upworthy

accents

Learning

British language expert shares 7 American accents that are particularly tricky

Some of these are even challenging for other Americans to understand.

Olly Richards/YouTube

Have you ever heard these 7 unique American accents?

When you think about "American English," what comes to mind? The way we us a hard "r" compared to British English? The way we pronounce "aluminum" and "herbs"? How we say "cookies" instead of "biscuits" and "fries" instead of "chips"?

What about our different accents? While we often marvel about how many accents there are in the U.K. for its size, the U.S has a lot more diversity of accents than people might think. Most of us group American accents into large regional groupings like Northeast, Southern, Midwest, etc., and the people from each of those regions know that there are distinct accents within them (like Boston vs. New York, Tennessee vs. Mississippi). But there are even more hyper-localized accents and dialects that many of us are not exposed to, and some of them are hard even for other Americans to understand.

Language expert Olly Richards shared seven of these accents that are difficult to emulate and explained how they came to be. It's a fascinating celebration of the diversity that many of us aren't aware exists within our language.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

1. The YAT accent of New Orleans, Louisiana

Influenced by West African, German, Italian, Irish, and French immigrants who settled in Louisiana, the YAT accent is named for the way people say "Where you at?" in New Orleans. Words and phrases from this accent include "dawlin" (darling) "Mawmaw" (grandma) "prolly" (probably), "pass a good time" (have a good time), "Who dat?" (Who's that?), and "for noon" (at noon).

The YAT accent is distinct from a southern drawl or from the local Cajun English—it's more akin to a thick New York accent, which Richards says is due to the exact same immigrant groups settling there.

2. The High Tider accent of Outer Banks, North Carolina

Richards calls this an "endangered accent," as it appears to be dying out. It stems from immigration from the south of England and Ireland, but also from pirates of varying backgrounds who used the islands off the coast of North Carolina. The High Tider dialect developed in almost complete isolation for over 250 years, and is a form of archaic English that includes elements found in parts of Canadian English as well. A few words from this dialect include "quamish" (sick or nauseated), "buck" (male friend), and "dingbatter" (outsider).

miami, florida, miami english, accents, american english Miami has its own accent.Photo credit: Canva

3. The Miami English accent of Miami, Florida

Sitting at the tip of Florida, Miami has been heavily influenced by five decades of immigration from Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean as well as Central America. As a result, the English has many elements of Spanish pronunciations and rhythm. English has 20 vowel sounds, but Spanish has only five, so the Miami English accent reflects those Spanish vowel sounds.

4. The Southerner accent of the American South

Okay, this one is a bit fudgey because, as Richards points out, there are actually seven distinct southern accents. But there are some elements that Southerner accents share, one being how they speak more slowly than most of the rest of the country. Southern accent are known for their melodic nature and long, drawn-out vowels. Richards explains that wealthy British traders living in this part of the U.S. in the mid-1700s started dropping their "r" sound as a way to distinguish themselves from the lower classes. We can still hear that characteristic in southern accents today.

Yooper, U.P., upper peninsula, michigan, american accents "Yooper" refers to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, also known as the U.P.Photo credit: Canva

5. The Yooper accent of the Upper Midwest

This accent has its roots in German, Scandinavian, Cornish, French Canadian, and particularly Finnish, and is perhaps most recognized by its affinity for its use of the German-Scandinavian "ja" instead of "yes" and for ending sentences with "eh." Another feature is saying "dem/dere/dat" instead of them/there/that. The term "Yooper" comes from "U.P." or "Upper Peninsula," referring to the northern part of Michigan, but variations of this accent can be found along various parts of the Midwest near the Canadian border.

6. The Mainer accent of Maine

This accent is marked by the dropping of "r" sounds, but also adding an "r" where there shouldn't be one (similarly to the way British folks treat "r"). There also tends to be a slight gruffness in the throat when they speak. The accent is influenced by 17th century English and early French settlers, along with a bit of Scots-Irish. Words and phrases like "from away" (not from Maine), "drownded" (drown), "brung" (bring), and "chuppta" (What are you up to?) are common, and though its association with the working class caused it to dwindle, Richards says the Mainer dialect is having a bit of a renaissance.

Gullah, Georgia coast, atlantic, american accents, dialects Gullah is spoken along the coast of Georgia as well as Florida and the Carolinas.Photo credit: Canva

7. The Gullah accent of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida

This unique accent developed in the southern rice fields during the Atlantic slave trade. The enslaved peoples learned English, but it was heavily influenced by the various African languages they spoke, as well as the lower-class English and Irish servants they interacted with. Today, it's mostly African-Americans living along the Atlantic seaboard of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida who use the Gullah dialect. The word "Kumbaya" comes from Gullah, which Richards describes as more than an accent or dialect—it's actually an American creole (a language that evolved from two other languages coming together).

