A Seattle Accent?

When we think of accents, we often think of the South or the East Coast or places like Minnesota. But researchers think even Seattle might have an accent. Can you hear it?

[@libbykay8448]

The way I describe Seattle accents to others is “if a surfer dude and Canadian had a baby”

[@Ephesians5-14]

And an Indigenous person in there too. That's exactly what I hear in my sister in law's accent, surfer dude + Canadian + native.

[@deanfirnatine7814]

@@Ephesians5-14 Ya I can kind of hear that a little

[@toriwisdom8385]

That's a great analogy! I can dig it, and I was born and bred here. 😊

[@Artsy_Scarves]

girl stop you're not wrong

[@slayytimes]

DEFINITELY. I hear all the time on the east coast when people come to visit, my thought… “ They’re from the PNW”

[@aren4319]

I grew up in Seattle, I've always said agge instead of egg I never noticed until now.

[@into.the.wood.chipper.]

+lionel wraithwood Baggle!

[@galaxycat2193]

same

[@aren4319]

Some of us say warsh instead of wash

[@brendakent2854]

I live across the strait in Victoria BC. I sometimes say ehg and sometimes say ayg.

[@SnakeRiverFishing]

i was going to comment the exact same thing lol warsh the car haha

[@MM05249]

Honestly, as someone from the east coast, I can definitely hear an accent.

[@jimtalbott2894]

Especially from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan theres definitely an accent.

[@Watcher413]

Yes i can hear your accent

[@MollyFC]

My dad who's from the Northeast gets mad at me when I say "crayon" in one syllable.

[@jasmineg9738]

Same from jersey and my accent is like flat and average I guess. I only noticed that t sounds sound like d sounds when my family talks.

[@Thinking.Of.Some.Handle]

Really?? I feel like I talk flat boring American English in Seattle 😭

[@Danielle-nz9tn]

I NEVER used to think people from Seattle had an accent (I was born and raised in Washington state) until I’d lived in NYC for over a decade. Now I can always tell when someone is from Washington. It’s a very familiar way of speaking, and I would say I probably now pronounce some of the words in the above video the “Seattle” way about 40% of the time and the more standard way the other about 60% of the time. You can’t hear the difference of the “Seattle accent” until you have been immersed for a substantive period of time among people who don’t have it.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

It's debatable as to whether Seattle has one yet or not. It's a much newer city and has much more turnover than you'd see in most other parts of the country. It's not unusual for people born here to retain accents that aren't at all from here. I personally speak more or less the same way that my cousins do in the midwest with the biggest differences being the specific words that we use here. I've never once heard somebody here refer to a couch as a davenport for example. Rick Steves is from near Seattle, but he speaks with what is essentially a Minnesotan accent. And I've got friends that were also born just outside the city limits that can't hear all the vowels properly because he's got a different accent.

[@landofthesilverpath5823]

What annoys me about ppl on the East coast is that they add the vowel I to their glottal t's. People call it dropping the t. But it's actually adding in an i. So,.written on the west coast is pronounced something like wri'en- with dropping intonation. But ppl on the eastern seaboard pronounced it wr'in. With an emphasis on the i.

[@DebraB406]

@@SmallSpoonBrigade I'm originally from Washington State and we always called a couch a davenport or a daveno.

[@sean2797]

When in 1943?! Born and raised in numerous parts of Washington state, ive never heard anyone refer to a couch and/or a loveseat as a Davenport. Unless you're from the east coast, ijk ​@DebraB406

[@Transplanted1]

Well if you live in NY, it would indeed to easy to hear other regional accents, NY’s is really strong.

[@brooke_reiverrose2949]

I’m from the PNW, lived in Scotland for a year. A little neighbor boy there said he liked my accent. I told him I also liked his! He looked sooo confused trying to work out how he had an accent 😂

[@loveBronist]

I live in seattle myself. A friend of mine from michigan said that we tend to mumble a lot.

[@sammi9904]

My friend said that too!

[@sophiayamagughi]

Really? Hm.. well I do that.. a lot

[@yourexcellency5862]

That's true at the start of the video. ★ ☆ ★

[@mrengulfeddirector]

wearemumblersyeah

[@meerkat8769]

danlyfe doesn’t everyone?

[@OKletsgetitPodcast]

Because in Seattle we are modest talkers. Kind of not really tryna pronounce the words thoroughly but we get to the point

[@randomelite4562]

Red Divinity Uhhh when in November? Because still hasn’t happened

[@psychojenny774]

Omg so true

[@Kingofspaids]

You sound just like people from Vancouver

[@minibagels]

I use a lot of slang in my everyday life, such as, but not limited to, “kinna” (kind of), “duh” ”tuh” (to), “uh” (of), “wanna”, (want to), and “cod” (caught). A lot of times, I will replace T sounds with D sounds, or P’s with B’s, to lighten up my speech and allow it to flow easier. I seem to cut out the maximum amount of letters and syllables in my sentences, so they are recognisable, but have many less consonants. I figure that might be a Seattle thing, but maybe just a me thing.

[@shan8130]

I’ve said we’re very “efficient” speakers.

[@newdamage5945]

Kurt Cobain was from 2 hours outside Seattle and he had a strong accent to my Northeastern ears. Similar to what I'd call a West Coast accent. The guitarist from Pearl Jam, Stone Gossard does too.

