# How American accents are viewed in other languages **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 3, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821 "2010-06-03T19:31:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sinisterniik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Sinisterniik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinisterniik)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/21 "2010-06-04T15:49:31Z")
> [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](#): > > I was reading somewhere (it might have been on the plane coming back from Ireland) that the average Irish person can’t hear any significant difference between regional American accents. They hear virtually no difference between a Brooklyn accent and a Southern drawl. That’s interesting. It would not have surprised me if you said Chinese, Russian, Swedish or some other non-native-English speaking person -but Irish? I believe what you say, but I’m just surprised because I can usually tell apart broad regional accents from the UK. But then again, it might be all of the old British comedies I used to watch as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![jinty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dbc845/32.png) [@jinty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jinty)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/22 "2010-06-04T16:07:54Z")
> [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](#): > > I was reading somewhere (it might have been on the plane coming back from Ireland) that the average Irish person can’t hear any significant difference between regional American accents. They hear virtually no difference between a Brooklyn accent and a Southern drawl. Well I’m Scottish, not Irish, but it probably amounts to the same thing for these purposes. What you read sounds fishy to me, how could anyone not tell the difference between “Noo Yawk” and “Y’all”? My personal anecdote re the OP - my job gives me a lot of contact (i.e. almost daily phone calls + occasional trips) with a US organisation, based in Boston but with male & female staff from IIRC Chicago, Wisconsin, Minnesota & one characterful "Noo Yawk"er. To my ear the US accents are, without exception, a delight. My city (Glasgow) has long enjoyed such accents - Glaswegians adored the old '30s gangster movies so much that “guy” (as in “wise guy”) still survives in regular usage. I often use it myself, as in, “This guy walks into a bar…” ---
**Author:** ![Sinisterniik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Sinisterniik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinisterniik)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/23 "2010-06-04T16:15:32Z")
> [@jinty](#): > > Well I’m Scottish, not Irish, but it probably amounts to the same thing for these purposes. What you read sounds fishy to me, how could anyone not tell the difference between “Noo Yawk” and “Y’all”? I guess this begs the question: If they can’t tell our accents apart (or even if they can) what does the “stereotypical” American sound like? A Brooklynite? A Texan? The surfers in CA? ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/24 "2010-06-04T16:23:26Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > Do you mean if we can tell your accent when you speak our language? It depends. I’d say I can generally tell which side of the Atlantic a person comes from (and a Glaswegian friend of mine is as unintelligible when he speaks Swedish as when he speaks English), but then again I mingle in English speaking expat circles a lot. I have no idea how good others are at it, though. Yup, that’s just what I meant, and I’m basing that 100% on anecdotal experience, and in a country with a. very few English-speakers and b. very few non-native speakers. So few non-Bulgarians speak Bulgarian that I just don’t think people there are very good at identifying accents, as it so rarely comes up. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/25 "2010-06-04T16:26:20Z")
For an interesting take on this, check out book 3 of Enid Blyton’s “Malory Towers” novel series, where at one point, a group of posh British schoolgirls mock the accent of an American newcomer. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/26 "2010-06-04T16:29:40Z")
> [@jinty](#): > > Well I’m Scottish, not Irish, but it probably amounts to the same thing for these purposes. What you read sounds fishy to me, how could anyone not tell the difference between “Noo Yawk” and “Y’all”? I think it was **Maastricht** who said awhile ago that the only US regional accent she can hear is a Southern accent, and the rest meld together. I hope she does a vanity search and sees this thread. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/27 "2010-06-04T17:25:16Z")
> [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](#): > > I was reading somewhere (it might have been on the plane coming back from Ireland) that the average Irish person can’t hear any significant difference between regional American accents. They hear virtually no difference between a Brooklyn accent and a Southern drawl. I can’t really speak for what the “average” Irish person can distinguish, but I would think it’s more likely that the Irish person can hear the difference, but that the difference isn’t as important to the Irish person as it would be to an American person. From the point of view of the Irish person, the person has an American accent. Can an American person hear the difference between a Cork accent and a Donegal accent? Of course they can, if they hear examples of both. But from an American point of view, both are just an “Irish accent”. Regarding the OP - I fear all you will get is anecdotes and personal opinions. I generally find American accents attractive; people who harbour hostility or prejudice against Americans are likely to find them hateful. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/28 "2010-06-04T19:13:45Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > I can’t really speak for what the “average” Irish person can distinguish, but I would think it’s more likely that the Irish person can hear the difference, but that the difference isn’t as important to the Irish person as it would be to an American person. From the point of view of the Irish person, the person has an American accent. > > Can an American person hear the difference between a Cork accent and a Donegal accent? Of course they can, if they hear examples of both. But from an American point of view, both are just an “Irish accent”. > … (I am American) I’ve been able to hone my ability to catch non-Atlantic Canuckistanis who have wandered south of the border - generally there are specific vowel sounds you are looking for, in a very similar way to catching people from New Jersey. For instance, I believe that I outed someone for saying “sorey” instead of “sahrey”. Now, I can’t for the life of me tell the difference between a Glasgow accent and a Cape Breton or PEI accent, though. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/29 "2010-06-04T19:31:08Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > Can an American person hear the difference between a Cork accent and a Donegal accent? Of course they can, if they hear examples of both. But from an American point of view, both are just an “Irish accent”. Or possibly Scottish or Australian. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/30 "2010-06-04T19:38:14Z")