It's easy to imagine the "standard" American English accent seen most often in Hollywood films and TV shows, which most closely aligns with the Western U.S., but in reality, American English is a mishmash of accents and dialects that are more diverse than many of us even know. What a delightful celebration of the English language in all of its colorful manifestations.

From Your Site Articles
linguistics
LearningEducation
Community

The remote island where residents speak a fascinating blend of Southern and Old English

Experts say Ocracoke's endlessly-entertaining dialect is rapidly disappearing.

BBC Global/YouTube & EZScore/Flickr

An isolated island called Ocracoke is home to a unique accent not found anywhere else in the world

American English comes in all sorts of different flavors and varieties. I grew up in Baltimore, which shares some dialectical DNA with the accent you find in other Northeastern cities like Philadelphia. Baldamor, hon! There's the New England dialects, most famously the Boston accent: Pahk the cah at Havahd yahd! The New York accent is world famous, as is the deep Southern twang, which gives way to a thick Cajun accent the closer you get to the water in Florida and Louisiana.

These are all different versions of the greater American dialect. But there is one place, a tiny island off the coast of North Carolina, where a few residents speak in such a unique way that it's not even identified as American by most people around the world.

Ocracoke, North Carolina is home to a unique dialect called the Brogue: A strange blend of American Southern, Old Elizabethan English, with little bits of Irish and even Australian thrown in.


ocracoke, north carolina, the brogue, hoi toider, accents, dialect, language, linguistics, anthropology Americans think Hoi Toider sounds English. People from England think it sounds like something else. Giphy

The Brogue, also known as Hoi Toider, is absolutely fascinating to hear in action. When you watch interviews with the locals of the island, they at first appear to be speaking a form of deep American southern — you can hear the twang the way you might in parts of Georgia of Alabama. But then, without warning, a word or phrase will slip out that sounds distinctly British. Old English even. Then you'll swear you hear a bit of Irish!

The dialect owes its roots to a surprising source: Pirates.

Pirates loved to hide out on Ocracoke as the island is incredibly remote, about 20 miles from the mainland of North Carolina. Even today there are no bridges or flights to Ocracoke; it can only be reached by a (quite lengthy) boat ride. Eventually, the island was actually purchased by the Blackbeard's quartermaster (yes, that Blackbeard), William Howard, where he created something of a pirate settlement. English sailors and Native American tribes also passed through and had their own unique impact on the culture and developing language of the island.


ocracoke, north carolina, blackbeard, pirates, the brogue, hoi toider, accents, dialect, language, linguistics, anthropology Legend has it Blackbeard himself named the island. Giphy

In case have your doubts about the island's buccaneerish roots: "In one popular island legend, Ocracoke comes from the phrase, 'Oh, crow cock,' which was spoken by the infamous pirate Blackbeard as he waited to do battle at sunrise with the governor’s forces that had come to capture him," writes a guide from NC State University.

The dialect had a lot of room to develop without much outside influence. The BBC writes, "Howard's community lived in near-isolation for almost two centuries. Electricity didn't arrive at the island until 1938 and a ferry service didn't start until 1957, leaving the islanders cut off except for the occasional supply trip to the mainland."

That's why Hoi Toider is still alive to this day, although its speaking population has dwindled. Here are a few hallmark phrases of the unique dialect:

A 'dingbatter' is anyone not from the island; a tourist. An 'O'Cocker' is anyone born on the island of Ocracoke. A 'buck' is a good male friend, while a 'puck' is a female friend. The Brogue uses 'weren't' liberally for singular nouns ("The sun weren't out yesterday.") and frequently adds an 'a' in front of verbs ("We went a-fishin' this morning").

But to fully appreciate Hoi Toider, you've got to hear it in action:


- YouTube www.youtube.com

Experts say, as awesome as the Brogue is, it will likely disappear within the next 50 years.

Though the island remains about as remote as it comes, in 2025 there's no escaping the influence of social media, television, and film. Every generation born on the island is a smidge less-adoptive of the Brogue than the one that came before.

It will probably be mostly gone in the next couple of generations, which feels like a tragedy. Instead of "dingbatter" and "buck," the kids will be saying "Skibidi toilet" and "rizz." OK, maybe that's an exaggeration, but young people growing up on the island won't be as immersed in the language as their elders and will begin to speak more and more like your average American.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

There's a concept called culture homogenization. It's the idea that over time, because of technology and globalization, unique individual cultures from around the world will all start to look more and more the same. It's why you see fast food restaurants directly next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa and people all over the globe listening to the same handful of musical artists.

