Valley girls. Surf bros. Chicano English.
A team of researchers from Stanford have launched the study Voices of California to determine if Californians have accents.
What do you think the Tri-City accent is?
Penelope Eckert, professor of linguistics and anthropology at Stanford, believes there's more to it than vowel shifting and vocabulary, dudes.
Despite the state's diverse population, many Californians believe they don't have distinguishable way of speaking. (Some call it a "TV accent.")
"It's really important to portray California as it is," Eckert told Stanford News. "People have this view of California based on Hollywood, and California really is a very diverse state."
Voices of California researchers are recording and studying how Californians speak. They've visited Redding, Merced and, last fall, went to Bakersfield.
Eckert and her researchers say they've found distinctions between coastal California and Central Valley, such as influences of southern twang from Dust Bowl migrants. The large number of Latinos in California impacts language as well.
Voices of California participants talk about their lives, but also are asked questions about special words, expressions, and pronunciations during research interviews. Each reads a list of words that researchers think have distinctive pronunciations in California.
- Wash, because some people pronounce it "warsh."
- Greasy, because some people pronounce it "greezy."
- Pin and pen, because some people pronounce them the same.
KQED in San Francisco and Southern California Public Radio invited listeners to record impressions of California accents.
Courtney Young, 40, of San Mateo County said, in one of the public radio recordings, that she thinks Californians draw out their words and use slang.
"I feel like it's really influenced by surfer speak," said Young, who admits to saying "totally" and "dude" all the time.
Do you think you have an accent? Where does it come from and what does it sound like? Tell us in the comment section below.
My Mother was Born in Alameda, Raised in one of Oakland's Toughest Hoods and came to Newark in her Late Teens back when the Junior High was "Newark High". When she hit her 20's she met this Bad Boy and moved to Chicago, then to Michigan and didn't come back to Newark until her mid 30's. She has always used "Warsh" instead of "Wash" and says couple other words funny. Even now in her 60's she's still a Bad Ass! She stands up to these little punks in the Streets and ignores Gang Colors, we got Robbed at gun point once, she didn't even Panic and stood her ground. She grew up during the height of Racial Injustice and still remembers Speeches from JFK & Martin Luther King. Although she's quite Cynical she's still tickin! I get my Fearlessness, and Smart Mouth from Mama.
"Warsh", "greezy"? Maybe in Reddding, Merced and Bakersfield.