[@nanarobin1]

Yes, exactly! I think we have a West Coast accent as I never notice an accent with my Oregon-California friends.

[@deanfirnatine7814]

Portland and Seattle people sound differently than rural NW people do as the linguist alluded to at the end

[@mousethatroared1213]

Kurt grew up in Aberdeen; my family's from all the Penninsula, and I've noticed I can tell when someone is from there when they talk.

[@ultrateamxz8121]

I was thinking about one of Kurt Cobain’s interviews and that’s why I came to this video

[@jasonpegram2114]

everybody has an accent

[@SomeGuyWhoPlaysGames333]

What they probably mean is their own accent. Not the general American accent.

[@derlinclaire1778]

That,s true.Just depends on what part of the US you,re from,and perhaps even partially on your ancestry,friends.

[@shaggybreeks]

Where you spent your first few years of schooling is the most important factor.

[@kmca1495]

Jason Pegram not all have the same

[@timothytheron865]

Everybody has an accent! The only people with a "general American accent" are radio and TV announcers, and they train themselves to talk that way.

[@polydipsiac]

The lady in the tree is swaggin over everyone else.

[@politure]

holy shit lol

[@GoBIGclan]

How did she get up there?

[@dirtyface21]

Shhhwaggin***

[@rolandarii3640]

smh people aren't supposed to climb on those trees on campus.. I mean, this video was 7 years ago. but the last couple years, they've put up signs telling visitors not to climb the trees.

[@emeraldcrusade5016]

*On the tree

[@OhHeyItsRae.]

Everyone pronounces "both" as "bolth" and ever since an out of state friend mentioned it, I can't unhear it.

[@blifx]

milk and melk

[@N8R_Quizzie]

​@@blifxhate the melk, beg, and pellow people makes me sick. I'll keep a note about the bolth theory I've never noticed it myself.

[@leslielearnorth]

Now THIS makes sense

[@RikerRocketMan]

@@N8R_QuizzieI think he’s 100% right, my family and I all say bolth lol (Born and raised near Seattle).

[@gabrieljohnson4213]

Goddammit you got me

[@ofadetergentsud]

I live in Seattle but came here from Florida. North Westerners sound Canadian to me.

[@gabrielmckinney690]

What Florida and Louisiana got the most illiterate accent In the country even nyc speak proper English compared to the south

[@BlGGESTBROTHER]

@@gabrielmckinney690 Shut your stupid ass up.

[@ofadetergentsud]

@@gabrielmckinney690 What language are you speaking? You should be embarrassed about now. XD

[@adamwatson7662]

You obviously haven't heard a Canadian accent. haha I'm from Washington State and I can sniff out a Canadian within the first sentence.

[@TheKennethECarper]

@@adamwatson7662 For sure. Pacific Northwest Canadians sound very distinct from folks who hail from Washington and Oregon. I'm "soar-ry" if they can't hear the difference but there is one. ;)

[@msloveyduck]

This is great! I just spent the last twenty minutes pausing and repeating words and saying them myself. I live in Oregon, and we sound pretty much like that too, from what I can tell. I definitely say "beg." And the "egg" thing had me cracking up! I had no idea we said it weird!! I have to force myself to say "agg" the way she did. I'm going to watch again, this is so entertaining :D "eyg, beg, cot, don!"

[@Woolykittyhaven]

Cre_say_wat im in Oregon too and I agree. It’s the same.

[@michelleb7399]

Also “let” we tend to pronounce like “layg”

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

That's what I 'd expect, the "Seattle" accent has only slight differences between what you'd hear up and down the Coast and into the mountain states and midwest. I do think that over time it probably will develop into a proper accent, but there hasn't been enough time without massive flows of people coming and going for one to really develop. Rick Steves grew up just a few miles from Seattle and he has a more or less proper Minnesotan Accent and even though my best friend and I grew up like 4 blocks apart, our accents don't really match that well. My parents are from the midwest and his are from the East Coast. You wouldn't really know it without paying very careful attention to specific words though.

[@jphiled6554]

I work in a large company here in Seattle (born and raised in Seattle), but most of the people I work with are out of state. When I talk, they tell me I often sound Canadian from their perspective.

[@DebraB406]

I'm from eastern Washington and when I moved to California, people thought I was from Canada by the way I spoke.

[@musicalmichael99]

This is really interesting! I have to say that as someone from NY, Seattle seems to have a much more subtle accent than other places. It's definitely a lot closer to the proper way to speak, especially compared to new york/new jersey where we say things like "tawk" (talk), "wawk" (walk), "cawfee" (coffee), etc. It's funny because with words like "don" and "dawn", "cot" and "caught" - there's a huge difference between the two in NY. We say "cot" exactly how it is spelled, and "caught" like "cawt".

[@deanfirnatine7814]

You want odd accent talk to Boston area people, wow!

[@vaderentertainment8879]

Interesting

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Sort of, there hasn't been long enough for a real accent to develop the way it has in NY. The city itself is not that old and there's a ton of people coming and going with accents from other parts of the country, and world. I've taught ESL and honestly, the Seattle accent is about as close as you're likely to get to a completely standard accent as you're going to find in the real world. I do think that over time there will be one that develops, but you'd be hard pressed to identify somebody from Seattle versus Oregon, California, Idaho or most of the West Coast based purely on accent. What's more, it does have a ton in common with the standard American English of the midwest as well. The surest ways of knowing have more to do with a checklist of words that are used in one way here, but not necessarily elsewhere. You'll never hear "The 5" spoken by somebody who grew up in Seattle, that's what Californians say. Likewise, davenport is basically not even a recognized word here and I've never heard anybody say "catty corner" here. It's basically always "kitty corner" if you're going the colloquial route.

