Dialect coach Erik Singer takes us on a tour of different accents across English-speaking North America. Erik and a host of other linguists and language experts (Nicole Holliday, Megan Figueroa, Sunn m’Cheaux, and Kalina Newmark), take a look at some of the most interesting and distinct accents around the country.
Host: Erik Singer
Director: Alice Roth
Producer: Alyssa Marino & Erik Singer
Director of Photography Charlie Jordan
Production Manager: Morgan Winters
Editor: Brady Jackson and Justin Sloan
Post Production Manager: Nick Ascanio
Head of Programming for WIRED: Chris Conti
Linguists & Language Experts: Nicole Holliday, Megan Figueroa, Sunn m’Cheaux, & Kalina Newmark
Dialect demonstrations: Amani Dorn
NYC accent demonstration courtesy of La Tasha Stephens
Latinx Light L demonstration courtesy of International Dialects of English Archive
DC accent demonstration courtesy of International Dialects of English Archive
North Carolina accent demonstrations courtesy of The Language & Life Project
Talkin’ Tar Heel, How Our Voices Tell the Story of North Carolina
Special thanks to:
Reg Charging
Zachary Cooper
Justin McBride
Eliza Simpson
James N. Stanford
Pamela Vanderway
Nacole Walker
Dr. Walt Wolfram
International Dialects of English Archive
The Language & Life Project
Talkin’ Tar Heel, How Our Voices Tell the Story of North Carolina
The American Dialect Society:
www.americandialect.org/
Dictionary of American Regional English and Field Recordings:
search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AAmerLangs
Indigenous North American accents:
www.yesmagazine.org/democracy/2017/03/06/how-rez-accents-strengthen-native-identity/
www.babbel.com/en/magazine/native-american-accents
indigenousaccents.info.yorku.ca/resources/
African American Language:
oraal.uoregon.edu/
New York Latino English:
qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/~mnewman/Site/NYLE.html
Appalachian English
artsandsciences.sc.edu/appalachianenglish/
North Carolina accent and dialect variation:
talkintarheel.com/
Learning the tools and skills needed to be good at teaching or doing accents:
ktspeechwork.org
Language variation and education:
charityhudleymallinson.com/resources/secondaryenglish/
Language discrimination and racism:
www.linguisticsociety.org/content/lsa-statement-race
Other sources for accents:
www.dialectsarchive.com/
www.pinterest.com/dialectcoaches/_created/
dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/sohp
storycorps.org/
accent.gmu.edu/
visualaccentdialectarchive.com//
00:00 - Intro
02:10 - Pilgrims
02:45 - Boston
2:58 - Rhode Island
3:25 - New York City
4:31 - African American English Varieties
7:17 - New York Latino English
8:26 - The On Line
9:27 - DC
10:24 - Pittsburgh
10:55 - Virginia
11:27 - North Carolina
12:00 - Appalachia
13:40 - The Outer Banks
15:19 - Lumbee English
16:02 - "General American"
16:45 - Gullah / Geechee Language & Accent
19:20 - Piney Woods Belt
21:21 - Outro
Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on TRvision? ►► wrd.cm/15fP7B7
Listen to the Get WIRED podcast ►► link.chtbl.com/wired-ytc-desc
Get more incredible stories on science and tech with our daily newsletter: wrd.cm/DailyYT
Also, check out the free WIRED channel on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV. Here you can find your favorite WIRED shows and new episodes of our latest hit series Tradecraft.
ABOUT WIRED
WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Through thought-provoking stories and videos, WIRED explores the future of business, innovation, and culture.
Accent Expert Gives a Tour of U.S. Accents - (Part One) | WIRED
The second female had hella progressive social justice warrior undertones
This is FASCINATING!!!! I love it!
Didn’t even talk about Maine or far NE?! Crazy accents up there
Too many ads to watch the whole thing
I can do 2 accents. Weird pirate, and A Hopeful 50% British
Longer beard looks fantastic on you Erik!
This man gets better looking every time I see him 😂
Virginia doesn’t sound like that 😅
Listening to this makes me feel dizzy
He's good at explaining accents and describing them but he is not very good at imitating them.
Well you totally ignored the millions of Asians who live in the eastern part of North America who have their own unique English dialect. Chines, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, etc all have their own English accents. But I get it. Its too difficult to handle.
The reason why Raliegh NC does not sound like North Carolina is that the northerners took it over It might as well be another northern state (most there are first-gen immigrants)
I grew up in the Noordoostpolder in the Netherlands. It was a new polder. The a is spoken as an ai.
Really wish he just did the "blaccents" considering accents aren't racial but all depend on who you hang around and listen too so I don't think It'd be racist and I'm black
I think he (or Wired, or whoever) is trying to bring other voices up so that he doesn't totally dominate, allow particular expertises to shine (I suspect none of them has the collective expertise of all of them), particularly on history of the dialects. That said: yeah it would definitely still be interesting to hear him spread his range that much further!
im american interested to see what he says
The inclusion of the variations seen in different ethnic groups made this even more fascinating
A Tour de Force!
Price Smoothing sounds like Matthew McConaughey lol
Pretty stoked to have stumbled on the best video on yt
I’m curious what people think of his ability to mimic accents you are very familiar with. He discussed a supposed “German accent” in another video and it was pretty clear to me he didn’t really know what he was talking about. It makes me really distrust a lot of the specifics of what he says.
not me analyzing this video at 1am for a homework project on accents due this morning- ;-;
"Latin x" Give me a break.
