Americans sound nasal

Clark
Yes, true. I have been only to the East Coast of the US, mainly Maine, Boston, New Hampshire,...etc and their accent do sound nasal. They also swallow syllables. I've never been to the West Coast.

For someone from Europe, American accent notably East Coast accent sounds nasal. At the same time, American accent seems much easier to be followed in a convesation. I mean almost every American accent as they are a lot of them.

Nasal?!!

I used to think they all did when I was younger, but not now. Only some do, mainly southerners I believe.

Chinese people sound REALLY nasal. Actually, I have nerver come across any better example of nasality than the Chinese language. Well, maybe Korean too. Americans may sound nasal and annoying sometimes, but whenever I hear a Chinese speaking I get terribly irritated.

The Kiwi's think Aussies sound nasal. Aussies think certain American accents sound nasal. It just goes to show that people are likely desensitised to their own accent's nasality but not so that of other accents.

why don't we say we all sound nasal. happy?

TO me, if the language has an "n" sound in it, it probably will sound a bit nasal. And then of course there are vowels, but the "n" just seems to have a nasal quality to it, no matter what language.

Picture me shaking my head sadly at about this point....

First, it is very clear that there is maybe one person who actually knows what the word "nasal" actually means as it relates to languages -- and he's a s[expletive deleted]t-disturber.

Second, to talk about "the American accent" is just plain ludicrous. Only a complete ignoramus would use that expression. Which American accent? Boston? New York? New Jersey? Houston? Kentucky (pick one)? Mississipi? New Orleans? Colorado? California? North Dakota? South Dakota? Minnesota? Twin Cities (which is in Minnesota, but a very distinct dialect nonetheless)?

Hell, you can get enormous regional variation within the same city! New York and New Jersey aside (they're in different states, but for all practical purposes in the same city), different neighbourhoods within New York -- The Bronx, Manhattan, Tribeca et al -- each have distinctly different accents often to the point of mutual unintelligibility.

Finally, instead of whinging around about how "nasal" something is, why don't you just damned well learn the language and shut your collective traps? Or should I start talking about how Cantonese sounds to me like ducks quacking? About how northern Mandarin dialects sound to me like Cornish pirates on a bender. About how southern German dialects sound to me like people clearing their throats and spitting? About how northern German dialects just sound goofy? About how Parisian French sounds like a collection of drunkards barely able to stand up? About how... I think you get the point.

Languages sound different. Get used to it. Or go back to your little, provincial hole and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist.

Geez....somebody's a bit grumpy today.

I wouldn't say that New York neighbourhood accents are "mutually unintelligible" from each other. That seems a little far-fetched to me as I know plenty of New Yorkers and none of them have ever talked about how they couldn't understand people from Queens/Brooklyn etc.

Ryan

nokid mjd, i think someones just trying to be patriotic. uh how about we all have opinions (duh) and uh..our own way of describing the GENERAL WAY OF SAYING THINGS IN THE STATES . so go ahead, say that canadians talk about boots (aboot) and that germans cough and spit, or cantonese as you say, sound like squaking ducks. who cares, at least sounding like youve got a plugged nose sounds better than your descrpitions

Yeah guy! You show up here one day and act like king! HUMPH!

whose "guy"?

"Michael T. Richter" is guy. Haven't you ever heard people say something like this before?