Ever wonder how your voice sounds to others? Do you have an accent? How many 'American' accents can you discern? Are there really 'American' accents?
I was sitting and just allowing thoughts to pass my brain a day ago and it occured to me out of the blue the way we talk here in America. I started thinking of the different sounds I've heard from people throughout my life and travels here in the US. And I really found that I can only actually completely distinguish about 2 or 3 major accents from people living here. Yes the 'southern drawl' is an easy one , and the 'New England' or 'northeast' sounds are most familiar to many of us.
I was raised on the Texas gulf coast and I certainly did at one time have a strong southern drawl, but it never sounded quite like the 'whites' in the area. Neither did any of my 7 sisters or 1 brother sound much like the other southerners in our community. My maternal grandmother, who raised us, was Creole and she certainly had a very distinct accent as well as most of the many people from the bayou country of southern Louisiana. Yet their voices sounded quite differently from the 'Cajuns'.
I recall being a bit embarrassed when I first arrived in California from Texas along with my 'southern black' drawl. so much so , that I made a very conscious effort to change the way I talked with the aid of just acquiring the natural sounds we often pick up from the people we are frequently in contact. so now I really have what i term a 'non' accent. So many people today after hearing my voice often remark that they hear some kind of accent but it isn't recognizable. My guess is that it's an amalgam of several different accents.
I'm certain you have had the opportunity to listen to certain individuals, and I won't single any one person out as to not embarrass them, that really taxes the ear to listen to. On the other hand, I'm certain you've heard a voice that was so calm and distinct and so pleasing to hear that you could listen to them for hours.
I think my point in saying all of this is to see if we can become aware of the gratification we all may be able to achieve by simply taking the time to verbally produce a tone that others will love to hear. We may find that our thoughts and feelings are taken much more seriously and are found to be more interesting to those we encounter.
What do you think of this and do you have an 'American' accent?
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That's interesting. I don't know if I have a California accent or not. Do us Westerners have accents?
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered how some of these actors and actress do acceent so well, like Meryl Streep for instance.
I also wonder if television, all the cable news shows, and all that we are exposed to now days has maybe taken some of the accent out of voices. What do you think?
I purposedly did not mention Westerner's accents because I really haven't been able to recognize any discinct ones(except the 'valley girl/boy' ones maybe). I think you are most perceptive in wondering how actors/actresses such as Meryl Streep(who was simply amazing with the Australian accent in a film who's title escapes me at the moment)are able to seemingly easily do accents. My guess is that they put in a lot of long hours listening to recordings of the actual accent at issue and repetition of the sounds. You are also accurate in feeling that our accents may be influenced by who we are exposed to on a daily basis.What we hear is a hodgepodge of different sounds from the media and we take a little from here and there and form our very own unique accents. What do YOU think Linda?
ReplyDeleteActors have what are called dialect/voice coaches. They are the ones who are responsible for enabling actors to have “true” accents in films and TV. When you see a movie or television show where the accents are really bad, that is due to the fact that the budget didn’t include dialect coaches.
ReplyDeleteAs far as California accents go, we have so many different “accents” that have moved here, that we have adapted all of them into our very own accent. Have you ever noticed that it is every easy for a true “Californian” to change the way they speak? Southern, Eastern, Midwestern even European they are all so easy to replicate.
Cat