# What American Accent Is This? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2016, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328 "2016-01-16T14:44:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/21 "2016-01-18T15:13:39Z")
The exaggerated rhotics make me feel like this is a put-on accent by someone who grew up with a non-rhotic accent. The way he says “amurrican” sounds unnatural to me. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/22 "2016-01-18T15:17:01Z")
…that isn’t the Philly “long Oh”? I thought I heard it, but the rest is NYC. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/23 "2016-01-18T15:52:15Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > In the interview she says she was born in Rochester, moved to Cleveland at age 7, and moved with her family to NYC at an unspecified age. I totally hear what you’re talking about in both those clips, with those "r"s and vowels immediately preceding (especially in “air” type syllables) having a bit of what you describe as an Irish coloring to them. I think I generally hear that only in a subset of New York City accents, and I would have thought it was Irish-Anerican,but it does not seem to be. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/24 "2016-01-18T21:54:51Z")
> [@awldune](#): > > The way he says “amurrican” sounds unnatural to me. It reminds me of Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin accent in Ironman 3. It doesn’t sound like an native American accent to me at all. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/25 "2016-01-18T22:34:40Z")
I hear the New York accent. It’s faint, though. What you would expect to hear from an upper-middle class resident from the greater New York City area. The managerial and professional upper middle class in the New York area strives to lose the accent, or never acquires it in the first place, preferring the Mid-Atlantic, broadcast American speech style that others have noted. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/26 "2016-01-18T23:19:18Z")
It is the male vocal fry. ---
**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:** [January 20, 2016, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/27 "2016-01-20T03:53:46Z")
> [@JKilez](#): > > It is the male vocal fry. As in, the male thing that some people find incredibly annoying? Because it is definitely not vocal fry. Here is [vocal fry](http://the-toast.net/2015/07/22/examples-of-male-vocal-fry/), mostly being used in filler words, especially a long held out “uh.” It can also be heard at the ends of sentences if the pitch gets too low. Also notice how it’s not obnoxiously nasal like the “valley girl” version. It’s just a natural falling off at the bottom end of their voice. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/28 "2016-01-20T04:21:33Z")
Whatever it is, it’s definitely _not_ vocal fry. And the second example given by the OP was of a female voice (the Alisa Weilerstein example on the Diane Rehm show), anyway, and no vocal fry there either. It’s nothing like that. ---
**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:** [January 20, 2016, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/29 "2016-01-20T06:24:43Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > As in, the male thing that some people find incredibly annoying? In case that was unclear, I was asking if the \*\*JKilez \*\*was being metaphorical, or if he really thought vocal fry played a part. My initial read was metaphorical, but I thought I’d add clarification in case anyone interpreted it the other way. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/30 "2016-01-20T06:31:45Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Some people in Boston might speak like that, but I’m sure you know that is not a typical “Boston accent”. > > It’s, for lack of a better word, standard newscaster American English. What we would call “no accent”. Most people in CA\* speak like that, as do some in parts of the midwest. And since these are all British actors trying to sound “American”, it’s not surprising that they have been trained to speak that way. I’m sure if they were told to sound like someone from New York, they’d pronounce things differently. > > \*Perhaps the entire West Coast. I’m from the Pacific Northwest and to me it sounds like “no accent” which probably means this is what I sound like. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/31 "2016-01-20T15:50:01Z")
Josh’s accent actually reminds me of WWE star [Kevin Owens](http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/641469-bayley-talks-about-her-first-wwe-gimmick-leaving-nxt-audio-kevin-owens-talks-wwe-2k16-video), who’s from Quebec Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/32 "2016-01-20T18:20:23Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > In case that was unclear, I was asking if the \*\*JKilez \*\*was being metaphorical, or if he really thought vocal fry played a part. My initial read was metaphorical, but I thought I’d add clarification in case anyone interpreted it the other way. Yes, I think the vocal fry is one of the markers. Also, to my ear–and I can’t defend it other than that–is the slightest “feminization” of speech/affect–which when exaggerated is the historical “mincing homosexual”-ID, which has now become acceptable in speech for many males. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/33 "2016-01-21T14:30:53Z")
I finally listened to the other example, and I think I know what he’s talking about. Their vowels (especially the back ones) are all more open than “standard American,” similar to Irish vowels. The woman sounds like she’s verging on using more international pronunciations. The consonants are also really crisp and do not become soft to non-existent at the ends of words–but I associate that with just more northeast accents. You guys always sound like you are overenunciating to my ears. It sounds nothing like the Mid-Atlantic accent, but there is a mixture to it. The way the first guy said foreigner is pure Irish sounding, with the o being almost the first vowel in father. And Britishisms completely pepper the second example. No, they don’t sound like the same accent, but those are the commonalities I heard between them. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/34 "2016-01-21T20:57:54Z")
Dude’s accent is just flat goddamn weird. It is NOT “Broadcaster neutral.” There is a definite Irish feel to many of his vowels. I kind of thought I’d loaded the wrong video somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2016, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/35 "2016-01-21T21:36:59Z")
Both of them have a slight Irish American accent. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2016, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328/36 "2016-01-21T21:45:20Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Both of them have a slight Irish American accent. Yeah, I find it interesting that some of us hear the “Irish” (for lack of better description) coloring, while others insist it’s a generic broadcaster accent. To me, both people linked to have very clear “non-neutral” accents. They don’t sound like the average American newscaster. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-is-this/743328.md?page=1)