Y'all may find this interesting.....................
American English often takes its dialects and accents from the language roots of the first settlers in the area. There is something very British about the way people from Massachusetts or Pennsylvania pronounce certain words. Those in New York sound perhaps more guttural, owing to their strong German and Eastern European influences.
Southerners sound mostly alike to non-Southern ears, but a native has no trouble distinguishing a mountain accent from one hailing from the Tidewater area of Virginia. The Southern accent is deceptively complex, borrowing as it does from the British accent, Scottish “burr” and Irish “brogue,” the Cherokee language, and mixed with slurred French intonations and staccato Spanish and spiced with African-American speech.
The Midwestern accent is usually considered the most “correct” of accents in American English, since it lacks a great deal of specific inflection, and sounds "flat." Upper Midwestern American English takes its sound from the Scandinavian accents of those who first settled there.
The western accent of American English has Southern inflections, mixed with the Midwest accent of those settlers who made the trek with the wagon trains. The Pacific Northwest residents have western accents tinged with those of their Canadian neighbors in Alberta and British Columbia, just over the border. Californians tend to have less specific “accent” than other Americans, although when they do, it sounds more western. Southern Californians, like those raised in New York City, tend toward rapid-fire speech, and mix in the latest slang.
American English is so distinctive that it marks its speakers anywhere they travel. Many world citizens who have never traveled to the United States know an American immediately. Some people can even hazard a guess at where in the States an American lives by the accent.
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 8:29 pm
I try not to let it happen because of concern that people will think I'm mocking them.
