22 Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From Each Other

business insider ^

[SMGFan]

Everyone knows that Americans don't exactly agree on pronunciations. Regional accents are a major part of what makes American English so interesting as a dialect. Joshua Katz, a Ph. D student in statistics at North Carolina State University, just published a group of awesome visualizations of Professor Bert Voux's linguistic survey that looked at how Americans pronounce words. (via) detsl on /r/Linguistics His results were first published on Abstract, the N.C. State research blog.

[Albion Wilde]

I haven't heard or read "English accent" in I don't know how long. English identity has been completely subsumed into Britishness in a way the others have not.

Yes, I hear you about that. Many traditional English people complain of it in the UK press.

[Albion Wilde]

I suppository that was meant to be funny.

Yep! LOL!

[boop]

"Oin di rim an owt di dewr! Ah'm Mistuwr Tahr!"

Now THAT is a perfect Balamore accent.

I'll try with another old commercial for a local restaurant:

"C'mawn dewn hawn I'll gib you da be-ast hwat dwag you eber hee-ad."

[Albion Wilde]

Upper Southerners (and residents of the top halves of Deep South states) do not drawl. They twang.

No, old-time Virginians purr and coo. The FFV (First Families of Virgina) accent is very plummy.

[Albion Wilde]

"C'mawn dewn hawn I'll gib you da be-ast hwat dwag you eber hee-ad."

LOL!!

[Revolting cat!]

Thank goodness the word “axe”, as in “Eye axe yu an queshchon”, is pronounce uniformly across these United States.

[William Tell]

My mother and her parents were from Texas. My father's parents were from Boston.

As a result, I grew up with an Aunt Louise, pronounced ANT, and an Aunt Marie, pronounced ONT.

[OldPossum]

Listen to people say onion. A lot pronounce it with an imaginary G in it. I don’t think that has anything to do with what region you’re from though.

There is a section of southern Georgia where "onion" is pronounced "ern' yun." No kidding. I've heard it.

[Windflier]

why do Australians speak with a British accent?

Aussies and Brits have distinctly different accents, but to many American ears, they sound very similar. Same with the Kiwis.

[jiggyboy]

Bawmaw

[Windflier]

Goinout?

Yeah, we're gonna gweet.

[Windflier]

A lot of Texans now have brought their own accents in, especially to the cities

I'm from California, but I've lived in North Texas for over seven years now. One of the things that's really interesting about the accents around here, is that all Texans don't sound like Texans. I've met grown natives who sound like they're from the same neck of the woods that I am.

[pax_et_bonum]

I’ve met grown natives who sound like they’re from the same neck of the woods that I am.
______________

You’ve been Texanized!!!

(I can’t hear my accent, either.)

;-)

Belated welcome to Texas!

[RegulatorCountry]

I live in a far-suburban area of northern North Carolina. There are at least six distinct dialects within a twenty mile radius. The Dan River accent is a very, very southern drawl that meanders back and forth with the river, into NC then back into VA, from west of Madison, NC on past South Boston, VA. Just a few miles away in many instances is a Scotch-Irish dialectical survival that is very strong. It’s so entrenched that I could probably tell what sort of accent somebody will have from surname alone. Same is true of the Dan River, Yadkin Valley, Foothills, Randolph County and Caswell County accents. Caswell has some crossover with Dan River. It’s the oldest sounding of the bunch to me, or at least the most isolated. Lots of archaic words.

[Big Red Clay]

I had a friend in college (University of Nebraska Lincoln) from Baltimore. That was the damnedest accent. I had never heard anything like it and I could not imitate it (and I am good at doing accents generally).
One of my nephews brought a guy he works with to family thanksgiving this year who couldn’t get home. As soon as I listened to him speak, I said “You’re from Baltimore!” He asked how the heck I knew and I told him that accent is unmistakable.

[Windflier]

That test says I have a Neutral accent:

"You`re not Northern, Southern, or Western, you`re just plain -American-. Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don`t really have a local identity. You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be. Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up."

Well, I did grow up as an Army brat, and we moved constantly when I was a kid. As you would imagine, the kids I grew up around, came from everywhere in the country.

[boop]

Yes, I knew a woman from Texas and I asked her if she could hear GW Bush's accent.

She said: "What accent? He just talks normal."

[Windflier]

Then again, when I lived in England, perfect strangers would immediately guess that I was from California. I never even knew we Californians had an accent.

[Windflier]

"you guys," which I can't stand.

Southern California would drive you nuts. That's how we say y'all out there.

[Bikkuri]

Yup... was going o mention that, but you beat me to it. A few years overseas will cure anyone of that mistake ;)

When I first came to Japan, they all sounded alike... had a few acquaintances from the 3 (UK, Australia, and NZ)... first roomate was from NZ... Can now hear a pretty big difference between all 3.