Come from Irvine so not far from where you live and honestly, it's pretty easy for me to get where you live just by hearing your scottish accent. And you did a very good job, very very good job, i couldn't tell that you came from scotland when you started performing lol. Well done. P.S: Just a wee mix of three or four american accents when you speak actually.
I am am American and I'm from the states. I love your accent I've always liked the Scottish and Irish accents and wanted to be able to speak with either accent. May be because my family is supposed to have Scottish and Irish heritage . Thank you for you post in helping us with the difference.
i have to reiterate how impressed i am because at the end of the video i went back to the start where you speak in your real accent, and it shocked me how different it was, i'd gotten so used to the american one. haha! good work!
I'm from the midwest. (specifically st. louis misssouri.) your accent is cool and your hair cut is cooler. no worrys and best wishes to the people of Scotland
i'm not used to hearing people imitate an American accent (since most people i'm around don't have to), so i'm pretty impressed! the only word that stuck out to me as being accented was "accent," which you pronounced "accint." i think you said it more quickly than we do. i did hear some Southern hints, and mixed with Minnesota, so i really couldn't say where i'd place you. the people commenting from Wisconsin seem glad to claim you, though!
Wow, it's almost 10 years from this one... and I've only grown my hair totally grey, the rest is pretty much the same!!! I'll tell my nephews to watch this one as soon as they grow up enough to use the Internet!
You would fit in pretty well here in Wisconsin. I tried repeating what you said aloud to myself, and my accent sounded fairly similar to your American one. The only part that sounded different from the rest was when you said, "If you can tell me a bit about what you think..." You sounded a bit Texan, lol. Especially on the word "about". Anyway, well done. You definitely sounded American overall. :)
There are also other reasons to this: movies used to have a midwestern pattern, while blues songs had a southern pattern... when these things came to Europe and Hollywood spread itself over here and rock'n'roll music started to emerge, you'd hear actors performing a midwestern accent and singers performing a southern one. Listen to Mick Jagger, i.e.: he does his English singing accent mixing Alabama and Cockney!!! :-) (continues below)
I've been studying Italian (since last summer, I taught myself in the beginning, and I've been taking classes at my community college [where I did not learn much which I hadn't learned on my own]). Anyway, Italian is very easy to "catch on" to....similar to English, but different. Latin is really interesting (similar rules to Italian - conjugations, etc.), especially because so much of English comes from it. *Maybe languages in general come very easily to me... :-D
@numberonealcove I surely did. I suppose the fact is that Midwestern is the brand of American accent you often hear abroad, in movies or elsewhere. They now say it's more Californian, but I suppose that's mainly about soap-operas, because i.e. David Letterman is a Midwestern man, and that's what you get here in Europe... Of course I can tell a thick New Yorker (Larry King) from a thick Southerner (Dolly Parton), a Northern man (Michael Moore) from a Californian (Jack Black), but that's it.
Wow, thank you lads and lasses, as far as I've heard up till now, many people are undecided between the Midwest and the South, so this seems to be quite true! I suppose my vowels sound Southern ("ow" or my long and split "a"s like in "Nash"), but probably the whole sound of my accent belongs to Illinois and surroundings, though not any close to the Great Lakes. So... Missouri? -:) Thanks a lot pals!
Very good! It sounds sort of midwestern (like where I'm from). I'm from Michgan and lots of people sound like this! If you visited here, no one would ever know you weren't an American!
Lads, I'm impressed and... wow, blushing! :-) Your comments are precious to me, a true pleasure to read, and I'm glad you enjoyed this one. I might give a second try, with a more studied accent this time (I'm learning a lot about it). So, looks like I'd better travel from St. Louis to Evanston and then the Hoosier/Appalachian border, aye? I'm definitely a OHIO RIVER KINDA GUY!!! :-)
that's pretty darned good.. I would say..possibly Oklahoma..Kansas..type of midwest. I live in St Louis, and there are some strange local pronunciations here..an "a" instead of "o"..fark and harse instead of fork and horse. I was raised in Iowa..which is pretty bland midwest..until you reach the northern part of the state..then it changes.. there are regional quips..in each region..in the south, they say, "I'm fixin' to go to the store" instead of "I'm going to the store"
@220773 re: Missouri... Missouri and Kansas are midlands accent. But as you go farther West there has been less time to develop differences. With the exception of San Francisco, I find it hard to distinguish among Western accents. I generally have no idea if a speaker is from California's central valley vs. Idaho vs. Utah, etc.
you're pretty good at that. you sound mostly midwestern, perhaps as though you are from chicago. but i agree with 'morningcoffee' that you also sound a bit GA (general american) which is the broadcast standard in places like new york. i'd say you sound a mixture of general american and midwest.
I concur about Michigan/Illinois, as was said below. I'm from Ohio, not too far from either, and this sounds familiar, but a little off, and definitely not in the southern direction.
it was very close to a Wisconsin and west to about Utah accent. I noticed that at some points while you were talking, you kind of drifted back to a more scottish accent, like when you said James Taylor you kind of said J"eh"ms T"eh"ylor. you need to put more of an "A" vowel sound in there, and apply that to similar words, and you'll be really good
@LibertyLuvr1969 I think it's a wee bit different here from the U.S.A. for us: I always heard it said ak-sunt, given that the stress is entirely on the first syllable. Aye, yer right!
