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American accents you struggle to understand

Wrexis

Wrexis

Member
Nov 4, 2017
25,140
So the cliche is Americans find other accents difficult to understand right, but not all American accents are the same, and they aren't all the cliched TV accents.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcxByX6rh24

I struggle with the southern states. Tennessee from the above video. Dakota too.

This thread was triggered by me subscribing to an random Youtuber and unsubscribing 10m later when I realized I had to struggle to understand what he was saying.
 
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Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
97,656
only thing i have a problem is anything excited from Louisiana. They make me say uhhhhh
 
Xando

Xando

Member
Oct 28, 2017
31,173
US accents all seem pretty tame for me as a outsider except for maybe boston.

Try talking german with a bavarian and you know what the struggle is.
 
PlanetSmasher

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
124,746
I grew up around Boston for probably 60% of my whole life and I still can't understand the Southie dialect. Southie specifically.
 
Joe Shlabotnik

Joe Shlabotnik

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,071
Wrexis said:
So the cliche is Americans find other accents difficult to understand right, but not all American accents are the same, and they aren't all the cliched TV accents.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcxByX6rh24

I struggle with the southern states. Tennessee from the above video. Dakota too.

This thread was triggered by me subscribing to an random Youtuber and unsubscribing 10m later when I realized I had to struggle to understand what he was saying.
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Are you American? Unless it's, like, deep Cajun or
mountain man speak, I can't say I have trouble *understanding* any other accents.

Also your second example (good channel, btw) isn't an accent, it's a common speech impediment.
 
seroun

seroun

Member
Oct 25, 2018
4,926
*perspective from a non-native english speaker

All of them seem understandable, especially the southern ones. The ones I have trouble with are Missouri (unsure why) and Maine, but overall I understand them.
 
Rob's Zombie

Rob's Zombie

Member
Sep 28, 2022
1,903
Manchester, UK
I travelled across the states in 2009 for about half a year and was blown away by how many different accents I heard.

As a Brit, I had a bit of a hard time understanding the southern accent. Georgia and Kentucky in particular.
 
Acrano

Acrano

Member
Nov 2, 2017
1,208
Germany
Xando said:
US accents all seem pretty tame for me as a outsider except for maybe boston.

Try talking german with a bavarian and you know what the struggle is.
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Years ago we had two managers from bavaria coming to berlin to train our department. One of them only spoke bayrisch and no word hochdeutsch. Given that I grew up near munich I had the ... opportunity to act as a translator. Otherwise she would have had to pack her back it was that bad.
 
Skade

Skade

Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,399
As a french dude, i've never encountered any accent from the US that i'd struggle understanding. Compared to some accents in the UK, the americans seem to have no accents at all apart from slight variations of the same basic "american" one.

There might be different terms used or some specific expressions. But for articulations and speech patterns, it's rather tame.
 
MangoUltz

MangoUltz

"This guy are sick"
Member
Mar 24, 2019
2,345
I'm European, but I can't say I've ever struggled to make out what an American is saying. Boston accents are strong, and so are like Tennessee area but I wouldn't say it's hard to understand them.

I don't think America will ever have as wide a range of accents as Europe as some of the regional variety in Europe comes from places speaking different languages that then coalesced over time. That Florida latina accent is one of the strongest in the video and I think that's the same idea I'm getting at here
 
Isilia

Isilia

Member
Mar 11, 2019
6,216
US: PA
I have trouble understanding most words, so if an accent is thick, I ain't understanding it even worse.
 
King Alamat

King Alamat

Member
Nov 22, 2017
8,723
I spent my entire life in the south and I still get tripped up by how some of these yokels talk, like it makes me wonder if their friends are used to it or if they're just like me and just smile, nod and pray they got the gist of it.
 
RobotHaus

RobotHaus

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,472
Mars University
Accents usually not, but then region specific slang can throw me for a loop. I'm fairly certain some accents are overplayed to help make people seem more interesting.
 
DaniThePinguim

DaniThePinguim

Member
Oct 29, 2017
4,686
Boston is the only one that threw me off lol Outside of that they are very similar, UK seems way crazier for sure
 
Doc Laserstein

Doc Laserstein

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,046
Some deep, deep Appalachian accents are completely indecipherable to me. Particularly heavy Baltimore accents are also a mystery.
 
thewienke

thewienke

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,469
Yeah it's specific parts of Boston and Louisiana

Maybe some random bits of Appalachia

Jimbo Fisher said:
I firmly believe that the Boston accent is hammed up. No one actually talks like that in private.
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Unfortunately it isn't

The good news is that I don't remember anyone from like Peabody or Braintree talking like that. They certainly didn't along the south coast and on toward Providence.

So I'm pretty certain it's a very regional thing combined with some people just not speaking very clearly in general.

A lot of people do sound like this there:


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P9cObozvAQ0&pp=ygUFQ3VmZnk%3D
 
Squarehard

Squarehard

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,205
8XFT0K.gif
 
HStallion

HStallion

Member
Oct 25, 2017
65,399
Most American accents aren't that bad, even the more "mumbly" sounding ones like Baltimore.
 
skeezx

skeezx

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,615
i worked with a guy who was italian and spent most of his life in louisiana. honestly had no fucking idea what he was saying, didn't help that he was a coke head and had a motor mouth
 
mute

mute

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,196
I feel like the guy they got to do NC just moved down here a week ago
 
PlanetSmasher

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
124,746
Dr PeterVenkman said:
why is 90% of the video just people with a basic American accent imitating people with stronger accents?
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A lot of people who live in (or more accurately, MOVE TO) major cities actively try to avoid regional accents. And it's pretty likely that the people Conde Nast got to be in this video are all from whatever city their office is in.
 

LeStranger

Member
Mar 10, 2024
674
From Maryland. Say Ellicott City and Baltimore, and if you say them wrong we will hate you :p. Every time someone from out of state tries to say these it feels like nails on a chalk board.
 
PlayBee

PlayBee

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 8, 2017
6,138
Not really. I understand people who sound like Boomhauer. I have trouble with some foreign accents though
 
Katbobo

Katbobo

Member
May 3, 2022
6,969
Florida you'll definitely hear a lot of different accents.

I grew up in central florida so I have very little identifying accent aside from a light southern twang on some words.

Fun video!
 
Fiction

Fiction

Fanthropologist
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,317
Elf Tower, New Mexico
Everyone completely skips the unique New Mexican or Berque accent doing these videos when doing "accent tours" it makes me sad.

I feel like it's easily understandable except for our unique phrases or New Mexican Spanish that is thrown in.

- YouTube

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View: https://youtu.be/N5Yy0iWVC00?si=UgYhehnrele2VJ32
 
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