lafleurdove said:

True, I have a friend who is of mostly Irish and the rest English ancestry
and when he talks you can hear a strong Irish accent, for some reason especially on words that have an R in it

Zinzi said:

Yeah, a lot of it is learned.

Some of it is environment (raised around Brooklynese most likely you will talk it)

ufoclub said:

I agree. 4 those of U on valium is a perfect example of when I noticed his accent. At the beginning when he introduces his band, polkadot suit, and informs everyone they are going to be doing a practice session for an upcoming tour, then says 'okay'? Don't think his accent is as thick as the actors in Fargo though.

Genesia said:

Omg Genesia. I think this movie is so funny!

Everyone has got an accent!! it depends on the one who's listenning..
What You hear, isn't what I do....
When he sings, the accent isn't heard that much, but when he talks, it's different.
For me, as "french" I hear a accent from the North East of America..

he has a deep tone, yet almost feminine was of articulating his thoughts

Elle85n09 said:

Yeah but it's definetely there. I remember listening to a rehearsal in the car and a friend cracking up at Princ'es normal voice with the slight minnestoan accent.

You can kind of hear it on that soundbite on Irresistible Bitch where at the beginning he says "turn down the vocals"

He's got that nasal midwestern thing going when he speaks.
That "It's just not fey-uh" bit sounds like Blanche Devereaux to me.

Actually I do True story I was born in Detroit, but moved to Oklahoma as a teenager and when I got there they were like DAMN WHERE R U FROM? People up north do sound differently. I'm just saying Prince might have alittle something going on

ufoclub said:

You can hear the minnesotan accent in the track "Movie Star" as well.

nursev said:

Where in OK?

2elijah said:

lol yes, bah-ten-da! on the house

as an english person, i find regardless of race/colour/region that many americans almost sound as if the are slightly slurring their words and almost exclusively seem to bounce from one end of the scale to the other in regard to emphasis..generally resulting in being a lot louder than the english and so often sounding more confident.. although this may be down to culture rather than accent! whereas a relaxed english person will sound relaxed, an relaxed american person sounds even more relaxed-if they were at the same state of relaxation, if you understand? and an excited english person will sound excited- and an excited american will sound even more excited, at the same state of excited(ness?!).. i find the american accent to be one of extremes! in the speech acts i have heard prince partake in, i find him to be unusual in his generally sounding quite level, never really jumping from one extreme to the other as i so often find the american accent to,and also perhaps his more succinct sound is due to the fact that he is a man of few words and so picks his words more carefully, saying less, although this may be down to the fact that he is performing, whether being filmed or recorded for an interview. as a whole i think the american accent is more expressive than the english. also, in comparison to an american or an english person, i think prince is actually exceptionally well spoken..and he has a lovely spekaing voice (athough clearly that opinion may be biased!!)

as for wondering what your american or british accent sound like to the opposing language, if you check out the 'ipa' the international phonetic alphabet you will see that the american ipa and english ipa both have a missing vowel..i think this is what we all pick up on the most in our accent differences! the american accent make use of one, and the english the other, i think this might be the 'rrrr' that the english often pick up on from the american, and the posher sounding 'o' the americans often pick up on from the english! the best way to describe it is to think about how americans would pronounce 'pot' and then how the english would pronounce 'pot'.. the american version is longer and has a very slight 'r' quality to it, whereas the english is shorter and more pronounced, resulting in the rather funny impressions that americans give of our lovely queen! the american version being less pronounced and so leading to the illusion that sometimes words are slurred!
[Edited 5/23/10 19:04pm]

As a live long Native of Minnesota....I find Prince's accent no different Than anyone who grew up in the Minneapolis area....Growing up in a suburb of Minneapolis..My accent is less than of a Minneapolis city sounding accent...It all depends on the neighborhood u grow up in..

Ha ha! Shouldn't this thread be somewhere else than here? This post might go all over the place but I'll give it a try.

I'm not an American but I believe Prince has a typical accent of the Midwest. When you listen to his interview with Tavis Smiley from recently, then you hear certain nuances and emphasis on certain words and phrases. The man was born in Minnesota where you have a certain kind of language.

To the question, what do we non-Americans think of American accent. I think it's totally recognizable for start, of course I'm talking of United States. No matter what part of the country you are from, we know within seconds that you are from somewhere in the US.

Texan accent is probably the most obvious one, it sounds very wide. I know some of you might think I'm mad when I say this but I don't know how else to describe it. President George W. Bush is pure Texan, so is his father. Also, the accent of New York area is recognizable.

One person whose accent I can't identify, is Bono of U2. He's Irish but in the same time he has an American accent with a hint of British in the background.

I have to add that I have never been in the States. My opinions are totally based on what I've seen in various programs and the people I meet every day at my workplace.
[Edited 5/24/10 7:17am]

is that like the opposite of a descent?