Ocracoke has managed to hang on longer than most places due to how difficult it is to reach. Here's hoping that the Ocracoke Brogue can survive somehow, some way, in little pockets of the island. It's just too dang cool and interesting to go away just yet.

This article originally appeared in May.

From Your Site Articles
accents
CommunityJoy
Pop Culture

Brit shares the one-word 'dead giveaway' that American actors can't do an English accent

“There is one word that is a dead giveaway that an English character in a movie or a TV show is being played by an American."

via Warner Bros Discovery

Peter Dinklage on "Game of Thrones"?

When it comes to actors doing accents across the pond, some Americans are known for their great British accents, such as Natalie Portman ("The Other Boleyn Girl"), Robert Downey, Jr. ("Sherlock Holmes"), and Meryl Streep ("The Iron Lady"). Some have taken a lot of heat for their cartoonish or just plain weird-sounding British accents, Dick Van Dyke ("Mary Poppins"), Kevin Costner ("Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves") and Keanu Reeves ("Bram Stoker's Dracula").

Some actors, such as Tom Hardy (“The Drop”) and Hugh Laurie (“House”), have American accents so good that people have no idea they are British. Benedict Townsend, a London-based comedian and host of the “Scroll Deep” podcast, says there is one word that American actors playing characters with a British accent never get right. And no, it’s not the word “Schedule,” which British people pronounce the entire first 3 letters, and Americans boil down to 2. And it’s not “aluminum,” which British and American people seem to pronounce every stinking letter differently.


@benedicttown

The one word American actors aways get wrong when doing an English accent

What word do American actors always get wrong when they do British accents?

“There is one word that is a dead giveaway that an English character in a movie or a TV show is being played by an American. One word that always trips them up. And once you notice it, you can't stop noticing it,” Townsend says. “You would see this lot in ‘Game of Thrones’ and the word that would always trip them up was ‘daughter.’”

Townsend adds that when British people say “daughter,” they pronounce it like the word “door” or “door-tah.” Meanwhile, Americans, even when they are putting on a British accent, say it like “dah-ter.”

“So top tip if you are an actor trying to do an English accent, daughter like a door. Like you're opening a door,” Townsend says.


What word do British actors always get wrong when doing American accents?

Some American commenters returned the favor by sharing the word that British actors never get right when using American accents: “Anything.”

"I can always tell a Brit playing an American by the word anything. An American would say en-ee-thing. Brits say it ena-thing,” Dreaming_of_Gaea wrote. "The dead giveaway for English people playing Americans: ‘Anything.’ Brits always say ‘EH-nuh-thin,’” marliemagill added. "I can always tell an actor is English playing an American when they say ‘anything.’ English people always say it like ‘enny-thin,’” mkmason wrote.


What is the cot-caught merger?

One commenter noted that the problem goes back to the cot-caught merger, when Americans in the western US and Canadians began to merge different sounds into one. People on the East Coast and in Britain pronounce them as different sounds.

“Depending on where you live, you might be thinking one of two things right now: Of course, ‘cot’ and ‘caught’ sound exactly the same! or "There’s no way that ‘cot’ and ‘caught’ sound the same!” Laura McGrath writes at DoYouReadMe. “As a result, although the different spellings remain, the vowel sounds in the words cot/caught, nod/gnawed, stock/stalk are identical for some English speakers and not for others.” For example, a person from New Jersey would pronounce cot and catch it as "caht" and "cawt," while someone from Los Angeles may pronounce them as "caht" and "caht."

To get a better idea of the big difference in how "caught" and "cot" are pronounced in the U.S., you can take a look at the educational video below, produced for a college course on linguistics.


- YouTube youtu.be

American actors owe Townsend a debt of gratitude for pointing out the one thing that even the best can’t seem to get right. For some actors, it could mean the difference between a great performance and one that has people scratching their heads. He should also give the commenters a tip of the cap for sharing the big word that British people have trouble with when doing an American accent. Now, if we could just get through to Ewan McGregor and tell him that even though he is fantastic in so many films, his American accent still needs a lot of work.

