what can i do to sound californian?

Folks;

As said before an accent is not a big deal because there are so many people who live in California that come from the United States and the World. I just read a report that 1 out of 2 citizens were not born in the State of California.

I in particular notice different accents and my friends won't notice them. When I hear someone talk I usually ask where they are from.

But rest assured I have a friend who is from San Fernando Valley who I thought was from Canada. Californians really have pronunciation melting pot going on....

Does anyone notice the /u/ and /U/ fronting?
It may be one of the most significant Californian or Western feature, isn't it?

One thing I have noticed is that native Californians tend to say the "ing" at the end of words like "een". "I was thinkeen of going shoppeen."

However I don't think Californians have very much of a regional accent. I grew up in Connecticut (eastern US) and moved to California about 6 years ago. Central Connecticut has virtually no regional accent -- they speak more or less standard "general" American English. I've found Californians to be about the same. Californians have much less of a regional accent than for example people from Boston, New York, Chicago, or anywhere in the South -- those accents are much more distinct and easier to learn and immitate.

i agree with whoever said californian english is very close to general american. however, one thing i always notice when i'm visitng family in orange county is the "e" sound that shifts to "i". example - redden becomes reddin and berry becomes birry. this is quite a pronounced difference, enough that it really sticks out to me when i hear my fifteen year old cousin speak. this may be due to the california vowel shift, but i'm not sure.

>> One thing I have noticed is that native Californians tend to say the "ing" at the end of words like "een". "I was thinkeen of going shoppeen."
<<

Ditto for the Pacific Northwest. Except "going" would also be affected -> "goeen".

If you want to sound Californian, you should pronounce the [ou] dyphthong in a British way: [@u]: mode [m@ud], code [k@ud]...

Fronted u sounds British too: move [m@uv], cool [k@ul]

It's weird but in "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" sitcom the only person using Californian accent is Hilary Banks (Karyn Parsons). The others have EastCoast accent(s). That's pretty strange. A Californian family but only Hilary has the Californian accent. American Tvs should be more consistent/accurate with accents.

I live in the Pacific Northwest, and I can usually tell if someone is originally from California. They tend to use a lot of slang, and there are a few subtle vowel differences. For example, the pronunciation of the word "bag" is different in the PNW compared to California. Up here, we sort of merge it to sound like "beg", but in California, they say "bAg". According to my ears, Californians do not round very many vowel sounds at all.

Of course, this seems to be changing as many younger Northwesterners have attempted to emulate Californian speech patterns. The rising intonation at the end of sentences is far more common in California, but it is spreading up here as well.

If you want to get technical, ask someone to pronounce the word "tomorrow". Californians ALWAYS say 'tomAHrrow', but I along with other Conservative speakers say 'tomOHrrow'. However, it should be noted that the 'tomOHrrow' pronunciation in Oregon and southern Washington has almost completely died out.

I'm not sure where the 'een' comes from. I've never really noticed it. However, I generally say 'goING', and nine out of ten times, I pronounce the 'g' at the end.

Californians ALWAYS say 'soda' instead of 'pop'. However, in the PNW, it used to always be 'pop', but once again, that seems to be changing with younger speakers.

PABZ: <Central Connecticut has virtually no regional accent -- they speak more or less standard "general" American English>

Not true, Pabz; there's a lot of vowel raising in Connecticut; not as extreme as in the Midwest, but there, nonetheless. We Westerners with good ears can easily pick you out; those without a good ear foraccents would probably not notice, however.

KIRK:

I just listened to your mp3. I can easily hear the rising intonation at the end of the sentence. It seems to be restricted to California-- Nevadans don't use it. Thank you for the sample. :-)

You gotta throw in lots of words like dude, man, like, flippin' awesome, hekka, unbroman-like conduct, etc. This is asuming of course that you are under 40.

Arizona and California are both very much alike so if you sound like your family in arizona then you should have no problem...most southwestern speakers have a generally softer tone and pronunciation...unlike their northeastern counterparts who have a harsher more distinct accent.

Many young people in large cities are also adopting Californian English features because of its prominence in pop culture.

My $.02.

How can you use a dollar sign with two cents? A dollar has more monetary value than two cents combined.

There's no "cents" sign on my computer. Does it help if I put $0.02?

$1.02 is "one dollar and two cents." $101.02 is "one hundred and one dollars and two cents." Ergo, $.02 is "two cents."

The Californian accent is constantly changing, and there will be subtle differences depending not so much on the region but the age group.

If you go to the Central Valley, like from Sacramento all the way down to Bakersfield, you'll hear accents that almost sound southern, but that's also a generational thing.

The most important thing, though, is that nobody cares what your accent is in California. Most people who live in California aren't from California anyway.