A 'California Accent' Exists: Do You Think You Have an Accent?
AdriHead
2012/09/20 19:00:00
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A California accent? Like, no way, dude. You can't be serious. Though Californians -- and other West Coasters -- often pride themselves in thinking that they are free of accents and speak in the purest linguistic form, a new study is here to tell us that that's all a load of crock. The California accent is alive and well!
Researchers found that California is actually home to a very distinct dialect and accent. Some examples? "Black" sounds like "block," "pen" sounds like "pin," and in general the Californian "a" is very nasally. So... whether or not you're from California, we've got to ask: Do you think you have an accent when you speak?
JEZEBEL.COM reports:
Researchers found that California is actually home to a very distinct dialect and accent. Some examples? "Black" sounds like "block," "pen" sounds like "pin," and in general the Californian "a" is very nasally. So... whether or not you're from California, we've got to ask: Do you think you have an accent when you speak?
JEZEBEL.COM reports:
A team of researchers is canvassing California to try and nail down some of the linguistic peculiarities native to its various regions. Conventional wisdom holds that, aside from garish movie caricatures like Spicoli and Cher Horowitz, the English spoken on the west coast is clean, accentless, and standard.
Read More: http://jezebel.com/5944274/the-california-accent-i...
Top Opinion
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Tunnel Vision 2012/09/23 00:14:16
Actually, I used to have a boyfriend who would say I sounded sometimes like I was "from Minnesota", where my mother was from, so THAT is possible. But I truly don't think I sound like what is suggested here.. and honestly, a person doesn't really hear themselves as others would.
When I was a kid, we met cousins from Minnesota and they laughed at us when they heard us say "Phone" or other words. Who knows... like, I'm so sure...
"We got us the outlaw Mister Jo-sey Wales!" :O)
I have a Received Australian accent (The closest to BBC English of the 3 different Australian accents, Think Kylie Minogue) which means I annunciate too much to be classified in the General Australian accent (think Rove Mcmanus) and far far to much then the Broad Australian accent (think Steve Irwin).
I lived in NYC most of my life and had a hard introduction, (floriduh) but soon got back to my southern roots! And yeah, my great grandfather had a plantation...with slaves! You should see the reactions when I reveal that! HAHAHAHA!
I've explained this before here quite many times but since I was born in Japan to Finnish parents with Russian heritage, moved to Sweden from there at a young age and then moved to America from there for a short while and afterwards moved to China, I continued living in China for 10 years and during the time I attended a private international British school which had teachers from the UK who spoke with various UK accents, this is the point in my life that my English became better than my Finnish (Which is technically my first language) and I had friends from literally all over the world all who had very different accents, although the most international of us (Including me) sounded rather neutral, it's a mixture between a vague American accent and BBC British.
Now I'm living in Finland and most people who hear me speak in English say my accent leans towards a neutral American, my Finnish accent has gotten quite awful though since spend quite many years not speaking in it, but the funny thing is that my sister (Who grew up with me and attended the same school as me) has a completely English accent, totally different from mine.