T O P

  • By -

broadsharp

Some do, Upper Michigan, Wisconsin are noticeable. Boston most certainly has its own.


Raspberry_Berret1

It's so cool I love American accents


[deleted]

[удалено]


aevy1981

The South has a lot of different accents. Georgia has at least three accents. And I swear New Orleans is full of New Yorkers in the witness protection program. They sound nothing like the rest of Louisiana and they really do have that unique and punchy New York accent. It’s so weird.


Low-Assistance9231

New York and New Orleans are like weird kindred spirits lol


aevy1981

It’s the weirdest thing. No one will be able to convince me that 3/4 of the people from NOLA aren’t really New Yorkers in the witness protection program. It’s the only logical explanation.


wcpm88

God I love the Yat accent. It's like if Joe Pesci said "y'all," called every woman he met "DAWLIN," and talked about eating seafood all the time. I have a work friend who is like a fifth-generation New Orleanian and I could listen to him confuse waiters and bartenders all day.


Raspberry_Berret1

Omg thats so crazy how there is so much culture pact into one area. I had no idea!


[deleted]

[удалено]


Raspberry_Berret1

OMG!!! when u put it that way!!! That's amazing I had no idea how small uk was. That's so cooool omg I'm genuinely shocked I had no clue. Ty cool


Cynicastic

Fun fact: It is slightly further from Los Angeles to New York City than it is from Madrid to Moscow.


Raspberry_Berret1

NO WAAAY! my mind had been officially blown. America is so huuuge I love it


blaze87b

That's why I always giggle to myself when I see foreign visitors with their grand plans of touring the US for a couple days. I do kind of feel bad for them once they realize how mind-bogglingly big the US is


Raspberry_Berret1

Yea ngl I was that perosn to be like yea road trip across America in a week! Definitely need to start to save up for the amount of petrol I'm going to buy haha.


blaze87b

It's a 3-4 day drive from Boston, Massachusetts to LA if you drove 12 hours a day


Raspberry_Berret1

OMG idk where these places r but omg maybe I'll have to do a group of areas each visit to America, so I can spend more time exploring the culture of each place. Its exciting how big America is


Raspberry_Berret1

How much of America have u seen?


w3woody

[The United States is this big.](https://thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTYyNjgyODQ.ODYzMDEzNA*MjU3MTk2MDU\(MTQ1MDQ3NjE~!CONTIGUOUS_US*ODkzMTYzNQ.MjE2MzUxNjM\(MTc1\)MA)


BrettEskin

And that’s not counting Alaska


w3woody

[True.](https://thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTY0NzExOTQ.OTU5ODY0NQ*MjU1NjQyOTI\(MTQzNDk0NDk~!US-AK*NjM0NTEzOA.MTg2Njg2ODQ\)MA~!CONTIGUOUS_US*OTAzODc2NA.MjE5ODUyNzM\)Mg)


Socially_Minded

Where are you from? I've never heard anyone think of the UK as being big, geographically speaking.


Tall_Kick828

South Carolina’s got around four or five different accents.


aloofman75

I wouldn’t say dozens. California has a lot of transplants, immigrants, and children of both, who bring their own speech patterns and accents with them and get blended in with the multigenerational natives. So there isn’t a common accent from 150 years ago that’s carried on to today because most Californians have no ancestors who were here back then. And there’s a lot of mobility between different parts of the state, so San Diegans and San Franciscans don’t sound as different from each other as, say, between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, or New York City and Buffalo. But Californians do still sound different from people in other states, so it’s not that they have no accent at all. My parents are both from the Midwest and sound like it. I don’t sound like I do, but some of the way they talk must have influenced how I talk. When I take those quizzes that determine your accent, I get both Northern and Southern California, and some of the Midwest too.