@numberonealcove I surely did. I suppose the fact is that Midwestern is the brand of American accent you often hear abroad, in movies or elsewhere. They now say it's more Californian, but I suppose that's mainly about soap-operas, because i.e. David Letterman is a Midwestern man, and that's what you get here in Europe... Of course I can tell a thick New Yorker (Larry King) from a thick Southerner (Dolly Parton), a Northern man (Michael Moore) from a Californian (Jack Black), but that's it. :-)
You have a pretty good American accent, in my opinion your a's are what give you away, other than that I would thank you have sort of a southern twang. Overall I think you did very well.
@220773 I'm from Detroit, which isn't a midwestern accent at all - assuming by "midwestern" you mean the US prestige newscaster accent, which is said to be without regional features. I have an inland north accent, somewhere between Michael Moore and Rick Snyder, whom I reference above. The "midwestern" zone is actually quite small, squeezed between the inland north and the midlands, which latter accent, I agree, starts to sound "southern" as far North as mid ohio and mid Indiana.
I would have to agree with some of the people and say somewhat around southern midwest to virginia area. I am from Michigan and it sounds close to my accent, but it has a bit more of the more nasaly twang from the area a little to the south of me.
Is there any advice you can give me regarding the "rolling" of the R in italiano? That's my one problem. According to my professor, when I read (I guess it's speaking) I sound like a native. I don't think I do "R"s very well, though.
@220773 The accent I can't palce yet is the one starting from Missouri westwards... is it THAT Midwestern as it is around the Lakes? Or is it already more "western", leaning towards California? It's two entirley different accents, so I'm getting quite curious... Anyway, I heard incredibly Southern accents even in some Midwester areas like southern Ohio and northern Kentucky, and also in southern Illinois: they call it "South Midland", but I CAN'T TELL ANY DIFFERENCE FROM A TRUE SOUTHERN ACCENT.
your L's are still kind of scottish from time to time- the only other thing i noticed was your O's are also sort of um... rounded? i guess? i live in central massachussetts, and you've actually got the american thing down pretty good :) occasionally it did have more of a southern influence, (i have relatives down south) but with practice i'm sure you'll do perfect :D
@220773 What makes Italian so hard is that its verbs ALWAYS change a final vowel or even syllable in order to indicate the person... whereas in English you'll get only two switching ends, probably... English is straight: not a lot of rules and also very few ecceptions; Italian has too many rules instead, it's a long way to learn them all, and the ecceptions are so vast you wouldn't imagine... also Italian words are richer and more sophisticated than English, they're a bit like Greek here...
Lucky you... I LOVE Southern accents, I'd love to be able to speak like that... But as it is 'I'm northern', it seems... everyone here said I could come out of around Illinois, Wisconsin, Western Pennsylvania, Upper Indiana, some also said I might be a good Minnesotan... I suppose it's because that's the Standard American we hear in Europe, and in my case I probably latched onto some Great Lakes vowel shift... surprisingly enough, I do not sound Californian: Hollywood English didn't hit me.
Not bad! Sounds more Canadian than US, but American nonetheless. You'd probably fall somewhere out in the North Midwest if it were in the US. As for Canada, my best guess would be the maritime provinces, maybe Nova Scotia. They still have a strong note of northwestern Europe in many of their thicker accents.
Not a bad accent! Your american accent definitely sounds like a weird combination of different regional accents. You probably grew up listening to music and movies that all had different accents (Texas vs New York vs Ohio vs California, etc.) Also your "real" accent does occasionally come through, particularly at the end of words. For example when you say accent.. we say "ax-sent" but you said "ahk-sent." Also your "real" accent is noticeable when you use "filler" words like "you know" and "um."
You do a very good American accent. Sounds sort of midwestern. You should try a Southern American accent from the mountains of Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina where a lot of the Scottish immigrants settled.
Midwest influenced. Most definitely. But not fully, though. Something's a tad bit off for like Kansas or such. Actually, it sounds normal for my general area. Western Kentucky or Southern Illinois perhaps?
It still has a little bit of the "brogue" in it, but overall its very believable accent. I would say midwestern United States such as Oklahoma, Ohio, Missouri. I do have to say your Scottish brogue is very nice though :)
The American "southern" accent everyone mentions is actually the remnants of the early Scottish settlers who moved to more rural areas outside New England, and began using Native American pronunciations. They do have some striking similarities in their drawl, and relaxation of vowels. The English always sound puckered up.
Spanish in general was the easiest language I ever tried to learn. It's a bit like Italian, but it's got -s endings like English for plurals, so I found it even simpler. :-) Challenging pronunciation, though, but I love phonetics, as you might easily imagine. :-)
It's definitely a midwestern/foreigner trying to speak American English. Really great so far. Definitely not Chicago. More like Nebraska, Coloraodo, Arizona. I'm terrible at any accents other than Spanish although I try to mimic Scotty from Star Trek. Wonder what you think of his accent?
@1nikg Well, it depends from where you actually hail from, I guess: Ayr is quite different from, say, Greenock, of course... where are you exactly from? Anyway, I went to public school, that's why I probably developed a "General Scottish" accent, rather than a more specific one. Everyone in my family say I sound 'too common' and as if I didnae have a 'colour' in my accent. Public school is very tough on the accent, they do tend to take your native accent off, I met people who sound ENGLISH!!!
I hear a lot of southern things in there, midwest possibly. Not quite my accent, but it sounds decent enough. If you were near me I'd know you were either southern or trying to do an american accent.
