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The BEST American accent

novella

novella

Active Member
This idea came to me in another thread, but I think it's a funny question.

What is the BEST American accent? You can take that question any way you want, but I'd be interested to know what anyone thinks.
 
American Standard

I was told, years ago, that mid-western speech (North of the Mason-Dixon line) is considered a standard.

I rather imagine that, nowadays, the television news-casters set a certain standard for American accent and pronunciation (I am thinking of the Walter Chronkite of the 1960s). Everyone hears such speakers on a daily basis, so they must exercise a great influence on the nation of speakers as a whole.

I remeber how people would make fun of John F. Kennedy's accent. There was a joke which went:

Question: Why does JFK say 'Cuber' and 'Afriker'?
Answer: Because he had to do something with the two r's in Hah-vaad (Harvard).
Click to expand...

For some reason, only people from Brooklyn will 'swallow' the t's in "bottle" and say "bah-ul"

I would imagine that someone speaking standard English would be perceived to have no accent.

For me, growing up in New England, in the 1950s, Walter Chronkite spoke with no accent, and sounded distinguished, while Kennedy did have an slight accent, and sounded unusual; different.

I found for myself, that, as the years went by, I began to acquire certain habits of speech that I did not have in college.

In casual speech, I find myself using the invarient "be", which is a characterist of certain African American speech.
 
oh come on...the Long Island New York, yenta (My Cousin Vinnie movie, the hot chick who played the girl friend....)accent....has to be top 2 right along-side the Boston, Pahk tha cah in Hahvahd Yahd....
 
Hmm, I keeyant tink of a famous person who kept duh chih-kah-guh eeyaccent after day left. (And you do heeyalf to leave chih-kah-guh if you want to become famous.)
 
Like, oh my gosh! or something. Whatever! Everyone knows (pa' leeese!) the best American accent is totally the "California Valley Girl" accent. It's the bomb for shure...

Or, dude! Like, the stereotypical tubular "California Surfer Dude" accent. It is way not cool to think otherwise, man!
 
"Marisa Tomei was born on December 4, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York to mother..."

She did not have to go too far to get her accent huh?

I was thinking "best" as in worst...if you know what I mean...the one that you can identify in the quickest time, with the fewest words....the one that grates on your nerves...


If I had to pick the American accent I find the most attractive in a female....well that's easy too, southern bell. Give me that good South Carolina accent any day.....
 
Though I know, as Sitaram says, that Nebraskan pretty much embodies the newscaster ideal, my personal favorite for clarity, class, and character is Knickerbocker New Yorker, like the late great George Plimpton had.
 
Stewart said:
I can confirm it's not one from Philadelphia or Delaware.
Click to expand...

So....what is it you're saying here Stewie? What do you know 'bout accents from that particular area? Hmmmmm?????
 
Motokid said:
I was thinking "best" as in worst...if you know what I mean...the one that you can identify in the quickest time, with the fewest words....the one that grates on your nerves...


If I had to pick the American accent I find the most attractive in a female....well that's easy too, southern bell. Give me that good South Carolina accent any day.....
Click to expand...


Lawn Guyland accents are terrible on the whole, but believe it or not there are civilized variations. The North Shore in the middle (Great Neck/Roslyn) has the heavy J.A.P. gumminess in it. The East End (Montauk, Shelter Island, Orient Point) is pretty near pure Yankee, with none of the Brooklyn sloppiness.

As for the Southern belle cutsie-poo drawl typified by Georgians, ugh! Cajun also has a ugly clunkiness. My favorite Southern accent is backcountry Arkansas (ma favorite yeller dahg killed me that rabbit)
 
Assuming you mean 'North American', then Canadian :D .

Specifically either Cape Breton or Newfoundland. Pure friggin' jesus gold!
 
This post is aimed at the Canadian members of this forum. What do you think of the North Dakota accent? It seems like a teaspoon of Maine, a dash of somewhere else, and two parts Canada... Example: the movie Fargo.
 
Duh!! Cajun, of course! ;) (sideways look at novella)


I have very little cajun accent, having spent many years elsewhere. My favorite to hear would be Northern, like Maine.
 
Southern, of course, but when I moved up north my mother did have me work with a vocal coach to lose the accent. It still comes out when I'm relaxed at home.
 
Ronny said:
Southern, of course, but when I moved up north my mother did have me work with a vocal coach to lose the accent. It still comes out when I'm relaxed at home.
Click to expand...

Would it be wrong of me to say your mom should be bitch slapped????

Sorry, I just love that accent...where were you raised?
 
I'm from Mobile, Alabama.

She thought it would be best for us professionally, sometimes people associate a deep southern accent with a lack of intelligence, was her thinking and it was true that when I came up some of my teachers treated me like I was slow at first.
 
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