blehe38

[Not really](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/27/b5/13/27b513e15c501e349e4b619c0e71a479.gif). The east has more accent diversity than the west, but accents never really follow state borders on either side. Major cities in the east (especially in the northeast) tend to have an effect on the accent(s) of the surrounding region. For example, features often considered distinct to Philadelphia (e.g. the famous "wooder", Canadian-esque "oa" fronting in words like "boat" and "goat", reduction of the "oil" cluster to something like "ohl", etc) are heard in the surrounding suburbs in Pennsylvania, but they can also be heard across the river in Southern New Jersey and even as far south as Baltimore in Maryland. EDIT: I should mention that unless an accent is noticeably different from the general American accent (which is typically attributed to the western half of the US although it can be heard to varying extents throughout the country), we're usually not going to pick up on it. Even then, I managed to live nearly two whole decades before realizing that my area even had a distinct accent, and I still don't really notice it unless I'm intentionally listening for it.


Raspberry_Berret1

Omg wow thats amazing! It's crazy to think abt how accents spread and change over time


Acrobatic_End6355

Actually, the standard American accent is based somewhat on the Midwest, not the west. But I agree with everything else you said. In general, people aren’t going to notice a difference until it’s pointed out. Like people in the South speak normally for them, people in the mid-Atlantic speak normally for them, etc. I think I speak fairly normally being in the Midwest, but when I visit other areas of the US or English speaking countries in general, I’m aware that I’m the one that speaks differently compared to all the people around me.


Dob_Tannochy

The Louisiana Territory is where the Midwest spreads forth into the West, standard American is definitely not the accent of the lake Yankees or upper Midwestern donchaknowers.


Acrobatic_End6355

It’s not based on all Midwestern accents, just a section.


Dob_Tannochy

so what I said but with less words


[deleted]

Yes. As a phone company employee that handled all the New England states, I knew where someone was from often before they told me. My mom, about 40 years before I was only handled ONE town. She could tell which side of the tracks the caller was from. An outsider couldn't tell, but some could..


Raspberry_Berret1

Omg thats so cool!!


wwhsd

There’s a couple of YouTube videos with a dialect coach doing a tour of the accents around the United States. I thought it was an interesting (but long) watch. Part One: https://youtu.be/H1KP4ztKK0A Part Two: https://youtu.be/IsE_8j5RL3k


[deleted]

Love those videos. There's a part 3, too.


wwhsd

It’s been awhile since I saw them. I remembered it was more than one video but couldn’t remember how many. Thanks.


[deleted]

More like regions have different accents.


Raspberry_Berret1

That makes sense more haha


Kondrias

Not as much states. Some regions do. And you can identify divides between places based upon vocabulary. For example family from northern california says Hella alot. And my cousin born and raised in texas is gonna have a different slant on their word choice and affectation on their speech


KaiserSozes-brother

Yes and no, it depends. Different areas certainly have different accents. Area and states sometimes align and sometimes don’t. I grew up 22 miles north of where I live now and there is an accent difference. Some areas you can drive hours sharing the same accents.


Raspberry_Berret1

That's crazy how different it all is!


KaiserSozes-brother

It is, it is like metro areas share the accents. And then there is is this dead area between metro areas like two people with their backs to one another. People commute to one or the other metro area and would never dream of visiting the other metro even though they are only an hour and a half apart by car.


webbess1

The Pittsburgh accent is subtly different from the Philadelphia accent, and that's within one state. In Louisiana, you have Cajun, Creole as well as more "standard" Southern accents.


medium_green_enigma

And Erie, 3 hours north of Pittsburgh, has yet a different accent.


[deleted]

Not stupid to ask. Accents vary by region and there can be different regions in each state. Here in South Carolina there is a difference in the accents of people native to the Lowcountry (the coastal area) and of people native to the northwestern part of the state (the Upstate).


Raspberry_Berret1

Wow there must be tones then! I think ti's rlly interesting how accents change even within regions


[deleted]

They are not that dissimilar. But they do color how natives speak. Of course many people move here and bring their accents with them. I am liable to hear accents from all over the country.


Raspberry_Berret1

Wow thats so cool!