[@ПАУК-о2я]

@@deanfirnatine7814 odd, but beatiful. Both, the Boston and New York areas accents

[@kyb3rcrystals]

@@SmallSpoonBrigadewhat’s “the 5”?

[@solarpixiejournals]

When I first moved to Olympia, WA, the first time I went grocery shopping I was asked if I want a bag. I replied what? and the guy said "do you want a bag for your food" but I heard "beg" and I said "no I want to pay for it."

[@behemothsuperknife]

I went to Seattle a couple of months ago. Didn't notice a accent. Bit I will say this. Seattle is all that and a beg of chips.

[@BlGGESTBROTHER]

The beg/bag thing is definitely true. I always get shit for that when I'm out of state. Glad you enjoyed Seattle!

[@MollyFC]

@@BlGGESTBROTHER I make people laugh when I say "I drive a weygon!" (wagon)

[@Kingofspaids]

@@BlGGESTBROTHER I'm from Vancouver Canada, everyone here says it like beg, we probably influence eachother

[@Ballstothewalls69]

@@BlGGESTBROTHERlived in Seattle metro and have only heard “beg “ or any of these other pronunciations only a handful of times. When I have heard it I always fhought it was weird and kinda annoying

[@leslaychandel8334]

I'm from New England, I moved to Olympia Washington and I hear the accent when people say bag all the time. At the supermarket it's always like, "Do you need a beg?" Aside from that there isn't much of an accent so it always comes as a surprise to me. But hey, you have a regional accent, embrace it, be proud of your heritage and the things that make your home different from the rest of the country.

[@blakeyswagswag]

"listen to how people from ohio say it" don DAWN sounds the same she just said it louder

[@BigSirZebras]

it is because they are the same in your accent. it makes it very difficult to hear. it is like how Spanish speakers think that "ship" and "sheep" sound identical.

[@blarbkanopcious4243]

@@BigSirZebras Okay but what was the difference? The length?

[@BigSirZebras]

@@blarbkanopcious4243 the quality sounds different to me but Dawn might also be slightly longer.

[@N8R_Quizzie]

That's what I'm saying

[@Ephesians5-14]

My sister in law is born and raised in Everett and she *for sure* has an accent. It's kinda like PNW hood. I noticed it's similar to how Indigenous people of the PNW and Canada sound. I came here looking for a description of their accent because I heard it on an episode of My 600 Lb Life, someone had a very strong Washington state accent. I would love to know how this accent came to be. As a southerner myself, it's clear how the Appalachian region acquired its distinctive twang. Everyone has an accent, for sure.

[@tbrunswick1]

My 90+ year old aunt and I both participated in a UW study on Seattle accents. We are both Seattle born and bred!

[@No_nosay]

Lol I'm a total Seattle native transplanted in New York and every now an then people will be like "where u from u have an accent" lol I never thot so until this-in pretty sure I say aygs not eggs lol

[@acionnaanassa4042]

V Lo don’t worry, egg should not rhyme with peg. Middle English (superseding earlier ey, from Old English ǣg ): from Old Norse.

[@litlnemo]

That "ǣg" was not pronounced "ayg." The ǣ there is actually more of the sound of "ah" as in "cat."

[@seanmcc09]

Acionna Anassa - hey Chaucer, we don’t speak Middle English anymore bro

[@robertsproull6750]

I'm from Texas and I say "ayg" along with the rest of my family. Transplant influence, maybe? I've honestly never thought of that as strange until now.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@seanmcc09 Middle English, pfft. Olde English or GTFO.

[@kbenton215]

Why is that lady randomly in a tree?

[@fisforfriday]

+Ken Benton HAHAHAH!! great question!

[@aren4319]

it's Seattle, just what we do :P

[@fisforfriday]

Alec Pacheco That is true, there are a lot of weird people in seattle..but i've noticed i was weird too. We fit in perfectly

[@SoIoCreep]

What animal do you know of that can walk upright and can be found in trees?

[@meghanng1290]

Those are the blossom trees on the University of Washington campus. Students do that sometimes!

[@victorialarsen6135]

"up there in the tree" okay then

[@regularlyirregular8876]

Rumor has it she's still up there theorizing vowels

[@leslielearnorth]

I’m picturing lonely island video

[@matturner6890]

Here in Vancouver, people say "VAYNG-coover" and then deny they said it. Also I'd be down for a supercut of rando's saying "ayg"

[@AugustBreak]

I was born in Seattle but mostly raised in texas and I learned very quickly that there is an accent. Even the most neutral southerners here comment on my accent.

[@mousethatroared1213]

Do they make you say *bag*? I live in Texas now, but from Seattle area, and had one guy ask me to say "bag" in my native accent, so he could hear if it was true that we say "baig."

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

You'd have an accent for the same reason that we in Seattle would consider those who live in Texas to have an accent. I think where there's a substantial amount of disagreement is whether or not Seattle specifically has an accent that differs enough from standard American English or the English spoken on the West Coast to qualify as an actual accent.

