salt lake city accent

bear   Sat Apr 04, 2009 3:54 pm GMT
Hello everybody. I' m from Italy and my english in not very well. Anyway,
in my opinion the salt lake city accent is one of the most beautiful in the U.S.. I'd like listen to it for hours.
What do you think about this accent?
Pat   Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:50 pm GMT
It's the same accent as you'd find in Denver, Helena, Portland, Cheyenne, Boise, etc. Nothing special abouit it... Just a typical Western accent.
a   Sun Apr 05, 2009 12:24 am GMT
Why do u like that accent so much?
Skippy   Sun Apr 05, 2009 12:28 am GMT
Of all the native American dialects, I would argue it's the closest-sounding to Standard American.
a   Sun Apr 05, 2009 1:22 am GMT
but that doesn't mean it's the most beautiful sounding one. I much prefer the Michigan accent.
Kendra   Sun Apr 05, 2009 7:05 am GMT
''Of all the native American dialects, I would argue it's the closest-sounding to Standard American. ''

I disagree. I find Denver-Phoenix-Tucson-Vegas accents much closer to low back merged General American than Utah accents:


Utah English:
''In dialect recognition studies, it is also possible that participants are particularly able to recognize features of stigmatized varieties (Preston, 1992), but it may be that listeners inaccurately attribute typical non-standard features to a stigmatized
variety. The second goal of this study, therefore, was to determine what features of the dialect speakers use to recognize the variety and whether these features are actually a part of the variety or not.
These two goals were completed by asking native Utah residents and transplanted Utah residents from other U.S. states to determine whether a speaker was or was not from Utah. Utah English was chosen for two reasons: it is a Stigmatized variety and it has some features distinct (Bowie, 2003; Di Paolo, 1993) and some features similar (Lillie, 1998) to other western states.''

http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/NWAV/Abstracts/Paper82.pdf.
Jasper   Sun Apr 05, 2009 7:16 am GMT
^ I think I would have to agree with Kendra.

I haven't heard Utah speakers very often, but the few that I have heard speak with a most pronounced Rocky Mountain accent; State Representative Enid Greene is a typical example.
bear   Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:08 am GMT
I like it so much because it sounds very sweet, in particular in the males.
Indeed the first time I listened to it I said "I never heard a male speak like that!"
This accent has some particularities. e.g.: the final phonemes d, ks, z, s are often pronounced with a sort of whistle; the phoneme r, in words like park track dark, sounds so delicate.
And then the intonation sounds gentle.
Pat   Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:31 pm GMT
I've heard many people from Utah speak, and they all had a rather unremarkable accent, that I found indistinguishable from other Western accents.

@bear,
Have you heard other people from the Western US speak? Can you actually distinguish a Salt Lake City accent from other Western accents?
eg   Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:37 pm GMT
Enid Greene was originally from San Rafael, CA
Johnny   Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:42 pm GMT
<<I like it so much because it sounds very sweet, in particular in the males.
Indeed the first time I listened to it I said "I never heard a male speak like that!"
This accent has some particularities. e.g.: the final phonemes d, ks, z, s are often pronounced with a sort of whistle; the phoneme r, in words like park track dark, sounds so delicate.
And then the intonation sounds gentle.>>

Are you sure what you like applies to speakers in Salt Lake City in general? I suspect you might have heard a "voice" you liked, and the speaker happened to be from Salt Lake City. Many of the things you like might also be found in speakers in other areas, maybe.
eg   Sun Apr 05, 2009 3:15 pm GMT
Do you have a link to the voice?
bear   Sun Apr 05, 2009 4:08 pm GMT
I'm pretty sure that salt lake city people have a peculiar accent, at least
in informal or not particular careful speaking.
I've found some examples from youtube:

"Ted Ligety's Offseason Training"
"travis hess rough cut": only listen to his wife's voice
"SCL collective" listen to the adult and the boy wearing red t-shirt
"I just came out" by yudanashi
bear   Sun Apr 05, 2009 4:18 pm GMT
I must correct a link: "SCL bike collective"
bear   Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:39 am GMT
Is there anybody?