i thought BRITISH ACCENT was the majority of people though.

basically i always thought midwestern was neutral not just in the US but everywhere. you hear them and are like whoa

dude's not got any accent.

i thought BRITISH ACCENT was the majority of people though.

guess again, regional accents are basically all there is among actual british people. accentless english is generally reserved for well-taught foreign speakers!

since I can't tell american regional accents anyway aside from obvious ones like new york or deep south I am not the person to answer the second thing.

basically im making the argument that christian bale/actors in general sound like if a computer could emote but not inflect. sort of like how only Indian people who learn Bengali late in life are the ones who really speak it without an accent either way since they never pick up their parent's inflection but they know the pronounciation.

I just don't think calling something with a lack of, you know, AURAL ACCENTS an accent is accurate!

guess again, regional accents are basically all there is among actual british people. accentless english is generally reserved for well-taught foreign speakers!

so this is why british people either sound like stewie griffin or completely unintelligible.

but there's still an inflection on words when you are Stewie where midwesterners have zero non-alphabetic inflections. southerners run their sentences together, new england people sound different, upper maine sounds like a mumblefuck, BBC people have a certain way of adding accent to phrases that keeps up the ITS A BRITISH GUY HUH but midwesterners I have never felt sound American so much as just...someone learning english from a book.

its not a big deal I just found it interesting you guys think of that as AMERICAN ACCENT and I think of it as boring blank slate and that anyone could do it!

edit: don't they even train call center people calling anywhere to speak in midwestern english because its so NOTHING?

don't get me wrong I'm not making a strong point I just never thought there was an American accent, more of a lack of one unless they were SOUTHERN etc.

well of course you wouldn't notice one you are around them all the time? the only time I can really detect a particularly british accent is if I can compare them to other accents. otherwise it is just cockney/scouse/geordie/whatever. I think you definitely get accustomed to it and don't really pick up on it for that reason.

what i noticed southern accents, which is where i live!!!

like i'm a good example, unless i affect one i dont have an accent because i lived in puerto rico and ohio when i was growing up in an indian family. i dont think i really have one unless it's a slight southern lean.

accents require something to be ACCENTED I always thought and midwesterners (no one is around them! the midwest is empty) tend to be devoid of it.

i'm wondering now if you could teach a british person to speak midwestern just by saying REMOVE ALL INFLECTIONS over and over instead of saying MIDWESTERN GO or if it really isn't the blank slate i thought it was!

so this is why british people either sound like stewie griffin or completely unintelligible.

Well this is really far from the truth but I think it's funny you picked stewie voice as an example because he always sounded to me like an american doing a really clipped british accent. Looking it up this was right!

thats the joke mark!!!

YOU DIDNT GET THE FAMILY GUY JOKE!!!!

kill

ya

self.

seriously try and speak without any inflection at all. you will sound like a computer, not a VAGUELY BRITISH computer, and I think midwesterners would sound like this if they had no emotions.

PUT IT ON YOUTUBE. IM GONNA BE RIGHT ABOU TTHIS!!!

is that guy unique in the way he pronounces his 'o's because that seems dangerously close to an accent

what i noticed southern accents, which is where i live!!!

yeah this is kind of my point, you notice it since it's different to your accent but you don't really identify it as a particularly american accent but rather as a southern one, because it has the same qualities as your own that single it out as american accent.

but I guess I can't actually explain why this is so lets leave it to the mysteries of time...!

people from east anglia sound like fish.

thats the joke mark!!!

YOU DIDNT GET THE FAMILY GUY JOKE!!!!

kill

ya

self.

no I was joking too! Its you, you didn't get MY joke

frak!

What I've come across is that you can hear anyone talk whos from America be it Midwest, Deep South, CA wherever, and go "dudes got an American accent", even though the accents are very different. Wheras I would hear some BBC guy and go "hmm British", and hear someone from Liverpool and go "hmm scouse" instead. I don't know whether this is because of some general underlying inflection or whatever common in all or most "American accents" or just because I'm from Britain and can tell more clearly though I don''t know.

Scousers always sound like they're pissed.

Usually they are.

i'm wondering now if you could teach a british person to speak midwestern just by saying REMOVE ALL INFLECTIONS over and over instead of saying MIDWESTERN GO or if it really isn't the blank slate i thought it was!

The other day, I was with some people and I just listened for a minute and I noticed that I couldn't pick up any accent, it just felt like that it was the way English is spoken naturally. It was odd as I know any of you guys would go "OMG BRITISH ACCENT" where as I didn't notice inflection what so ever on any words.

urhg don't tell me you talk bbc

I think I do.
It's what I get for living in a rich area outside of London (which is about 30 mins on train).

congratulations dude you sound like someone without a soul.