[@TheAndreluizcarneiro]

Most people who are born in Seattle become a grunge band singer.

[@acowname3822]

and died

[@LouisMenotti]

elninjalaranja Well that's not true is it.

[@TheAndreluizcarneiro]

Louis Caprani Yes, it is.

[@LouisMenotti]

Trust me.. most people born in Seattle do not become Grunge singers.

[@LouisMenotti]

elninjalaranja Or did you mean, most grunge singers come from Seattle? That'd be more plausible

[@dannymason7611]

I was once in Mexico and some guy asked me if I was from Vancouver B.C. I'm from Seattle but it was shocking to hear that he recognized my Pacific Northwest accent.

[@grasmereguy5116]

But wouldn't a Vancouver BC accent be a Pacific Southwest accent, as it's the southwestern part of Canada, unless he meant Vancouver, Washington?

[@nik4670]

@@grasmereguy5116 The PNW refers to the region in the whole North American continent, which includes Canada!

[@grasmereguy5116]

@@nik4670 It's still the Canadian Southwest.

[@nik4670]

@@grasmereguy5116 That is correct, but the term "Pacific Northwest" is used to describe the Cascadia region in the continent of North America. The definition of/what constitutes as "PNW" varies by person, but the most commonly accepted and utilized definition is the regions in which the Cascade Range runs (aka Cascadia). These regions include Vancouver B.C., Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. Vancouver B.C. is Southwest relative to its position in Canada, but it is Northwest relative to its position on the North American continent. Hope this helps!

[@grasmereguy5116]

@@nik4670 Point Barrow, AK is even more northwest on the American continent.

[@toddpeters4950]

Everyone has an accent...everyone. It's what makes language and linguistics such wonderful things.

[@nathanjamesbaker]

I've noticed a very slight accent in the way people in Washington say the word "and." It's impossible to write out in a KZbin comment, but it's a more drawn out way of saying the word that sounds something like "aehnd"

[@fruitshishkabob]

People from Washington seem to have trouble with the hard A sound

[@evahannibal641]

I feel called out lol

[@ohnvl]

Being a person from Washington State, I just noticed that

[@goatonram]

true, lol I'm going through all the comments and pronouncing everything.

[@alicia-b-mitchell]

ænd is more like it

[@310McQueen]

I'm gonna stretch and say the presence of upper-midwest like speech in the PNW dates back to the great depression or perhaps the second world war. The idea being that many people, as my ancestors have, relocated from the Dakotas and Minnesota, to places like Seattle and Portland for work.

[@JujuOkrr]

I definitely have the Seattle accent. Another that I've heard we Seattleites do is pluralize words that shouldn't be, like "Let's go to Nordstrom's," or "I'm grabbing lunch at Pike's Place" or "I need to stop into Bartell's real quick." Another is that we have a "creaky" way of speaking, more towards the end of a sentence, which I catch myself doing, especially when talking kind of quiet.

[@saidmoha7177]

Never noticed that until I read your comment, but it's very true now that I think of it

[@marcieann7702]

Ok, so I'm a born and raised Washingtonian, born in Tacoma. I honestly do not know what is wrong with you example sentences! Lmbo. Looks ok to me, enlighten me please!

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

First off it's mostly not locals saying Pike's Place, but the rest of it is the use of those are places that are named after actual people. I don't think we draw as much of a distinction as to when the actual founder dies or the company is sold that they might in other places. Pike Place is a separate issue as it wasn't named after anybody named Pike, it was named after the street Pike Place. Plus, it's just wrong to put the possessive on Pike anyways as I'm not even sure what a Place Market would be, perhaps some sort of real estate bazaar?

[@MikeS29]

That isn't pluralizing, it is possesive.

[@SCIFIVAMPIRE]

so true

[@3hited]

If anyone is wanting an update on this report. We do have more differences with other parts of the US not described here. One of the biggest things we do is we will sometimes drop Ts or 'soften' them into Ds, or we will remove Ds. So for example, you might hear "Seaddle or monidor" instead of "Seattle or monitor". An example but with completely dropping the T or D is "innerstate", instead of "interstate" for example. The reason why this might not have been brought up is because a lot of the western us has a similar accent. Which is attributed to people migrating west and accents mixing and converging to what places have to day. What the western part of the US is linguistically is roughly from Chicago down to western texas and then all the way across to the west coast. Now there are some areas in that huge region that will vary slightly but as whole we all speak very similarly, at least versus the east coast. The biggest difference in our language, just here in and around Seattle, though is our understanding and pronunciation of native american words and towns from this region. Think Yakima, Puyallup, or Spokane. Many people outside of this region will say something drastically different. But, a lot of linguists wont think of this as an accent. Also just one last thing! There's things being researched about there being a generation change in accents around here with a few words (vowels in those words). The key examples are "roof" and "root". I'm 25 and say the "oo" like the vowel sound in "two", but my dad who is 65 will sometimes say the "oo" sound like the vowel in "hut". This is language change and my dad will occasionally use the same pronunciation as me as well, but his pronunciation is dieing around here.

[@ordinarryalien]

I was exactly looking for a comment like this, thanks!