This article originally appeared last year.

actors
Pop CultureMovies
Joy

People debate which accent they think is sexiest and it's probably not what you think

According to polls, French no longer holds the top spot.

commons.wikimedia.org

Emile Wauters

Some say beauty is in the eye of the beholder—but it looks like that might apply to the ear of the beholder as well. To one person, a mighty Scottish accent might have them swooning (think Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons yelling "Och aye the noo!" or perhaps a Ewan McGregor Obi-Wan Kenobi monologue). To others, a Texas drawl may be the hottest thing they've ever heard. A simple “Y’all” or “I’m fixin’ to make supper” with a West Texas dialect could really get those fires stoked, so to speak.

the simpsons, groundskeeper willie, accents, tv, cultureseason 6 episode 23 GIFGiphy

The sexiness of accents is subjective, of course. Though, according to polls, some fare better than others. In an article on Euro News, David Mouriquand references a 2017 poll conducted by the language tutorial app Babbel. He shares that they “polled more than 15,000 people, who named French the ‘sexiest accent.’” However, when about 6,000 people in the US, UK, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany were polled by Babbel just last year, there was a new favorite in town.

There was a slight variation in the polling question. In the more recent case, people were asked what they believed to be the “sexiest language.” More specifically, the languages they found “most sexy, most romantic, and most passionate.” "The findings stated that Italian was perceived by the highest number of people to be both the 'most sexy' and the 'most romantic.'" (Interestingly, “British English was found to be the ‘most polite,’ while German won the top spot for ‘most direct.’”)

Still, the sample size was relatively small and only Western countries were surveyed, which is a distinction worth noting. To that point, Mouriquand shares this interesting tidbit: in 2017, linguist Patti Adank, a professor of speech perception and production at University College London, noted that “English speakers are drawn to the ‘melody’ of a language such as French or Italian.”

french, languages, french language, speaking, accentsFrench Yes GIF by Robert E BlackmonGiphy

For a larger sample size, Reddit and TikTok have entered the chat with their views on “sexiest” dialects. And once again, the answers seem relative to the origin country of the commenter. On a subreddit thread, one person asks "What accent do you find the most attractive?" A Redditor answers, “I, an Australian with a very heavy accent, traveled to rural Scotland several years ago and good grief, we spoke the same language yet understood nothing the other said.” So, Scottish might be out of the running—for them.

Another brings up the Mid-Atlantic dialect popular on the East Coast from the 1800s through the mid-1940s (This accent was made extra famous by American movie stars in the '30s and '40s). Someone responds: “Funny thing—that in Slavic countries, we basically LEARN this accent as an ideal, excellent accent. I had a teacher who tortured me with some cuts from films to repeat NOTE TO NOTE.”

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

This person is not conflicted. After pointing out that of all the places they’ve been—“England, South Korea, Japan, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, and Germany”—there’s a clear winner: “Aussie women win.”

One Redditor doesn’t just love an accent—they love everything about the culture: “I love French wine like I love the French language. I have sampled every language—French is my favorite. Fantastic language. Especially to curse with. It's like wiping your arse with silk.”

Plenty chose German, but Scottish is higher on the list than one might think. One user says, “Move over, French. Looks like Scottish is the new sexy accent.”

On another Reddit thread, the question of the sexiest accent was followed by a clarifier: “What’s the sexiest accent in your opinion—and what nationality are you?” Again—Scottish is climbing the charts. “I’m Filipino and think Scottish accents are very sexy.”

The English often find Irish lilts, French accents, and American accents of all kinds appealing. One comments that they find American accents sexy because: “You just know they are s---ts for British men.” And to that point, one Redditor asks, “With the ‘Sexiest Accent’ thread going on, it got me wondering—does anyone consider American accents to be sexy?”

An American responded that the Irish seemed to find their accent super appealing. Turns out they were from Southern Illinois. Again—it’s all relative.

@irishdaily

Top 5 most attractive accents according science! Are you surprised by this?🤔 Is the Scottish accent really more attractive than the irish accent☘️?🤔☘️😄 #irishaccent . . 📸👉 @twobrokechicks_ 👏☘️😊 #irishdaily #tiktokoftheday #scottishaccent #irishhumour #science #irish #ireland #accent #scotland #spanish #french #italian #fyp

Over on TikTok, many weighed in and there was lots of dissent after Scottish was revealed as the sexiest accent This TikTok user gets right to the point: “Scottish…. Loooooooooool where did you do that poll? In Glasgow?”

Also in the comment section, Arabic, Indonesian, and Russian get some love. And last—but far from least—are the accents within Spanish-speaking countries. An entire YouTube video is dedicated to finding out "Which Spanish accent is sexiest?" (Spoiler alert: they all are.)

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

From Your Site Articles
accents
JoyCulture
Trending Stories