What is your favorite American English dialect?

[Odin2005]

I don't have a single favorite, but I like the R-dropping coastal Southern dialects (think Jimmy Carter), and the dialects of New England (pahk da cah in hahvahd yahd!)

And, of course, I like my own accent, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Central_American_English , which is also developing elements of the Northern Cities Vowel Shit (so when I say "cat" it sounds something like "ket", but with the vowel held longer).

[RZM]

1. I think most accents are interesting

I was at a cafe in Maine once. I was the only non-local there. Everyone else was a fisherman/lobsterman and they were all telling stories about that day's events. Apparently there had been a shark sighting. I remember thinking that the Maine accent isn't just a stereotype. They were all saying 'ayup' and lots of 'aas.' That's one of my favorites.

I also like the northern Great Lakes accent.

[whathehell]

7. Me too.. so much so that I almost joined the American Dialect Society

but I found it a bit too wonky for me.

I come from Philadelphia and occassionally slip into that accent, but my favorite is the Boston Accent -- Pahk the Cah in Hahved Yahd.

[kag]

2. I like the southern dialects.

I grew up in East Texas, and my next door neighbor was a native of New Orleans. I was always interested in how different her accent was from most of the people I knew. Hers was a slow, southern drawl, which I loved.

While I appear to have escaped the "Texas" accent (people are always surprised to find that I'm from Texas), I can spot different Texas dialects pretty easily. The quick, East Texas twang, versus the slow, West Texas drawl with its funny colloquialisms (Sodeee Water).

I also like the far northeastern (Maine) dialect, like the guy on the old Pepperidge Farm commercials.

[TigerToMany]

4. I don't like the South's politics

But I think that certain southern accents sound cool. Not so much the really hick type accent where it's hard to understand, but other southern accents like the Cajun one sound ok interesting.

I'm from Delaware, by the way.

[CTyankee]

6. I grew up with that north Texas twang (in Dallas). I no longer have an accent, tho.

I love the north texas accent. It is soft and pretty.

GW Bush annoyed the hell out of me with his faux accent.

[lazarus]

3. Southern

but most people don't realize how many Southern accents there are. Hollywood, in particular, makes this mistake, with a jumble of accents all supposedly in one small town.

[raccoon]

5. Also Hollywood usually portrays Southerners as being dumb as rocks.

OF COURSE none of them are!

Well, you know, not all of them are.

[geardaddy]

8. Great Lakes accent.

That Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee nasally working class accent.

[valerief]

9. New York, definitely. nt

[Recursion]

10. "The pure American English is spoken in Boston, and perhaps as far as Watertown" (nt)

[RAFREE]

11. My favourite English Dialect

It's not necessarily "American" English dialect and is indeed a language all it's own. Derived from English as Dr. Louise Bennett "Miss Lou" said. Patois! She used to talk about how some made fun of Patois as being a "bastardization" of English while other sorts of accents and even American English were "derived from" English.

I've done volunteer work in Jamaican schools and so...I'm biased of course but, it's a very distinct language. It's sounds very poetic when spoken with a great lilt and timing. I can understand most of it except when locals speak it extremely fast then I lose the plot sometimes. Wish I could speak it as they do but, it's not proper really for "foreign" to take over Patois.

I wish there were a section for Caribbean issues. Lots of poverty there and lots of issues in places like Haiti, Jamaica, DR, Cuba to be discussed.

At any rate. Patois is my favourite derived from English dialect.

P.S. the spell check here marks British English as incorrect spelling! lol!

[lanlady]

12. My grandmother's old New England accent

Dropping "r's" where they were supposed to be and putting them in where they had no business being. Her prayers would start with something that sounded like "lawd gurd." I'd laugh and say grandma, is god a squash?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. We really don't have dialects in American English.

Accents, yes. Dialects, no.

And there's a difference between the two.

[Drum]

14. Boston Accent (movie trailer)

Enjoy! 😉

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. I'd argue that English doesn't really have dialects.

We have different accents, but they are almost all mutually comprehensible, which true dialects often are not. There are no real grammatical differences in the various versions of American English, and vocabulary differences are trivial. Pronunciation, yeah, that can be huge.

I moved from northern New York State to Tucson, Arizona, when I was 14. I had a very strong upstate New York accent (very different from those in and around NYC) and afterwards I joked that I had no friends for the first two years because no one could understand me when I spoke. Including my French teacher, who couldn't understand me in either language.

Clearly, I am exaggerating, but I lost my accent in those two years. I needed to. For a very long time, I kept a few old pronunciations of certain words, and if I said them, people with a decent ear for accents would immediately know where I was from. That has not happened in a number of years now, and I'm glad. I have a reasonably neutral American accent.

That is NOT to disparage any of you who have a strong regional accent of any kind, especially if you are very proud of where you are from. Good for you!

[spooky3]

16. Creole nt