Coast speech, and did not imitate the changes in speech from England.
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There's also the International Phonetic Alphabet that teaches the "proper" way to speak English. For example, for words starting in WH such as "while", you are really supposed to pronounce it "h-wile" rather than "wile." Actors are taught this "proper" English as it is commonly used in live theater. But of course, no one really talks like this. :)
 
ElFenix

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,402
8,574
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Originally posted by: LtPage1
technically, some kind of british.

otherwise, Northern Californian.
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actually, they changed their accent in the 1800s. patrick stewart speaks english as it was spoken in shakespeare's time, and his is much closer to american than modern english tends to be. in his accent you can hear the harsh german roots of english.

of course, he does pronounce the 'tt' in better as t, rather than d as we yanks tend to do.
 
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shortspanishguy

Banned
Mar 9, 2005
2,809
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My gf is in grad school to become an SLP and her professors told her it is accepted and agreed upon that some city in Ohio has no accent and is most pleasing to the ears. Apparently, this is the way news anchors are supposed to speak.
 
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Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
21,938
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Originally posted by: KRandor
Wrong, wrong, wrong - (well, mostly wrong for some)....

It's been proven in a study a local university did some time ago that the area of the UK in which I live (Leicestershire - (Loughborough) contains the most amount of people without an accent. The historical reason for this, is because this is the area where 'modern' English came from - i.e. it's where most of the parties ended up meeting - (vikings/saxons/normans etc.) - creating the melting pot which has grown into English.

For instance I myself don't have much of an accent at all, and I know a lot of other people who speak it pretty flat. Though of course, there are a lot of others with local regional dialects too, it's just there seems to be more people who speak it flat, without an accent (like me) than anywhere else...
Click to expand...

I'm from Leicestershire, currently living in Nottingham, and I'd say I don't have much of an accent either (despite living in Devon for pretty much all of my childhood).

So yeah, the English midlands gets my vote. Not Birmingham though.
 
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GreenGhost

Golden Member
Oct 11, 1999
1,272
1
81
Originally posted by: Lonyo

I'm from Leicestershire, currently living in Nottingham, and I'd say I don't have much of an accent either (despite living in Devon for pretty much all of my childhood).

So yeah, the English midlands gets my vote. Not Birmingham though.
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Just come to Mississippi to see if people here agree you don't have an accent...
 
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oboeguy

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 1999
3,907
0
76
Originally posted by: Legendary
Manhattan.
/superiority complex
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FTW!

But seriously, GA is where it's at (that's "General American" to you non-linguist types).
 
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