Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Californian accent

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Californian accent

Do californians have a strong regional accent or is it more a standard one? Could you describe it compared to a Floridian or a Bostonian acccent?

What you see on TV is typically a California accent. I don't really notice a difference between California and Florida accents. Boston accents are quite distinctive (ever hear Edward Kennedy speak?) Something like "Ih pahked my cahr in Hahavhd yahd."

Carmen: Californians do NOT have a strong regional accent. What you see on TV does not represent California. California is the most DIVERSE state in the union, with a majority Hispanic/Latino population. California has a significant population and a WIDE variety of Asian, African American and a whole POT of other cultures, ethnicities and the like. California is not a homogeneous state by any stretch of the imagination. Happy Travels Oaktown, a NATIVE California Girl!

Carmen, we don't have an accent per se.. however, we do have a very specific speech rhythm that is remarked upon frequently,(rushed bunches of sentences, then drawn out exclamations) DUUUUDE,Like............................whered idyouanddebbyendupeating, last night? Which is an appalling generalization, but subtract the word Dude and insert anyones name or moniker. in terms of Boston, there is no way you could mistake a Bostoner from anyone native to So. Cal, however 90% of people, here in Los Angeles anyway, come from somewhere else so you really hear just about everything.

Californians don't have an accent. Nor do native Floridians (exceptions are transplanted northeasterners and Cubans). Some of the US regions with distinct accents are: Minnesota/Wisconsin/upper Michigan, Chicago area, New England, New York/NE metro corridor, Texas, Arkansas/Miss/Tenn/KY/GA, Carolinas. Then there are the shades of gray between these.

I agree: Californians do not have any sort of accent. I'm from Kansas, spent summers while growing up in LA, and everyone always thought I was from the deep south (obviously no one I ever spoke to had ever heard anyone really from the south.....) Even my father, who grew up in Kansas, after 25 years in SoCal lost his accent and thought mine was hilarious.....

Southern Californians do too have accents -- they originated the nonsense of ending every sentence as if it were a question? Like I was downtown? And I went to the store? They also have some remnants of what sounds like an Okie accent to me -- there's a really robust "r" and tightness to the vowels, as in "how would yih like yer birrgirr kicked? Medium ir weall?" Floridians -- my goodness, girl, if you don't think those crackers have accents, it's only because most of the people you talk to are relocated "midwusterners" from Ohiya and Ellannoy. True, born-there Floridians have a soft version of the southern accent. The TV accent is not southern Californian -- closest approximation is Connecticut or MAYbe northern California. And of course, all accents are relative -- to Brits, we all have an accent.

there is no such thing as a "california accent".

I was in Paris in 1989 and the bartender at our hotel was from Morocco, taught English to French students during the daytime and identified us immediately as Californians when he heard us talk. He easily impersonated a Texan and New Yorker as well. Guess we have an accent.

Susan: Well, there is that very Californian way of talking. Peppy, almost Valley-girl-like. Bet that's how that guy pegged you. But it's not an accent per se.

From the point of view of linguistic study, there is a documentable Californian accent. Not all Californians have it, just as not all midwesterners or Bostonians have their regional accent. But "Grapes" is more or less right about the R and the vowels, and Monica is right about a particular rhythm and pace of delivery. It's subtle compared to, say, the Boston or Georgia accents, but that's partly because there have been so many influxes of populations in the West, although at one time, most came from the southern midwest with an overlay of Hispanic dialects (which may be where the R comes from). As to what's on "TV," that's been determined by where the big TV shows are produced (LA and NYC) and what the voice coaches have been teaching. Since the 1950s, the "standard TV" accent has shifted from the northeast and upper midwest to a distinctly southern sound (Charlie Rose, Dan Rather). You get a better idea of what the local accent is by listening to local car ads or local weekend news! It's always interesting to hear natives of a particular area insist that there's no accent there. First, they always seem proud of saying "we have no accent" as if that's somehow a superior thing or proof of intelligence (hah!). Second, it almost always means they have a tin ear for accents and can't "hear" beyond their own ears. All they notice is when something sounds very different or extreme -- like Ted Kennedy's accent. Then they conclude that _that's_ an accent; and people around them don't have anything like that, so they don't have an accent. Wrong.

Well said, Mona! I found it amusing going through the answers from the Californians saying they don't have accents. Many Californians definitely have a distinct accent. But don't take offense! It's a nice accent.

I grew up in Colorado (no accent there to speak of) then I moved to Texas, now I'm in Hawaii. In my opinion Texans have the most sexy, wonderful accent ever. There's nothing sexier than a true Texan drawl. You can harldy understand a lot of folks here in Hawaii, they talk pigeon and portegese.

no offense taken...and we don't have an accent :0) Really!

Toni, you don't get it, do you? You're WRONG!

Older Californians do not have an accent. People are confusing syntax and cadence of some of the younger generations' sloppy and affected speech with an accent.

What on EARTH does "not having an accent" mean? Is there some standard of "unaccented" American speech, and if so, tell me where I can look it up and measure other people against it? Is there some established American version of the Queen's English or the French Academy? It ain't in the dictionery because all dictioneries do is tell you how to pronounce a word using your own pronunciation of another more familiar word -- the "a" in "blather" is the same "a" you'd use for "fat." Posters from California seem to think that their accent is the standard, but about the only way they can substantiate that is to say "TV" accents are supposed to be neutral and Californians are supposed to be close to TV accents. What circular idiocy! I remember when people from Connecticut used to claim "no accent." And at the same time people from Georgia seem to be proud of having a "Southern accent." SO we are to conclude that having a northern American accent is having no accent at all???? And the latest: "older" Californians? Mydear, what do you think an accent is but some ever-evolving jumble of syntax, cadence, yes, affectation, and -- eventually -- sloppiness, too. And the only thing age has to do with it is that language changes as time does. "Older" educated Americans used to be instructed not to drop the hard, gutteral "G" at the end of the "-ing" suffix. Saying "runnin', jumpin', readin', writin' " was considered a sure sign of ignorance, laziness, etc. etc. It still grates on me not to hear that full "ing" sound, but to the huge numbers of Americans for whom the "-in'" sound is "standard," _I_ have an accent when I pronounce the final G. This is the weirdest bit of vanity yet coming out of California. Are you taking stereotype lessons out there? And the more y'all protest, the more oddly offensive it's getting. "_We_ Golden Staters have no accent. _You_ deviate from that. Neh neh."

Buck, please look up 'Dictionery in a Dictionary - then you'll know how to spell it !

Woops, I always have trouble with "stationery" and "stationary" and it spills over to "dictione/ary." (But I don't think the confusion between the two has anything to do with how I pronounce them, do you?) Correction accepted -- doesn't change my points.