Do Americans have accents?

Question

I never thought we did. The British do, the Scottish do, the Australians do, but American's don't right? But I have a friend who lives in London who said that they make fun of our accent the way we do British accents. I always thought it was our lack of accent that gave us the right to make fun of all those other accents!

Answer 1

Yes, we do have an accent. We speak with an American accent.
The British like to make fun of our full-bodied "R" sound and our lazy-sounding pronunciation. One example of this is the way we pronounce the words "metal" and "medal" exactly the same way when in British pronunciation the two words are clearly different.

The American accent known throughout the world is actually called the Midwestern accent, centered around Chicago. Don't forget that there are other accents within the good 'old USA as well: Hawaiian (pidgin), Texan, Louisianan, Southern, Bostonian, New York, and Maine, to name a few.

Answer 2

I am from Canada and felt that I did not have an accent - until I went to work in the States. People told me that they liked my accent.
When I returned to Canada I heard other people speaking with the accent I'd had. Thank goodness I got it back (although I can't hear it anymore).

Yes! Americans and everyone else has an accent.

Answer 3

Yes we do, everyone has one. Even in our own country, you can tell who is from the South, the East Coast and the West Coast. And the best part is when actors like Colin Farrell, Mel Gibson or some other actors from abroad they do lots of movies with an American (but more of a Californian) accent instead of their native accent.

Answer 4

I'll say we DO, but not as bad as say 50 years ago... thanks to national broadcasts and the movies and things of that nature the regional accents are blending or mellowing down... but, the first time I heard a California call a helicopter a "heelicopter" I almost choked laughing! I laugh when I hear a Texan and a Southerner talking one with a drawl and the other with an even longer drawl and the "y'all" thrown in... or the Boston "bark" (or bahhk"), or how about the good ol' Brooklyn accent where "dem purdy goils dare ah goin' to toidy-toid street in Noo Yawk." Oh, I love to hear them all!

Answer 5

of course we have accents.....we dont think so, just like people in other countries think they don't because they are so used to their accents, if u go to a foreign land and u dont sound like anyone else....guess what honey, u got an accent. What about southern accents? New York accents? Masschusetts accents? especially Boston accents? We have different types of accents in this country.

Answer 6

Haha, yeah Americans do. To me people from New Orleans sound kind of southern only not quite as swangy, more muffled.

I'm from Canada and people I call at work think I'm from New York. Though, where my fiance works people who live in Tennesse once pin-pointed that his hometown was in Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. (they traveled there every summer though)

Bush has a reddiculous accent. He sounds kind of ignorant. Same with the ones from the deep south. I wonder why it seems like people in Hollywood sound like us though? The most of them sound like they have no accent.

Answer 7

Yes, they do consider you to have an accent. I live in New Orleans now and everyone says they hear my Canadian accent. I never thought I had an accent either :)

Answer 8

When you think about it everybody has an accent.. Think of some one who comes from the south ie. Texas, and then think of someone from the North, Such as Ohio, Every one has an accent it just varies from person to person how noticeable it is... lol

Answer 9

yea i guess we do, and we have different accents all over our country, i have an New York accent while my husband has a North Carolina accent, it just depends we're your from, i like American accents way better then foreign ones, we sound nice and smooth, and a lot of other countries sound choppy

Answer 10

Two accents I love to hear are when people born in eastern Europe, and in India or Pakistan, are fluent in English. They have distinctive accents, but they're beautiful to me!