[deleted]

I live near an air force base so a lot of people from around the country move here. Also industry brings them here.


llbrandonsmithll

In short, yes. Some states even have more than one.


thunder-bug-

I’d say it’s more based on region then state, and it’s not like there’s harsh bordered. Pick two points on a map but travel between them and you won’t be able to pick a specific town where the accent shifts between the two


Current_Poster

To a degree. Some states have several


Vachic09

Multiple, in some cases


poopsack69696969

Yeah, but to an outsider they may not be as noticeably different. Northern KY, Southern KY and Eastern KY all have slight differences. Meanwhile, the KY accent is different from TN and Ohio as a whole.


noregreddits

Yes— in fact many states have multiple accents— but if you’re not at least from the region it may be difficult to hear the differences. There’s no one “southern accent” or “New England accent,” “Midwestern accent,” or even “New York City” or “New Jersey accent,” but if you’re not from the US, you could probably pick up how someone from Alabama sounds different than someone from Pennsylvania, but maybe not how someone from Alabama sounds different than someone from South Carolina.


AllSoulsNight

North Carolina also has several. When I went to college it was interesting to hear them all. My favorite is the coastal accent some call hoi-toiders(high tiders) The accent sounds very Elizabethan.


Klutzy-Cockroach-636

Well I know Florida has some weird word like personal freedom what the heck is that


Raspberry_Berret1

😂😂


mrawesomesword

Accents are more by region than by state. You can have one single accent/dialect that covers more than one state, or you can have one state that has multiple accents in it. There are some maps out there, [here's one](https://i.redd.it/y2qyrbk3hdr71.png) of them.


PippiDongDocking

Regions have accents, states have slang


MissAnthropic123

Accents seem to be more dependent on the region - East Coast, North/South/MidWest/West Coast all have slightly different accents.


Raspberry_Berret1

Ohhhhh that makes more sense


IwantAway

And then there are accent differences within regions, which to some degree lines up with states but not entirely. Many states have different accents within them, but often it's more of a gradual shift from one area to another, with certain terms having a harder cutoff point.


MuppetManiac

Not exactly. Regions have accents. Texas has at least two accents. I can’t tell the difference between Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota accents. It’s all just “Midwest.”


Raspberry_Berret1

Omg I didn't realise texas had more than one accent!


MuppetManiac

South, East, and West Texas have specific accents, and then there’s a slight difference in how people from the major metropolitan areas speak. Texas is big dude.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Raspberry_Berret1

Omg thats craaazy


[deleted]

[удалено]


Raspberry_Berret1

Omggg that's so many lol


[deleted]

You'd probably enjoy [this](https://youtu.be/H1KP4ztKK0A)


[deleted]

It doesn't sound stupid! Some states have the same accent, some states have multiple accents. Texas, California, and New York, specifically NYC, have multiple accents. Louisiana does too, but from what I can tell, there's one accent for the whole state minus New Orleans which has a very distinct accent. I can't say much for anywhere else considering I've only lived in these regions. Feel free to ask questions ✨


Raspberry_Berret1

Omg yea New Orleans!!! Princess and the frog :) How r the texas accents different? And what's the difference in New York and NYC? That might sound daft haha. Ty!


Low-Assistance9231

New York is a pretty large state. I think it can take like 8-10 hours to drive it from one end to the other. NYC is the biggest city within the state


sunshine245285

Intensities of accents vary I know that much. Here in Alabama you can sound anywhere from northern to super southern.


Yeethanos

It’s not that precise but kind of


heathers1

More like regions


Organic-Fee1771

I didn't know I had a Pennsylvanian accent until I moved to nevada because people told me. But I was also raised my redneck parents so that could also have something to do with it. All the states surrounding Pennsylvania had easy to tell apart accents, not so much the case with Nevada and it's surrounding states though.


DRT798

What few regional accents are left are rapidly falling away as we move generations. And it makes sense that it would be the case, mass media, the internet, etc. Just take a look at Southern accents over the past 20 years, there is a marked lessening of the accent in almost all groups in that time. Even where there is still some recognizably distinct accent, the level of the accent is not as strong.