Hi. I am crom Missouri. Yes, you sound like you come from the north part of Missouri. Up from St. Louis toward illinois chicago area. Good job! Very cute
BTW... now - after a long journey into American accents - I can realise why I sound so midwestern... Yes, my vowels are pretty "high", and this is so common with the Brits, because we tend to think all the Americans raise their vowels so high, and we come up with these Chicago-like accents... it's because we stress the difference between us and the US. Listen to some English singer trying to follow an American pattern (continues below)
Very Midwest sounding. I'm hearing a lot of long vowel sounds, especially the A sound. "Hi there" sounded very Wisconsin/Minnesota with a long A. Towards the end you started using a bit of a southern drawl though lol. I think it sounds closest to the Midwest accent. Good job for a Brit....
coming from an american from the midwest(missouri) i wouldnt say thats were the accent sounds like seeing how most of the accents you mainly hear are from cali or a south, it sounds more like a texas accent or kentucky somewere along those lines .. saw your other video aswell about irish vs scots i used to have a prob with hearing the diff but my bf's from scotland so now i can distinguish the 2 and they sound nothing alike scots alot stronger
And... er... yer right! :-) Well, now everyone of yous told me I might be coming from the Inland North, which strengthens my opinion about the way Brits and Europeans mean for an American accent: anything that goes so far from our native accent is American, so it won't be (i.e.) simply "gat" for "got" and "stend" for "stand", it will be "gaet" and "stind", I hope you got it. :-)
Latin is compulsive in Italy, I found it extremely difficult... Italian may be a lot more difficult because the exceptions to the rules are so many... try and conjugate a verb in the past tense, and then tell me... I'm mother-tongue Italian and I can't conjugate some verbs myself yet!!! There are so many irregular verbs that we get often very confused on how to render them... Latin is definitely more strict, but there's too many rules to learn... English is straight away (continues below)
...he will sound definitely so exaggerrated in the pronunciation of vowels especially, so that some will sound very "northern" ("hot", "not", lost", "band", "land", etc.), others will sound very "southern" ("about", "time", "now", "like", etc.), because these ones are the most peculiar American sounds we're used to pay attention to... In the UK, we'd never even think a Boston accent could exist the way it is... Canada goes the very same way...(continues below)
Every scotsman who tries a us accent does a southernish type of accent that sounds really bad. It's the R's for one. But it never sounds right. It's probably how you place your tongue for vouls. Something you don't even think to do. And there are loads of US accents. Growing up with Irish parents I used to press my tongue into my teeth for TH sounds which gave it a T sound for example. I Americanized it by blowing over my tongue and against my front teeth 2 get TH. Took ages. Accents r tricky.
Aye, well enough... I love Dixie, that probably helped me develop a Southern accent... but I did say "sang along"!!! The most southern thing I said is when I pronounce "James Taylor", as far as I'm concerned...
@1nikg I was thinking about some guys I met in Edinburgh... they actually sounded very English-leaning to my western ears... they were also very nasal... I actually didnae like that accent! I do love Glaswegian, instead, it's got colour (might be my Gers passion tho'!); I'm not that keen on the so-loved Highland Scots... too rough to my ears, and the very same thing happens (even more) with the Borders... I'm frae Ayr, but aye, I suppose public school influenced me so much. :-)
I think that it's probably live in the Midwest but probably more towards the south. It's definitely not deep south, but it has that twang to it almost. Although if you were a radio host you could definitely pull off the news.
North Midwestern. Ohio or Minnesota. Towards the end I could tell that you were "putting it on" and weren't real. But the beginning sounded great! At the beginning you could have fit in any where in the midwest, but definitely more Minnesota and Wisconsin at the end. I'd say work on "accent" - you pronounce it "accint", we say "aksent". "And" - you say it with a little bit of a lilt "Aend", we say "ANd". And your "please". I think you say the EE sound higher than we do. Good job though!
Well, as far as I know, almost any American anywhere tends to tense the "a" vowel before nasals, whereas this tensing happens before any other consonant only around the Lakes where you live. I mean, when you say "Dad" a southern man would probably think you're saying someone's DEAD! :-)
It sounds like a bit of a mix between the Midwest and the South. Not the deep South though. I would place it as closest to Kentucky or West Virginia. Or maaaybe southern Ohio. And well done. It's much harder for us to put on a Scottish accent.
Nae, why cheating? It's always sae guid tae 'meet' locals up here! I wasn't born in Ayr, I was born in nearby Irvine as most of us were back then (the guid auld seventies...), but aye, I'm on the way tae Alloway (guid rhymin'), I'm really a few 'steps' fae the cottage and the brig, my mum and her siblings used to live in a wonderful auld house in Ewenfield Road, that's where I spent my best times during my childhood...
BTW... how come NOBODY noticed I "am from Terracina, Italy"? Aye, half o' my family hails from Italy (brown hair and eyes, in fact), and I've always spent all my summertimes there since I was born... If you wanted me to speak Italian over here, I'd definitely love it... it's basically my second language ONLY because I'm British, but I can speak Italian the way any italian would do. I've got somewhat of a Roman accent (Terracina's just 70 miles from Rome), I'd even try different accents too!
very good American accent sounds like you would could be from Wisconsin but I love the Scottish accent much more but I'm American and love Scottish people that's my opinion
@220773 Aye, but VERY FEW OF YOU WOULD GET WHAT I'D SAY... I know... Italian is a VERY DIFFICULT LANGUAGE. Spanish is much easier to learn, although that's the language Italian comes closer to. Not French, French is half way between Italian (Latin) and its Anglo-Saxon roots... but by gosh the hardest language I ever met is GERMAN. It's like LATIN, any sentence changes meaning due to some words's final vowels!!! And most of all you HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE END OF THE SENTENCE to get to the verb!!!
