In view of some of the squabbles here about who does and doesn't have an "accent," I recommend the show tonight (Wed. 1/5) on PBS called "Do You Speak American?" The website has some fun exercises (links on the right) so you can test your ear and see what passes as "standard" - http://www.pbs.org/speak/

No such langauge as American.

Would it be English with Americanisms?

Or English with an American dialect?

Hmmn. Veddy intearestink.

See the program, GoTravel -- actually it's 3 programs, 1 a week. The promos make it sound very interesting to Fodorites who claim to be able to recognize regionalisms and/or claim to speak a standard form of "American".

My mother in law actually said this once walking thru Boston Public Garden. The area was full of none english speaking tourists, and wouldn't you know"My god, doesn'tanyone around here speak American?" She had no clue why I burst out in laughter.

doc, exactly why I answered the first post the way I did (no slam toward you Cassandra).

While in my 20s and I was waiting tables one summer in Myrtle Beach (my college summer break) I happened to be waiting on a family with a grumpy father. My guess from their accent, they were from somewhere other than the south.

The father turned to me and said, "I can't understand a damn thing you are saying. Would you please speak American?".

Of course since I'm such a smart ass, I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.

As you can surmise, they left me $0.00 as a tip.

Being an actor and a student of accents, I enjoy meeting people and after talking for a few minutes saying something like "So how are things in Minnesota". Or "what part of Texas are you from". Or "have you lived in Indiana a long time?" People are often shocked, especially those from the mid west who can't imagine that there is anything to their voice that would give them away. They are all convinced that midwesterners have NO accent.

Of course, expressions people use is another matter and there are some bits of accents I just can't explain. My partner was born and raised not 25 miles from me in Ohio. Yet he always says "I'm going to WARSH my car and the capital is WARSHINGTON D. C." and no one in my family ever says that.

This is not about accents... when I was in New England a man from England (the old one asked the cashier if they have any busquits. She said no. As he was on the same bus tour I said: he probably meant cookies. Then turned to him: coming to America gotta learn American.

I can easily understand any pronunciation problems Sometimes at work I don't understand over the phone or if the other end doesn't I ask to fax or e-mail a copy of the bill. Works!

I grew up in L.A., New Mexico, and Florida. We said "warsh" also, Patrick. People in Florida noted it when I came here (with laughter) so I know it didn't come from FL. I wonder if it's my Italian and German/French ancestry?

That is so true Patrick. When I lived in Wisconsin for a number of years I had a hard time convincing people that there was such a thing as a Wisconsin accent.

Most think we Bostonians say Pawk yoa cawr in hawrvard yawd. (or a variation on that) It's only in the outer edge of the city. The still existing old neighborhoods. The inner city is very cosmopoltan.

Patrick,

So what happens when you talk with someone who's picked up speech characteristics from different regions? Can you sort them out? I've lived in several places across North America, and more than once I've been asked "Where in the world are you from???" Just once I'd love for someone to say, "I'll bet you've lived in A, B and C!"

Oh, Jocelyn, can I relate! For some reason I seem to be vulnerable to environmental linguistic influences. Born in coal country, somehow I picked up the habit of saying "y'all" in place of "youse" or "youse guys" (sound familiar, Patrick?) during my adolescence, then having lived in several US cities, studied several other languages, plus having a partner whose native language is not English but who also speaks several languages, I fear that my accent is pretty much a pastiche.

Go Travel: I don't have a PHD in linguistics but I think an interesting argument can be made that American and English are distinct-thus, two languages. For example:

The aforementioned Cookie=biscuit. Also
truck=lorrie; gasoline = petrol; wc = bathroom; different spellings of the same word (color/colour), ad infinitum. There is also the case of the same word having different meanings. For instance, facility has a general use in this country as a noun, identifying a building or other structure or possibly a combination of such. An English girlfriend of mine several years ago went hysterical laughing when we drove by a sign identifying the San Diego Fire Deparment Training Facility. She told me that in Europe, facility is only used to identify a bathroom (wc) and was amazed that people who had reached the age to be firemen (yes, only men then) still needed training.

As you said, vedy interesting! I'm reminded of Churchill's famous quote: "We are two peoples separated by a common language".

Jocelyn--I get the same comments, lol! Guess it was all that moving around with the military and we picked up bits and pieces along the way. One place I worked, they all had bets as to where "home" was for me...and every person was wrong, lol!

Driving and listening to the car radio, I heard MacNeil discussing it on the Lehrer Newshour and think it will be very interesting.

One man said: "Innuendo - I see a bird innuendo (in your window)".

Going to be an interesting show!

Jocelyn, I didn't say I always get it. I'm wrong a lot, often because of people having moved a lot. But sometimes I get funny reactions too. Like "isn't that funny? I've NEVER lived in Indiana but both my parents came from there."
And I can't tell you how many times I've said "so what part of Australia are you from?" to have someone reply, "No I'm from west Yorkshire" or similar.

Excellent show...they played all three programs back to back here last nite....three hours worth. One of the conclusions that some of the linguists came to was that instead of the US becoming more homogenous, it was becoming less so. Regional accents were increasing, not decreasing. They pointed out 2 examples, one around the Great Lakes region ("block" being pronounced as "black") and parts of California, where the lilt at the end of a sentence (think Valley Girl) was being used by mainstream newscasters, which (to the experts) made it more than just a passing fad. Two quotes: one, the old one about England and the US being two countries separated by a common language, and the comment by a former Texas politician via Molly Ivans, that "his jeans were so tight, if he farted he would blow his boots off."

It was an interesting show - I do wish they did a little further digging into how different dialects evolved, however.
When I was a teen, I worked at a shop in a resort area on the Jersey Shore. After a while, I was able to tell a Newark accent from a Jersey City accent from a Trenton accent.
When we moved to New Hampshire, the New England accent was very noticeable.Shortly after we moved here, my wife ordered a tarp from the local hardware store. A few days later she got a call from the store clerk informing her that the 'top' had come in. It took a little sorting out for her to figure out what he was talking about!

Patrick, your post re: "warsh" made me laugh. I NEVER realized my family and friends had an accent until I moved to Texas. Would you like some "wooter" to "warsh" that car with?

Great show last night!

Funny....just this morning I was on the phone making a dental appt and the receptionist could NOT understand the name of my insurance company because of my accent--I think it was the weird Southern California vowels.