Why is the American accent so easy to imitate?
<<The thing about all this is that there seems to be two different things going on here, one cultural and one linguistic. From people I have known from here who have been out East, I have heard basically the same sorts of overall impressions, which differ significantly from things here in the Midwest (except for maybe in Chicago) culturally. But at the same time, we definitely have an overall speed of delivery when speaking that is greater than that in the South in the West overall. In the case of here, though, it seems to not be a matter of, well, pressure of thought at work. It seems to be more is just a matter of speaking in a more, well, flowing manner rather than actually clearly thinking out and clearly saying each thing that one wants to express. Such goes for both what one says and how one says it here, as much of what one says really may be of little content value but may consist largely of grammar words, optional adverbial forms, and like, and at the same time there is a willingness to be "sloppy" enunciation-wise, especially with respect to less important or more common words. This seems to sharply contrast with speech in the South and West overall, where less words seem to generally be used, and those words which are said are much clearer and unreduced than here. >>
Same here in Fargo. We have a tendency to slur our words, especially the grammar words. One thing I have noticed is that we soften B and G to voiced fricatives when they are in between vowels, so "the baby" sounds like "the vavy" and "google" can sound like "ghooghl"
<<Just to note, the national media, aside from maybe the program A Prairie Home Companion (which can be heard on National Public Radio and like), has practically no clue about how life really is like in the Upper Midwest.>>
OMG, "A Prairie Home Companion" is HILARIOUS. Us Minnesotans consider Garrison Keillor a national treasure! :-)
>>Same here in Fargo. We have a tendency to slur our words, especially the grammar words. One thing I have noticed is that we soften B and G to voiced fricatives when they are in between vowels, so "the baby" sounds like "the vavy" and "google" can sound like "ghooghl"<<
Heh - here, the general pattern with /b d g dʒ/ is the practical opposite, being devoicing, except with /d/ between any preceding sonorant other than historical /l/ and a following vowel and in many consonant clusters with sonorants or other plosives, where it strongly tends to assimilate. /dʒ/ is already practically voiceless in all environments in the dialect here. Phonetically such devoiced lenis plosives remain distinct from true fortis plosives in the general case, such a distinction is often lost or at least very unclear word-finally and in consonant clusters with other obstruents, and often relies on other phonetic factors other than quality an quantity to be communicated (such as aspiration, preceding vowel length, and preglottalization). Hence instead of a "softening" of /b d g dʒ/ there has been a partial loss of distinction between them and their fortis counterparts, resulting in the two somewhat muddled in practice.
I should not have posted the above, as it raises the question of voiceless lenis consonants - that is, how can two voiceless obstruents articulated identically without any clear outward difference in phonological* quantity differ, with one being "hard" and one being "soft", even in the absence of anything such as a difference in aspiration...
* as in quantity that is not merely phonetic; the distinction between voiceless lenis and voiceless fortis is suspected to in many ways to boil down to quantity, in that fortis obstruents are inherently held longer and more strongly released, if plosive, than their lenis counterparts, which are only lightly held and quickly released, even if long counterparts of both fortis and lenis short obstruents are possible (where the difference is roughly the same but the overall hold time of both is greater).
For me portuguese native speaker, British English seem more easy to understand.
''British English seem more easy to understand. ''
Yes, especially Scouse, Geordie, and Bristolese à la VickyPolard.
I didn't know Vicky Pollard comes from Bristol! Now I know why she's so unintelligible.
I reckon Danilio only hears English English RP! I share Mocréia's hint at sarcasm and I reckon he should spend some time in Glasgow and Birmingham too! ;-) And why not the South Wales valleys while he's at it....he'd have great fun in Merthyr Tydfil or Abertillery (where he must remember to call it "ABUH-till-airy" and not "Aber-TILL-urry"! ;-)
I so enjoyed my BBC/journalism course on the dialects and accents of Britain....and how to pronounce many of the placenames from the Shetlands to the Isles of Scilly and from Lowestoft to Aberystwyth and on to Tipperary......I recommend it to anyone who wants to familiarise themselves with the sheer complexity of the many ways the English Language is used (and abused) in these islands of ours.