You know... the fact is that everyone here said I have a northern accent... especially north midwestern... people placed me "around Chicago" or "around Minneapolis", they hardly ever told me I sound southern, which I'd LOVE TO! I don't think I sound so southern, I'm not that slow and don't have that sing-a-song typical twang... Scots may easlily pick up Canadian, because of the vowels, instead, as far as I know... Southern US is easier for cockneys (especially the "ow" sound)...
Listen to Cat Stevens' "Father & Son": doesn't he sound like he's from Chicago? "...take your time, think a lOt, why think of everything you've gOt?"... aren't those "o"s very high pitched? I've also heard many Scandinavians speak English, and they do sound very northern in some parts and very southern elsewhere... Yes, it's because movies and music spread those two accents around the globe, making us think "y'all" Americans must sound like that. Then we meet a Bostonian and we're puzzled...
Well, as you've probably already checked out, THEY SLAGGED ME FOR TRYIN' TAE GO IRISH!!! It would be so hard now to even try, but I could do it as well, I'd be glad tae help you. Scots? Easy... roll those "r"s, lenghten those vowels, SIMPLIFY!!! Go straight, don't go round! Talk as if you were making questions... I'll do my best, thank you!
Personally, I think Italian is the easiest language to learn, if your native language is English. I'm American, and Latin & Italian come very easily to me!!! (Easier to learn than French. And easier to pronounce :-D)
Thanks a lot, mate. So it's going to be East St Louis? :-) Jimmy Connors? Kevin Kline? Michael Stipe? John Malkovich? Well, mate, honestly speaking, many movies have been based in the Midwest during the decades, I suppose I learned a lot from those ones. Obama says he feels he has a Missouri accent: I'll check him out then!!! :-)
I tried with French too, just because I actually... loved its pronunciation! :-) I learnt it as quick as ever, but I got stuck in phonetics and never got on with the rest! But, aye, its pronunciation is harder than Italian, you're right. Latin? I hated that one... I felt it was dead, so i never found it interesting... and its grammar is quite regular but by gosh TOO MANY RULES TO REMEMBER!!! Add terrible pronunciations and strange sentence progressions and you'll get German! :-p
I'm also quite good at speaking BBC English, due to my public school inheritage, but I've noticed I've been switching it slowly to Estuary English, as anyone does in Southern England nowadays. It's about television here in the UK, I suppose, that sort of south-eastern English is now ruling all over Britain... Cockney is funny, I think I can have a go at it... No way Scouse or Brummie or Geordie, neither Welsh or Irish!!! Irish lads were so angry at me on my other video, where I tried Irish...
... and the word has an "ow" sound in it, hasn't it? :-) I suppose I know what you mean. I guess we've begun setting my accent some way between St louis and Chicago...
@220773 Incidentally, this conversation is too advanced for 99% of Americans to follow. We don't hear dialect very well. I live in Portland, Oregon and speak with a classic Inland North accent. The few people who CAN hear my accent don't know how to place it. I've heard more people guess London - !! - than the Great Lakes, which is where I'm from. Still, I think most Americans would hear your American accent and sense something was off.
Ouch! Really? You mean I can't pronounce an "s" properly there? Amazing! What I meant for "influential Midwestern in the movies" is related to the "General American" accent used in old movies and things like Johnny Carson, etc. I've been told that way before California ruled over this scene, it used to be a sort of GA accent taken from the Midlands accent. I know where I go south... it's when I'm pronouncing "ow"s! Typically European, let me tell you! Where do I exactly get Midwestern? :-)
Come from Irvine so not far from where you live and honestly, it's pretty easy for me to get where you live just by hearing your scottish accent. And you did a very good job, very very good job, i couldn't tell that you came from scotland when you started performing lol. Well done.
P.S: Just a wee mix of three or four american accents when you speak actually.
I am am American and I'm from the states. I love your accent I've always liked the Scottish and Irish accents and wanted to be able to speak with either accent. May be because my family is supposed to have Scottish and Irish heritage . Thank you for you post in helping us with the difference.
i have to reiterate how impressed i am because at the end of the video i went back to the start where you speak in your real accent, and it shocked me how different it was, i'd gotten so used to the american one. haha! good work!
I'm from the midwest. (specifically st. louis misssouri.) your accent is cool and your hair cut is cooler. no worrys and best wishes to the people of Scotland
I would place you in the Mid-West, up near Canada. But if you want to come speak to me in your natural accent, that would be fine and dandy. :)
i'm not used to hearing people imitate an American accent (since most people i'm around don't have to), so i'm pretty impressed! the only word that stuck out to me as being accented was "accent," which you pronounced "accint." i think you said it more quickly than we do. i did hear some Southern hints, and mixed with Minnesota, so i really couldn't say where i'd place you. the people commenting from Wisconsin seem glad to claim you, though!
Wow, thanks mate!
It's very kind of yous!!!
