Do Californians really have accents?

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Jackie

"Val Speak" spoken by Valley Girls

It originated in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California.

"Valley Girls" are the stereotypically ditzy/dumb girls who are dedicated to shopping and personal appearance.

Ever hear teenagers use the words such as "Like, Whatever, as if, oh my god, duh!"........that's "Val Speak".

A lot of "Valspeak", which is considered a "social dialect", also caught onto surfing and skateboarding slang. It originated among Valley Girls and was very popular in the 1980s. There's a lot of songs, movies, and other popular culture dedicated to this...e.g. the Frank Zappa song "Valley Girl", or the movie "Valley Girl" with Nicholas Cage, or the teen movie "Clueless".

HOWEVER, there is a sizable portion of Angelenos who use professional, standard English.

I wouldn't say that a lot of Californians have an accent that is distinguishable, from say, a Nevadan or Oregonian.
But when you compare Californians to New Yorkers or Southerners, you can see the distinction. But that's because THEY (the New Yorkers and Southerners, etc.) have an accent. Not the Californians in general.

â˜®

There's not really an accent, more like a lingo.

Tania's 2nd mom

When ever you hear someone from another state, you hear an accent. It seems the South has it's own, as does the North, West, East. If you live in California, you won't hear an accent because that's what you normally hear, but to an outsider, you sound different. If you came to New England, you would hear the worse accent in the world. I know, I live here and I hate. They pronounce words like car, "KA" I was brought up here, but I was taught to pronounce my "Rs" and I taught my children the same thing. It's because too, my parents are Canadians and they spoke like that.
I don't mean it to sound like I hate New England, No way, I love New England, just hate the bad pronunciations

Kristen

We definitely don't say "righteous" even on the coast but I hear "stoked" occasionally. "Dude" is very common and

From what I've heard from people from other states, Californians tend to shorten their vowels a lot, making them short and cut off. Typically, our words sound very separate - we don't blend sounds together between words often. We also tend to speak faster than most other places.

In Norcal, you'll hear hecka, etc. But in Socal, it's more about "like" and "whatever."

I've split my life between LA and Orange County and I've never noticed much of a difference between accents - but that's just me.

Soccerfan345

no, we don't have "accents," unless you go to the valley and/or orange county, you will hear a different vernacular than the one in Los Angeles.

Lustie LULU

That is funny you should mention south Toronto....last year on a cruise I was asked if that was where my accent came from and I have lived in Southern Califonia for 30 years.

birdgirl

I have been told a couple times that I have a "Californian accent". I don't use any of the words you listed..but we do tend to use the word "like" alot.

Boo

I grew up in a SoCal beach town where we said words like "gnarly" and "radical" without embarrasment.

I still use "dude" frequently.

Other than that the only SoCal accent is that we give some words a nasal inflection and we smash some words down a bit, for instance the two-syllable "mirror" elsewhere becomes a one-syllable "meeer" here.

NorCal has no accent that I can detect.

copestir

Interestingly enough I have lived here my whole life, have never stayed in the mid west for long, and have been accused of having a mid west accent. But when i visited the mid west I was accused of having a New York accent. When I went to New York they thought i was from Canada.
When i visited Canada, they asked if I was from south of Toronto.
and When I visited Arizona they thought I spoke with a perfect California Accent. LOL

Kat

I don't think it's so much an accent as a regional thing - and not everyone uses stoked and righteous. Some do.

ana r

let's see I came to the Los Angeles area at 18 then I learned to speak English I have no Mexican accent if you ask my kids they said I sound like if I have live in California since I was born and no we don't have an accent.

Just a friend...

I sometimes say "stoked".
But I don't know anyone who says "righteous".
We say "dude" a lot.
And a lot of California's overuse the word "hecka".
I haven't noticed any accents in California though.

throwawaybob

Like this:

"Hello, I am speaking with a Californian accent. Isn't this wild?"

Nathan D

In the 70-90's we did.
Not anymore, unless you live ON the coast, then it's the pot-headed surfers who use that terminology.

Agent Fox

No they speak another language called spanish.

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