> [@robert\_andrews](#): > > (I am American) > > I’ve been able to hone my ability to catch non-Atlantic Canuckistanis who have wandered south of the border - generally there are specific vowel sounds you are looking for, in a very similar way to catching people from New Jersey. For instance, I believe that I outed someone for saying “sorey” instead of “sahrey”. Now, I can’t for the life of me tell the difference between a Glasgow accent and a Cape Breton or PEI accent, though. I find that “sorey” is a more common and telling shibboleth than “aboot,” which I’ve mostly heard only in self-parody. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/31 "2010-06-04T19:41:16Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > Can an American person hear the difference between a Cork accent and a Donegal accent? Of course they can, if they hear examples of both. But from an American point of view, both are just an “Irish accent”. This kind of conflation affects the prejudices that come many accents. From the point of view of an American in America: in both in college (a few dozen English & Irish students) and in one of my former workplaces, Cockney accents were regarded by Americans as highly distinguished and “fancy” … virtually equivalent in elegance to the speech of the England’s snootiest RP speakers 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/32 "2010-06-04T21:58:22Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > From the point of view of an American in America: in both in college (a few dozen English & Irish students) and in one of my former workplaces, Cockney accents were regarded by Americans as highly distinguished and “fancy” … virtually equivalent in elegance to the speech of the England’s snootiest RP speakers Depends on the Americans. Back when I watched \*Frasier \*a billion years ago, I can recall one episode where a joke revolved around someone (Ros?) swooning over how sophisticated Daphne’s brother’s accent sounded, which IIRC was Cockney or something similarly associated with the working class. The joke wouldn’t have been funny if the audience couldn’t have been expected to recognize and distinguish the particular dialect. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/33 "2010-06-04T22:01:31Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > Can an American person hear the difference between a Cork accent and a Donegal accent? Of course they can, if they hear examples of both. But from an American point of view, both are just an “Irish accent”. > [@hogarth](#): > > Or possibly Scottish or Australian. 🙂 Yeah, thanks to movies, PBS, and British Invasion rock I can distinguish between several different _English_ accents and I feel I can tell the Irish from the English, but I’m not confident in my ability to distinguish between the various Scottish and Northern English accents. I know I can’t always distinguish Australians from the English either! I am getting better with New Zealand accents, thanks largely to _Flight of the Conchords_. If there are other New Zealand accents not represented on the show then I doubt I’d be able to place them correctly, though. In general I think that if an American encounters someone who’s clearly a native English speaker but doesn’t have a North American accent our first guess is going to be that they’re English, both because there’s a wide variety of English accents and because there are greater odds of encountering an English person in the US than an Australian or New Zealander. ---
**Author:** ![Sinisterniik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Sinisterniik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinisterniik)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/34 "2010-06-05T06:44:30Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > In general I think that if an American encounters someone who’s clearly a native English speaker but doesn’t have a North American accent our first guess is going to be that they’re English, both because there’s a wide variety of English accents and because there are greater odds of encountering an English person in the US than an Australian or New Zealander. Which begs the question -can my fellow Americans correctly identify the Gieco Gecko’s accent without Googling it? ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/35 "2010-06-05T13:41:49Z")
I gave up on _The Wire_, partly because their delivery was hard to follow when they rattled off a sentence. (Also because they were showing one episode every night so you had to keep up with it every night or you were lost). ---
**Author:** ![Zoinks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/db5fbb/32.png) [@Zoinks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoinks)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/36 "2010-06-05T14:36:43Z")
Really? I heard that The Wire was subtitled in the UK because of the Ball-mer accent. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/37 "2010-06-05T14:45:44Z")
It may have been an option on cable/satellite. On the network TV transmission there was none. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/38 "2010-06-05T16:01:50Z")
> [@Sinisterniik](#): > > Which begs the question -can my fellow Americans correctly identify the Gieco Gecko’s accent without Googling it? It surprises me because it’s not the stereotypical version of that accent, which is much more exaggerated. I would have guessed Australian, but it’s apparently plain old Cockney. It sound way too “posh” for that, compared to how the accent is usually done over here. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/39 "2010-06-05T16:59:31Z")
It’s Estuary English (but slightly toned down - not an “_ **owllwight??** _” geezer-type). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821/40 "2010-06-06T00:47:13Z")
Since most Americans don’t know what Estuary English is: > **[Estuary English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary_English)** > > Estuary English is an English accent associated with the area along the River Thames and its estuary, including London. Phonetician John C. Wells proposed a definition of Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England". He views Estuary English as an emerging standard accent of England: an "intermediate" between the 20th-century higher-class non-regional standard accent, Received Pronunciation, and the 20th-century lower-class local London accent, Cockn... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-american-accents-are-viewed-in-other-languages/541821.md?page=3)