Comment on It's quite impressive that most English speakers across the world understand each other, despite variations in accents/dialects

• DrBob@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Midwest is classic “broadcast English”. It’s considered an almost neutral accent without a strong sense of place associated with it.

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  • lukecooperatus@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    A so-called “neutral accent” is still an accent.

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    • DrBob@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I never really understood it until I met people from Iowa for the first time. They didn’t have an accent in the way that Sam Diego doesn’t have weather, just a climate.

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  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    West coast people really hear a Midwest accent. I upvoted because it made me laugh.

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    • iltoroargento@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Yeah lol I will agree that it’s less heavy of an accent, for the most part, but most people can still tell unless you literally talk like a news anchor. Same with West Coast accents tbh.

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  • tourist@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    “Broadcast English”

    Interesting term

    I’ve always noticed that In movies and TV shows, North American accents mostly sound “normal”. But when I talk to Americans/Canadians in person or online over voice chat, I cannot pinpoint the accents, it just sounds “American” to me.

    I almost never hear the

    “I’m walkin here”

    “Folks won’t take kindly to you around these parts”

    “I pahked my cah at the Hahvahd yahd”

    “I’m sorey aboot that”

    I’m totally down, I just need to, like, check my schedule?

    etc.

    kinds of exaggerated accents

    everyone sounds like someone from CNN to me and then they say they’re from Arkansas or something

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  • IcedRaktajino@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I thought that was the Mid-Atlantic Accent?

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    • FishFace@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Not for about 80 years…

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      • DrBob@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Never really. Mid-Atlantic was taught in elocution lessons but didn’t really exist outside film and theatre.

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• shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  When I first did tech support 30 years ago, I could nail what state an American was calling from, but not the Midwest, all same same.

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