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Thread: American accents sound harsh

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    Default American accents sound harsh

    Well compared to the (IMO) easier-on-the-ears English-speaking accents such as Aussie, New Zealand and some British/Irish. I'm American and my voice sounds really harsh unless I consciously try and make it sound sweeter. Maybe I'm the only one, anyone else notice?
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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    In comparison to some regions, yes I would agree.

    I'm from the southeast, most other U.S. dialects sound harsh to me.

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    Senior Member hamdinger's Avatar
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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    One of my final projects was in perceptual dialectology, a field of linguistics that basically says people perceive accents differently based on their attitudes about the speakers. Makes sense.

    There's a whole bunch of different American accents. I used to not like southeastern accents til I spent some time with a sexy South Carolinan. Now I say y'all.

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    Banned Aniela's Avatar
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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    Liverpool, Jersey & sm of the deep-south accents in particular really grate on me. I have always thought English in general was a harsh-sounding language, but I agree that accent in any language can make all the difference.

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    Never gave it much thought. My relatives have a nasally accent (remember the Superfans from Saturday Night Live? like that). Years of broadcasting training and working in broadcast has made my accent more level.

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    There are so many different kinds of American and British accents..the only American accent I find really harsh is ny/Boston accents.. I Find Australian accents harsh but sexy af hehe

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    I really don't find Irish or Northern English accents to not be harsh.. and especially not Welsh accents. Southern English accents are definitely smoother than American accents. But I also don't see any difference in 'harshness' between the Aussie and Kiwi accent either, though I couldn't really tell you the difference between a northern and southern Australian accent so don't know them that well.

    As for American accents, I think that it depends-- people here tell me that my voice is very high-pitched and girly but guys love it. I can't really hear a California accent objectively to say. I think some Northeast accents are harsh, but the Southern accent is very smooth to me.

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    The Cali people I know (cousins) don't really seem to have an accent.

    I remember several years ago being in Chicago on business, and I was waiting in line for the ticket counter, we ran into an entire high school group of girls going to London, UK on a class trip.

    We don't really sound southern in my area, more hillbilly I suppose, but my collegue was from LA (Lower Alabama), and he had that deep, slow, southern drawl...the teenage girls just ate it up.

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    Veteran Member The Six's Avatar
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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    Californians have no accent because we're normal. Everyone else speaks strangely.

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    General west coast accent is what I have, tis the " blandest" and generally most common since it covers a wide swath ( makes sense when you figure in western expansion and bigger state sizes )

    fun lil quiz on figuring out where your accent comes from : http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...-quiz-map.html

    this is what I ended up with : http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...0020b0000&_r=0


    though I have been around much harsher languages - I'd put English up there a little more if anything because of its Germanic/Angles/Saxon roots - though other languages I speak such as Japanese and Gàidhlig ( scots gaelic) can get just as harsh sounding depending on the affliction
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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    The quiz assessed me pretty accurately

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    In the US most of the Northeastern big city accents sound harsh to me, Boston, NYC, Philadelphia. In England the accents from Cornwall (the Falmouth area) and Northumberland (Newcastle) sounded harsh. I think that you can get harsh accents in any language. The german dialects of Schleswigish (Schleswig-Holstein) and Sächisch (Saxony) sound harsh to me.

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    I got Jersey City, Newark, Yonkers, have lived in LA my whole life before moving to London a year ago... weird.

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    Excuse me, we don't have accents in New Yawk, everyone else does!

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    this is unrelated but i have a weird/funny story. There was this guy in my circle of friends, we all thought he was kind of annoying but whatever. He lied a lot too. So he for some reason got really obsessed with the UK, visited it for a few months and came back "with the accent". He would say certain words in the accent and pretend it was an accident. He also uses all the lingo.

    Then, ironically, he joined a church of all places to play in a band, and used the accent the whole time and said he was from the UK, AND lied about his name! he even made a fake facebook with the other name lol! my sister's friend went to the church, not expecting to see him and totally called him out and he never returned. he still uses all the lingo and stuff in his (real) facebook statuses


    anyways around where I live (in ohio) a lot of people put emphasis on certain letters. like "dad" would be "dyad" if that makes sense. "apple" "ayaapple". a lot of people say "my bayg" instead of "my bag". idk it's hard to explain. not sure what it is. I do it sometimes accidentally and I do find it harsh and annoying.
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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    I was born and raised in a suburb of Boston.. My accent was so thick that when I first moved to Cali, Nobody could understand me! I studied and changed it, because my first job was teaching, and it was necessary.
    I find it an irritating accent.
    But, here we are 30 years later, and I am sliding back into my accent...Why? Guys on cam love my accent, and don't care...and NOBODY but me is paying my bills, so anyone IRL who comments on it (they usually think Im from ny), can go suck it!
    It's just to damn hard to try to conceal it.
    I love the British and southern accents though.

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    Quote Originally Posted by AlenaRoza View Post
    He would say certain words in the accent and pretend it was an accident. He also uses all the lingo.
    I've been in the UK almost a year and it is really hard not to pick up on the accent. I always try to sound as Californian as possible because it makes me more money, but even when I went home my friends were commenting on the fact that I pronounce certain words differently and have a different rhythm when I speak. If I was living in Scotland or somewhere up North I imagine it would be a hell of a lot worse.

    Also, the English are notoriously bad for refusing to recognize American lingo, something as simple as "do you have a restroom?" sends them into a huff as they pretend not to know what you're speaking about, even though you know they know damn well what you mean, so you do have to start using certain words that sound ridiculous in America, like 'cashpoint' if you want to communicate effectively, and it can be hard to just switch back to American when you return. Hear something enough and you'll start to say it. Your friend sounds like a pretentious asshole but just saying, I've said ridiculously British things before and it's just because you hear it all the time. Even when I went home I had to keep thinking "say MOM instead of MUM... it's an APARTMENT not a flat now... you can call it as RESTROOM you don't have to say TOILET... if you say HE'S PISSED people are going to think you're saying he's mad, not he's drunk..."

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    morrigan that test was SPOT ON, omg it pin pointed me directly to boston haha.

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    Quote Originally Posted by audrey_k View Post
    I've said ridiculously British things before and it's just because you hear it all the time. Even when I went home I had to keep thinking "say MOM instead of MUM... it's an APARTMENT not a flat now... you can call it as RESTROOM you don't have to say TOILET... if you say HE'S PISSED people are going to think you're saying he's mad, not he's drunk..."
    I've spent about a decade of my life all told, exposed to British English, and it is interesting how certain words worm their way into your vocabulary. Lift, punter, pint, for example or certain phrases will sometimes come out when your speaking. I still have a hard time spelling colour, armour, or centre the American way, even though I haven't been to England in 4 years now.

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    Quote Originally Posted by salzsieder67 View Post
    I've spent about a decade of my life all told, exposed to British English, and it is interesting how certain words worm their way into your vocabulary. Lift, punter, pint, for example or certain phrases will sometimes come out when your speaking. I still have a hard time spelling colour, armour, or centre the American way, even though I haven't been to England in 4 years now.
    Cobbler's awls, anyone?

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    Default Re: American accents sound harsh

    Quote Originally Posted by Aniela View Post
    Cobbler's awls, anyone?
    No, thank you. Although I am sure that a few of the girls here would serve me mine on silver platter if I were ever to screw up in their club.

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