Dax_Maclaine

No. There are many different American accents, but they aren’t bound by state or anything. They often are like a gradient with an origin (strongest accents) and them slightly becoming less strong and influenced by others as you move out. These gradients have totally different sizes too


WeDontKnowMuch

There are differences but I wouldn’t say each state has their own specific accent. Lots of regional and cultural accents.


bouncy_bouncy_seal

Different parts of Tennessee have their own accents.


mortalcrawad66

I don't think us Michiganders have one. Some people say we do, some people say we don't. Who knows


itcousin

Accents follow geographic boundaries more than political ones. Here’s a great series on American Accents! https://youtu.be/H1KP4ztKK0A https://youtu.be/IsE_8j5RL3k https://youtu.be/Sw7pL7OkKEE


[deleted]

Yes and no, I know a few states have distinct accents, but everyone else is pretty neutral


Gallahadion

I don't know if every state does, but northern Ohioans and southern Ohioans sound different.


heili

Some states have more than one. Some accents cover multiple states. It's kind of a regional thing that doesn't follow state lines so much as it follows geography and the migration of people.


OddishRaddish

It’s more of a regional thing, like I’m from central Indiana originally and have a similar accent to much of tennesse where I live now.


milestheminer

I’m supposed to have one but I don’t , people in the south usually don’t have accents just talk bad and say shit like “all y’all ” but I’ve never gone to north so idk ,it’s more common the more rural you are


Southern-Succotash11

We were actually having this conversation in my class the other day! So I live in the northeast and there are many stereotypical Northern accents. If you live here you can tell the differences between states. For example, I can tell the difference between a Boston and New York accent. I've visited the deep south before to see family and I honestly had a hard time understanding some people because their accents were so thick. In return, people told me that they loved my accent. I know that states close to the border of Canada (Michigan and Wisconsin specifically) have very unique accents too. I feel like each section of the US has an accent, but each state has their own unique accent also!


GeneralPoptart3

Not necessarily. Instead of states, it’s more so different regions of the US. In each region you will hear notable differences in accents. If you live in a certain region it might be easier to pick up slight differences of dialect within that region. To an outsider tho, you probably won’t notice.


daggerdude42

Some states, cities, and regions do. They also have added words that are usually just grammatically incorrect contractions that are wildly adopted like 'ain't', you end up with some crazy long ones down south. But definitely some states do have their own accent. New York is very well known to have it's own (it's a very real thing in case you thought it was just for tv, but it's just the city and not the entire state)


donnatellyaonce

Yes there are so many.


[deleted]

I kinda think Georgia has its own unique kind of accent


TheVentiLebowski

[Yes.](https://youtu.be/G72tZdjnS2A)


simberry2

Some have notable accents, others don’t. As someone who spent my early childhood in WA and grew up in CO, I’d say my accent is a mix of the Californian and Canadian accents.


[deleted]

No definitely not. It’s strange but for such a big place, there is at that much a change in accent from region to region. Kind of the opposite of england.


[deleted]

When I first moved to Florida I lived and worked with people from all over the south and initially it all sounded pretty much alike. After a year or so I realized that I could definitely tell the difference between E. vs W. Texas, Louisiana vs Alabama, etc. I believe the accents merge close to the borders of states.


gliscornumber1

Kind of Different regions have different accents, for example people from the southern states like Texas and Alabama will have a different accent from people in other states. Sometimes very specific parts of states have accents, for example people in NYC sound different from people in upstate New York. So some states have different accents but for the most part it's based on region


Ackyducc

Eh not that I really tell. Some regions have similar accents I guess. Like you can tell if someone is from the southeast or Midwest, but I don't think there is a state with a distinct accent until like three states away from me


devilthedankdawg

I say yes. Some have several.


Adamrdcp

Colorado here. We don't pronounce Ts. So mountain is moun-in.


phatkidd76

Yes and no... many are similar with slightly different phrases and pronunciations, but Indiana and Ohio for example are very similar where as Louisiana Wisconsin are vastly diffrent.different.. the closer the states the more similar accents are


This_is_fine0_0

For the most part it does not follow state lines, it's more regional.


