East-coast/NY accents tend to sound like they’re pushy and demanding attention, or occasionally fast-talking and vaguely untrustworthy (think sleazy Italian-American salesman/loan shark).
Californian accents tned to sound either slightly vacuous (surfer/Valley girl - do those still exist?) or false and “Hollywood”.
Southern accents I love. I could listen to a southern belle reading the phone book quite happily.
Everywhere else, I’d be hard pressed to identify other than “American”. My geographical knowledge of the middle of the US is rather limited - I have to admit I’d struggle to push a pin into a lot of those big square states on an unlabelled map.
I guess it’s all about contrast - when you’re listening to them on TV, they’re generally surrounded by other American voices…but when you hear them in the middle of a bunch of Aussie accents, it really can be quite jarring.
One thing I find about American accents is they sound more attractive on the guys than on the women. (I am speaking *very *generally here. I mean, sheesh, you guys have like, 20 zillion different accents, it seems.) I think it’s because (again, generalising) the American accents are often quite flat and monotone; it works quite well with deep voices (rawr!) but seems a little odd sometimes with voices pitched at a more feminine level.
Addressing your first point: To some extent, that may be because most people on TV and in movies are (to my ears) accentless. In other words, they use a sort of all-American accent which does not emphasize any particular regional identity. I can vary my speech to sound more neutral, but my everyday speech definitely betrays my New York Jewish background. (I say “oy oy oy!” a lot) If you heard me ordering a cup of coffee (cuppa cawfee) at a Starbucks in Adelaide, you might well think I was putting it on.
Also, on TV, certain speech patterns are often emphasized to make a point about the character (He’s a pushy New Yorker, she’s a laid-back Californian), so you may assume that the accents are exaggerated for effect. But no, a lot of people really do talk like that for real. Maybe you “barely notice” the accent because it’s so much part of the character. Tony Soprano saying “fuhgeddaboutit” seems natural to you. If you met the obviously non-Italian non-gangster me, you might be surprised to hear me say “forget about it” in largely the same way.
Let me ask our BritDopers a question about British pronounciation. On a recent Dr Who ep (Agatha Christie), they had Professor Peach killed with a lead pipe in the library. Now, they pronounced Peach the way I’d expected it to be pronounce - “Pea(long e) - ch”. But I remember an old Tom Baker ep (although the Doctor isn’t the only British TV I watch) and they pronounced the fruit as “pesch” (like Joe Peschi without the i). Am I mis-remembering that old Who ep?
To my ear, Western Canadians don’t, either – it sounds more like “aboat.” And it’s gentle – I mainly noticed it because at one point I was interacting with 3 Canadians on a regular basis. Now that I think about it, one of those Canadians was from Nova Scotia, so maybe it isn’t just a Western Canada pronunciation!
I think you’re misremembering - I’ve never met a Brit who had such a pronunciation. Unless, of course, the fruit in question just looked like a peach and in the Who universe is called a pesh (?).
I’ve always been puzzled by the “aboot” thing. It’s clearly more like “aboat”, to my ears, and I don’t think it’s one of those British vs. American ambiguities because they pronounce “boot” much like we do. Where was Peter Jennings from (ETA: Google says Toronto - does that count as East?) I was quite pleased with myself for realising that he was Canadian, even though he anchored a US show. And it was the “oat” sound that gave it away, for me.
Generally…louder than most people you hear; there are a lot of American students on campus. American accents tend to stand out from the others (different pronunciations, monotonous and lots of 'uh’s where silence or a breath would suffice) and used to irritate me, some guys still do.
My girlfriend (who is from Colorado), however, has the most beautiful voice. Her accents make mundane things sound fun and she brings life to what everything she says (with a few exceptions). I used to think all American girls sounded the same, but the difference between her and her roommate is incredible.
Hanging around with her and her friends, I can tell the difference subtleties between the accents and appreciate where someone is from…they could all do with lowering the volume a bit, though!
Maybe we need another of your Sound Sample threads, Sunspace–get all the CanaDopers to read something that includes “about,” “boat,” “boot,” and so on; and put this issue to rest for good.
The problem here is trying to write a pronunciation using ordinary letters. The way that “about” is pronounced in certain Canadian accents is neither “aboot” nor “aboat.” It’s not like the usual American way of saying “about” either. The only way to write it that would explain things is to use IPA symbols, but not many people know how to read IPA symbols. Trying to show the difference between dialects using ordinary letters is just an exercise in frustration.
