What does an American accent sound like to others?
 

I know this sounds like a silly question, but I wish I knew what an American accent sounded like to non-Americans! Do we sound
"hard"? For instance, the British accent sounds so lovely & sophisticated to me, the French accent sounds so smooth & romantic.
Any way to describe what we sound like?
Thanks!

scary

Ever hear Germans speak? :-D

Well now, what is an American accent?
An American friend of mine was staying in England and for fun wanted to be in a Women's Institute play. There was an American character in it but the producer said that she didn't sound American enough.

I realize there are many different accents in the US alone. But I really am curious how we sound to others!
Do we sound "hard" like the German accent?

My friend's tough-sounding Brooklyn accent probably caused our potential European business partners to withdraw.

On the other hand, our telephone operators's Southern accent gave them the impression that we were all gay. Not that there's anything wrong with it.

I don't think you've heard a wide variety of British citizens if you think there is one British accent and that is always sounds lovely and sophisticated.

I think Americans sound Canadian except Americans say "about" instead of "aboot". EH?
JoeG

Another question:
Why do some singers with British accents (Keith Urban, Olivia Newton John) sing without them?

Linda - you have brought up a point I have wondered about for years. For some reason, singers sing with an almost uniformly U.S.-Midwestern accent. Is it natural or do they train themselves to sing that way?

If it is natural, then I will take it as proof positive that I speak with the "correct" accent that God intended! ;)

Take it from a foreigner herself:
English/American sound very beautifull( not when I am speaking though:))

It is definitelly does not sound like German...

It is much more flows like a waterfalls, because English doesn't have hard pronounced letters. Almost none.

My born in US daughter speaks Russian much softer then I do, because it is her second language.

So, I would say American English is very pleasant for the ear (and I have absolute musical ear).

I guess they do that to sell records in the US! Keith Urban is from New Zealand, but sings with a country twang!
Nothing like the way he speaks!
I'm Southern, so guess I don't have the "right" accent! (unless I'm doing Scarlett in a play!)

Thanks, Ziana!
I've always wished I could be in a "foreigners" shoes for a little while to "hear" how Americans sound!

Due to the preponderance of American accents in film, on tv and in music I frequently don't ebven hear American accents - only when in juxtaposition with another.
Besides which there are of course dozen of American accents as has been stated above, Nu Yoik (Brooklyn), Southern, Texan, California-mall drawl, and that funny mid-western scandinavian accent as featured in Fargo.
To be honest they all sound allright to me... I think I take more notice of the words and sentiment when considering the relative merits of someone's speech than their accent.

One question though... what happened to the American VOLUME control? You all seem so loud!! :)

Dr D.

what is a french or german accent? are you asking how americans sound to the french when speaking french with an american accent? or, how does english sound when spoken by an american?

I mean how does English sound when spoken by an American. How does our "accent" (which I can't hear!)
sound to other nationalities?

Like a 45 rpm record played at 33 rpm, for those who remember such things....(except the pitch isn't so much lower)

Like a rolling pin went over the vowels...

Do we sound like we talk too fast?

This is funny, I am from the west coast and was staying in New Orleans one time. Someone from there said they just loved our "tv accents". Hu?? Well we finally concluded that since most tv shows and commercials are filmed in L.A. they were considering that our accents.

:)

When singing, the vowels are affected compared to speech, and vowels are what make most of an accent. So it's not that these non-American singers are singing American.