[@daphrose1280]

I know it's been two years since you posted this comment, but I just tried all these out with my husband (who grew up in CA), and you hit it all spot on, haha. I didn't even realize until now that I say "innerstate" instead of "interstate," but I always do! I also grew up in Sammamish, by Issaquah, Snoqualmie, Snohomish, etc. It's funny to me that most people need to think about how to pronounce those names! The other thing my husband makes fun of me for is the way I say "that." I kinda slam the t-h together (even stronger than a regular "th" sound) and have a very strong vowel pronunciation on the A. I don't know if that's a pacific northwest accent or something I've picked up from the various other places I've lived (CA, AZ, CO, etc.) as I've combined accents from different places. But anyway, thanks for your comment! It was insightful. :)

[@kyb3rcrystals]

i never even realized that it’s “interstate” instead of “innerstate” lol. i’m sure on some level i knew, but it just never clicked until i read this comment!

[@blarbkanopcious4243]

Changing Ts to Ds between vowels and dropping them after Ns is happening all across English-speaking North America.

[@LindaC613]

I was just talking to a lady in another state on the phone and she tried to pronounce Mukilteo, That was a tough one!

[@Swishy_Blue]

We drop the hard consonants in the middle of words. It's not 'Sea-aT-el', it's 'Sea-addle'.

[@timothytheron865]

Everybody has an accent! The only people with a "general American accent" are radio and TV announcers, and they train themselves to talk that way.

[@blackman9008]

white seattle accent is minnesota crossed with La surfer, black seattle is hood oakland crossed with valley girl speach.

[@SlimeSeason4]

"Bayg" is very common in wisconsin

[@wavamy]

Oh my goodness!!! As a 5th or 6th generation Seattle-ite I've had this SAME CONVERSATION with friends and family!!!! For us! It's mostly the egg/bag debate but there are a few others as well. I remember my grandpa using a few Chinook Jargon words when I was little as well, especially skookum, but also a few others. He was born in Seattle in 1909 and raised in Seattle and the Puget Sound. Sometimes people from other areas ask me if I'm Canadian which to my ear sounds completely different from Washingtonian. Fascinating. I hope to hear more about this research.

[@youtubecensors5419]

As a native who spent most of my life on the East Coast, the one word everyone pointed out I said wrong was "pillow". To this day I pronounce it "pellow". I also say "bagel" wrong, but only because we say it too fast, East Coasters say it a tad slower. NYers often make fun of how I say it, even though I've lived there longer than most.

[@rickomatic2012]

Since I moved here as a kid in the early 1960's from NJ, I noticed that many here pronounce words ending in ing as een. Like, "we're goeen to the mall". Or, I'll be comeen over to see you later.

[@bacca1990]

OK, So living in Washington since I was born (i'm almost 28 btw), I had never even heard of Warshington until I went to college in the mid-west and I was incredulous! I thought people were messing with me. Apparently its pronounced that way a lot in the mid-west for both Washington State and DC, but I could be wrong and only in the area my college was in. At least on the western side of Washington, I have not heard a native washingtonian use warshington. Also, i say ayg/ehg (like canadian "eh", hard to get this sound across through words) and baag (long "a", like a scared "Ahhh!" sound). Honestly, I feel like our accent is most similar to Hollywood movie generic accents.

[@Thinking.Of.Some.Handle]

My grandmother born and lived all her life in WA, said Warshington and warsh. We don't know where she picked it up. Her parents were from here also I believe. We will never know 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@oceans.and.deserts]

I was born and raised in Seattle. I had a friend decades ago from Tri-Cities (Eastern WA). He said Warshington!

[@llm5726]

My mom, born in Bozeman but raised in Spokane, says warsh. No one else in the family does, so it’s hard to figure out where she picked up the r.

[@taylerthompson7559]

im from victoria bc canada and I think we speak the same way as people in seattle, vancouver, and other pnw towns

Except for that Canadian thing of calling a house a hoose. I think Canadian accents sound like West coast English in the US, except for a little influence from Scotland.

[@jimtalbott2894]

@ I talked to a l of people in Vancouver B.C. and noticed they speak with an English accent. I'am from Lynnwood Wa.

[@Ryguy-lg2xz]

Tayler Thompson if I could describe your accent if anything it’s probably a bit raspy but nothing else beyond that

[@nicholascangemi6165]

From what I've noticed, Canadian English from the Vancouver area is mostly similar, but there are some differences. My friend from up there says pass-ta instead of paw-sta, and sore-y instead of saw-ry.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Mostly, although when I"m in Victoria, I definitely hear more people using that rising o sound that isn't usually used in Washington.

[@PJ_Bottoms]

Grew up in washington state, and I noticed myself what sounds like the same word for cot, and caught. Don and dawn. And I also think we don't have a unique accent, but the fact we don't have a unique sounding accent is in its own a unique accent.

[@Matty002]

over 10 years later and we have even more evidence of the PNW accent developing. but they fail to mention 2 big things: 1. usually the speakers of new accents dont perceive the accent, because the development is very gradual, like over multiple generations. but outsiders can hear it pretty easily 2. people with vowel mergers as a rule cant hear the difference when unmerged speakers make a distinction. so to us it just sounds like she says 'caught' louder but technically for her she used a different vowel than 'cot'. the exception is when the distinction is exaggerated or one of the vowels sounds made in the distinction maps onto a different vowel in a merged speaker eg: think how nyc or british accents say 'thought', which for merged speakers, the vowel maps with our 'force' vowel, so you can hear the difference because we still have that 'o' vowel in our system

[@leospaceman]

I grew up in Seattle and recently moved to Spokane. People ask me where I’m from all the time because I “sound like I’m from the mid west”

[@DebraB406]

That's interesting because I was born and raised in Spokane and people around me always talked like that. Then when I moved to California, they ask me if I am from the midwest or Canada.

