American/English Dialects

[Winnow]

Which dialect sounds the most pleasing to your ears? (and which one is the most annoying to you)



You can throw in Canadian, English, Scottish, Irish, Australian accents in as well...and even foreigners speaking English (French accent, German, American Indian, guruguru (asian), etc etc)

[Morgrym]

Midland / Appalachian is what I prefer, probably because I grew up there.

Recently, I can't stand the California (valley) accent. All the drawn out words make me want to smack someone. It's more dominant in females.

[Winnow]

Recently, I can't stand the California (valley) accent. All the drawn out words make me want to smack someone. It's more dominant in females.

I don't know if it's specific to California or the West, but I can't stand the recent trend for people to end their sentences as if they were asking a question no matter what they are talking about.

On the flip side, there's a local radio guy that does commercials and he ends every sentence fading away. His voice dies off at the end and it's so annoying I have to change the channel as soon as I hear it.

Last example of an annoying voice to me is the the lady who does the Grammar Girl podcast. You can sample her voice here:

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/default.aspx

The grammar tips are great but her voice is annoying.

[Spang]

The Boston accent is wicked cool.

[Funkmasterr]

The midwest "accent" is what I prefer for obvious reasons. People have the misconception that people from the midwest talk like the people in the movie Fargo, but I've met maybe a half dozen people in my life that sound like that.

The two most annoying accents I can think of are NY/Jersey accents (mostly in women) and strong Indian accents (dot, not feather) moreso in women as well.

[Fash]

how many of you find that, much like a chameleon does with color, you adapt your speech to your surroundings without even thinking about it? Within 5 minutes of talking to someone with a different dialect, I've adopted it as my own for the duration of the conversation.

I like the dialect in my area (ne pa)... it's not annoying. i don't like the real southern hick or nasal ny/nj dialect.

[Dregor Thule]

Irish on a woman.

[Nick]

Italian, French or Spanish people speaking English.

[Neziroth]

I like british accents if it's being spoken by the right voice. My aunt and uncle are from england and I love listening to them talk.

[Asheran Mojomaster]

I like the Irish accent.

[Diae Soulmender]

Obviously the eastern half of the US have severe speech impediments.

If you say "Oregon" like this:

Or-ee-gone = You are retarded.
Or-gun = Correct

If you say "Washington" like this:

Warsh-ing-ton = You are retarded.
Wash-ing-ton = Correct

If you say "about" like this:

a-boot = You are retarded.. errr I mean Canadian.
a-bowt = Correct.

If you say "Portland" like this:

Powt-lan = You are retarded... err I mean speak ebonic.
Port-land = Correct.

PS: Pleasing accent: Austrailian. Annoying accent: Southern "drawl"

[Nick]

I was in a linguistics lecture today and our Professor was talking about exactly this. Accents.

Theoritically, there are no "bad" accents, or good ones for that matter either. Using an example, he showed us how various Belfast accents can vary (there are about 5 different Belfast accents alone). Each of those took a single expression, although sadly I cannot remember which, and deviated as such.

It turned out some were speaking Anglo Saxon, some modern English and one even old Viking. You would have understood all of these accents as normal English, yet subtly they all ended up being either/or former dialects historically spoken here, or "modern, Queens" english.

I found it fascinating.

We are doing all about accents at the moment here, and it was interesting to realise the vast array of accents in the UK alone, be they Irish, Ulster, Tyne, Liverpudlian, Mancunian, Essex etc etc, essentially a shitload of different accents all geographically close together but sounding very different, when compared to "newer" countries like Australia or the USA, where by and large the accents are somewhat similiar (although the USA is deviating accent wise at a quicker rate, and a more dynamic angle, than Australia).

Based on class, income, education, age and history, accents vary, yet all their forms, tend to be linguistically speaking, "legitimate" or "correct", (that is a seperate issue from Grammar, although even this is debatable, but that's a different discussion!).

I just thought that was cool.

I've always thought Bill Hicks' voice was fucking awesome, yet I find Texan accents to be somewhat annoying most of the time. But, allegedly, that's just another form of racism, so I best not delve too deeply into that

Edit: There will be accents that sound more "pleasing" to certain people, I just wanted to ramble
For the record, I do like the Irish accent, but not the Northern one (although I don't really sound like that one, somehow )

[Morgrym]

Odd, I have lived on the East Coast my entire life with visits to other various states for periods of time. However, rarely do I hear anyone using that enunciation for those words. With exceptions being in outland portions of New England where Old English dialect seems to be prominent. Oh, and Boston where they just plain butcher the English language.

[Nick]

Some odd accent related nonsense

Northern Irish pronunciation = ****
"Normal" lingua = XXXX

"Eight" (fate, late etc)
**** = eeite
XXXX = Ayte

"Shower" (or power)
**** = Shauwr
XXXX = Shaoiwaer

[Winnow]

(although the USA is deviating accent wise at a quicker rate, and a more dynamic angle, than Australia).

I would think that all English speaking countries would be losing their diversity due to television and even things like Xbox Live's voice chat, etc.

Even the voices in games have a lot of Western US dialect....software video tutorials, etc.

The counter to this is having to deal with tech support located in India. There is a fierce battle going on between Western U.S. dialect and English spoken with an Indian accent. If the two are equally mixed, the entire world will sound like Bob Marley.

