What does Alaskan English sound like? I can't find a single recording of it. Does it sound like Canadian English, or like Western US English, or something totally different?
Alaskan English
It sounds like Western US English. Since Alaska has been only relatively recently largely populated by non-indigenous English speaking people, as far as I know it hasn't had enough time to develop a characteristically different accent of its own. I know a girl who grew up in Alaska and she sounds very Western US. Nothing about her speech stands out to me as non-Western US.
Good luck. I've heard that most people who live in Alaska are not originally from there, but are migrants from other parts of the US.
For all practical purposes I agree with Kirk but if I may add:
Personally, most Alaskans I meet here in Seattle sound the same as Seattlites (who speak (Emerging) General American). I've heard accents among some Eskimos (called Inuits in Canada) but not among the Athabaskan Indians from there (Mostly Tlingits & Haidas) probably because they are less isolated than the Eskimos. The Eskimos accents sound kind of like Minnesotan accents but I'm sure it's just coincidental.
Seattle has been called "The gateway to Alaska" and most prospectors and missionaries who went to Alaska in the 1890's went there by way of Seattle.
Personally, most Alaskans I meet here in Seattle sound the same as Seattlites (who speak (Emerging) General American). I've heard accents among some Eskimos (called Inuits in Canada) but not among the Athabaskan Indians from there (Mostly Tlingits & Haidas) probably because they are less isolated than the Eskimos. The Eskimos accents sound kind of like Minnesotan accents but I'm sure it's just coincidental.
Seattle has been called "The gateway to Alaska" and most prospectors and missionaries who went to Alaska in the 1890's went there by way of Seattle.
<<Good luck. I've heard that most people who live in Alaska are not originally from there, but are migrants from other parts of the US.>>
Yeah, that's true. The alaskan girl I know is a native English speaker who also happens to be a first-generation Japanese-American (first generation to be born here), so her parents are from Japan and she still has strong ties there. Her accent in English really sounds no different than what I'm used to hearing here in California (like many others, she displays some characteristics of the California Vowel Shift). Of course, being here for several years in college already it's entirely plausible her accent may have changed from what she grew up with in Alaska, but I would bet not a whole lot.
Yeah, that's true. The alaskan girl I know is a native English speaker who also happens to be a first-generation Japanese-American (first generation to be born here), so her parents are from Japan and she still has strong ties there. Her accent in English really sounds no different than what I'm used to hearing here in California (like many others, she displays some characteristics of the California Vowel Shift). Of course, being here for several years in college already it's entirely plausible her accent may have changed from what she grew up with in Alaska, but I would bet not a whole lot.
So the California vowel shift has influence all the way up in Alaska? That's interesting. Does it affect Nevada, Oregon, and Washington as well? Or just California and Alaska?