How’s you Accent?

You’ve likely heard the words “Standard American English”, but exactly what is it?

Every American has an “accent”, and it mostly depends on where they live what determines if what and how they’re saying something is “correct”. Not just those who emigrated to the US and used English, or more correctly “American English” is a second  language, but anyone born and raised in one part of the USA and then moved somewhere else will probably encounter people who will remake on their “accent”.

The fact is, there is no one “American” English but several, depending on where on was born, raise and educated. So, in a sense, every American has an “accent”, and most of us accept that. Oh yes, the “blue bloods” describe the accent of the Northeast as “true “English” since it is closer to the “English-English” of our pilgrim ancestors. But during the great immigration westward speech patterns changed; and the “Midwest accent” became “standard” American English. But the truth is those living in the East, South, West and the Midwest had an “accent” too.

;Americans tend to label an “accent” from  only one or too words. We think of New Yorkers, they think “cwaughfee” not coffee, and Southerners because they say “y’all”, not “you all”.

But basically “Standard” American English doesn’t exist; since there is no real “standard”, or the  “standard” is what the particular American “subculture” uses.

The “standard” is whatever you learned from where you came from.

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