Wow, it's almost 10 years from this one... and I've only grown my hair totally grey, the rest is pretty much the same!!! I'll tell my nephews to watch this one as soon as they grow up enough to use the Internet!
Within the first 15 seconds of watching this video, I thought "that's an Ayr accent".
You would fit in pretty well here in Wisconsin. I tried repeating what you said aloud to myself, and my accent sounded fairly similar to your American one. The only part that sounded different from the rest was when you said, "If you can tell me a bit about what you think..." You sounded a bit Texan, lol. Especially on the word "about".
Anyway, well done. You definitely sounded American overall. :)
There are also other reasons to this: movies used to have a midwestern pattern, while blues songs had a southern pattern... when these things came to Europe and Hollywood spread itself over here and rock'n'roll music started to emerge, you'd hear actors performing a midwestern accent and singers performing a southern one.
Listen to Mick Jagger, i.e.: he does his English singing accent mixing Alabama and Cockney!!! :-)
(continues below)
I've been studying Italian (since last summer, I taught myself in the beginning, and I've been taking classes at my community college [where I did not learn much which I hadn't learned on my own]). Anyway, Italian is very easy to "catch on" to....similar to English, but different. Latin is really interesting (similar rules to Italian - conjugations, etc.), especially because so much of English comes from it.
*Maybe languages in general come very easily to me... :-D
@numberonealcove I surely did.
I suppose the fact is that Midwestern is the brand of American accent you often hear abroad, in movies or elsewhere. They now say it's more Californian, but I suppose that's mainly about soap-operas, because i.e. David Letterman is a Midwestern man, and that's what you get here in Europe...
Of course I can tell a thick New Yorker (Larry King) from a thick Southerner (Dolly Parton), a Northern man (Michael Moore) from a Californian (Jack Black), but that's it.
Wow, thank you lads and lasses, as far as I've heard up till now, many people are undecided between the Midwest and the South, so this seems to be quite true!
I suppose my vowels sound Southern ("ow" or my long and split "a"s like in "Nash"), but probably the whole sound of my accent belongs to Illinois and surroundings, though not any close to the Great Lakes.
So... Missouri? -:)
Thanks a lot pals!
Very good! It sounds sort of midwestern (like where I'm from). I'm from Michgan and lots of people sound like this! If you visited here, no one would ever know you weren't an American!
Lads, I'm impressed and... wow, blushing! :-)
Your comments are precious to me, a true pleasure to read, and I'm glad you enjoyed this one.
I might give a second try, with a more studied accent this time (I'm learning a lot about it).
So, looks like I'd better travel from St. Louis to Evanston and then the Hoosier/Appalachian border, aye? I'm definitely a OHIO RIVER KINDA GUY!!! :-)
(BTW, I'm a thorough Genesis fan, and "Ripples" is one of my favourite songs...)
that's pretty darned good.. I would say..possibly Oklahoma..Kansas..type of midwest.
I live in St Louis, and there are some strange local pronunciations here..an "a" instead of "o"..fark and harse instead of fork and horse. I was raised in Iowa..which is pretty bland midwest..until you reach the northern part of the state..then it changes.. there are regional quips..in each region..in the south, they say, "I'm fixin' to go to the store" instead of "I'm going to the store"
@220773 re: Missouri... Missouri and Kansas are midlands accent. But as you go farther West there has been less time to develop differences. With the exception of San Francisco, I find it hard to distinguish among Western accents. I generally have no idea if a speaker is from California's central valley vs. Idaho vs. Utah, etc.
you're pretty good at that. you sound mostly midwestern, perhaps as though you are from chicago. but i agree with 'morningcoffee' that you also sound a bit GA (general american) which is the broadcast standard in places like new york. i'd say you sound a mixture of general american and midwest.
I concur about Michigan/Illinois, as was said below. I'm from Ohio, not too far from either, and this sounds familiar, but a little off, and definitely not in the southern direction.
it was very close to a Wisconsin and west to about Utah accent. I noticed that at some points while you were talking, you kind of drifted back to a more scottish accent, like when you said James Taylor you kind of said J"eh"ms T"eh"ylor. you need to put more of an "A" vowel sound in there, and apply that to similar words, and you'll be really good
I LOVE Eagles... I admire CCR... some of Glenn Frey's vocals probably really got into me, he's from Detroit, so the Midwest comes round again!
@LibertyLuvr1969 I think it's a wee bit different here from the U.S.A. for us: I always heard it said ak-sunt, given that the stress is entirely on the first syllable. Aye, yer right!
@numberonealcove I surely did.
I suppose the fact is that Midwestern is the brand of American accent you often hear abroad, in movies or elsewhere. They now say it's more Californian, but I suppose that's mainly about soap-operas, because i.e. David Letterman is a Midwestern man, and that's what you get here in Europe...
Of course I can tell a thick New Yorker (Larry King) from a thick Southerner (Dolly Parton), a Northern man (Michael Moore) from a Californian (Jack Black), but that's it. :-)
You have a pretty good American accent, in my opinion your a's are what give you away, other than that I would thank you have sort of a southern twang. Overall I think you did very well.
@220773 I'm from Detroit, which isn't a midwestern accent at all - assuming by "midwestern" you mean the US prestige newscaster accent, which is said to be without regional features. I have an inland north accent, somewhere between Michael Moore and Rick Snyder, whom I reference above. The "midwestern" zone is actually quite small, squeezed between the inland north and the midlands, which latter accent, I agree, starts to sound "southern" as far North as mid ohio and mid Indiana.
