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North American English Dialects

North American English Dialects

skogstokig

Comments (78)

  • dave4270
    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.
  • bluedino
    Fred Armisen does a great bit on North American accentshttps://youtu.be/G72tZdjnS2A?si=oMaLfGgJAZxaoAHn
  • taylorhughes
    Reminds me of the awesome (old) New York Times dialect quiz, which was weirdly accurate: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz...
  • 999900000999
    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.
  • walthamstow
    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.
  • JKCalhoun
    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
  • nielsbot
    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
  • danielodievich
    At Microsoft TechEd in 1997 in Orlando, Florida, Microsoft bought out SeaWorld for the attendee party. I wound up getting really wet from the orca that they used to have there splashing people and met 3 other guys on the bench in same state. We went wandering around laughing and drinking. There was an Australian from NSW, New Zealander from Auckland, a French Canadian out of Ontario, and me, a fresh off the boat immigrant from Russia. I couldn't understand half of what was said! Aussie and kiwi were giving each other lots of good natured ribbing. The canuck was having fun and so was I as we got progressively more silly. One of the best parties at an industry conference I've had. Ahh the joy of dialects!
  • chkaloon
    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.
  • tralarpa
    The title says "dialects" but most comments here are only about accents.Can people here give examples of non-standard grammar or vocabulary (that goes beyond some temporary slang or subculture words)?
  • subpixel
    Really hard-core, old-school Charleston accent missing: https://youtu.be/rxNZrFyl2DA?si=VV7OWi-fY2m3twIA&t=1835
  • walrus01
    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
  • paganel
    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.
  • cmrdporcupine
    I've seen this before but I object to the treatment of Canada.Firstly, there's regional dialects of Canadian English, and I don't just mean Newfoundland vs rest of Canada. The Ottawa Valley for example has some strong dialect markers. There's marked differences between central and southern Alberta (often not noticed by people living there, but there). Between coastal BC and Ontario, etc. etc.Secondly because in fact the upper midwest of the US is contiguous and overlapping with much of various Canadian dialect markers. In fact many of the things people consider to be stereotypical Canadian are even more pronounced in upper midwest US dialects than they are here.TLDR he could pay more attention to Canada :-) There's 40m of us after all.
  • nephihaha
    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.
  • Simulacra
    I think it would take a mighty sensitive ear to tell the difference between someone who is in Charleston, versus Savannah.
  • shevy-java
    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.