I've wondered the same thing. Is there any language where its natives, hearing their language spoken with an American accent, think it sounds sexy or charming? For example, we have a client who is Swiss (French speaking). His accent (when speaking English) is oh-so-attractive! I think lots of people think a French accent is sexy. However, I've never heard anyone say, for example, that English spoken with a Japanese accent, is sexy. (Unless, of course, the speaker is sexy.)Could it be that Americans speaking Russian sound beautiful, but Americans speaking Korean sound ridiculous?

I used to watch a lot of Masterpiece Theatre, and it seems like whenever there was an American character, he or she sounded like they were a cowboy/Western. Americans most likely do that when they do a "British" accent...they're really doing an accent from only one part of the country, but don't know it.

I want to know how an American accent sounds when the American is speaking another language, such as French. I have always wondered about this. I love to hear the French speak English because of the accent. I have a Russian friend whom we visited in Russia. We were always repeating her words after she said them, because her Russian accent made them sound so beautiful. I think she was annoyed at first, but after we explained, she was flattered.

Any man who speaks to me with a French accent is mine for life........

Rough, jarring, harsh, reminds me of American tourists, that said more refined Americans speak much more softly, and their accent is most acceptable.

Linda

No, I sort of meant the reverse - not in the speed of speech, more in the sound of the vowels.

It is very hard to generalize, since as someone pointed out already, there are several North American accents. However, when I was of pre-school age, I spoke more like my mother, who even today has some trace of her southern English accent. When I went to school, my mother was horrified to hear me start to pick up a more nasal twang that was common to the kids in our immediate neighbourhood (although not everywhere in the region). She corrected, more or less, the twang, but my vowels flattened out and stayed there. Best example would be 'lot' as in, She ate a lot of apples. Next to my English relatives, I seem to take a loooong time to say, 'lawwwt'. That's the best I can do - for a better description, you need to talk to someone trained in linguistics.

I'm an American, but I lived in New Zealand for about 10 years.

When I first arrived, the Kiwis seemed to speak so softly and rapidly -- I was constantly having to strain to make out what they were saying to me.

By the time I left, whenever I overheard an American tourist, I found myself thinking, "Why is that person speaking so LOUDLY and so-o-o-o slowly?"

So I guess that's what an American accent sounds like to non-Americans. Loud and slow!

Had m_k said something positive or I am having foreighn spell ?

When I came to US my first job was salesperson at the mall. I think I had those "marsian eyes - "WOW, look at this !"", so guys were hitting on me like I was alone at the mall. All of them wanted to learn russian :)
So, it did sound so sexy when they spoke. However my french boyfriend sounded so dull and uninteresting speaking English, go figure (he was
cute though...)
And I am so sure my daughters bfs will beg her to say something in russian, it IS sound charming when she speaks twisting that language mercylesly:)

People in Europe (esp. Britain) have often told me that I "don't sound like an American" because I speak quickly and don't speak with with long, flat vowels. Oddly, no matter how many times I explain to the people that many other Americans speak like me, they insist that I'm some kind of aberration. People who would laugh if you told them that Geordies sound like Londoners or that Romans sound like Venetians can't necessarily wrap their minds around the idea that in a country that's over 2,500 miles coast-to-coast there are many regional accents.

If you're really into this, pick up linguist Deborah Tannen's book, "You Just Don't Understand" which should still be in bookstores. Not so much for the sound of speech, but for the style of conversation.

She and others claim there's no such thing as 'inherent' loudness or pace of speech, it is how it is perceived relative to one's own volume and pace of speech. According to various linguists, Midwestern Americans find easterners, particularly New Yorkers, louder and faster talking, but among Athabascan Indian Americans, it is the Midwesterner who sounds loud and fast. Futhermore, "..many Americans find themselves interrupting when they talk to Scandinavians, but Swedes and Norwegians are preceived as interrupting by the longer-pausing Finns, who are themselves divided by regional differences...Finns from certain parts of [Finland] are stereotyped as fast talking and pushy, and those from other parts stereotyped as slow talking and stupid, according to Finnish linguists..."

So how anyone sounds will depend on the listener and their own speech sounds and patterns, it seems.

Most Beatles songs have a definite English accent, particularly George Harrison, while the Stones sound very American, which Jagger affects. 60?s recording artist Donovan was definitely Scottish.

In America many announcers based their voice training to modulate like Walter Cronkite, who is from Kansas City. Midwesterners tend to find Brooklyn style accents as a handicap and often think that it makes the speaker seem a bit uneducated, the same with the really slow version of Deep South speaking.

Once in linguistics class the instructor played a voice recording of very rapidly spoken, heavily accented Scottish?by slowing the tape down it became amazingly Southern American. And yes, the reverse was true. He took an old recording of an Arkansas Hillbilly and sped it up about 50% and it was suddenly a weird amalgamation of Scotch or Irish.

