The sounds of American English

Brian   Tue Aug 26, 2008 4:02 am GMT
I've heard both positive and negative things about American English. I've heard that it sounds like one long indistinguishable monotone slur. But then on the other hand, I've heard that it sounds soft and almost musical. I've heard it sounds nasal or like babies crying. The consonants aren't distinguishable, etc.

Two things I've almost always heard is that it sounds quite slurred and indistinct and it sounds as if the speaker is chewing gum or has something in his/her mouth.

I would like to know the honest opinions of non-native speakers. What do Americans sound like to you? Or what did they sound like before you could speak the language?

I'd also like to know why English, especially American, seems to be almost universally perceived as a "chewing gum" language.
Moionfire   Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:13 am GMT
I'm american, so I can't really comment.


However, most americans speak in the back of their mouth and the tongue stays up higher than the english do(and maybe the irish, welsh, and scottish- I don't know.)

It is because of this that the american accent(yes I know there are many) sounds muffled , indistinguishable.

I am sure the high tongue makes it harder to produce more distinguished sounds when speaking...
Guest   Tue Aug 26, 2008 6:17 am GMT
-I've heard it sounds nasal-

Great Lakes English sounds nasal,
California English sounds flat.
Non-native   Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:04 am GMT
European non-native speaker here. American English sounds very musical, smooth, and like a bad-ass guy's language. It's the one I favor.

<<Two things I've almost always heard is that it sounds quite slurred and indistinct and it sounds as if the speaker is chewing gum or has something in his/her mouth.>>
Then you haven't heard much British English yet. The British accents who seem precise and clear usually sound affected and effeminate to me. I would prefer Cockney.

That's all I can say as an opinion from a non-native speaker.
greg   Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:41 pm GMT
Brian : « I'd also like to know why English, especially American, seems to be almost universally perceived as a "chewing gum" language. »

Peut-être le contraste ressenti entre la prononciation "classique" (anglais pseudonormal des Îles britanniques) et "la" prononciation nord-américaine, perçue comme un tout malgré ses variantes ?

Des critères à examiner :
— réalisation de /t/ & /nt/ intervocaliques ;
— glottalisation de /t/ préconsonatique ;
— pseudorhotisation des graphèmes <r> & <rr> postvocaliques par vocalisation spécifique ;
— nasalisation vocalique ;
— syllabations différenciées de certains suffixes → <#ary>, <#ory> etc ;
— réalisation des diphtongues ;
— réalisation du /j/ postalvéolaire avant /u:/ → <new>, <suit> etc.

Liste non-exhaustive.
Travis   Tue Aug 26, 2008 6:01 pm GMT
And at least the dialect here has been taking that kind of thing even further than is typical for North American English, in a way that is almost reminiscient of the path that Standard Danish has taken. Forget about flapping /t/, /d/, and /nt/ - talk about *eliding* /t/, /d/, /n/, /nt/, and sometimes /nd/ (including in /rt/ and /rd/) between vowels, even across word boundaries (and listener should clearly be able to make sense of what is said from vowel length and nasalization alone). And there is, furthermore, global /l/ vocalization (with actual lateralness only being preserved at all before stressed vowels in initial syllables) and reduction of many consonant clusters (such as /st/, /tk/, /dk/, /tg/, /dg/, /ddʒ/, /dl/, /dn/, /bm/, /nd/) when not stressed or word-initial to geminates to go along with such. And many a common word has been reduced quite a good bit, such as "already", "alright", "rather", "probably", "problem".
Wintereis   Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:05 pm GMT
Am I the only one that doesn't like the Australian/Sydney accent?
Trawicks   Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:16 pm GMT
<<And at least the dialect here has been taking that kind of thing even further than is typical for North American English, in a way that is almost reminiscient of the path that Standard Danish has taken.>>

Yeah, that can be seen in a lot of Northern Dialects, not just in Wisconsin. Where I grew up in Connecticut, my generation tends to speak with a lot of consonant elisions, and I'm not sure where this feature came from, nor why it became so widespread, so fast, in the Northern United States.
Travis   Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:33 pm GMT
It varies at least here in Wisconsin though. I remember being up in Green Bay not too long ago and being practically shocked by how practically no one had the sort of widespread consonant elision that I am so used to here in Milwaukee at all; everything just sounded very overenunciated to myself subjectively, actually. At the same time, I remember a coworker of mine who was from upstate New York, who had far more of such elision than people from northern Wisconsin have, even though it was not as extreme as that which I am used to amongst many younger people here in Milwaukee.
Guest   Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:02 pm GMT
American English sounds dirty and like talking with a bubble gum in your mouth
Non-native speaker   Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:08 pm GMT
<<I would like to know the honest opinions of non-native speakers.>>

Cool, that's what I am.

<<What do Americans sound like to you?>>

It depends on the speaker's feelings or way of speaking I guess. But if I disregard this for a moment I'd say: relaxed and cool. They speak the language of most of my favorite movies and TV shows after all.

<<Or what did they sound like before you could speak the language?>>

Like the usual clichés: nasal, lazy and trendy. But your opinion change when you start actually having enough exposure to a language as opposed to only having a superficial opinion based on three sentences you heard that were nothing more than gibberish to you.
Guest   Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:11 pm GMT
I depends on who is speaking it.
Guest   Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:46 am GMT
Estuary English sounds dirty and everybody's talking with a bubble gum in their mouth.
Uriel   Wed Aug 27, 2008 1:17 am GMT
I'll butt in and give a native-speaker's opinion: I would imagine that to many English people the American accent sounds slurred because our delivery isn't as staccatto as theirs and the rhythm is very different, monotone because we lack the greater range of pitch variation that they have, nasal because we talk more from the middle of our mouths whereas they talk more from the front, and less distinct because we flap, de-aspirate, or flat-out drop a lot of our T's between and at the ends of syllables. Also, some of our vowels have been shifted quite a bit, which has to sound odd to them, along with all the heavy final R's we have.

And damn, Wintereis -- you crazy, girl! Australian accents are hot!
Travis   Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:42 am GMT
>>I'll butt in and give a native-speaker's opinion: I would imagine that to many English people the American accent sounds slurred because our delivery isn't as staccatto as theirs and the rhythm is very different, monotone because we lack the greater range of pitch variation that they have, nasal because we talk more from the middle of our mouths whereas they talk more from the front, and less distinct because we flap, de-aspirate, or flat-out drop a lot of our T's between and at the ends of syllables. Also, some of our vowels have been shifted quite a bit, which has to sound odd to them, along with all the heavy final R's we have.<<

That is partially like and partially unlike the general opposite of the impression of more General American-like NAE dialects that I myself have; I tend to perceive such dialects as monotonous and machine gun-like on one hand, due to my dialect having significantly stronger variation in pitch, vowel length, and stress in GA-like dialects, and overenunciated on the other hand, due to my dialect having a lot of elision and assimilation that is lacking in GA-like dialects.