[@radwayb]

Excellent glad I found this I've always noticed a little accent from people from the West Coast this just proves it!

[@terwilligerjenkins9446]

i noticed the "bayg" (bag) and "ayg" (egg) right away when i moved there.. and also "warshington" instead of washington.. but that was almost always the old folks. no big deal. im from florida.. and i was just relieved to finally be surrounded by people who could fucking spell, and who had more to talk about other than nascar and pickup trucks. i love seattle. best city in the country..and ive travelled a LOT. cant wait to get back.... and eat all of your ranier cherries.

[@janikb3538]

I used to live in florida and moved to Washington years ago I swear to god I hate it here....I wake every morning depressed

[@terwilligerjenkins9446]

it's not everyone's cup of tea.. that's for sure. most people from seattle would look at me as though i was insane when i tell them i moved there from florida.. im still here in fl.. and im looking forward to this summer for the beaches, but that's really all i enjoy here. the beach gets old after a few months, and im always ready for an overcast day. spring and summer are excellent in washington.. and they go away before i get sick of them.

[@Tommy206]

I just moved from Seattle to Florida and I see the difference

[@dwaynepitt5694]

Seattle is the best city in the northwest. Miami is best in southeast. Anyways Finally leaving after being in seattle for 18days. never coming back. Didnt realize it was so lgbt until you see them at all the stores, bars etc. Great public transit though.

[@terwilligerjenkins9446]

Dwayne Pitt yeah... that kind of annoys after a while. but still, they gentrified the shit out of it since i last lived there. i just got back from my seattle vacation, and i have to say... i LOVE gentrification.

[@rmartin7558]

Simple explanation, it's the proximity to Canada. It's the same here in southeast Michigan.

[@zeriel9148]

If you look up the migration patterns of Washington in particular it's not surprising at all that there would be a Midwest pronounciation coming through. The first wave was caucasians from the Midwest--after that came blacks in the 1930s/1940s, and of course Asians. I suppose the real question is how it will change in future, but the Scandinavian/German/Mid-West character of early Washington is pretty well known.

[@Ephesians5-14]

Fascinating! Yes I hear a lot of overlap with the accent of Wisconsin

[@richobrien3417]

My wife was across the world in Sweden when a total stranger asked: "Are you from Seattle." "Yes, how did you know?" my wife asked. "I could tell by your accent" said the stranger. That was the first we knew that there was a Seattle accent. To us our American English sounds just the same as the people we hear on Television. Seattle is about 130 miles from the Canadia border. 50 years ago, if you crossed into Canada, Canadians had their own accent. Today the Canadian accent is gone. Or did Canadians in British Columbia adopt the Seattle accent? Greys Anatomy is made in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Seattle is the supposed setting for Greys Anatomy. There you are, the Seattle accent.

[@emilyaisling233]

From an unbiased non-American, I can 100% hear a difference from "general American"

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

I don't think there's much question about that, all regions are going to vary a bit from the "general American" accent. It's the same as the UK where hardly anybody speaks with a proper received pronunciation unless they're doing it on purpose. The US used to have a Mid-Atlantic accent that was for the same basic use, but it more or less died out quite a few decades ago and mostly only exists in old movies. The more interesting question is whether Seattle has an accent that differs enough from what's spoken along the coast or in the Midwest to justify it being recognized as it's own thing.

[@joshstarkey8883]

​@@SmallSpoonBrigadeI'm from the Seattle area and it's often very obvious to me when someone is from the midwest or east coast. They have a bunch of different vowels from us. We don't really have that "caught" vowel, but for them it can show up even in words like on and off. More subtle but even more commonly I hear a difference in how easterners pronounce the vowel in words like car, cat, bat, etc. They'll pronounce it a lot more nasal. Also we pronounce it as one smooth "ah" vowel but they'll often slightly turn it into a glide. For example "car" will sound a little like "kyar." I'm not completely sure which coast you meant, or both, but there's also differences between Seattle and other parts of the West coast.

[@osirissalgado6689]

I'm Hispanic and I'm moving there to start the "one,Juan" pronunciation.

[@BigMac-tc9em]

I support you bud

[@sammi9904]

I'm from Olympia but I don't say egg or bag like that. Although I notice when I say "cot" and "caught" and "don" and "dawn" I say it exactly the same. I live in Costa Rica now and a lot of Costa Ricans tell me it's easier to understand my accent than a Southern accent and mine is more neutral although I mumble alot. Whatever it is, I'm happy we don't say "ya'll"

[@daisybtoes]

I come from New Orleans originally, and "y'all" (it's one syllable. I hate people who say "Yew All". Why bother contracting it). 26 years away from home, and we still use that word. It's part of your blood, man, and I don't know who started it, but you hear it everywhere from Texas across to Florida, and halfway up the east coast. However, a New Orleans accent really doesn't sound Southern, so forget what you hear in the movies.

