Do american people have accents? how does it sound to other people?

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Elliot

Yes, American people have accents. But of course you don't all have the same accent; there are different accents associated with different parts of America. Someone from Texas is unlikely to sound particularly similar to someone from New York, for example. So it's difficult to succinctly summarise how American accents sound. Some Americans sound like hillbillies, which makes sense because some Americans are hillbillies.

And yes, you do stress certain sounds (and drop others) that indicate to the listener that the speaker is American. For example, American accents tend to pronounce the letter R in all contexts, whereas here in Australia (and in the UK) it is usually only pronounced if followed by a vowel sound. So you guys pronounce the R in 'park' while we do not. Also, American accents tend to leave out the Y sounds in some words. Over here words like 'tube', 'due' and 'tune' have a Y sound before the U (as in 'menu' and 'continue') but American accents leave that out.

There are also certain words that indicate the speaker is American, like 'gotten', but that doesn't really have anything to do with accents.

Ozmaniac

Surely you already know that American people have accents, even to other Americans. How else would you be able to identify people from the South, Boston, New York etc?

Only hillbilly accents make Americans sound like hillbillies. People with other regional accents simply sound like people from those areas and many people have a generic American accent that isn't possible for foreigners to identify as anything other than American. But you all have an accent, just like people from every other country have an accent that is apparent to people from other countries.

Can you recognise a Canadian accent? Well, a generic American accent sounds like that to us but with harder vowels (and you say each say words like about and house differently).

holly

No you don't sound hillbillyish I love the American accent.

ken w

Yes Americans have accents, so do aussies poms and everyone else in the world, but no one is as dim witted and dumb as a pig headed american i cant belieive you would even ask a question like that it proves that yankyies think they are the only inteligent life on earth which is clearly an oxy moron im an aussie and you yanks never cease to amaze me

<3

depends on where you are from, how your family talks and things. im from MA and have a boston accent, but a lot of people i know dont. southern people have a accent, midwest people have accent. all different accents in america

slozac

i am also from america, but the people who tell you that we have accents, dont take account of themselves having accents,

evveryone from other parts fo the world sound different, so they think that THEY sound normal, and WE sound different, everyone does that.

veg_hel

Certain sounds are exaggerated such as a hard "r". This is because the accent is "rhotic". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and_non-rhotic_accents. As an Australian the "r" sounds pronounced to us because we are "non rhotic". It has a lot to do with the origins of the first immigrants to the United States and what countries they came from. There are other words that you will pronounce such as "literally". To us it sounds like you have made the "t" become a "d" so it sounds like "liderally'. The other word I have noticed is "premier". The accent makes it sound to us like "premear". It's like the "i" is missing. We can also hear accents for different parts of the States such as someone form the South or people from the Bronx. The South has a "drawl" whilst the Bronx they talk through their nose.

Candiceâ„¢

Hi yes like we do if travelling in USA u can pick instantly where ppl from, Americans have many different accents coz of where they come from in USA â™¥

Bella B

Well yes you do.

You can hear it quite well in some. For example there is quite a distinctive "southerner" accent and the Texan "drawl"...

It varies from accent to accent.

Mel

Everyone has an accent. With Americans you all have the same distinct American accent but the southern accent is a rather red neck sounding accent, but I believe you can tell the difference yourselves.

What I find interesting is how when we watch TV or listen to music you can't usually notice the accent at all.

dingo60

Everyone in the world has an accent when people from a different country hear them speak. In some countries, there are even regional accent variations.

To me, people from the USA have accents. Some of the accents when I hear them, I need a translation for them. I speak English and some USA accents are just not recognisable as English to me.

GeorgiaSnack

yeah everyone has accents and they are different from different places in America.
im in Australia, and because we watch so many American movies, Australian accents sound so odd to us on tv! for example, on house when all the actors have an American accent then you have dr chase with an Australian one!

well some sound hillbilly-ish like the dude on simpsons (forgot the name)
but we are so used to. yeah you do exaggerate certain sounds, but its hard to explain. Your pitch in voice goes down at the end of a sentence, where as Australians generally go up.

Steve from PA

Thats cause ur not a traveled person and are not thinking with a open mind...Ive found no ones accent to sound silly but ones that Im not used to hearing...and I find them interesting...

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