What is the most nasal accent?

In my country, Germany, we have learned that US-Americans have a very nasal accent, but after I come to the US I am told that the British speak with more nasal accent. Which is true?

Can anyone please clarify this issue?

Most people have their own personal definition of what 'nasal' means.

I don't generally perceive nasality as a dialectal feature, and I think it would be difficult to characterize any group of dialects as more nasal or less nasal than others. (For what it's worth, I've heard some people saythat the dialect here in Massachusetts sounds nasal.) I don't think nasality is something that you should concern yourself with in trying to achieve a good American or British accent.

People think that [a] for /A/, [A] for /Q/ and [e@] for /{/ make someone sound nasal (the NCVS), but it's just the vowels, and has nothing to do with nasality.

flat accents: RP, Californian, Canadian
nasal accents: Great Lakes, some Southern accents

Most people from Montreal don't sound nasal at all, but flat (like other Canadians)

>> flat accents: RP, Californian, Canadian <<

what about the Western US accent (excluding California)? Where does it fit in to the nasal/flat classification? And how about a conservative variety of General American?

what about the Western US accent (excluding California)? Where does it fit in to the nasal/flat classification?

believe it or not, more and more Western people are copying SoCal speech characteristics, most young women (up to 40y.of age) like picking up that SoCal flat accent with vowel shifts

two out of four female NBC newscasters from Reno NV have Californian vowel shift:
http://www.krnv.com/

I would classify the Great Lakes dialects as the most nasal, by far.

I don't see Southern accents as nasal, but their cousin, AAVE, definitely does have some nasal features.

>> I would classify the Great Lakes dialects as the most nasal, by far. <<

The only difference between the average Great Lakes accent and say a California accent is the pronunciation of the vowels, none of which are nasalized. So, why do people insist on using the word "nasal" to refer to something that has absolutely nothing to do with nasality?

Everyone accuses everyone else of being nasal, Marcus -- but you'll never hear your own accent as nasal. So I would take both pronouncements, from Brits and Yanks, with a large grain of salt. ;)

<<The only difference between the average Great Lakes accent and say a California accent is the pronunciation of the vowels, none of which are nasalized.>>

Not nasal? Most of the vowels are raised. Do you know what raising of the vowels means?

URIEL<Everyone accuses everyone else of being nasal, Marcus -- but you'll never hear your own accent as nasal.>

I'm not sure I can agree with this, Uriel. No one accuses speakers of the CVS as nasal because for the most part vowel raising isn't a feature of that dialect; in fact, vowel-lowering seems to be more prevalent. Moreover, I don't personally perceive GAE spoken in Nebraska and most of the West as nasal, but Brits might.

I have heard some Southern dialects that sound nasal (the ones in Northern Appalachia come to mind) but this doesn't in general seem to be a feature of the various SAE dialects.

I don't perceive RP as being nasal at all; in fact, it's probably the least nasal of all the English dialects.

AHN<People think that [a] for /A/, [A] for /Q/ and [e@] for /{/ make someone sound nasal (the NCVS), but it's just the vowels, and has nothing to do with nasality.>

The trouble, Ahn, is that the vowel-raising "raises the vowels in the mouth cavity". By definition, this makes them closer to the nasal cavity; it has the effect of sounding nasal to non-speakers.

<<Not nasal? Most of the vowels are raised. Do you know what raising of the vowels means?>>
Vowel height is not the same thing as nasality. [i] is not an inherently more nasal vowel than [{], for example.

Lazar, that might be true from a scientific point of view, but it's not perceived that way by a casual listener.

What is the difference between nasal and flat?
Do I sound nasal or flat?

http://media.putfile.com/moojigae

@Jasper, so you're saying that [i] is perceived as more nasal than [{]? So a language with only the vowels [i] [e] [u] and [U] would sound incredibly nasal.