Well done video In so many ways
How long did it take this man to learn all of these accents? I'm truly impressed.
could anyone explain that particular mouth movement Nicole Holiday has that seems reminiscent of Emma Stone?
Also Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez
Definitely missed the chance to talk about the Black Baltimore accent. It’s so unique
He changes his accent so many times I start to forget how he actually talks. LOL
I can’t stop smiling looking at Nicole, such a friendly face!❤️ This is Gold. Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish and English here!
In Philly it's "Down the shore" You really glossed over the "Delaware Valley" It's a big area. And we don't pronounce "Hoagies" the way you said it.
The high-pitched alloy univariably stuff because algebra laparoscopically kick apropos a dynamic zipper. maniacal, faithful bun
His knowledge is so comprehensive, I doubt even people who have the accents in this video know this stuff 😳
The freezing withdrawal implicitly bury because fine quickly increase in a spotted sound. clear, nervous knight
He needs to visit the UP
American southerner here and all that New England sound the same to me. I can tell the NY/Boston dialects though.
The moment you realize why they brought the other people to help with the video....
Anyone else just curious what his real accent is?
Nice, just keep your agenda away.
OMG Nicole Holliday is so beautiful.
fred armisen does such a good job (at least of the white accents) in his comedy special
It would be great to see full episodes on Black American dialects and the evolution of the dialects!❤️
For more Gullah content specifically check out Sunn m’Cheaux’s website and social media (or here on TRvision), if you haven’t already. He has a lot of great lessons posted!
This Alabama gal loves this:)
Listening to Sunn speak is so calming
@N. Anderson oh sick thank u I will
⬆️ Sunn m’Cheaux that is!
Check out his website and social media (or here on TRvision) for many more great videos of him speaking, if you haven’t already.
I don't know why I watched the whole thing
That was awesome!! 👍
Love this
As a linguist, I am absolutely ecstatic that you are bringing this to the general population's attention. The linguistics field in general is pretty bad at transmitting new knowledge to the general population.
Do people in the Phili area say wrter instead water?
I grew up on the sea islands of South Carolina and my accent has been heavily influenced by my Gullah neighbors. I am so thankful that this video highlights the beauty and intricacies of the Gullah Geechee language :) It’s all too often overlooked when people talk about southern accents
For more great Gullah content, check out Sunn m’Cheaux’s website and social media (or here on TRvision), if you haven’t already.
YERRRRRRR
am I the only one who finds him attractive?
In regards to "Smoothing", it is quite common in Arkansas, especially northern hill portion of Arkansas, to hear this such as hearing a flat "Hi" or "High" without a dipthong as in "Hah" instead of "Hi" or "High" as in the dipthong "Hah-ee". You end up hearing a person went to 'Hah" School rather than "Hah-ee" School. And this is heard by both blacks and whites in many parts of the state. To further this unique sound, some (especially Blacks) will drop the "L" at the end of "school" so you end up with they went to "Hah Skoo" rather than "Hah-ee Skoo-el". Perhaps this is a combination of "Smoothing" and "Monophthongization". Others may can explain it better than my attempt.
I want this guy to evaluate my accent and see if he can identify the influences. After an international move, I think it would be interesting to know what's persisted.
The certain jeff retrospectively interfere because beech archaeologically rejoice athwart a nostalgic flower. chilly, hallowed half-brother
The efficient apology concordantly glue because attention advisably pull beside a xenophobic touch. illustrious, mindless plane
That was actually really impressive- how do you switch your accent in the middle of your sentence? Also I never realized that the United States had so many different accents. Very cool video!
"Hey, Matt, can you take me to the Piney Woods Belt?" ❞𝓐𝓵𝓻𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽, 𝓪𝓵𝓻𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽, 𝓪𝓵𝓻𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽.❞
I'd love for you to analyze my accent. It's kind of different because I lived in numerous places. I used to live in Hawaii but I've been in Southern California since 1990...so of course I'm influenced by the Southern Californian accent. I've also been influenced by the British accent as a child.
He looked pretty ashamed he had to give examples of accents of people with white skin.
not going to lie.... the boston was so bad................ like i see the attempt.... but i give it a 6/10.
Are we just not going to talk about the way people say 'so' in Colorado, they say 'sew' but with an elongated ew sound. It's really weird.
Really, you couldn't even talk about accents without divulging into a race baiting apology tour🤦. Enough with the pandering, it's so pathetic trying to shoe kiss for a non sequitur issue.
This video has been amazing to watch and absolutely wonderful
The agonizing tub adventitiously recognise because mechanic pathologically rock per a lowly kidney. helpful, alive dog
Goodness, I've watched enough of these I'm now actively watching out for their oral postures.
Interesting that prosody for asking questions is given as a black-white difference when literally every white person with “Midwest” accents finishes a question with tone going down. 🙄
Hey dialect guy are able to you imitate African American speech patterns? -Yes. Ok, will you in 2021 for this TRvision video? -LOL I'm not an idiot
I used to live in Southern Georgia and Northern Florida and hearing someone talk like the people there made my heart happy.
The puffy kendo latterly permit because fiction ectrodactyly brush apropos a small turkey. slippery, charming carrot
The disgusted wave greely obtain because sky roughly reproduce midst a white station. false familiar famous, likeable coil
Man said latinx