the United States has countless accents
where did they all come from American
accents have been evolving for hundreds
of years while Americans sound very
different today here's where some of
those iconic accents got their start
let's start with New England which was
one of the first u.s. regions to develop
its own american english accent today a
speaker from new england might say well
you're gonna plagiarize the whole thing
for us do you have any thoughts of your
own on this matter is that your thing
you come into a by you read some obscure
passage and then pretend you pawn it off
as your own for such a geographically
small area New York City certainly has a
bunch of distinctive accents but in
general its accents evolved from a
mixture of its Dutch and English roots
and numerous waves of immigration
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a modern speaker from New York probably
won't sound like what you hear in the
movies they're more likely to say
deep-dish pizza is not only not better
than New York Pizza it's not peach New
York's New Jerseyan and Pennsylvanian
neighbors sounded quite different
nowadays
someone from Philly might say were your
regular family we watched your Phillies
on TV we go down to the Jersey Shore
well we want great hoagies discount
prices on beer and a great atmosphere we
go to Lee's homies and worship beer
let's take a look at what went on down
south the southern coast of the United
States has a variety of different
accents one for example is southern
coastal white what concerns me about the
American press is this endless endless
attempt to label the guy's some kind of
cook other southern dialects preserve
some of the original remnants to this
day they come over here get the oysters
and clams and go fishing because they're
right down the road they ready Browns
ago Savannah Jacksonville much later a
wave of african-americans migrated from
the American South to urban centers in
the north mixing their accents together
being kid from New York City I mean from
Brooklyn and my aunt god bless her soul
she data she's to always take me to the
to the Rockettes you know Easter the
Easter showing the Christmas show the
Ulster Scots had a significant influence
on many American dialects in the south
and the West most of the original accent
has disappeared and today an American
from Tennessee might sound like this now
I am just Who I am
I'm not always nice I choose to be good
I choose to have a good attitude because
I want people to know I am a girl of
many colors the Midwest has many diverse
accents as the Appalachian settlers
headed west their accents joined with
speech patterns from the north today a
speaker from the Great Lakes might say I
was born in the middle of the century in
the middle of the country a classic baby
boomer or more famous
we got a full tank of gas half a pack of
cigarettes it's dark and we're wearing
sunglasses while another from Wisconsin
Minnesota the Dakotas might say if
either of these men draw I'm gonna be
forced to shoot some people and I don't
want to do that
down in Texas a very distinct accent
developed the famous Texan accent that
we all know from movies he shot and
killed a state senator named bibs in
Waco Texas has started to level out
visitors to big cities like Houston
might be surprised to hear something
more like thank you to everyone who
worked so hard so beautifully capture
the profundity of deep Southern culture
last but not least is the West Coast
which had a very different mix of
immigrants compared to the East Coast
California doesn't come close to having
one distinct accent a modern-day speaker
might sound like woke up the next
morning on his actual birthday and I
told him I wanted to take him somewhere
to lunch for his birthday or what's so
powerful about this novel is everyone
has their own interpretation of these
characters these are just a handful of
American accents and they're all still
evolving as we speak
we'll have to check back in a century or
so and see what happens next