I would have to agree with some of the people and say somewhat around southern midwest to virginia area. I am from Michigan and it sounds close to my accent, but it has a bit more of the more nasaly twang from the area a little to the south of me.
Is there any advice you can give me regarding the "rolling" of the R in italiano?
That's my one problem. According to my professor, when I read (I guess it's speaking) I sound like a native.
I don't think I do "R"s very well, though.
@220773 The accent I can't palce yet is the one starting from Missouri westwards... is it THAT Midwestern as it is around the Lakes? Or is it already more "western", leaning towards California? It's two entirley different accents, so I'm getting quite curious...
Anyway, I heard incredibly Southern accents even in some Midwester areas like southern Ohio and northern Kentucky, and also in southern Illinois: they call it "South Midland", but I CAN'T TELL ANY DIFFERENCE FROM A TRUE SOUTHERN ACCENT.
Nice! I'm from Illinois.. I would agree that you could pass for mid-western, although I do hear the Scottish in there still.
your L's are still kind of scottish from time to time- the only other thing i noticed was your O's are also sort of um... rounded? i guess? i live in central massachussetts, and you've actually got the american thing down pretty good :) occasionally it did have more of a southern influence, (i have relatives down south) but with practice i'm sure you'll do perfect :D
@220773 What makes Italian so hard is that its verbs ALWAYS change a final vowel or even syllable in order to indicate the person... whereas in English you'll get only two switching ends, probably... English is straight: not a lot of rules and also very few ecceptions; Italian has too many rules instead, it's a long way to learn them all, and the ecceptions are so vast you wouldn't imagine... also Italian words are richer and more sophisticated than English, they're a bit like Greek here...
Lucky you... I LOVE Southern accents, I'd love to be able to speak like that...
But as it is 'I'm northern', it seems... everyone here said I could come out of around Illinois, Wisconsin, Western Pennsylvania, Upper Indiana, some also said I might be a good Minnesotan... I suppose it's because that's the Standard American we hear in Europe, and in my case I probably latched onto some Great Lakes vowel shift... surprisingly enough, I do not sound Californian: Hollywood English didn't hit me.
Not bad! Sounds more Canadian than US, but American nonetheless. You'd probably fall somewhere out in the North Midwest if it were in the US. As for Canada, my best guess would be the maritime provinces, maybe Nova Scotia. They still have a strong note of northwestern Europe in many of their thicker accents.
Not a bad accent! Your american accent definitely sounds like a weird combination of different regional accents. You probably grew up listening to music and movies that all had different accents (Texas vs New York vs Ohio vs California, etc.) Also your "real" accent does occasionally come through, particularly at the end of words. For example when you say accent.. we say "ax-sent" but you said "ahk-sent." Also your "real" accent is noticeable when you use "filler" words like "you know" and "um."
Midwestern I would say with that over prounounced *and* that sounds like Eeand.
You do a very good American accent. Sounds sort of midwestern. You should try a Southern American accent from the mountains of Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina where a lot of the Scottish immigrants settled.
Midwest influenced. Most definitely. But not fully, though. Something's a tad bit off for like Kansas or such. Actually, it sounds normal for my general area. Western Kentucky or Southern Illinois perhaps?
Great lakes.Chicago/Detroit definetely
Tx a lot! :-)
It still has a little bit of the "brogue" in it, but overall its very believable accent. I would say midwestern United States such as Oklahoma, Ohio, Missouri. I do have to say your Scottish brogue is very nice though :)
The American "southern" accent everyone mentions is actually the remnants of the early Scottish settlers who moved to more rural areas outside New England, and began using Native American pronunciations. They do have some striking similarities in their drawl, and relaxation of vowels. The English always sound puckered up.
Spanish in general was the easiest language I ever tried to learn. It's a bit like Italian, but it's got -s endings like English for plurals, so I found it even simpler. :-)
Challenging pronunciation, though, but I love phonetics, as you might easily imagine. :-)
It's definitely a midwestern/foreigner trying to speak American English. Really great so far.
Definitely not Chicago. More like Nebraska, Coloraodo, Arizona. I'm terrible at any accents other than Spanish although I try to mimic Scotty from Star Trek. Wonder what you think of his accent?
@1nikg Well, it depends from where you actually hail from, I guess: Ayr is quite different from, say, Greenock, of course... where are you exactly from?
Anyway, I went to public school, that's why I probably developed a "General Scottish" accent, rather than a more specific one. Everyone in my family say I sound 'too common' and as if I didnae have a 'colour' in my accent. Public school is very tough on the accent, they do tend to take your native accent off, I met people who sound ENGLISH!!!
I was helped by my Italian relatives, of course, I had always been used to playing by ear, I admit it.
I hear a lot of southern things in there, midwest possibly. Not quite my accent, but it sounds decent enough. If you were near me I'd know you were either southern or trying to do an american accent.
you are excellent :D i would die to have a Scottish accent! XD i have a central NY accent. :)
Thank you, my dear. Aye, Allen does sound like a Keltic surname, it should derive from "Allan", the MacAllans are a renowned clan over here. :-)
Hi. I am crom Missouri. Yes, you sound like you come from the north part of Missouri. Up from St. Louis toward illinois chicago area. Good job! Very cute
Well, the southern bits make me proud actually! :-)
Sounds very good! I believe you sound like you should live in northern Texas, you have a bit of a southern drawl. Good job!