[@davids7009]

I first realized this when listening to old 90s grunge music and realized that "something was wrong" with how Bush sang. Then found out they were from England. 😂 I think they were trying to copy how people sang in Seattle but wound up sounding like they were from Arizona or Cali or something. Idk. Go back and have a second listen to their tracks and then go back and listen to Nirvana, Alice in Chains, etc. It's actually kinda funny.

[@boootybounce420]

why the hell is she in a tree

[@Ernestwhoosh]

*on* a tree

[@andrewforrest991]

I dunno, but based on her speech impediment I don't know if she's the best person to ask about pronunciation.

[@cleanwaternasenyiuganda8124]

She's a tree hugger 😁

[@seanmcc09]

Seattle natives have been driven from their homes by the real estate price increases

[@raelockletree3858]

Why wouldn't she be?

[@stephanieklemetsrud6781]

I was born and raised in Seattle. I currently live in Arizona. I have never heard anyone say I have an accent. I live with an African American woman. She is the first person, in my 67 years, who has ever said I speak funny. She dies when I say bag! She laughs so hard. I have never heard anyone say that I say any words oddly. She says she has never heard anyone pronounce ‘bag’ the way I do. Now I know!

[@hobojoe5697]

I didn't know we have one ...

[@Whitemonkey510]

tung nguyen There's no such thing as not having an accent.

[@michaelmapes4119]

Yah sure yah bet ya!

[@1986BNick]

I found out when I visited the Southwest. I thought people in Albuquerque were just messin around with me, but damn, I didn't know we had certain accents. Ahh so what? At least we have legal pot. That's whats up.

[@deltawave4669]

Same

[@someguyfromarcticfreezer6854]

We get off your agge from your beg and ride/write it don.

[@woahdudeitsme9742]

I say "rate" when I mean "right there" but right when I mean the direction or that you are right. From around the Seattle area and I catch this with others all the time.

[@dennisunderwood8481]

That's better than Texas were they say ""rat there"

[@wheelmanstan]

I can't describe the accent but I tend to notice when an actor is from there. I can't explain it, kinda like they overpronounce words...a very clear sound though.

[@aderyn7600]

I could tell a movie that took place in Washington wasn't filmed there because they called the pronounced the made up town name like "haymish" instead of "hamish" or "hahmish"

[@OneLifeZ4]

I grew up in Seattle and we have our own accents and I'm proud to be part of Seattle accents

[@holidog1037]

I grew up in Seattle too

[@OneLifeZ4]

+GG_wolflover 434 really, what city you grew up in? I grew up on rainier valley.

[@meganlandis5361]

grew up in tacoma! i thought the "accent" was from my older sister who was Canadian, maybe it is the Seattle accent..

[@OneLifeZ4]

@@meganlandis5361 Seattle and Canadian we have almost about the same accent lol

[@meganlandis5361]

@@OneLifeZ4 you mean "aboot" the same

[@philipblades9343]

the Vancouver accent is very similiar i grew up there

[@TheGreatMunky]

I have a friend who is from Oregon who pronounces "bag" as "beg", so I wouldn't call it a Seattle accent. I honestly don't remember hearing people in Seattle pronounce it that way when I lived there.

[@kr7kr]

California (Valley) is an Okie accent filtered through the 60s. The contemporary Seattle accent is a collision between Valley and Scandinavian English by way of the Midwest.

[@retrovelcro]

This explains the Midwest tinge to the Washington accent, and why I sound like a cowboy when I get to talking to other people born and bred in the region I'm from (North-Central California).

[@DebraB406]

That makes a lot of sense. I'm from eastern Washington, born to parents from both Dakotas and one parent being of Scandinavian blood. There must have been a lot of people with similar backgrounds in my area growing up because we all tended to speak that same way, such as bayg and ayg.

[@richlisola1]

Everywhere has an accent. If you don’t think so then you don’t know

[@maychenj2235]

I moved here 8 years ago, and it's everything with an "ag," they say a long A. "Dray-gon" vs dragon, "look at that dog waig his tail" "salute the flaig" "wear a name taig." It sounds hick, ha ha.

[@DeafeningCha]

I've lived here my whole life, and almost no one around here speaks that way. Long A sound seems midwestern to me.

[@kennylee6499]

@@DeafeningCha same. no one says "dray-gon"

[@MollyFC]

@@kennylee6499 I say it like "drey-gen"

[@UndergroundPrimate]

Lived in Northern California for 62yrs, then moved to NW Washington 5yrs ago. Haven`t noticed any accent change but people talk calmer(?) up here. Both places are on the West Coast along with Hollywood, which moderates American English for the World, in a way, so it`s really hard for me to delineate between the two.

[@evrydae]

You only gain the accent if you get into the tree. True Northwesterner there.

[@SaidiLouise]

From SW Washington. Lived a decade in the midwest, university town. People from all over the country came there for school. I have a tendency to pick up the accent of others. At some point, my voice had multiple personalities.

[@saidmoha7177]

Lol, same except I'm from Seattle itself and I've picked up a bit of a Kenyan accent from staying there for a few years during my high school years.

[@ninabielawski1277]

The person from Ohio said "don" and "dawn" the same way, just saying "dawn" louder and longer lol.