[Gzette]

In my podcasting class, I was told that NPR and other talk radio stations tend to favor a middle American accent from the southern portion of the Mid-West. I guess that's the Ohio valley on the map, but I didn't listen.

[Nick]

I would think that all English speaking countries would be losing their diversity due to television and even things like Xbox Live's voice chat, etc.

On the contrary, English has never been spoken with more regional dialects now than in its entire history. Predominantly because never before have so many people actually spoken the language, which means its evolving at a faster rate than has ever been done previously. Which is pretty awesome imo

Also, TV and "Xbox live voice chat ( ) " have a negligable effect on conformity, language wise, than actually living in a certain area and communicating on a moment by moment basis with local dialect, over the course of a whole lifetime.

[Keverian FireCry]

Italian, French or Spanish people speaking English.

I looove Spanish women speaking English (might have to do with my gf being Spanish), however I can't stand the male accent.

In the US I've always like Savannah and Kentucky accents. Guess it's that whole southern comfort vibe I get when I hear them, as well as both pairs of grandparents being from Kentucky.

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

There's a great deal of charm to the Irish tendency of enunciating consonants differently in words like "world" and "film" - "woreld" and "filem", I love it.

Scouser can be cool depending on the person, Brum accents are horrrrrrrrrrrrrrible, northern English is ugly as a rule (except when Michael Caine does his Newcastle-thing).

Glasgae > Edinburgh.

An' that's religion, roite?

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

I do not care much for this dialect.

[Pherr the Dorf]

I don't know if it's specific to California or the West, but I can't stand the recent trend for people to end their sentences as if they were asking a question no matter what they are

Stay classy San Diego... I'm Ron Burgundy?

[Winnow]

I listen to a podcast called Mysterious Universe that's hosted by an Aussie. For some reason, his accent makes whatever subject he's talking about seem a little more interesting. I know if someone with an annoying voice was reporting some of the more outlandish oddball topics, I'd turn it off faster.

You can sample it here:

http://www.mysteriousuniverse.org/

I guess Aussies have good storytelling accents. Maybe Zaeleth can tell us if his accent is normal for aussies or if there are dialects down under as well.

English accents can be OK but the the English "educated" accent snobbery is highly irritating where they speak through their nose and sound like they are being inconvenienced merely by having to speak the word.

[Wulfran]

My view on accents is based on how easy or difficult I find it to understand what the other person is saying. This is also voice dependant I find, as the pitch affects inflection in some words a lot.

My two all time favorites were a woman in Inverness, Scotland and another in Dallas (I was told she a had a "west Texas" accent). The coolest accent on a man was an engineer I met in Scotland, from a town called Invergordon. I found the UK fascinating in the way the accents change over a remarkably small distance. I was in a seminar in Manchester one time and we had guys from Liverpool, Nottingham, Birmingham, Wales (can't remember where exactly), Reading, Inverness and Aberdeen and I thought it was so cool the way they all had distinctly different accents, yet they lived in an area smaller than my home province.

My least favorite accent was a couple of guys from rural Georgia who talked like they had mouths full of marbles. I got about 1 word in 3. It was almost as bad as a heavy asian accent on the phone.

[rhyae]

My boyfriend is originally from southern Colorado, almost on the New Mexico border. His accent is like a cross between spanish and canadian (his ancestors are Dutch). Took me a while to get used to it, but now I like it.

I hate a southern accent, deep rural Alabama accents are like nails on a chalk board.

[Zaelath]

I listen to a podcast called Mysterious Universe that's hosted by an Aussie. For some reason, his accent makes whatever subject he's talking about seem a little more interesting. I know if someone with an annoying voice was reporting some of the more outlandish oddball topics, I'd turn it off faster.

You can sample it here:

http://www.mysteriousuniverse.org/

I guess Aussies have good storytelling accents. Maybe Zaeleth can tell us if his accent is normal for aussies or if there are dialects down under as well.

English accents can be OK but the the English "educated" accent snobbery is highly irritating where they speak through their nose and sound like they are being inconvenienced merely by having to speak the word.

I think our accent varies a little regionally, but it seems to be close enough that people recognise it as Australian and not enough that I can tell what region people are from. Your mysteriousuniverse bloke is pretty average I guess.

[Nali]

I really dislike New York accents. Although to be more specific...I think it's the Brooklyn accent? I find Southern accents pleasing. When I say Southern, I mean the polite and proper speech - not the "nails against the chalkboard" sound. Despite the shaded area of the graph, the South has a more divided dialect. I know in Mississippi alone, the accent changes greatly every few counties. It's fairly easy to recognize where in the state the speaker comes from.

[Bojangels]

New England is my favorite...Maine / New Hampshire / Vermont etc.

[MooZilla]

i love new york accents. i frequently take up a boston accent if i'm trying to assume a new identity at parties, so that has to come in a close number 2.

[Keverian FireCry]

I do not care much for this dialect.

That a Jersey accent perhaps? Whatever it is, I agree with Kwon. Can't stand it.

[Bagar-]

I'm from tennessee, but have more of a boston accent. I don't know really how that happened...

I really like british accents, but not really heavy ones. The same goes for scandinavian people speaking english.

[Ashur]

One of our local reporters looks like a brit, has a name like a brit, and sounds like the Asian reporter from Family Guy.