North American English Dialects

My daughter (grew up in California) wondered what the "Kansas accent" was (I grew up in Kansas). I often called it a drawl.

She goes to college in Kansas now and is still confused. Perhaps growing up with me it just sounds "normal".

I'll point her to the band, "The Embarrassment" in various interviews:

[1] https://youtu.be/0gyChDSjrXc

[2] https://youtu.be/kJBDRdDjgWY

New Orleans drops mic... I'm from River Ridge in the Jefferson Parish suburbs ( within the city area ) and if I meet a stranger somewhere else in the country they, after one or two sentences, usually think I'm from New York. But slipping into one of the many dialects we have here is never far away, depending on who you are conversing with. Only locals will understand, but my wife used to tell me that after 2 sentences my dad and I would start talking like we were "from Kenner" and she couldn't follow the conversation. To non-locals, Kenner is directly next to River Ridge.

Really hard-core, old-school Charleston accent missing: https://youtu.be/rxNZrFyl2DA?si=VV7OWi-fY2m3twIA&t=1835

Fred Armisen does a great bit on North American accents

https://youtu.be/G72tZdjnS2A?si=oMaLfGgJAZxaoAHn

Is anyone archiving these accents ?

As much as I’m happy that kids now have access to YouTube, and thus can use the neutral influencer dialect, something about our culture is being erased.

I grew up speaking both a neutral California accent and bits of AAVE. AAVE itself is drastically different depending on the part of the US you’re in. I can barely understand southern AAVE. NYC AAVE is much faster, but I think NYC people think faster in general.

I really do believe YouTube can bring gaps. If your a kid in Albania you can see life though the eyes of someone in Oakland.

And hop on a zoom 30 minutes later to chat. This would be unimaginable 50 years ago.

Glad to see the special mention of the Mat Su Valley in Alaska. Lived there for 10 years, originally from Wisconsin. And yes, the two are VERY similar. Not the exactly the same, I did notice a difference when I moved back to WI, more nasal. But the Mat Su Valley was populated by Midwestern farmers during the Depression, so it makes sense.

Reminds me of the awesome (old) New York Times dialect quiz, which was weirdly accurate: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz...

A recent series of Alone was won by a guy from Goose Bay, Labrador. To my ear, as a Brit, it just sounds Irish, right down to saying 'tree' for 'three'. I can only imagine that's where the initial settlers were from and the isolation meant it never changed much.

These are fun relevant videos:

Accent Expert Gives a Tour of U.S. Accents - (Part One) | WIRED https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1KP4ztKK0A&t=271s

This page/project itself is another proof of the cultural significance of YT, one of the very few positive things brought by the Internet post-2010.

I think it would take a mighty sensitive ear to tell the difference between someone who is in Charleston, versus Savannah.

This has missed the Atlantic Canadian Cape Breton dialect, which if you listen to some age 70+ people who've lived their whole lives in the Sydney, NS area is significantly distinct from Halifax or other areas in the south/southwest of Nova Scotia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Cape_Breton

Goose language? Or yankee doodels?

I was taught British English. I think America English is in many ways simpler, but my brain is wired to british spelling as well as pronounciation for the most part. Now it depends who has good spoken british english. One of my all-time favourites is Rowan Atkinson, but his english is kind of more theater-trained really; if you compare it to the Monty Python guys for instance. War criminal Tony Blair also has a good spoken english - not that I like the guy or find anything useful he said or did, but british english wins. Or we could go scottish - I don't quite like it as much as british english (Patrick Stewart also has a good intonation, but it's also more theater-trained than "real", per se), but one of the coolest thing ever is Gerard Butler teaching people scottish. What keeps scots apart from English is the language really. (Though, I also have to say, Sean Connery's dialect was nowhere near as funny or entertaining as Gerard's dialect. Guess even in Scotland there are diffferences.)

Irish english sounds more melodic - no wonder they kept on winning Eurovision. Paul David Hewson's voice in his prime is a great example.

I've also found African American english very interesting. One thing that keeps on tripping me up is "asking" versus "axsking". To me only the british pronounciation works, but I hear sooooo many axxing examples on youtube that I concluded that this must be widespread in the USA. I always have to think of an axe when I hear it though.

I feel that the Maritimes are somewhat simplified here, especially Newfoundland and Labrador which has some of the most distinctive accents on the continent, at least among older people.