RP and GA similarities and differences

<<Listen to prof. Labov interview on busses/bosses misunderstanding (some Americans pronounce busses with a vowel close to [a], which is the same way some other Americans pronounce the word bosses); in normal paced Californian English words ''lust, last, lost'' can all have a central [a]like realization which can be difficult for a foreigner).>>

If I remember correctly, the point with the busses/bosses example was to illustrate a NCVS realization of /V/ approaching GA /O/.

I find it intriguing that the same accents, viz., General American, General American with CVS, and Southern American, can all be perceived different ways by different people; an accent that sounds unpleasant to another American is perceived as pleasant by Europeans, etc.

I hypothesize that people from different countries (or areas in the US) perceive different groups of sounds...

It's funny how no matter where you go people tend to say that it's always someone else's accent that sounds "nasal". To me BE sounds far more nasal than AE, but since I am an AE speaker, I am sure that BE speaker would claim that AE is more nasal sounding.

Why does this always seem to be the case?

<<It's funny how no matter where you go people tend to say that it's always someone else's accent that sounds "nasal". To me BE sounds far more nasal than AE, but since I am an AE speaker, I am sure that BE speaker would claim that AE is more nasal sounding.

Why does this always seem to be the case?>>

Probably because vowels that are fronter and/or higher have a more nasal quality to them--so when we hear the phonemes in another dialect that are significantly fronter or higher than what we're used to we perceive it as being a nasal dialect.