I am still confused on this topic of American vs. British accents. According to the dictionary, isn’t there only one way to correctly pronounce a word? Is there a difference between pronunciation and accent? What would someones voice sound like if all they did was use the pronunciation guide and had no accent?
Is it possible to have no accent?
I’ve read long threads and these points are still sticking out so thank you for any clarification on this.
Everyone, everywhere has an accent.
Some words are pronounced differently in British English than American English.
Aluminum, jaguar, and Kuwait to name a few.
If you think about it for a minute, you’ll realize that dictionary pronunciations are all relative.
That’s the difference between pronunciation and accent.
Think about it. Pronunciation keys are set to commonly used words. The dictionary is simply telling you that “fun” is pronounced the same way as “run.” But there’s no absolute standard of how the “Uh” should sound.
Here in St. Louis, for example, the common pronunciation of “four” is closer to “far.” So we’re pronouncing four, fork, score and other words “properly” except that to anyone else they sound like “far” “fark” and “scar.”
Dictionaries use a sort of “Standard” neutral dialect as a guide to pronunciation. Even then, you’ll notice that they often list several pronunciations.
Dictionaries are descriptive rather than prescriptive. They describe the reality around as well as possible in a limited space. They have to make many compromises in order to fit the English language inside their covers.
An accent indicates a more or less consistent way of enunciating particular sounds. Vowels may be consistently shortened, particular sounds elided, etc. It’s the consistency that demarks an accent. Since everyone has a particular consistency in pronunciation, everyone has an accent to outsiders, although it may not be recognized as such among insiders.
Is this really still the case? I was born in St. Louis, visited many times a year throughout my childhood, my mom grew up here, I’ve lived here for over a year and I think I’ve met maybe one or two people who actually talk that way. (And yes, I can tell the difference between “four” and “far.” I just never hear it around here.) Is it because I’m in the suburbs (Brentwood) and you only hear it in South City or something like that?
I definitely think it’s still the case, but more in the outlying areas, not so much in the city or the UCity/Brentwood/Clayton/Ladue kind of areas. There is definitely a point at which highway forty turns into highway farty. I’m not sure where it is, but it makes my skin crawl.
Nope. I have an acting degree, which means extensive study of people’s varying linguistic patterns, and the bottom line is, there’s no such thing as a standard accentless version of any language: only some number of dialectical variations.
Alterego, I’m not sure if you saw this thread, but here is a detailed discussion on the topic.
A good number of St. Louisans can still inflict the accent, although it seems to be dying out. It’s strongest, of course, in the natives, particularly in south city and county (although maybe that’s just where all the natives hang out.) It’s odd because I’ve been in St. Louis for 25 years, and Mrs. Kunilou has been here for 35 years, and we don’t have it. On the other hand, our kids, and especially our 21-year old daughter, have quite noticeable accents. we certainly didn’t teach them that at home.
My aunt turned “farty” when I was about twelve. Endless jokes.
Highway farty is a city, south county thing. (of course, on my side of the state it’s forty highway…)
I’ve been told I have an accent by my twangy Kansas counterparts… they all think I’m from Minnesota but I was born and bred KC.
These days, Dictionaries recognize that there is no one standard pronunciation for many American-English words. If you doubt it…
Go to http://www.m-w.com/home.htm and plug in nuclear, and click on the speakers for the various ways to the word is said.
Now, if the question was: “Do Californians have accents” the answer would be no.
You Texans, southerners and New Englanders, on the other hand…
:rolleyes: 
Don’t forget da New Yawkas.
(And the Lawn Gislanders.)
I don’t know. I have a friend whose primary language is French, but she speaks English about as well as I do. She hasn’t the least bit of a French accent, but she does articulate sounds more than most English speakers when speaking English. She has to have an accent I guess, but it’s not like any I’ve ever heard. It’s roughly like American I suppose, but less slurred.
That would be because in British English it’s spelt aluminium. It’s not the same word, hence it’s not the same pronunciation.