Accents

[shnoodlec.]

I'm from the South, but I wasn't raised in a house where Southern accents were naturally thick, so mine tends to be fairly understated.

Same with me. Though, for some reason, my friends tell me I sound kind of British some times. I say things like "Have you got it" instead of "Do you have it" and I often stress the syllable or word that a British person would. Hmm. Here in Louisiana the accents drive me CRAZY.

[HomeschoolCowgirl]

I love talking in a British accent I guess i have a LITTLE bit of Southern.
Just out of curiosity what kind of accent would you say Leonard Meltsner had? I can't figure it out.

[Gooey98]

Leonard Meltsner has a British accent.
Even in Britain, there are different accents, so it might not be the "British" you're used to hearing, but it's definitely a British accent.

[Emma]

I have a normal accent, but I love practicing British and Southern accents.

[Nelson S.]

I have a typical American accent. So I pronounce my Rs and Ls harsher than other languages do.

I also like to try French (I'm taking it for school), German, and Cockney (street english) accents.

I do a lot of character voices too because I like voice acting. So I try my best at pretty much everything I hear. Morgan Freeman, James Stewart, cave trolls from The Hobbit, Larry the Cucumber (which I can't really do anymore because my voice is deeper now. xD), radio announcers, and other things that interest me.

While I might not sound like specific people per say, I think I have their inflections down. They way they say their words. I also listen to a lot of pro voice actors, they have a lot of awesome voices. Big inspirations for my own productions. I need to make more cartoonish productions to show off more of my voices... or multiple personalities... Whichever seems more fitting.

[TigerShadow]

Eh, I wouldn't say there's any such thing as a "normal" or "typical" American accent any more than there's a "normal" British accent. The accent that we think of as a default American accent is still an accent—it's Midwestern, and the reason we think of it as a default is because it's the one with the least quirks—it's not nasally and spread-out like Jersey, nor is it slow and gutteral like the Texas Drawl. It's also called "Newscasters' English"; because it's the most phonetically neutral accent, people who either naturally had or could affect a Midwestern accent were (and still are, I think) the people most often chosen to be TV or radio news anchors. It's still its own distinct accent when compared to other regions, though.

[Ameraka]

Eh, I wouldn't say there's any such thing as a "normal" or "typical" American accent any more than there's a "normal" British accent. The accent that we think of as a default American accent is still an accent—it's Midwestern, and the reason we think of it as a default is because it's the one with the least quirks—it's not nasally and spread-out like Jersey, nor is it slow and gutteral like the Texas Drawl. It's also called "Newscasters' English"; because it's the most phonetically neutral accent, people who either naturally had or could affect a Midwestern accent were (and still are, I think) the people most often chosen to be TV or radio news anchors. It's still its own distinct accent when compared to other regions, though.

Yes, and there's variations within the Midwest, different nuances both between and within the Midwestern states. I kind of said this earlier though. I guess I don't want to be thought of as "typical". And living in the Midwest, I know there's not necessarily one standard accent throughout the whole region. There's probably a variation between lower and upper Midwest, with the upper Midwest being more influenced by Norwegians and other Scandinavian countries. That's just a guess, as I live in the upper Midwest...but the lower Midwest like Iowa and Indiana seems more "standard". I haven't been there a lot though so I couldn't say for sure. There's probably variations with those states too. We are influenced a lot by the Germans I think because a lot of Germans settled in this area. I myself have German heritage from both my mother and father's side...
Mom grew up in a place with a lot of Polish people, who influenced the very rural culture where she lived. There are also a lot of Mennonites there, who speak a German dialect--"Pennsylvania Dutch" and often have a German accent.