Believe me, the same thing happens here. You just can’t pick it out in the same way that I couldn’t pick out the different Dutch accents if I tried.
For the record, 2-3 states up north from Florida is still very much The South. Even Virginia has some parts which are very much The South. And those of us outside of the South can’t tell the different Southern accents and dialects apart as much as Southerners can; I was rather surprised to find out in boot camp (in Texas) that people from Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee all speak differently from each other.
Years back when I was living in Prague, I waited for a half hour or so with some British kids to get into a rave in an underground parking lot and was amused to find that they loved my American accent, something I’d always thought was the plainest thing in the world. They said I sounded just like a gangster from a Quentin Tarantino movie.
A friend married a woman from Houston who has spent a lot of time in Scotland as an academic. She has the best accent ever - slow and drawly with Scottish-isms all over the shop. It’s hard not to present her with phone books, kneel down and just go “Please can you read this out.”
Would this be Americans speaking English or Dutch? I assumed you meant English when I read this and that is what my comment’s about. I’ve been thinking of trying to get to Paris sometime in the next year or two and I’ve read over and over that to Europeans, Americans speak too loudly and that it is quite annoying, thus I’ve sort of kept it in the back of my mind that I need to try to speak more softly should I manage to get to Europe. I have sort of a loud, deep voice anyway (I’ve been told all my adult life that I should have been an announcer) and so I’m probably a little more concerned about this than the average American might be. Anyway, I’m wondering if perhaps the lowered voices you’re hearing might be due to American visitors trying not to seem loud and abrasive.
I drove from San Diego and spent 3 months in Texas and picked up a bit of a drawl. Then, I spent a couple months in Toronto. I met a woman in Toronto who showed me she was particularly fond of my accent.
When I visited London back in the mid-90s, a lady I knew living in England “warned” me that a lot of women would find my American accent sexy. I wouldn’t guess that Chicago-ese would push anyone’s buttons but I did in fact get a bit more female attention while in London than I’m used to receiving.
Oh, sorry if that wasn’t clear. I meant Americans, visiting Holland and speaking English. Most Dutch are so keen to show off their English, that it really doesn’t pay for English speaking foreigners to try and speak Dutch, so very, very few of them do.
Heh. That made me smile because Dutch people abroad are also accused of speaking too loud. FWIW, I’ve never heard any Dutch person saying: “Those Americans are too loud”. I do get the impression that the Belgians think the Dutch are too loud and rude. But I can’t speak for any other European country, they’re all so different.
I don’t think the low (bass like) sounding voices are Americans trying to speak with less volume. They also do it in the podcasts ect meant for the American market. My own WAG is that Americans feel it isnt manly to have a higher voice. Even American higher-status ladies have lower voices then their Dutch counterparts.
Years ago, one of our free-to-air channels used to regularly host telethons for varying charities each year. One of the highlights those in my family would watch and listen out for was the inevitable attempts by American stars that came over to be part of the show to say Maori placenames. Sexy-sounding? Probably not. Slightly goofy and lovably brave to take on vowels that even have homegrown NZ-Europeans stumped – definitely. Always a hit, though, and no one made fun of them giving it a go. One or two did very well at it. Good sports.
This reminds me of a trekking guide I used to know in northern Thailand about 20 years ago. He was a great guy, and we used to hoist some brews together. His English was excellent, and he used to do this imitation of an American accent that always had the rest of us Americans rolling with tears of laughter in our eyes. The thing is, though, that he sounded more like a Kalahari Bushman than an American, what with all these weird clicks and grunts. It was awful, comically so, and THAT’S why we were laughing. But he never caught on to the fact that we were NOT laughing at his shining wit.
I, personally but also as an american, think lower-pitched voices always sound better even for women (up to a point, of course). But as for having a lower voice than the Dutch… aren’t you all giants and would have correspondingly deeper voices? Maybe we all just get embarassed by you and try to make our voices even lower?
As for loudness… I have a sneaky suspicion that English (especially american english) is so difficult to understand that we accomodate for it in different ways. Maybe talking loud is so that people would understand us? Especially if we’re trying to speak a different language, we might really start shouting.
But as for speaking slowly like a group therapy session… hmm… Dutch… Netherlands… Amsterdam… maybe you’ve been meeting too many stoned-out hippies?
My fiance studied English, and his phonetics teacher claimed that all Americans speak slightly more low-pitched then would come naturally, precisely because the culture feels deeper voices sound better. That phonetics teacher also claimed that many Americans strained their voices doing this.
Again, a WAG, but Dutch culture is really more feminine than American culture. Our males are just a teeeensy bit more apologetically male, if that makes sense. The ideal voice is less deeply masculine then in the USA.
Thanks for the explanation. It’s interesting to discover that the Dutch also may be considered too loud in certain European quarters.
I misunderstood what you meant by lower voices. I was thinking in terms of volume whereas you meant pitch. I can definitely attest that lower voices are considered more manly here in the U.S. More than once I’ve gotten laughs by coughing and then repeating something I’ve inadvertently said in a higher pitch, followed by mentioning that I had apparently entered my second puberty (a play on second childhood in case that’s not clear).
If I had been straining my voice every day for 21 years to sound deep and manly, by this point I think I would need a gallon of chamomile with honey and lemon every day just to croak out a few questions in class. Something tells me that the truth is closer to “the American accent comes out in a deeper voice naturally”, or something.
My German exchange brother would make fun of the way I spoke English, and I suppose to a certain degree the way I spoke German, by mimicking my American English pronunciations in a high nasal, haughty, way. Much as an American or Englishman would mock the nasal tones of a Frenchman. Of course, he had been taught to speak English in the Queen’s way so I thought it a bit funny and ironic from my point of view.
I think it might also have just been my personal manner and tone, which might be a bit nasal. But, my voice goes down in tone and is pretty natural, when I speak German.
Do you mean Americans speak lower when they speak English than when they speak Dutch? Because, if so, that is so weird – I was just noticing the same thing about myself when I speak English vs. Italian. I’m going to Italy in a couple of weeks and have been practicing my Italian (by narrating my actions and thoughts out loud in Italian when I’m in the house alone :o), and I’ve noticed that when I switch to English (when I’m fumbling for a word or something) my voice drops in pitch. Weird!
I also noticed that my “E” and “A” sounds are hopelessly American. sigh I don’t care if the Italians think I sound sexy…I just don’t want to sound ridiculous!
ETA: Oops, didn’t see this before –
I certainly don’t strain my voice by speaking English at a lower pitch than Italian – it just happens naturally. Also, for what it’s worth, I was raised speaking both English and Italian (though switched to English exclusively sometime in childhood and am no longer fluent in Italian).
True, but you’ll travel through ten or fifteen recognizably different accents in that drive. There are shared characteristics of the generic “Southern accent” (which is what Hollwood movies portray as Southern), but if you do some traveling and some listening, you can easily tell a Birmingham native from a Gadsden native.
FWIW, I don’t think Bulgarians think my accent speaking Bulgarian is sexy, although I get asked a LOT where I am from (like, virtually every single time I speak to a stranger, even just enough for a retail transaction), so I guess my accent makes me appear more interesting. Because so few foreigners speak Bulgarian, it’s a talking point. Some people seem to find it hilarious and weird, like a talking dog might be. On a number of occasions, when I’ve been introduced to someone new, the new person will repeatedly comment to the introducer about my Bulgarian. (“Her accent is good!”) Dude, I’m right here! I can hear you talking about me!
I’ve never studied a language with such a small number of foreign speakers before, and it’s definitely a different experience from, say, using my high school Spanish in Mexico.