It's funny; when I read this first I thought I was a "foreigner", then I realised the questioner meant people who don't speak English as a native language.

You all sound different, my sweets, and we love you all for it:)

This is an interesting post..

Do you want to hear something funny?

I speak English with an European accent.However,when I speak my language or French, I speak it with an American accent..Is very strange,but when I go back to my country and speak my language, everyone comment how well I can speak italian.
..When I tell them, of course, I am from Rome, everyone looks at me like I came from outer space..
It is the same way when I speak French,I open my mouth and Bang..they think that I am American or English..
I wish that I could hear myself..
I just laugh and go on..

Once, when taking a train from London north to Edinburgh, I sat near a man who claimed to his companions that he could tell where anyone came from within 50 miles of their hometown simply by listening to them talk. He was, of course, English, and he claimed he could do this only for Englishmen.

Sure enough, he did just that by going up and down the car, talking with British fellow passengers. I got a pass, being a Yank -- a hopeless case, he said!

Within America, we have similar speech differences based on usage, pronunciation, grammar, and word-choices. But I've never known anyone who could spot where a person was from within a 50-mile range, our country being so big and the accents so varied, as one poster pointed out above.

Friends from England would interrupt my wife or me when we would talk, pick up a notebook and pencil, and write down common American expressions we would use, exclaiming, "Oh, that's a good one!" They said that we sounded like John Wayne, flat, to-the-point, with a sprinkling of earthy expressions that were completely new to them. Amazing.

A French friend of mine once told me the first time she went to New York, it reminded her of being on a goose farm. I asked her if that was because of all the cars honking and she said "No, I didn't even think of that! It was the PEOPLE who sounded like geese!"

I think most non-North American native English-speakers (or N-NANES) who care about such things have heard so many NANES accents from TV and film that they're able to discern major regional differences. Some are obvious of course - Texas and Deep Southern (I know, there are plenty of variations there too); obvious "New York" (boid on da coib) accents, and occasionally Bostonian/New England tones, too. Most N-NANES I know can't readily spot Chikawgo or Northern Plains accents, and everything out west is blurry. Canada is, I think a special case, since the differences there are mainly in inflection and syntax, in addition to a few code words. I doubt if too many NANES could spot a Quebec Anglophone accent easily; many Canadians and US folks have the same problem.

Like in the UK, though, NANES regional accents are also complicated by social class and ethnicity. African-American and Latino accents are obviously different in various parts of the country; plus it's hard to imagine that Boston Brahmins speak the same language as most Southies. The &quot;BBC&quot; accent is imposed on folks in the UK in a similar manner; if there wasn't a broadcast standard people in Essex would be clueless with a Geordie-accented newsreader. Listen to Handy Andy on Changing Rooms and imagine the BBC World Service with <i>him</i> reporting on the Conservative Party conference. Huh? Whaddeesay?

We all sound just fine. Except people from Tulsa. Makes my ears bleed.

Yes, all very fine.. but the VOLUME problem?.......

When travelling, I adopt the J. Peterman (Elaine's boss) speaking style and have never had a problem.

The John Wayne comment above is funny and it reminds me of something. Being an actor, I'm of course intriqued by various accents. Several years ago I saw the production of CRAZY FOR YOU in the West End in London. The American accents were very strong -- and we all remarked that whoever had done the coaching must have liked John Wayne because all the characters seemed to be talking like him. OK, it was sort of appropriate for the Western setting.
But a couple years later I was watching a production of LADY IN THE DARK at the National in London. This is a very sophisticated musical that takes place in New York. Within minutes I was struck by the American accents. Once again it seemed everyone on stage was trying to talk like John Wayne which seemed totally out of place. I looked at the program. Sure enough the dialect coach was the same person who had been the dialect coach for CRAZY FOR YOU.

Interesting post. Whatever the country, there is no one accent. In UK, I can tell a Londoner from a Geordie from a Yorkshireman from a Devonian etc. In New Zealand, an Aucklander from a Wellingtonian from a Southlander. In Australia, a Sydneysider from a Western Australian from a Queenslander. Germans can tell Berliners from Bavarians. The French can tell if you're from Paris or Perigueux. Yes, Americans can sound loud to non-Americans, but that has as much to do with what a listener is used to, as to how a speaker is speaking. One of my most pleasant travel experiences was driving through the Welsh countryside listening to a Welsh radio station on the car radio. First impressions were harsh and Germanic with lots of throat-clearing and hoiking noises, but as I got used to it the Welsh lyricism and pathos came through, and I felt moved by what I was hearing even though I couldn't understand a word of it! But the Welsh have that gift - even English sounds beautiful when they speak it.

StCirq: that lady was experiencing what we call &quot;the honkers from Yonkers,&quot; a peculiarly nasal N'Yawk sound epitomized by Sen. Al D'Amato. Get a gaggle of them together, introduce a controversial subject, and the sound is hilarious. Pate de fois gras, anyone?