Jasper,
I used to go to Solvang all the time when I was a kid. Only things I remember clearly are the family-style bikes and some remote-control boats. Has it changed much in the past 15 years?
↑ Actually, I have never been there in person. I have heard of it through friends who've visited, and seen it many times in pictures.
For those who don't know about Solvang, it's a little Danish community in Southern California that retains the architecture of its mother country—a beautiful, quaint, charming town despite its possible reputation as a tourist trap.
Solvang is beautiful, but so touristy it's almost disgusting. If you want some real California history, try Downeyville way the heck up in the Sierra Nevadas. The closest thing is North San Juan, where pot grows on the hills on either side of the highway and the cops just don't care.
And Brits aren't better at imitating American accents. They just think they are. Which a single season of Spooks and you will see countless stereotypical American assholes who act like jerks merely for the fun of it, have zero morals, are arrogant to a fault, and apparently all come from Edinburgh. I guess in the eyes of the English, the Scottish and the Americans sound pitch-perfect alike.
"....you will see countless stereotypical American assholes who act like jerks merely for the fun of it, have zero morals, are arrogant to a fault..."
That British stereotype dismays me too; few Americans are really like that in person. The trouble is that the Brits' main exposure to Americans is to American tourists, whose behavior isn't always exemplary.
***And Brits aren't better at imitating American accents. They just think they are***
Well, this particular Brit (Scottish variety) thinks we're crap in this respect...except for John Laurie who's supposed to be quite hot stuff in talking as if he's lived in Kalamazoo all his life.
***... countless stereotypical American assholes who act like jerks merely for the fun of it, have zero morals, are arrogant to a fault, and apparently all come from Edinburgh***
Well, I never knew that either!....they all come from Edinburgh!! But you could well be right you know, you really could!
***I guess in the eyes of the English, the Scottish and the Americans sound pitch-perfect alike.***
No other race of people could ever satisfactorily explain or interpret what the English say they see through their eyes, bless 'em!
Talking of stereotypes...here's an interesting American accent....I think this lady comes from the American South?...correct me if I'm wrong. I think she sounds "kinda cute, huh?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5M0YLUGJwc
It's just a wee bit different from the American TV reporter in this clip.....I wonder where in the United States he hails from?....it's such a problem for a Brit trying to regionalise American accents...to us they all sound the same except for the few readily identifiable by a section of the British public.
Maybe the actual subject content of the spoken words may detract your attention away from the accents but do try and overcome that if you possibly can.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYs9vxx6HpM&feature=related
We never, ever realised we Brits were "weird foreigners of no consequence"...quoting a certain "gentleman" - how jolly, jolly nice of the bloke to tell us that!
Oh boy! What HAVE you guys done! Jeez! Joy turns to dismay..... ;-(
PS: I really am intrigued by that lady's accent and the way in which she delivers her spiel - quietly and measured. Aye..I really am. Sounds as if we can at least stay friends with her! ;-)
Damian, the first woman speaks with the much maligned Southern accent—the accent I had that I used to desperately hate, and desperately wanted to eliminate. (In recent years, I've learned to accept it to a point.) To speakers of other American dialects, it sounds pretty nasty, I'm afraid to say.
The man speaks General American English, which sounds just as nasty to Southerners, but not as nasty as people sound who are from the Great Lakes.
Now that I've spoken the blunt truth, I've probably bruised quite a few egos, and await the bashing that is due to me. ;-)
Jasper, I'm not going to "bash" you, but I will say that you are generalize too much and are too judgmental. I'm from the North (Pennsylvania) and I don't know anybody who thinks that the Southern drawl sounds "nasty"; sure, it's nice to poke fun at, but it surely isn't nasty. And I hope that folks down south don't find Northerners' accents "nasty".