What do Brits think of American accent?

[Mo0o]

The attitudes come from how you view the people of that region. You're basically asking how Brits view the yanks

 

[edro]

I would say that we all sound like cowboys.
Some more so than others.

 

[zerocool84]

I lived in Los Angeles almost my whole life and I'm a White boy and I moved to Sacramento for a couple years and they said that I had a Mexican Accent to me so I think there are different accents even in the West Coast. In LA we here almost every accent there is. There is no place as deverse as Los Angeles.

 

[JDawg1536]

Originally posted by: zerocool84
I lived in Los Angeles almost my whole life and I'm a White boy and I moved to Sacramento for a couple years and they said that I had a Mexican Accent to me so I think there are different accents even in the West Coast. In LA we here almost every accent there is. There is no place as deverse as Los Angeles.

I don't see any difference in Northern/Southern California at all. Now if you speak with a little pinch of "gangster", that would be something different. 😉

 

[Fayd]

Originally posted by: JDawg1536

Originally posted by: zerocool84
I lived in Los Angeles almost my whole life and I'm a White boy and I moved to Sacramento for a couple years and they said that I had a Mexican Accent to me so I think there are different accents even in the West Coast. In LA we here almost every accent there is. There is no place as deverse as Los Angeles.

I don't see any difference in Northern/Southern California at all. Now if you speak with a little pinch of "gangster", that would be something different. 😉

northern uses the term "hella".

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: Fayd

Originally posted by: JDawg1536

Originally posted by: zerocool84
I lived in Los Angeles almost my whole life and I'm a White boy and I moved to Sacramento for a couple years and they said that I had a Mexican Accent to me so I think there are different accents even in the West Coast. In LA we here almost every accent there is. There is no place as deverse as Los Angeles.

I don't see any difference in Northern/Southern California at all. Now if you speak with a little pinch of "gangster", that would be something different. 😉

northern uses the term "hella".

Shit I hate hella. I can't stand it when people say it.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
There is an American accent that I think of as being no accent, but I'm having trouble thinking which area of the country it is primarily spoken in. Midwest maybe? /ramble

That accent would still be distinctly American. It would be immediately obvious to a foreigner (who speaks English) that a person from that area was American. No English speaker anywhere speaks without an accent (I suspect this is true for other languages, but I'm pretty ignorant of this stuff).

I guess that would make sense.

I definitely think SlitheryDee is correct though. For the U.S., there is one area that carries a distinctly pure accent, one I'd say is THE "American" accent. I say that because well, all newscasters in the country, and anyone that is dealing in professional environments, tends to have this "accent".

I'm from Northwest Ohio. It is definitely a Great Lakes/Midwest region phenomenon. It seems that some areas of Penn, the Northern half of Ohio, hit and miss within Michigan, and Indiana, Illinois, and maybe some of Wisconsin... all share the same base accent. Some pockets will have their own little style though, like anywhere near Appalachia people have the most annoying accent I know.

But yeah, anyone not from America will say it has an accent. And many not from that region in America will say we have an accent, someone said it had a "nasally" pronunciation style - I was offended. lol

But what I've experienced, no matter what I was, or for the most part, where any news program is located - if its an American program, those on it all sound like they would be from my region, yet they can be from anywhere. Local news, national, doesn't matter - they all seem to sound just like how us Northwest Ohioans sound. So I'd say we have the default accent, and for America, the distinct lack of an accent compared to other regions, like Boston or New Jersey which have a very pronounced accent.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Farang

Originally posted by: herm0016
the west coast has no accent? you must live on the west coast... of course you will think that your particular accent is not one, and everyone else is wrong.

Not sure how true this is but I once heard the west coast includes the largest single group of language speakers with no real difference in dialects.

The only west coast accent I've really noticed is the surfer dude kind. But they say pop instead of soda so that's just plain weird 🙂

No, we don't. Only midwesterners say pop, and we think they're hicks too...

Who you callin a hick?!