BTW... now - after a long journey into American accents - I can realise why I sound so midwestern...
Yes, my vowels are pretty "high", and this is so common with the Brits, because we tend to think all the Americans raise their vowels so high, and we come up with these Chicago-like accents... it's because we stress the difference between us and the US. Listen to some English singer trying to follow an American pattern (continues below)
Very Midwest sounding. I'm hearing a lot of long vowel sounds, especially the A sound. "Hi there" sounded very Wisconsin/Minnesota with a long A. Towards the end you started using a bit of a southern drawl though lol. I think it sounds closest to the Midwest accent. Good job for a Brit....
coming from an american from the midwest(missouri) i wouldnt say thats were the accent sounds like seeing how most of the accents you mainly hear are from cali or a south, it sounds more like a texas accent or kentucky somewere along those lines .. saw your other video aswell about irish vs scots i used to have a prob with hearing the diff but my bf's from scotland so now i can distinguish the 2 and they sound nothing alike scots alot stronger
And... er... yer right! :-)
Well, now everyone of yous told me I might be coming from the Inland North, which strengthens my opinion about the way Brits and Europeans mean for an American accent: anything that goes so far from our native accent is American, so it won't be (i.e.) simply "gat" for "got" and "stend" for "stand", it will be "gaet" and "stind", I hope you got it. :-)
Latin is compulsive in Italy, I found it extremely difficult... Italian may be a lot more difficult because the exceptions to the rules are so many... try and conjugate a verb in the past tense, and then tell me... I'm mother-tongue Italian and I can't conjugate some verbs myself yet!!! There are so many irregular verbs that we get often very confused on how to render them...
Latin is definitely more strict, but there's too many rules to learn... English is straight away (continues below)
...he will sound definitely so exaggerrated in the pronunciation of vowels especially, so that some will sound very "northern" ("hot", "not", lost", "band", "land", etc.), others will sound very "southern" ("about", "time", "now", "like", etc.), because these ones are the most peculiar American sounds we're used to pay attention to...
In the UK, we'd never even think a Boston accent could exist the way it is... Canada goes the very same way...(continues below)
Every scotsman who tries a us accent does a southernish type of accent that sounds really bad. It's the R's for one. But it never sounds right. It's probably how you place your tongue for vouls. Something you don't even think to do. And there are loads of US accents. Growing up with Irish parents I used to press my tongue into my teeth for TH sounds which gave it a T sound for example. I Americanized it by blowing over my tongue and against my front teeth 2 get TH. Took ages. Accents r tricky.
Aye, well enough...
I love Dixie, that probably helped me develop a Southern accent... but I did say "sang along"!!!
The most southern thing I said is when I pronounce "James Taylor", as far as I'm concerned...
@1nikg I was thinking about some guys I met in Edinburgh... they actually sounded very English-leaning to my western ears... they were also very nasal... I actually didnae like that accent! I do love Glaswegian, instead, it's got colour (might be my Gers passion tho'!); I'm not that keen on the so-loved Highland Scots... too rough to my ears, and the very same thing happens (even more) with the Borders...
I'm frae Ayr, but aye, I suppose public school influenced me so much. :-)
I think that it's probably live in the Midwest but probably more towards the south. It's definitely not deep south, but it has that twang to it almost. Although if you were a radio host you could definitely pull off the news.
North Midwestern. Ohio or Minnesota. Towards the end I could tell that you were "putting it on" and weren't real. But the beginning sounded great! At the beginning you could have fit in any where in the midwest, but definitely more Minnesota and Wisconsin at the end. I'd say work on "accent" - you pronounce it "accint", we say "aksent". "And" - you say it with a little bit of a lilt "Aend", we say "ANd". And your "please". I think you say the EE sound higher than we do. Good job though!
You could definitely pass for a Midwesterner. I live in Wisconsin ("Wis-kahhhhn-sin") so I should know. :)
Oh and by The way The american accent that your trying to perfect sounds either southern or midwestern cheers from Texas!!!!!
Well, as far as I know, almost any American anywhere tends to tense the "a" vowel before nasals, whereas this tensing happens before any other consonant only around the Lakes where you live.
I mean, when you say "Dad" a southern man would probably think you're saying someone's DEAD! :-)
@Redhead549 That for certain! :-ppppppppppppp
Thanks, Redhead!
It sounds like a bit of a mix between the Midwest and the South. Not the deep South though. I would place it as closest to Kentucky or West Virginia. Or maaaybe southern Ohio. And well done. It's much harder for us to put on a Scottish accent.
thats was awsome lol i love this
Nae, why cheating? It's always sae guid tae 'meet' locals up here!
I wasn't born in Ayr, I was born in nearby Irvine as most of us were back then (the guid auld seventies...), but aye, I'm on the way tae Alloway (guid rhymin'), I'm really a few 'steps' fae the cottage and the brig, my mum and her siblings used to live in a wonderful auld house in Ewenfield Road, that's where I spent my best times during my childhood...
BTW... how come NOBODY noticed I "am from Terracina, Italy"?
Aye, half o' my family hails from Italy (brown hair and eyes, in fact), and I've always spent all my summertimes there since I was born...
If you wanted me to speak Italian over here, I'd definitely love it... it's basically my second language ONLY because I'm British, but I can speak Italian the way any italian would do.
