I don't have an accent

[Porter]

When I lived in Utah, I heard people talk about how Utah English was "neutral" English, without a discernible accent, and thus perfect for TV, movies, etc..  No, no, said many others.  Accent-wise, it's how people speak in Colorado that's most accessible to Americans.

Now, I discover that out here in western Oregon, folks think that no, it's right here where people speak without an accent.  

[Brinestone]

Yup. Everyone thinks what they speak is free from an accent. Apparently, "accentless" American English is spoken somewhere around Ohio.

This is a bit of a tangent, but are there any languages that are spoken by so few that the speakers can truly say they don't speak with an accent? In other words, so small that all the speakers pronounce the language the same and use the same vocabulary?

[Neutros the Radioactive Dragon]

Some dialects seem to be more subtle than others.  Although I seem to have a midwestern accent, when speaking to friends and family I like to use my "California Drawl". (Like, ya' know?)

[Porter]

To be even tangenter, I'm always surprised when I'm reminded that you're from Canada, Brinestone, because I think of you as being from Colorado.  

[Brinestone]

I'm from both.

I lived in Canada for the first six years of my life. I lived in rural Maryland for the next five. I lived in Colorado for the next six. I have now lived in Utah for almost eight years, so I guess I'm more a Utahn than anything else.

[Jonathon]

Apparently, "accentless" American English is spoken somewhere around Ohio.

From what I understand, that's not exactly true either. The dialect that people think of as having no accent is the Midwest/West dialect, also known as General American English.



And it's not that people with that dialect have no accent or have only a subtle one, but rather that theirs is viewed as the baseline from which other dialects are judged.  

[Porter]

So, people who speak both The Western dialect and The Midland dialect both think that theirs is the One True Dialect?

[goofy]

This is a bit of a tangent, but are there any languages that are spoken by so few that the speakers can truly say they don't speak with an accent? In other words, so small that all the speakers pronounce the language the same and use the same vocabulary?

Even Scots Gaelic has different varieties in different towns. But there might be dying languages with so few speakers that there are no pronunciation differences between them.

[Noemon]

Eyak would have qualified up until a month or two ago.

[Tante Shvester]

Everyone thinks what they speak is free from an accent.

I learned that this was not true about myself the first time I left home, as a teenager. This New York girl spent the summer in North Carolina, and couldn't open her mouth to talk without everyone around laughing.

I'll never forget when my English professor that summer asked me to recite "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in class.  I started out: "Waw-tuh, waw-tuh, everywheyah . . . " and the class (prof, too) couldn't contain their laughter.  And then the professor told me that I was excused from reciting poetry in his class.

I tried really hard after that to tone down the New York accent so that people could take me seriously when I spoke.  I still love the vocabulary and idioms, though, and am on a mission to get them to go mainstream.

[Jonathon]

So, people who speak both The Western dialect and The Midland dialect both think that theirs is the One True Dialect?

I believe there's more of a gradient between the Western and Midland dialect than a sharp division. I've seen dialect maps that didn't show a split between them. But basically, yes, anyone from southern New Jersey to Seattle to San Diego could claim to speak General American English. And of course, there are plenty of people who speak a pretty standard dialect outside of those areas, too.

[Jonathon]

Even Scots Gaelic has different varieties in different towns. But there might be dying languages with so few speakers that there are no pronunciation differences between them.

Do you speak Scots Gaelic? I tried teaching myself Scottish once with a book-and-tape set I got from the public library. Suffice it to say that it's impossible to learn a language that way in only three weeks. I still remember a couple of phrases, though.

[rivka]

anyone from souther New Jersey to Seattle to San Diego could claim to speak General American English.

That works for me.

[Jonathon]

Yeah, but for you it would be a lie.

[rivka]

Now wait a minute. If the people in SoCal speak General American English, and the people in Jersey speak General American English, and my accent is a blend of the two, shouldn't that mean that I speak really General American English?

[Jonathon]

Is that the additive property of dialects?

I'm not so sure that New Jersey is GAE. I've seen other maps that put it in the Mid-Atlantic dialect. And anyway, if I remember right from the one time I met you, you sound at least a little like a New Yorker (to me, anyway). So maybe you're not from the right part of Jersey.

[goofy]

I took a university course in Scots Gaelic a while ago. It was a lot of fun. All I remember now is de'n t'ainm a th'ort? what's your name?
ciamar a tha thu? how are you?
tha mi gu math. I'm ok.

I love the periphrastic way it has of forming verbs. "I see you" is "tha mi gad fhaicinn" literally "I am at your seeing".

[Jonathon]

I took a course in Welsh, and it was much the same way.

Oes ffrynd arbenig gyda fi = is friend special with me 'I have a special friend'

I can't remember any of the really mind-bending examples, unfortunately.

[Tante Shvester]

New Jersey isn't just one accent.  North Jerseyans cringe at the South Jersey accent which sounds awfully Philly, and South Jerseyans cringe at the North Jersey accent, which is New York inflected.

Of course, those in the know will tell you that there is not just one New York accent.  There is the upper class and the lower class, the Brooklyn, the Bronx, and the Long Island variants, the Jewish, the Italian, the Irish, the Latino, the Caribbean and the Black variants.

You hear someone talking New Yorkish, and you can tell their heritage, their address, their education and their socioeconomic status.

Blimey!  I'm a regular 'Enry 'Iggins, I am!

[rivka]

And anyway, if I remember right from the one time I met you, you sound at least a little like a New Yorker (to me, anyway). So maybe you're not from the right part of Jersey.

It probably has less to do with Jersey (I was 6 when we moved), and more with my dad (raised in Brooklyn, and still sounds it) and the community in which I spend most of my time, which is tainted by the pool of NYers it includes.

[Tante Shvester]

Tainted?  More like blessed.

[Tante Shvester]

My son says that he thinks there is such a thing as an Evangelical accent.  He says that the television preachers have an accent in common that has more to do with their being TV preachers than with where they are from.

[Porter]

I don't whether linguists would count this all as an accent or not, but  a lot of what is distinctive about evangelic preachers is the cadence, and the emphasis they put on words.

And it's not just Evangelicals who do it, either.  Many Mormons have a "prayer voice" way of speaking that is markedly different from their everyday speech, and is similar to others' prayer voices.  We also have a "pulpit voice" which is more common among the leaders of the church  (who tend to speak over the pulpit much more than others), but which can occasionally be heard from the rank and file.

[Jonathon]

I don't think I'd call that an accent, but I'm not sure what the right term would be. Like Porter said, I think it's more about adopting a particular pattern of prosody that's expected in a certain situation.

[Tante Shvester]

He says it's the same accent that Foghorn Leghorn has.  So, Rhode Island, I guess.