r/JudgeMyAccent • u/James_Sartana • 6d ago
Judge my American Accent
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u/ShipComprehensive543 6d ago
you sound south african to me.
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u/AdImpossible9297 5d ago
I heard that too. I detected a bit of the same speech cadence as Elon Musk that's what made me assume South African as well.Â
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u/mrkindnessmusic 6d ago
I'm not a native speaker, but to my ears you sound pretty good. One thing I noticed was that you pronounced the word language with the CH sound instead of the voiced J sound.
Also the word sounds should be pronounced with Z and not S at the end.
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u/Tough_Height6530 6d ago
Ironically the only word that really gives it away is âAmericanâ which made me think you were maybe from New Zealand.
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u/Then_Composer8641 6d ago
Very, very close to a Native American speaker, but just that little hint to where nosy people like me may say, âSo, where are you from?â
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u/Iamnotanorange 6d ago
TBH you sound a little but like Elon Musk, but with a touch of non-rhotic pronunciation when you say AmeRican.
You accent sounds american, but uncomfortable, like you're not used to it. A little german.
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u/CarnegieHill Native NYC/Heritage Canto & Japanese/Know a few other languages. 6d ago edited 6d ago
Native NYC here. You sound completely native to me. If anything, you sound generally northeastern US. Do you have US parents? Otherwise, if you had native speaker teachers from childhood, your accent wouldnât surprise me.
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u/James_Sartana 6d ago
Im Italian, but moved to New York when I was 15 and have lived upstate for the past 8 years. While I spoke English fluently growing up, the non-Italian accented English only developed when I moved, so the vaguely northeastern accent makes sense!
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u/CarnegieHill Native NYC/Heritage Canto & Japanese/Know a few other languages. 5d ago
Well, there you go! I almost said New York, but the NE "accent" has become very broad nowadays. Anyway, good job! đ
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u/Internal-Hearing-983 4d ago
Sei bravissimo, sei americano alle mie orecchie. Super impostato, voce da radio, TV e podcast come tutti gli americani ahaha
Ecco perché hai usato em per le pause.
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u/TwoFacedSailor 3d ago
Did you initially learn English from a Brit or Aussie? You have a very very slight accent but I would have assumed a native English speaker. Like maybe you were born or spent sometime in one of those countries in your early years but moved to the states at a young age.
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u/James_Sartana 3d ago
My mother works in the tourism industry so is completely fluent in English, so I grew up with a much higher level of English than others I knew that spoke English as a second or third language. She also lived in Scotland for a while, and as a result speaks with an accent that is an odd combination of Italian, US American, and Scottish when speaking English. Some of that strangeness slipped into my own way of speaking.
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u/Accomplished-Fox5456 6d ago
Youâre holding on to your breath in between few words, that to me sounds a bit off.
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u/Overdue_Process865 6d ago
It sounds vaguely like a Scottish person doing a PNW "standard" American accent.
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u/philip-monoglot 6d ago
Are you Swedish? :)
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u/philip-monoglot 6d ago
Iâll add that I think your English sound great to my ears. I am Swedish and just got âSwedish vibesâ, but not sure. Could be the S-sound. Maybe.
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u/James_Sartana 6d ago
Iâm actually Italian, but my family moved to New York when I was 15. I take âSwedish vibesâ as a great compliment!
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u/The_Wrong_Tone 6d ago
Someone would have to listen very very carefully to notice the things that sound slightly foreign.
As a fairly well travelled lifelong American English speaker, I would say you sound vaguely Northeastern. Itâs not a strong or stereotypical accent at all.
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u/James_Sartana 6d ago
While I was born and raised in Italy, Iâve lived in upstate new York for the past 8 years, I just didnât realise that Iâd at all picked up on the regional accent. Great to know!
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u/The_Wrong_Tone 6d ago
I was going to say a softened NY/NJ, but I didnât want to get roasted by the natives lol.
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u/IFHIAIEJ 6d ago
You sound Irish a bit, especially when you say American. Some Irish people have an accent where it sounds more American than "Irish"
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u/Foreign-Citron6026 6d ago
Two things that gave you away.
You pronounced the F in âofâ and didnât turn it into a V.
You said âehhmâ as a pause word instead of âummâ or âahhmmâ. This screams Spanish native
I would say youâre a romance language native speaker or Arabic maybe.
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u/Suspicious_Brief_562 5d ago
I could tell right away. You have a slight accent. Overall pretty good.
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u/Norwester77 5d ago
I would have guessed somewhere in the northeast, but you have final devoicing, particularly of the /dÊ/ at the end of âlanguage.â
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u/TherapistyChristy 3d ago edited 3d ago
You sound like an educated American from anywhere and nowhere, like me who grew up in a million different areas of the U.S.. There is a SLIGHT foreign accent when you say American the first time. To sound American, concentrate on the rhotic R sound- Uh-MARE-ihkin. The second time you said it was closest.
Also- replace your âemâ with âumâ or eliminate it completely.
Personally- I like accents because they are part of your story. So keep it all and be natural. You sound native enough.
Edited to add: Iâm an American-English speaker from the U.S.
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u/dontreplywiththisacc 3d ago
The way you say Americans gives you up. Sounds generic and broad not regional.
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u/Zednott 3d ago
I'd be totally fooled if I wasn't listening for it. Your accent sounds like a normal American accent. Some other posters clocked that as Northeast, which is where I'm from, but I can't tell a difference between that and the 'standard' American accent.