I ain't no hick. But WTH is soda? Is that like tonic water? I use that when I drink my Gin.
Pop is something tasty though. 😛

 

[Q]

I like pop too

 

[RocksteadyDotNet]

Originally posted by: Kaido
I don't know, but it really weirded me out when I discovered that both House and Wolverine speak with British accents :Q

Also equally weird, the spy girl from Chuck has an Australian accent! I never think of American as an accent until I hear people who are speaking in it break into their native accent 😛

Wolverine's Australian dumbass. Doesn't sound anything like British.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: JDawg1536
There are a few accents in the United States. Someone from Jersey isn't gonna sound like someone from Georgia. On the west coast, there are no accents.

New Jersey doesn't have an accent. It's just like the West Coast. I'm from New Jersey and and I hear no difference in accent from most of NJ and that of California, Arizona, etc. Most of Philly has no accent either.

The strong "Jersey"accent that you see in movies isn't a New Jersey accent, it's a NYC accent. You only hear that in North Jersey.

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
I'm not a Brit (Kiwi). I'm so used to the American accent from TV and podcasts that I hardly notice anymore to be honest. Although I do still think it's kinda hawt when I meet a girl IRL and she talks with an American accent. And yeah, there are many US accents. I think the best is the Colorado-region accent and the worst by far is the southern variant.

I've always been curious what the world thinks of the NZ accent.

Oh jesus, you're from New Zealand? Christ, that explains a LOT. Even Australians make fun of you.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: Atheus

Have you only heard Tony Blair speak or something? Did they teach you in school we are a different species with smaller voiceboxes? Or perhaps you are mentally retarded? There are about 40 different British accents and only the posh southern one sounds wussy. Pitch of voice is obviously based on the individual in question. Have you never seen a British film? What about Snatch? Or Bond? Does Sean Connery sound like a bitch to you?

Atheus

You're the last guy Britain wants speaking for them. You'd be considered an annoying wuss regardless of which country you hail from.

 

[JDawg1536]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: JDawg1536
There are a few accents in the United States. Someone from Jersey isn't gonna sound like someone from Georgia. On the west coast, there are no accents.

New Jersey doesn't have an accent. It's just like the West Coast. I'm from New Jersey and and I hear no difference in accent from most of NJ and that of California, Arizona, etc. Most of Philly has no accent either.

The strong "Jersey"accent that you see in movies isn't a New Jersey accent, it's a NYC accent. You only hear that in North Jersey.

Yeah I spent a lot of time in Bayonne, that's where I got it from. But in other parts of NJ I noticed that people don't really like to pronounce the letter T.

 

[orion23]

Originally posted by: destrekor

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
There is an American accent that I think of as being no accent, but I'm having trouble thinking which area of the country it is primarily spoken in. Midwest maybe? /ramble

That accent would still be distinctly American. It would be immediately obvious to a foreigner (who speaks English) that a person from that area was American. No English speaker anywhere speaks without an accent (I suspect this is true for other languages, but I'm pretty ignorant of this stuff).

I guess that would make sense.

I definitely think SlitheryDee is correct though. For the U.S., there is one area that carries a distinctly pure accent, one I'd say is THE "American" accent. I say that because well, all newscasters in the country, and anyone that is dealing in professional environments, tends to have this "accent".

I'm from Northwest Ohio. It is definitely a Great Lakes/Midwest region phenomenon. It seems that some areas of Penn, the Northern half of Ohio, hit and miss within Michigan, and Indiana, Illinois, and maybe some of Wisconsin... all share the same base accent. Some pockets will have their own little style though, like anywhere near Appalachia people have the most annoying accent I know.

But yeah, anyone not from America will say it has an accent. And many not from that region in America will say we have an accent, someone said it had a "nasally" pronunciation style - I was offended. lol

But what I've experienced, no matter what I was, or for the most part, where any news program is located - if its an American program, those on it all sound like they would be from my region, yet they can be from anywhere. Local news, national, doesn't matter - they all seem to sound just like how us Northwest Ohioans sound. So I'd say we have the default accent, and for America, the distinct lack of an accent compared to other regions, like Boston or New Jersey which have a very pronounced accent.

I'm live in NJ (foreigner though), and I cannot hear the so called NJ accent....I can easily tell the NY or Boston accent....those are very strong IMO.... The worst being the southern accent, again, IMO.

