Eminem's accent

David   Sat Apr 19, 2008 7:06 pm GMT
Is the rapper Eminem's accent typical of that of white males in Detroit? He doesn't seem to have the NCVS,
Johnny   Sat Apr 19, 2008 7:41 pm GMT
I think I heard him say something that made me think he has the PIN-PEN merger. Does he have it?
Levee   Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:26 pm GMT
No, he has a "black accent", one of the features of which is the pen-pin merger.
Guest   Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:41 pm GMT
how come a white has a black accent?
Muted Squeek Toy   Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:59 pm GMT
He puts on a black accent to appeal rap music lovers.
NCVS or Valspeak would not sound good in rap music
(although Gwen Stefani uses Valspeak in her rappish hip hop music)
Ed   Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:53 pm GMT
"He puts on a black accent to appeal rap music lovers. "

He does a better job at it than 1991 era Vanilla Ice.
Skippy   Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:52 am GMT
He doesn't really put on the accent. Judging from his background and his peers, I don't doubt that that is his native accent. Justin Timberlake has some features of this accent as well as do many whites who perform rap, R&B, etc. They have probably picked up features of it.
David   Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:00 am GMT
Yes, I was thinking that it does sound like the typical "wigger" accent,
and it does kinda sound forced too, like he's trying to suppress his whiteness or something.

He does seem to share at least one feature with the white accent of that region -- he has a nasal quality to his voice which from the little I've heard sounds typical of northerners.

<< NCVS or Valspeak would not sound good in rap music >>
I agree, obviously, but he puts on this accent all of the time, even when not rapping. This is probably just to maintain his image.
Guest   Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:20 am GMT
Еminem's accent is real. He doesn't put it on. He just speaks like a black person because he grew up among black people.
Guest   Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:26 pm GMT
He sounds too nasal, almost like Fran Fine, the Nanny.
Russconha   Tue Apr 22, 2008 12:51 am GMT
<how come a white has a black accent?>

Do accents come in colours in the USA? How confusing!
Muted Squeek Toy   Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:12 am GMT
No, accents in the US come in shifts and mergers.
David   Wed Apr 23, 2008 3:59 am GMT
<< He sounds too nasal, almost like Fran Fine, the Nanny. >>

Yeah, I noticed that too. I think nasality is a trait of northern speech.
Jasper   Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:50 pm GMT
<<I think nasality is a trait of northern speech.>>

It has to do with the vowel-raising that's a feature of those dialects.

Vowel-raising, by its very nature, sounds nasal because the cavities in the mouth are more closed.
Jasper   Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:52 pm GMT
Apropos the subject of another thread:

You should hear the word "awesome" pronounced by a Northerner!!