Why is the American accent so easy to imitate?

Jef, unfortunately, Southerners do think it's nasty—especially the Great Lakes varieties; they sound particularly odious on a child.

On the other hand, I've lived in Reno for going-on thirty years, long enough to have developed some General American "ears", and even to me, many Southerners sound equally "nasty"; hillbilly dialects are particularly vile. Odd, isn't it?

It has been previously hypothesized on this forum that perhaps the gulf in pronunciation is just too wide. In almost every case, vowel sounds differ between the dialects, creating a kind of cognitive dissonance in the brains of the listeners.

It is interesting to note that while many of not most GenAm speakers think Southern English "nasty", the Brits seem to quite like it. We have posited the notion that this curiosity exists because many of the vowel sounds, interestingly enough, are the same...

"many of not most GenAm speakers"

Many IF not most, rather. Typo.

It's true that we do make fun of Southern accents, but saying they're nasty and down-right hating them? Well, that's taking it farther than anyone I've ever heard. I think you exaggerate.

Heck, some Southern accents can be quite sexy. Think of the New Orleans area. Or, for a more famous example, Josh Holloway from Lost sounds lovely when he speaks.

I don't know, folks.

I've heard quite a lot of comments about it. The GenAm speakers who don't like the dialect are not shy about expressing it and in fact can be quite rude about it. Trust me, I know!

I don't know that much about Southern accents, but I know that there are several variations and I don't mind most of them, but there are some that sound really awful. The one I really dislike is the one that many country music singers use. Perhaps it's spoken in Tennessee? It sounds very hickish and obnoxious to me... On the other hand, there are some Southern accents that I like, such as Cajun accents and the non-rhotic Southern accent.

BTW, I am neutral towards the Texas accent... For instance, President Bush's accent didn't sound that bad to me. In fact, it sometimes takes me a little while to notice a Texas accent. It can be subtle compared to the accent used in Alabama or Tennessee...

"Think of the New Orleans area"

which one? The Y'at accent is interesting, but I wouldn't call it pleasant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpFDNTo4DNg

alot of people mistake New Orleans for a Cajun accent, which actually doesn't start until a good bit west.

"The one I really dislike is the one that many country music singers use. Perhaps it's spoken in Tennessee? It sounds very hickish and obnoxious to me... On the other hand, there are some Southern accents that I like, such as Cajun accents and the non-rhotic Southern accent."

Agreed on all points.

There's no music prettier to the ear than a Tidewater accent, especially on a woman. On the other hand, hillbilly accents in Tennessee are almost unbearable to hear, despite the fact that linguistically they're very interesting. It's a matter of much too much of a good thing.

A watered-down Southern accent, however, is pleasant to hear, in my opinion. His politics notwithstanding, I always thought Bush's accent pleasant on the ears.

Southern US intonation is easier to imitate than G.A. intonation.
Marked intonation patterns are easier to imitate, in any language, than the neutral one(s), which being neutral is(are) very difficult to master.

You can compare it to a song: a song with a distinctive, catchy, hooky, memorable chorus is easier to learn than some boring flat jazz song with no melody.

>>I know that there are several variations and I don't mind most of them....The one I really dislike is the one that many country music singers use. Perhaps it's spoken in Tennessee?<<

Some Southern accents do sound much better than others. A good bit depends on the individual speaker, though (and then too tastes will vary). Johnny Cash is a country singer with an inland Southern accent, and I don't mind his accent. At times I rather like it.

Here he is in an interview -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy4Zo-Zj71k (By the way, the comment about Winston Churchill giving a speech only seven words long is apparently a myth. Cash just heard the rumors.)

The thing about Southern dialects is that I do not think that many North Americans dislike such in and of themselves but rather dislike much of what they associate with the South itself in the first place. The South, aside from the larger cities and obviously excluding Florida, is commonly thought of as just very deeply socially conservative and often religious fundamentalist (with implicit comparisons to the Taliban being commonplace), unapologetic with respect to the civil war (or only sorry that they lost), blindly nationalistic, and all in all, simply generally backward. People here remember the South as being that from between the end of Reconstruction through the mid-20th century, and occasional reports about things such as religious fundamentalists in places getting things like evolution removed from school curricula only reinforce such an impression of the South.

Of course, the irony of it all is that society in any larger cities up here often borderlines on apartheid in practice, even though there is no official segregation anymore...

>>"occasional reports about things such as religious fundamentalists in places getting things like evolution removed from school curricula"

Occasional? Can you name a single public school in the South where any time within the last three or four decades evolution was removed from the curriculum?

An American accent is not any easier to imitate than anything else. You only think it is. And to believe otherwise makes you just as much of a fool if not more so than the Americans you are attempting to disparage.

"Removed" might not be the exact word. "Seriously compromised by constantly referring to it as a 'theory' and constant attempts to 'give equal time' to creationism" would be more accurate, yes.