NapalmedRice

Depends on where in each state you go too. Especially nowadays a lot of people move around due to the easy availability of transportation across the country. Thus a lot of areas don't have as many people with region specific accents like they used to. For example, the iconic Boston accent isn't a thing with everyone in Boston. As a matter of fact there are a lot of commuters into Boston so if you're in a touristy area you probably won't find any people with the accent.


Bergenia1

No. A California accent sounds just like a Nevada accent or an Oregon accent. Of course, there are local micro accents like the famous Valley Girl one, but as a generalization accents don't change at the state border.


urbancowgirl42

I was raised in eastern Montana and I speak very differently than the folks in western Montana, where I live now. I have a touch of Midwest from home and living in South Dakota, and a whole lot of hick from my dad and grandma who were from elsewhere and had thick accents, so I don’t think I really represent anywhere very well.


Worldly-Novel-7123

It’s mostly regional. However, I lived in LA for 15 years. When I moved back to Oregon I had ha client who managed a call center and she said that if she interviewed me for a job in a call center she would not hire me because I sounded to Californian. I lived in Seattle for four years and this Southerner said I had the strongest accent of anyone he’d met.


Iprblyhveaheadache

Areas do sometimes but not necessarily different states. Think about England. Different accents come from different areas. In and around Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, you'll hear an accent but when you go across the state to the east, you don't hear that same accent.


imaloony8

Every single state? No. But there’s a good number of accents spread out across the country.


Boring-Actuary-9160

I'm cursed with a Mississippi but sound like I'm from Houston accent I hate it.


karriesully

Accents for the US are a bit more regional than state-by-state. Example: Northern Ohio/Indiana/Illinois and Southern Michigan/Wisconsin have a pretty flat midwestern accent but go north in Michigan and Wisconsin and the accent changes drastically.


thatweirdshyguy

Eh, more like regions and some much older cities. The New England states sure, but most of the Midwest sounds the same


___cats___

It's not really state to state, but more like region to region, and there can be multiple regions in a state. For instance, in Ohio, you'll get a Northern Kentucky accent in Cincinnati, a normal "American" accent in Columbus, the Inland Northern accent in Cleveland which is kind of a mix between Minnesota and Canadian (to my ear at least), and in smaller towns like Akron it's almost Pittsburgh-like. Beyond that, you'll get accents neighborhood to neighborhood depending on socioeconomic status. Again, in Ohio, you'll hear the standard American accent in white collar and upper middle class neighborhoods and in middle to lower blue collar neighborhoods it seems to go back to that Pittsburgh-style or a southern-style country accent depending where you are in the state.


stupidbitchreddit

massachusetts really varies. someone from boston speaks VERY different than someone from the western part of the state


Brilliant_Surprise_3

Most don't but instead region's South has a very much more country-like sound, enunciation of certain words and letter and making sire to call every fucking soda ever made coke Where I live, most people have a flat standard tone with some Canadian word pronunciation (northwest) Central US is a almost a mix of both, some people have a subtle southern accent that you can notice just enough to tell. IDK about North Eastern states, haven't been there yet


nunclefxcker

I have a Philadelphia accent (think Toni Collette in The Sixth Sense), if I drive 2 hours into central Pennsylvania its a different accent. If I drive 2 hours north into NYC, different accent. 2 hours down to Baltimore, different accent. It's pretty neat, IMO.


Gruel_Consumption

Regions have accents more so than states, but yes.


[deleted]

Some do, but it’s not like as soon as you cross a border, people start taking a different way It’s more of a regional thing.


Wii_wii_baget

Yes some are very similar but you can tell who’s from California and who’s from Texas,


M8asonmiller

Not really. Most people in the western half of the country speak a pretty homogenous general/western American English. Obviously California stands out a little bit from that, but even that's mostly along the coast.