What other accents does an American or Canadian accent sound like

David Adams Richard   Thursday, February 03, 2005, 02:01 GMT
Do they sound similar to an English, Scottish, Irish, or whatever?
Brennus   Thursday, February 03, 2005, 07:53 GMT
Dear David,

The American accents of the American South and Northeast sound somewhat British. The American accents of the U.S. interior (including "General American") are derived from 17 century English and cannot be easily compared with any accents heard in England today where the London accent has been taking over and erasing earlier accents. The so-called "Northern Interior" accent spoken in much of the northern United States (from eastern Washington to upstate New York) and Canada is said to have originated in East Anglia (England) but I doubt that it sounds much like what is spoken in East Anglia today.

General American probably evolved out of several southern English dialects but again sounds like nothing spoken there today.

In Newfoundland, there are some Irish influences on the accent and vocabulary because the British forcibly settled many people from southern Ireland there in the mid-1700's.
Ben   Thursday, February 03, 2005, 14:44 GMT
Basically, here's a list of the primary influences on the dialects of North American English:

1.) Eastern New England: Early East Anglian English (combined with a heavy Irish influence around Boston)
2.) Western New England: East Anglian English mixed with some Scots-Irish and possibly Dutch influence
3.) Upstate New York and the Great Lakes: similar to Western New England
4.) The Northern Midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, etc.): Similar to Great Lakes but with a very strong Scandinavian influence
5.) New York City: Originally a mixture of Dutch and British, then influenced by countless immigrant groups
6.) Philadelphia and the mid-Atlantic: Primarily influenced by Dutch and Scots-Irish
7.) Coastal South: Early Southwestern England dialect combined with some British RP
8.) Inland South (Kentucky, Tennessee, etc.), Southwestern Penn & Southern Ohio: Old dialect of Scotch Irish (from Northwestern England & Northern Ireland)
9.) Eastern Canada: For the most part, HEAVILY influenced by Scottish and Irish dialects (particularly Newfoundland)
10.) the rest of Canada: A variety of pre-revolutionary war American accents with some light Celtic influence
11.) Western US/Canada: Put everything in a blender, see what you get
Tom K.   Thursday, February 03, 2005, 15:27 GMT
From what I've read in the Atlas of North American English, "General American," the standard adopted in the mid-20th century, was based on the Inland North (Great Lakes area) accent of the time, which in turn evolved from its settlers' New England speech. Of course, right after that became the media standard the Northern Cities Shift happened so the Inland North doesn't sound like that anymore.

That list of influences looks pretty interesting.
Brennus   Thursday, February 03, 2005, 23:18 GMT
Dear Ben,

I don't mean to put down your list which is , for the most part, a good one. However, I take issue with those people who claim that there is a Scottish or Scotch-Irish influence on the American English accents of Appalachia. A Scots English (or Belfast) accent sounds nothing like the drawl that you hear in Kentucky and Tennessee. I acknowledge that certain words in Appalachian English like "hodown", "youngins" and "youins" are the result of a Scotch-Irish influence but that is about all. At some point in time, the Scotch-Irish settlers in the region lost their original accents (or brogues).
...   Friday, February 04, 2005, 07:05 GMT
So the reason Americans/Canadians have a 'r' sound in their accents is because of Irish influence? Scotish accent is weird but doesn't seem to have a 'r' sound. Hold on, I used to have a tutor from Scotland. She speaks English like an European faking an American accent which 'r' occured nearly in every word she says. Don't they feel speaking with this kinda accent hurts their throats?
Ben   Friday, February 04, 2005, 14:37 GMT
Brennus,

The Scots-Irish accent that influenced the Appalachians is old, and probably bore little resemblance to the Northern Irish accent today (although there are a few fleeting similarities). Add to this the fact that the Appalachian settlers would have mixed heavily with their British and German neighbors, and you've removed the dialect another step from its roots.

Finally, though, three hundred years is a tremendously long time, linguistically speaking. If you listen to a young person from Kentucky today, his accent is sure to be much more "moderated" by General American English than his grandfather. If you consider how drastically this accent has changed in just the past 50 years, when you multiply that change by 6, you're looking at a way of speaking that is many generations removed from its original source.
Tom K.   Friday, February 04, 2005, 20:26 GMT
I just got this book called "Do You Speak American" which is the companion to a PBS show (http://www.pbs.org/speak) and the only Scots-Irish influence on southern pronunciation that it mentions is r-pronunciation--as opposed to the (formerly) r-less coastal areas which were influenced by southern England in that respect. But the drawled vowels are certainly not Scots-Irish.
Ben   Monday, February 07, 2005, 17:22 GMT
Really? That's odd, because in the PBS program on TV, they mentioned that Mountain Southern was influenced by Scots-Irish. They may have been referring to the COASTAL south, which was only influenced by the inland until much later.
Fiona   Monday, February 07, 2005, 17:55 GMT
General American (GA) is spoken west of Mississippi River (excluding much of Texas), but Southern Florida seem to speak it as well. Of course, this does not include slangy accents like Valley Girl or Surfer Dude accents...(they are more kind of ''social'' accent than ''regional accent''. most Valley Girls use GA and avoid many slang expressions when they're ''like'' :) 30 years old...), that is when they have children and become more ''serious'') :)

that's my two traveler's checks! :)
Tiffany   Monday, February 07, 2005, 18:00 GMT
Is that what I speak? I've always been a bit perplexed because much of Northern Florida has a southern accent and I, even more South (Miami), do not possess that accent. I think my accent is a close approximation of GAE. I wonder how it evolved this way.
Ben   Monday, February 07, 2005, 18:10 GMT
Florida, for the most part, has one of the most General American accents of any state. The exception, of course, being the northern, less metropolitan part (Tallahassee, Jacksonville, etc.)

The reason that southern Florida has no Southern accent is because almost nobody living in the cities in that region are actually from the south. Well, perhaps some are, but they certainly aren't NATIVES of the area. I'm fairly good with accents, but I admit that Floridians often trip me up--I often wrongly place them as being from the midwest.
Tiffany   Monday, February 07, 2005, 18:22 GMT
Well then I'm sure you've heard the joke about how we're all retirees or Cubans :)

There is a distinct hispanic dialect in Miami, and I'm not talking Spanglish. Their pronunciation tends to make less of a distinction between b and v (sometimes) and words with a "u" sound tend to come out with an "a" sound. Like the word "fuck" coming out as "fack". Not everybody in Miami possesses this accent, but there is a strong possibility of it if you grew up in a hispanic household. Likely it's the old generation (of immigrants) accents influencing the new (their children). But then these children come together, have children themselves and perpetuate the accent. I really miss this accent until I go home again.
Tom K.   Monday, February 07, 2005, 19:57 GMT
I think everyone agrees that Florida doesn't count as "Southern." The hopefully soon-to-be-published "Atlas of North American English" doesn't include Florida with any region, except for Jacksonville which is included with the South. A few years ago I got this joke e-mail which was a "Tourists' Guide to the South" and one of the things it pointed out was "Florida is not really part of the South."

I'm really "good with accents" myself. I don't think I've ever guessed that anyone was from Florida.
Tom K.   Monday, February 07, 2005, 20:37 GMT
"Really? That's odd, because in the PBS program on TV, they mentioned that Mountain Southern was influenced by Scots-Irish."

Right, with the pronounced R's. Did they say there was some other aspect influenced by Scots-Irish? I didn't actually see the program, I just read the book.