Got to love the British accent....I keep on telling myself that I have to date a british girl just because of this!!!

 

[lxskllr]

Does anyone know how the accents developed? I find it interesting that the common background has changed so dramatically depending on region. I've heard that there's parts in Appalachia where the Queens English is still spoken.

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: Lonyo

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
I've always been curious what the world thinks of the NZ accent.

They think it's Australian 😛

I'm not sure I'd have been able to tell before watching The Flight of the Conchords. Now I can't -not- hear the difference.

Originally posted by: Atheus
There are about 40 different British accents and only the posh southern one sounds wussy.

I can only make out about 3 British accents, the hoighty toighty well-to-do one, the (lower class?) one, eg. "Blimey, Oi dropped me pen!", and then a third one which I honestly can't understand. It's like a British version of that guy on King of the Hill who's completely unintelligible.

I live on the east coast and know a guy in the LA suburbs. He thinks I sound like a "New Yawkuh", I think he sounds stoned. We both think we ourselves have neutral accents. At least we can all agree that the southern accent sounds really stupid. Text

 

[Babbles]

A while I was watching some Military Channel special on the British Commando training. It was all pretty interesting watching these tough sonuvabitches doing things; then they spoke. Regardless of how buff and crazy these dudes were, hearing a few of their somewhat "pansy" accents just had me roaring with laughter.

Yeah, it is shallow and dumb. . . but I still found it funny.

 

[Triumph]

Can someone explain to me, why is it, that when movies are set in space, in the future, or in the past, the default accent is British? In Gladiator, ancient Rome, everyone spoke like the Brits. Or war movies. Valkyrie most recently, why the fuck are the Germans speaking with a British accent? Or Enemy at the Gates; since when did a Russian accent sound anything like a British one? Star Trek, every new race they come across speaks like they were raised under the Queen. WTF?

 

[RaistlinZ]

Originally posted by: Clair de Lune
I think it's accurate to stereotype that we think of Britain accents as sophisticated, sexy (female) and I personally think male Brit accent sounds so god damn feminine. They sound really wussy. I've never heard of a deep voiced Brit accent..

This makes me wonder, what do Brits think of a typical American accent? Do they think it's desirable, sexy, stupid..etc?

I know ATOT has a tendency to get anal and dissect off-topic. I'm speaking GENERALLY and STEREOTYPICALLY what Brits think just as what WE think of Brits.

Anyone Brit here?

Check out this vid of Prime Minister Gordon Brown for an example of a deep British accent.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: Triumph
Can someone explain to me, why is it, that when movies are set in space, in the future, or in the past, the default accent is British? In Gladiator, ancient Rome, everyone spoke like the Brits. Or war movies. Valkyrie most recently, why the fuck are the Germans speaking with a British accent? Or Enemy at the Gates; since when did a Russian accent sound anything like a British one? Star Trek, every new race they come across speaks like they were raised under the Queen. WTF?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmw...om=Main.TheQueensLatin

 

[IGBT]

..nasal sounding sissy boys.

 

[DangerAardvark]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
I'm not a Brit (Kiwi). I'm so used to the American accent from TV and podcasts that I hardly notice anymore to be honest. Although I do still think it's kinda hawt when I meet a girl IRL and she talks with an American accent. And yeah, there are many US accents. I think the best is the Colorado-region accent and the worst by far is the southern variant.

I've always been curious what the world thinks of the NZ accent.

The NZ accent is awesome. It's like Australian accent except cuter. Makes you want to *snorgle* *snorgle*

 

[Triumph]

Funny in this thread, nobody has mentioned black English. Let's face it, black people, even "educated" ones (for lack of a better term), overwhelmingly speak black, or rather, not southern white, NY white, texas white, ohio white, etc. You ever heard a black person say, "aboot?" It seems to be much less regional based than white accents, IMO. One of the funniest things Dave Chappelle does is a white guy impression. "There's no hussling the white man!" 😀

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2mf2ngEq7Q

 

[skriefal]

Originally posted by: RaistlinZ

Check out this vid of Prime Minister Gordon Brown for an example of a deep British accent.

Or Christopher Lee, or Valentine Dyall, or Brian Blessed, or...