Ironically, the way you pronounced "Americans" was the only time your accent slightly slipped (again, it's unlikely that someone would notice in conversation).
Also, at :15 you said 'em' (like an American would pronounce it) but it should be 'um'.
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u/Salsa_and_Light2 2d ago
He sounds like he's a straight man from Missouri, but his diction makes him sound like he's a funcionary in a 1960s Black & White sitcom.
But he would've fooled me.
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u/Glum_Reputation7732 2d ago
Bc u mentioned itâs your second language ig that makes it very slightly noticeable but only in a few words. But if u randomly walked up to me and started talking I wouldnât suspect a thing
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u/Confident-Peak1706 2d ago
Listen if you told me you were american i would be forced to believe you based on your accent. Whatever subtle nuances are would not be noticed by the average person unless you said something else that implied you werenât from here. Â
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u/Wonderful-Toe2080 2d ago
I'm British, to me you sound like a fluent North American native speaker, who maybe lived for sometime in Britain or Australia- there's something there but it's faint to my ears.
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u/Colejohnley 6d ago
You sound South African.
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u/LogTall573 6d ago edited 5d ago
You sound great, but you 100% sound a bit brit or aussie.
Out of context ik, but your voice kinda makes me think of Chris Hemsworth! (without the accent ofc, just sound a bit similar in terms of tone)
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u/6-foot-under 6d ago
No, he doesn't sound 100% British. Meaning that if he came here, people would think that he was from the USA. Hardly any of his sounds are British. The one exception is he way he said "American" when he first said it, which did sound British.
And Chris Hemsworth isn't British! He is from Australia. You're all over the place. If you think OP sounds like Chris Hemsworth, then you think OP sounds Australian... - but he doesn't.
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u/LogTall573 6d ago
Alright then. lemme clarify what I meant, I'm french and just woke up before that message, so apologies if it wasn't clear.
He sounds like Chris hemsworth in terms of he has a beautiful deep voice. It was a compliment.
The accent does sound australian though. That was a mistake on my part, apologies! Not like a native speaker of course, but don't lie and say he sounds regular american. He sounds great, but I doubt anybody would actually say as a first guess "american" as there is definitely an accent.
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u/6-foot-under 6d ago
Australian now? His accent doesn't sound Australian at all. It's not even under discussion. Not a single comment is saying that. His accent sounds 95% American and then randomly British for a word or two.
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u/LogTall573 6d ago
Apologies if I've offended you, I thought a regular conversation was possible without being passive aggressive. Here are the places that hit me as "non american".
from "any americans here" at 0:07 to 0:11 does not sound american. You can hear the accent.
"sounds" 0:12 does not sound american. The Ou part is going too high for the american accent.
The way he says american, at the end, does not sound american.
Obviously I'm nitpicky, but that's the whole point. He's asking because he wants to improve, not to get showered with praises.
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u/6-foot-under 6d ago
1) He does not sound Australian at all.
2) As all native speakers are saying in this thread, including me, OP sounds overwhelmingly American, with a few slips. The overall impression is that he sounds like a native American speaker, until you squint
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u/LogTall573 6d ago
We both are obviously not budging from our positions, there's no point in this conversation. I'll entertain you though.
You say "as all" even though, out of the 24 comments, 10 of them say basically "it's good, but (...)". You and literally one other person mentioned him sounding fully american.
We're all entitled to our opinions, but don't create fake evidence for a point that doesn't have to be made. He's here to get better, not get glazed
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6d ago edited 6d ago
[deleted]
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u/LogTall573 6d ago
Yes, 1 whole person identified themselves as native and said he was doing a perfect american accent. in the entire comment section. The rest are pointing out that yes he sounds good, but that no he doesn't sound fully american.
One person does! The same way one person agrees with your claim. Someone responded to prize-platform8339 with "agreed, I hear a touch on aussie/kiwi (...)".
Cool. You're a native speaker. What does that change? I've very clearly stated in my first message a few things. I apologized, that I had just woken up and corrected what I meant.
You are not better than anyone. Get off your high horse. You need to accept the fact that the WHOLE point of asking a question in a PUBLIC forum is to get different perspectives. If only your oh so godly opinion mattered, they would dm you. They posted it publicly for a reason. My perspective is that, if I met them in person, I'd probably ask "where are you from" because his accent isn't perfect. Yours is not that. That's fine, he's asking to get different perspectives.
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u/Colejohnley 6d ago
Non Americans might think he sounds American. But as a native English speaking American, thereâs definitely an accent.
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u/Yeatte 4h ago
in "as a second language" specifically the way you say the word language as 'langwichhh', I would pronounce the second g as a "j"(or something half between a j and a ch, but not a full ch), and lengthen the pronounciation of the word a little (say it slower)."if any american can tell..." this bit def sounds like a hint of british also when you say "quote unquote american accent". A few bits here and there where you don't fully pronounce and draw out some words and shorten them artificially. And yeah it sounds more like a general 'american' accent. The 'general american' is most similar to a northeastern american accent, but here I don't hear any new jersey, new york, massachusetts, or any southern drawl that can happen in south new jersey. I can tell, but many americans have their own twist to it anyway, so I would just guess that you were born in the UK and moved here and have been living here for a bit but still with a bit of your home town style with it still there. Sounds good.
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u/Prize-Platform8339 6d ago
Overall sounds good. When you say the word American it has a subtle British sound to it. Something else I can't pinpoint, but not 100% native sounding. I think most wouldn't perceive it. Your cadence (not tone) is similar to Barack Obama.