I've got somewhat of a Roman accent (Terracina's just 70 miles from Rome), I'd even try different accents too!
southern at first. but also a little of the common midland accent. Michigan maybe.
very good American accent sounds like you would could be from Wisconsin but I love the Scottish accent much more but I'm American and love Scottish people that's my opinion
@220773 Aye, but VERY FEW OF YOU WOULD GET WHAT I'D SAY... I know... Italian is a VERY DIFFICULT LANGUAGE. Spanish is much easier to learn, although that's the language Italian comes closer to. Not French, French is half way between Italian (Latin) and its Anglo-Saxon roots... but by gosh the hardest language I ever met is GERMAN. It's like LATIN, any sentence changes meaning due to some words's final vowels!!! And most of all you HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE END OF THE SENTENCE to get to the verb!!!
actually it sounds very good. well, I am from Tennessee so try an country accent! I would love to hear up.
i dont get americans that are suprised when other foreign people can speak like an american, its sooo incredible easy
woah that's really good.
Sounds like a blend of accents. But mid-west or the "most common" accents.
You know... the fact is that everyone here said I have a northern accent... especially north midwestern... people placed me "around Chicago" or "around Minneapolis", they hardly ever told me I sound southern, which I'd LOVE TO!
I don't think I sound so southern, I'm not that slow and don't have that sing-a-song typical twang...
Scots may easlily pick up Canadian, because of the vowels, instead, as far as I know... Southern US is easier for cockneys (especially the "ow" sound)...
Listen to Cat Stevens' "Father & Son": doesn't he sound like he's from Chicago? "...take your time, think a lOt, why think of everything you've gOt?"... aren't those "o"s very high pitched?
I've also heard many Scandinavians speak English, and they do sound very northern in some parts and very southern elsewhere...
Yes, it's because movies and music spread those two accents around the globe, making us think "y'all" Americans must sound like that.
Then we meet a Bostonian and we're puzzled...
Well, as you've probably already checked out, THEY SLAGGED ME FOR TRYIN' TAE GO IRISH!!!
It would be so hard now to even try, but I could do it as well, I'd be glad tae help you.
Scots? Easy... roll those "r"s, lenghten those vowels, SIMPLIFY!!! Go straight, don't go round! Talk as if you were making questions...
I'll do my best, thank you!
Personally, I think Italian is the easiest language to learn, if your native language is English. I'm American, and Latin & Italian come very easily to me!!!
(Easier to learn than French. And easier to pronounce :-D)
@t2vanden Could it be all about the Canadian raising? :-)
Thanks a lot, mate.
So it's going to be East St Louis? :-)
Jimmy Connors? Kevin Kline? Michael Stipe? John Malkovich?
Well, mate, honestly speaking, many movies have been based in the Midwest during the decades, I suppose I learned a lot from those ones.
Obama says he feels he has a Missouri accent: I'll check him out then!!! :-)
I tried with French too, just because I actually... loved its pronunciation! :-)
I learnt it as quick as ever, but I got stuck in phonetics and never got on with the rest!
But, aye, its pronunciation is harder than Italian, you're right.
Latin? I hated that one... I felt it was dead, so i never found it interesting... and its grammar is quite regular but by gosh TOO MANY RULES TO REMEMBER!!!
Add terrible pronunciations and strange sentence progressions and you'll get German! :-p
That's pretty good. If you did move to America, you could probably blow peoples' minds.
I'm also quite good at speaking BBC English, due to my public school inheritage, but I've noticed I've been switching it slowly to Estuary English, as anyone does in Southern England nowadays. It's about television here in the UK, I suppose, that sort of south-eastern English is now ruling all over Britain...
Cockney is funny, I think I can have a go at it...
No way Scouse or Brummie or Geordie, neither Welsh or Irish!!! Irish lads were so angry at me on my other video, where I tried Irish...
I wish I could just switch accents on demand
Well Your Accents understandable to me, quite pleasent (American). Its maybe cheating that I'm from Maybole though and quite close to Ayr lol.
Yea thats pretty good, i think it sound mid-western
... and the word has an "ow" sound in it, hasn't it? :-)
I suppose I know what you mean.
I guess we've begun setting my accent some way between St louis and Chicago...
Your American accent sounds like the upper mid west possibly Wisconson,
Minnesota.
im an american and it sounds a little countryish like with a southern accent
And... aye, that is. :-)
Where are you from, lad?
You sound very Midwestern. I myself have a southern drawl lol
@220773 Incidentally, this conversation is too advanced for 99% of Americans to follow. We don't hear dialect very well. I live in Portland, Oregon and speak with a classic Inland North accent. The few people who CAN hear my accent don't know how to place it. I've heard more people guess London - !! - than the Great Lakes, which is where I'm from.
Still, I think most Americans would hear your American accent and sense something was off.
Ouch! Really? You mean I can't pronounce an "s" properly there? Amazing!
What I meant for "influential Midwestern in the movies" is related to the "General American" accent used in old movies and things like Johnny Carson, etc. I've been told that way before California ruled over this scene, it used to be a sort of GA accent taken from the Midlands accent.
I know where I go south... it's when I'm pronouncing "ow"s! Typically European, let me tell you! Where do I exactly get Midwestern? :-)
You have a hint of a Western accent, but I can also sense a TINY bit of Washington/ Oregon-ish.
for sure not Minnesotan hehe, but its a good shot! Im a fan of the Scottish accent tho!