Does Michelle Obama have an accent?

[John_Mace]

Yea, yeah I know everyone has an accent. That aside…

I just heard her appeal for help for Haiti, and to my ear (lived all my life on either the east of west coast of the US) she has an ever-so-slight accent. Maybe she’s just trying to over-enunciate for that public service spot, but something about the way she sounds, especially when she says “American” in “American Red Cross” that sounds different to me.

I can usually recognize a Chicago accent when I hear it, and maybe that’s just what it is. It’s hard for me to place because it’s not very strong.

[Mahaloth]

I don’t think so. She is speaking very clearly, which makes her sound a bit odd, but not too bad.

[Si_Amigo]

Nope, just plain old mid-western talking there; but I’m sure that she could speak in a with an accent depending upon the group she was addressing.

[Polycarp]

Does Michelle Obama have an accent?

Yes – Standard American Midwestern. Which is close to the national standard. But it’s still “an accent.”

[Wendell_Wagner]

I can detect a little bit of AAVE (African-American Vernacular English, also known as Black English) in her accent. She sounds to me exactly like what she is, a black woman who grew up in a black neighborhood in Chicago and whose parents were perhaps middle class (or perhaps, to be more accurate, working class). As an adult though, she has been Ivy-League-educated and has lived and worked mostly with upper-middle-class people, both among the blacks and whites she knows. There’s no reason to think that her accent would be quite the same as Barack Obama’s, since she mostly grew up among other blacks and he mostly grew up among whites.

[panache45]

She tends to have a slight lisp, in words like “medicine” and “lives.” But I’m not hearing an accent.

[John_Mace]

@Wendell_Wagner

I can detect a little bit of AAVE (African-American Vernacular English, also known as Black English) in her accent. She sounds to me exactly like what she is, a black woman who grew up in a black neighborhood in Chicago and whose parents were perhaps middle class (or perhaps, to be more accurate, working class). As an adult though, she has been Ivy-League-educated and has lived and worked mostly with upper-middle-class people, both among the blacks and whites she knows.

Sounds about right.

There’s no reason to think that her accent would be quite the same as Barack Obama’s, since she mostly grew up among other blacks and he mostly grew up among whites.

Not to mention that he grew up mostly in Hawaii (and some in Indonesia), and didn’t move to IL until he was an adult.

[Candyman74]

Well, to me in the UK, yes - a very strong one!

[needscoffee]

She does that thing where people can’t pronounce “str”. In the word “destroyed”, she pronounces it “deshroyed”. Sarah Michelle Gellar does it, too.

[Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake]

@John_Mace

Yea, yeah I know everyone has an accent. That aside…

No, really, you were done right here.

Proof:

@Candyman74

Well, to me in the UK, yes - a very strong one!

[Johnny_L.A]

I agree that there’s a touch of AAVE within a Standard American Midwestern accent. I hear the SAM accent in such words she uses as ‘American’, ‘heartbreaking’, and ‘hospitals’.

[pulykamell]

@needscoffee

She does that thing where people can’t pronounce “str”. In the word “destroyed”, she pronounces it “deshroyed”. Sarah Michelle Gellar does it, too.

That may be a Chicago thing. I’m a Chicago native and I say “deshtroyed” (though not “deshroyed,” as you had written) and “shtreet” instead of “street,” and otherwise say “str” as “shtr.” I could never figure out whether this was a regional or personal quirk, though.

[BigT]

@pulykamell

That may be a Chicago thing. I’m a Chicago native and I say “deshtroyed” (though not “deshroyed,” as you had written) and “shtreet” instead of “street,” and otherwise say “str” as “shtr.” I could never figure out whether this was a regional or personal quirk, though.

That’s odd, since the only person I’ve heard say destroyed without the sh sound is a guy I knew from Illinois. Well, and my Canadian roommates in college. I haven’t even noticed it on TV.

Maybe I just haven’t been paying attention, but, when I do hear it, it generally sounds like a lisp.

[rogerbox]

@pulykamell

That may be a Chicago thing. I’m a Chicago native and I say “deshtroyed” (though not “deshroyed,” as you had written) and “shtreet” instead of “street,” and otherwise say “str” as “shtr.” I could never figure out whether this was a regional or personal quirk, though.

I’m a transplanted Chicagoan living in Seattle now, and I didn’t realize until this post that I pronounce all of those words in that non-standard way…is that a Chicago thing?

[River_Hippie]

@pulykamell

That may be a Chicago thing. I’m a Chicago native and I say “deshtroyed” (though not “deshroyed,” as you had written) and “shtreet” instead of “street,” and otherwise say “str” as “shtr.” I could never figure out whether this was a regional or personal quirk, though.

I noticed that (MO’s accent) during the campaign. It drove me nuts at first but I sshtruggled through and got used to it.

[pulykamell]

@julius blaze

I’m a transplanted Chicagoan living in Seattle now, and I didn’t realize until this post that I pronounce all of those words in that non-standard way…is that a Chicago thing?

I don’t know. I always thought it was usual to say “str” sounds as “shtr.” Apparently, it’s called “str- palatalization,” and New Yorkers, and Philadelphians do it, too, if a Google search for “street shtreet” could be trusted. All I know is some folks would find my “shtr” pronunciations quirky and weird, and others don’t seem to notice them at all. It might be a common feature of a number of urban accents.

[Wendell_Wagner]

Perhaps I can hear a little bit of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift in her voice:

Inland Northern American English

[John_Mace]

@Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake

No, really, you were done right here.

Proof:

Well, I had considered phrasing the OP more like: Which regional/ethnic American accent(s) does Michele Obama exhibit? Implicit in that question is that we all exhibit at least one.

[needscoffee]

@pulykamell

I don’t know. I always thought it was usual to say “str” sounds as “shtr.” Apparently, it’s called “str- palatalization,” and New Yorkers, and Philadelphians do it, too, if a Google search for “street shtreet” could be trusted. All I know is some folks would find my “shtr” pronunciations quirky and weird, and others don’t seem to notice them at all. It might be a common feature of a number of urban accents.

I had a grade-school friend who literally couldn’t pronounce the “str”, and substituted “shr” or “shtr” for it instead, so I just assumed it was a speech impediment in everyone who pronounced it that way. I never realized it was a regional variation before. To people who don’t pronounce it wrong, it sounds very odd indeed. I was surprised to hear Michelle Obama pronounce it that way.

[needscoffee]

@needscoffee

I had a grade-school friend who literally couldn’t pronounce the “str”, and substituted “shr” or “shtr” for it instead, so I just assumed it was a speech impediment in everyone who pronounced it that way. I never realized it was a regional variation before. To people who don’t pronounce it wrong, it sounds very odd indeed. I was surprised to hear Michelle Obama pronounce it that way.

I moved this to another thread here.