This Map Shows Where American Accents Come From

When you're traveling to another part of the US than you're originally from, it might be surprising to hear how different the locals sound. For instance, a New Yorker will likely speak the same English language in a completely different accent from a native Texan. How did Americans get so many distinctive accents?

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Following is the transcript of the video:

NEW ENGLAND

Let's start with New England, which was one of the first US regions to develop its own American English accent. Today, a speaker from New England might say "Were you gonna plagiarize the whole thing for us? You have any thoughts of your own on this matter? Is that your thing; you come into a bar and read some obscure passage and pretend...you pawn it off as your own?"

NEW YORK

For such a geographically small area, New York City certainly has a bunch of distinctive accents. But in general, its accents evolved from a mixture of its Dutch and English roots and numerous waves of immigration.

A modern speaker from New York probably won’t sound like what you hear in movies like "Hey, I'm walking here! I'm walking here!"

They’re more likely to say "Deep dish pizza is not not only better than New York pizza, it's not pizza."

DELAWARE RIVER VALLEY

New York’s New Jersian and Pennsylvanian neighbors sounded quite different.

Nowadays, someone from Philly might say "We're a regular family. We watch Philly jawn on TV. We go down to the Jersey Shore. But when we want great hoagies, discount prices on beer, and a great atmosphere we go to Lee's Hoagies in Horsham, PA."

SOUTHERN COAST

Let’s take a look at what went on down south.

The southern coast of the United States has a variety of different accents. One example is Southern coastal white. "What concerns me about the American press is this endless...endless attempt to label the guy some kind of kook."

AFRICAN AMERICAN

Other southern dialects preserved some of the original remnants to this day. "They come over here and get oysters and clam and go fishing because they're right down the road. They're right in Brunswick or Savannah or Jacksonville.

Much later, a wave of African Americans migrated from the American South to urban centers in the North, mixing their accents together. "Being a kid from New York City, I mean from Brooklyn. And my aunt — God bless her soul — she used to always take me to The Rockettes — you know, the Easter show and the Christmas show."

APPALACHIANS

he Ulster-Scots had a significant influence on many American dialects in the South and West. Most of the original accent has disappeared, and today, an American from Tennessee might sound like this. "Now, I am just who I am. I'm not always nice. I choose to be good. I choose to have a good attitude because I want people to know. I am a girl with many colors."

MIDWEST

As the Appalachian settlers headed west, their accents joined with speech patterns from the North.

The Midwest has many diverse accents. Today, a speaker from the Great Lakes might say "I was born in the middle of the century in the middle of the country; a classic baby boomer."

Or more famously, "We got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."

While another from Wisconsin/Minnesota/the Dakotas might say "If either of these men draw, I'm gonna be forced to shoot some people, and I don't want to do that."

TEXAS

Down in Texas, a very distinct accent developed. The famous Texan accent we know from movies like "They shot and killed a state senator named Bibs in Waco, Texas." has started to level out. Visitors to big cities like Houston might be surprised to hear something more like "Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to beautifully capture the profundity of deep southern culture."

CALIFORNIA

Last but not least is the West Coast, which had a very different mix of immigrants compared to the East Coast. California doesn’t come close to having one, distinct accent. A modern-day speaker might sound like "We woke up the next morning on his actual birthday. And I told him I wanted to take him somewhere to lunch for his birthday." or "What's so powerful about this novel is everyone has their own interpretation to these characters."

These are just a handful of American accents...and they’re still evolving as we speak. We’ll have to check back in a century or so from now to see what happens next.

[DaBrute]

most of these weren't the best examples. people usually tone down their accent when speaking publicly compared to a normal conversation

[morganriddiford]

The Midwest is the most basic accent I’ve ever heard of English. I’m midwest

[marzolian]

I'd be more impressed with natural speakers, not actors and celebrities.

[alyx]

They forgot Hawaii! It's such a distinct accent. Not like most other accents in the U.S. that are barely distinguishable.

[mirandarichard]

Florida accents can go from serious country to basically normal

[andrewb.]

Am I the only one that thinks all the accents sound clearly different? Maybe it's because I'm from the Midwest...

[amaurylannes]

Oh god why did you guys choose kim kardashian as an example for california

[Rudenbehr]

Y’all slept on the west coast. Just said Cali and ended the video 💀

[Jhilke]

Except the South all the accents have blended together. People aren't isolated as they used to be in the past.

[larryf]

What you called a New England accent is a Boston accent. The speech of the greater Boston area is somewhat an anomoly to the rest of New England.

[LailahLynnTV]

I’m pleasantly surprised they included African influences on American accents.

[AllUsernamesTaken]

In New England, I've met few people under age 50 with our signature accent. I think it's begun to fizzle out and become more like the Midwest and Californian accents. Pronouncing the letter R is still a challenge for some people, though.

[cerdaspediaindonesia]

At least they use 1 language. Here in my country, there's 700 regional languages, and a ton of dialect.

There's 1 unified language, but with strong dialect of every region, i have to hear what they are saying twice.

[yannlmt]

I'm french and i have to admit that all these accents sound the same for me (except the texan accent 😂)

[freddyfrug]

New Orleans' accent shares more in common with New York than it does with Atlanta.Some have said it's because in contrast to Atlanta and most other places in the South, New Orleans experienced significant European immigration between the mid 19th and early 20th centuries.

[Potatoesyou]

I'm not a native English speaker but I can hear the small differences in all accents.

[brianmo]

Love linguistics, love American accents and their rich culture(s). Greetings from Mexico.

[andresvillanueva]

I can hear the differences between them, I'm not a native speaker.

[LaFacedera]

In my first years learning English I would always prefer the Midwest accent because it was the accent I could understand best.

[AlStone]

Fascinating video! Great job. I've love it if this could be done with the dozens of accents of the UK but I think that's difficult since they've been evolving for thousands of years