4 ms·

>I love listening to people with accents explain things Are there people without accents that explain things? Because that would be a video I want to see.

wongarsu 7y ago
I suppose by "without accent" you mean "with General American accent"? German or French can be spoken without accent, but English doesn't have one universally agreed "standard accent". What's without accent to the American is just an American accent to everyone else.
- shrimpx 7y ago
  I take the parent's comment to mean that everybody has an accent. There's no such thing as neutral or reference-frame speech.
  - bityard 7y ago
    The word "accent" implies that it is being compared to some kind of reference. You might be looking for the word "dialect" here. For example, if you have two speakers with English as a first language and a third from Germany with English as a second language, the native English speakers will probably detect a German accent in the ESL-speaker's dialect. People get into long internet arguments over this, but the closest thing to a neutral English dialect is General American English, also sometimes called Broadcast English because newscasters, TV personalities, and actors would be trained this dialect so as to not sound like they are "from" anywhere in particular. It used to be common as well for highly-educated or upper-class individuals to hire speech coaches to teach them this dialect in order to "lose their accent". It still may be common for all I know, but I believe the deliberate acquisition of General American is probably on the decline.
    - pathseeker 7y ago
      That's just an American-centered view-point though. Just because an accent dominates doesn't mean it's not an accent.
- magduf 7y ago
  This isn't completely true: even within America, there's different accents. So people with a "standard American accent" (generally midwestern) listen to Southerners talk and say they have an accent. There's also northeastern accents (such as the famous Boston accent). Of course, these days, a lot of the accents are disappearing because of mass communications, so the "American accent" is homogenizing, but those other accents aren't completely gone yet.
tempestn 7y ago
Obviously I mean foreign accents when speaking English.

wongarsu 7y ago

I suppose by "without accent" you mean "with General American accent"? German or French can be spoken without accent, but English doesn't have one universally agreed "standard accent". What's without accent to the American is just an American accent to everyone else.

shrimpx 7y ago
I take the parent's comment to mean that everybody has an accent. There's no such thing as neutral or reference-frame speech.
- bityard 7y ago
  The word "accent" implies that it is being compared to some kind of reference. You might be looking for the word "dialect" here. For example, if you have two speakers with English as a first language and a third from Germany with English as a second language, the native English speakers will probably detect a German accent in the ESL-speaker's dialect. People get into long internet arguments over this, but the closest thing to a neutral English dialect is General American English, also sometimes called Broadcast English because newscasters, TV personalities, and actors would be trained this dialect so as to not sound like they are "from" anywhere in particular. It used to be common as well for highly-educated or upper-class individuals to hire speech coaches to teach them this dialect in order to "lose their accent". It still may be common for all I know, but I believe the deliberate acquisition of General American is probably on the decline.
  - pathseeker 7y ago
    That's just an American-centered view-point though. Just because an accent dominates doesn't mean it's not an accent.
magduf 7y ago
This isn't completely true: even within America, there's different accents. So people with a "standard American accent" (generally midwestern) listen to Southerners talk and say they have an accent. There's also northeastern accents (such as the famous Boston accent). Of course, these days, a lot of the accents are disappearing because of mass communications, so the "American accent" is homogenizing, but those other accents aren't completely gone yet.

tempestn 7y ago

Obviously I mean foreign accents when speaking English.