Seattle Accent

Seattle is horrible.

I have never been, but friends tell me it's the worst gay (male) scene of any major American city. Lame AND unpleasant.

And that's saying a lot.

I lived there for three years, and never noticed an accent. Everyone on the west coast sounded the same to me. I am from North Jersey.

There's a YouTube vid for that!

BTW, I'm mad for the lady linguist's style. I suspect she posts here.

listen to Nirvana

R5, Kurt was from Aberdeen though, no? Lumber-town.

R4 Interesting clip - however go spend an evening in West Seattle barhopping. You’ll think you’re on Sesame Street listening to Burt & Ernie.

Example.. most people say ‘ Can I have a beer? ‘ Seattle folk say ‘ Can I have a beeeeerrruh’

I live in the third tier shit hole of a hamlet by that name. I don't leave because I have a great flat that I own, and I love grey skies. Nearly everybody here is revolting and has their fucking head up their ass. I gave up long ago on ever wanting anything to do with them.

But enough about me. I had a friend from Baastan tell me what the Seattle accent is. The weather forecasters say, "Uh dirk an' dreeree dee."

I visited a couple times and was underwhelmed and turned off. Almost EVERYONE we interacted with in public had this smurky, know-it-all/better-than-you vibe. No one looked like they gave a rat's ass about grooming and the women wore no make-up, as if going without it was some kind of virtue. They looked dumpy and boring. I had to go to a graduation ceremony at some hippy-dippy liberal private high school and some talentless fat girl did and endless, horrifying, cringe-worthy interpretive dance in honor of the graduating class. Cringe-worthy. But the hometown folks acted like it was the second coming of Christ.

Born and raised in Victoria (BC) here, moved to France at 20 and three times I've instantly recognized people from Washington State as "local" by the accent alone. Which is interesting because I actually don't perceive a west coast accent for the PNW or coastal BC either, but something about the way they spoke had me thinking they were from somewhere close to me. Have also done the same with people from home, it's just a little weirder with the Washingtonians because they're technically from a different country. Odd how, when you're both in a foreign place, there can be that feeling of 'oh, one of my people' about someone of a different nationality.

Palin has it

R9 u nailed it.. They do something weird with their R.

Seattle seemed accent-less to me, but then I moved there from Chicago.

This is what I could find about Seattle accents. Apparently it's very subtle and they pronounce the word bag like "beg".

I have noticed, “children” being pronounced like “CHRR-ren.”

Never thought about Ernie and Bert but totally hear it now.

Listen closely to Ernie.. seattle accent big time

So, which one is it? Bert or Ernie? OP said it's Bert that has the Seattle accent and now you're saying it's Ernie.

It’s more Ernie than Bert. It’s basically a complete white dork accent.

I noticed a lot of uptalk in Seattle? It's like, you know, seeking permission with every statement?

[quote]Palin has it

If she did, that would be quite mystifying, because she has never lived there. But she does not have a Seattle accent.

She has a Wasilla Valley, Alaska accent. The people who live there settled originally from Minnesota, and it sounds like a thick Minnesota accent. She has lived in Wasilla all her life (except for the brief period when she was governor and she lived in Anchorage, and recent years when she moved out of state--but NOT to Seattle).

It's trippy!

Sarah Palin's accent is from Arizona, where she grew up.

Speaking of upspeak, R20? I had to do a presentation last week in Italian class? And so did these three girls? And they all upspoke? [italic]Tutti altoparlovano,[/italic] that is? I didn't know upspeak even happened in l'Italiano? And from the look on his face, neither did our teacher? I guess it does if you're 18? And from PA/NJ/NY?

Palin grew up in Alaska.

You're right, r24. I must have mistaken "Alaska" for "Arizona" all those years ago. I thank you for the correction.

I live in Seattle. Trust me, it is one of the purest American accents. Have also lived in deep south, chicago and east coast. General population is rather boring, however with all the techies.