Regional accents in N. America

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Languages and dialects have been a special interest of mine since adolescence.

In recent years, it has seemed to me as though spoken English in North America has homogenized to an extreme degree to the extent that you can't tell where most people are from by how they speak. I emphasize North America because I believe this even extends to Canada.

When I was a student, if somebody was from New York City or some part of the South, it was obvious from how they talked (with rare exceptions). Nowadays, it seems I could call an office even in Texas and probably won't hear any accent on the other end.

As a teenager I sometimes visited relatives in Canada and it seemed at the time everyone there sounded Canadian. Nowadays, it seems that 40% of Canadians under 40 don't sound particularly Canadian (whereas any Canadian over 50 will sound Canadian). This seems increasingly true as the age range goes down.

In contrast, this doesn't seem to have happened at all in the UK especially England where regional accents seem to be flourishing.

Has anybody else noticed this?

Apparently you haven't been around the deep South very much. Or Boston.

There's a newer one around here: the "I'm a hipster and I'm on Twitter and Instagram too much" accent.

Southern accents sound cool to me.

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I still don't know what accent I have. For example,when I went to visit my relatives in Ohio my mom and sister all had a deep Texan accent, yet I didn't. Which is weird because I've lived in Texas all my life.

I dunno about more urbanized areas of the south, but rural southern accents are still very obvious, both in general pronunciation and vocabulary. Maybe not quite as obvious as when I was a kid (older people have always had more pronounced accents to my ear), but it's still there. I think code switching can account for at least some of what you're observing. When I'm around people that aren't from the south I speak in a generic east coast accent, but if I'm around other southerners I'll go full out drawl.

If ah lived in Texas all mah lahf then I'd definitely have an accent.

I used to study northeastern accents (NY/MASS/NJ/PA). It's pretty easier to pick those out. Canadians have fairly subtle, slightly nasally accents. You can hear the difference between eastern and western Canada.

Rural accents in Arkansas can get pretty thick.When my son was doing hi-def installation he travelled all over the US.He said he had no problem with people understanding him in the south,OK and MO.But any other state,he said he had trouble with people understanding him and asking him to repeat things.

accents in these days of network news are muted compared to back in the day.

I can, however, pull of a Boston accent pretty well.

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The Canadian Football League - What We're Made Of

Feel free to talk to me, if you wish.

Every day is a gift- cherish it!

"A true, true friend helps a friend in need."

I'm from the South and dont' have much of a Southern accent. occasionally it comes out. I agree that accents are much flatter than they used to be in urban areas of the South, but rural areas not so much. My accent ear has become dis-attuned as I've been living in the UK for almost 20 years. I still find that among the American community here I can tell if someone is South or not. The 'urban' Southern accent is still the one that sounds absolutely accent-less to me, weirdly followed closely by a SE England 'flat' accent (middle of the road newsreader type accent)- other than a few words here and there.

Here's a practical demonstration to support my original premise that regional accents are disappearing in N. America -- note I said disappearing, not extinct!

If you live in the US, there is a game show on TV called "Family Feud" and it is filmed in Atlanta, Georgia. Family groups compete against each other and are interviewed by the host.

If you watch, ask yourself how many of the contestants clearly speak with a southern accent, and of those, how strong is the accent? Now, if you're old enough, think about what you would have heard 30 years ago. I think you'll agree that 3 decades in the past, the accents would have been stronger and more prevalent.

The dialect here can be different in the northern part of Arkansas than the southern part.They say "here" differently,it's more like he yah,up here it's more clipped and heavier on the r's.
We say arright,not alright.Narrow can be either nar or narra.Orange is arrnge.Barbwire is bobwar,drop all g's in anythin' endin' in ing.Its not baptist,it's babdist,wait sounds like white.Naw is still used for no.