[@millionmarbles5612]

I’m from seattle and my friends out of state call me out on the way I say “roof”. Alot of us in Seattle pronounce it more like “ruff”

[@DebraB406]

I'm from eastern Washington and I say it similar like that too. We always pronounce root beer that way, too.

[@shunkela]

There is a large population in Seattle that moved here from the Midwest a generation or two, or more?, ago. Ballard is definitely that way. My paternal grandparents moved to Seattle from Minnesota after coming to the world's Fair in the 50s (?). They are from the younger side of the silent generation, so ten to twenty years older than most baby boomers. their kids right now are between 60 and 50

[@shunkela]

they say 'warshington'. and I definitely say eyg or ayg, lol.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Yes and then in the late '80s and into the '90s there were a bunch of Californians that moved up here. I do think that an accent won't develop unless there's something to stop the constant churn of people immigrating and emigrating from the city. It takes time for people to agree as to what the proper pronunciation of things should be and in the absence of that people will tend to stick to what they know or what they see on the TV.

[@wildlyunrulyadventures3942]

As a native Washingtonian I never knew of this accent until I travelled outside the 48. Everywhere I have visited I've been asked by the locals if I was Canadian. 🍁❤

[@shrek6402]

I live in washington I guess a washington accent is saying "kittin" instead of "kitten" and Mountin instead of "mountain" you would prolly say it like that if you live here

[@victorunger]

I've lived in central wash my whole life and apparently I have a Seattle accent. It's a PNW accent from what I've seen. It's a lazy way to speak.

[@Leonaati]

Yeah we drop t's in the middle of words XD like kihin instead of kitten mounhin instead of mountain

[@rolyatrocket4294]

Does anywhere said kitten? I'm all the way over by PA and we say kittin here.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@rolyatrocket4294 Only people that over enunciate would. Most of the things that the OP listed are ways of reducing vowels which happens in most, if not all, American English accents.

[@Ballstothewalls69]

@@SmallSpoonBrigadethat’s what I’ve always thought when I see anyone bringing up these thing about this topic. I feel like like the only people who pronounce there t’s like that are British people.

[@GaryR55]

When I came to Seattle in 2009, one thing I noticed was a lot of people, when saying "Thank you" it sounds like "Thank yo."

[@dennismartinez6660]

Anyone here in 2017? Time flies lol

[@ShaddySoldier]

Moving up to seattle from the deep south as a child helped me learn the accent fast and i can swap between the both. Its certanly a funny one especially when it comes back out now that i live on the east coast again.

[@NirvanaPUNK12]

Seattle has an accent

[@Otani_Garage]

I’m from California and lived in Bellingham for a while. At one point I said the word “tour” and someone did not understand me. They explained to me that in the northwest “tour” rhymes with “sewer” and not “four”. The egg thing is pretty noticeable in some people though

[@chychy7559]

i am from Seattle and sometimes i catch myself saying stuff like that but at the same time some of the things are the same pronunciation as other places.

[@engelhobbs4735]

I never realized I said things like that! Oh my gosh, I DO have a Seattle accent!! Ish.

[@hotelandelevator1236]

People in Florida think theres no accent but I moved from Florida to Colorado, another state which thinks it doesnt have a accent but I noticed the accent the minute I moved here.

[@surferdude7569]

if you come from another state an you move to Minnesota .they say you speak with a hollywood accent and you talk really fast. couse they speak slow in minnesota

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

That makes sense as there isn't much difference up and down the coast. It's also why people would think that there isn't a specific accent. We speak mostly like they do in the movies and in the news. And there's so many minor disagreements about how exactly words should be pronounced that it would be tough to define it more specifically to the area.

[@Scorch1028]

The bag/beg thing is definitely prevalent in the Seattle metro area. I know a guy from Kirkland, Washington who calls a bag a “beg”. 😆

[@strongpeer]

Yes, there are accents throughout Seattle. North End has its own, South End has its own, etc. it’s more of a dialect versus an accent. If you grew up on The Hill, you’re going to sound different than someone who grew up in West Seattle.

[@Ephesians5-14]

Accents are simply the manifestation of a dialect 🙏

[@j.e.graham401]

Born and raised in Seattle. In the fall of '63, I attended CWSC in Ellensburg, Washington. Being a drama student, I tried out for the lead in Antigone and was told I could understudy the part, but that I had too much accent, and was referred to a speech therapist !

[@peytonrivera9385]

A lot of Canadian in near Toronto pronounce egg and bag the same way as in Seattle

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

There was another merger that didn't come up in the video. In British English you often hear the Mary, merry and marry with 3 distinct vowel sounds in the middle. In much of North America you'll only hear one word if you repeat those in sequence you wouldn't know which is which. So, the e sound becoming a long a sound isn't particulalry surprising as e is in the middle of the other two.

[@PunchBuggyDreams]

Yes that's true. I lived in the Toronto area all my life and heard that. But the trend is changing where the younger generations sounding more like mainstream American.

[@caspertoo]

Sadly, Zayda Buddy's closed permanently. Another victim of Covid and the harsh business restrictions surrounding it.

[@Doommaster1994]

Yes, it has been proven that there is indeed a Seattle accent. Just listen to Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, and Chris Cornell for example. Great bands though.

[@BigMac-tc9em]

Eddie Vedder wasn't born in Washington, Kurt Cobain was born in Aberdeen, Chris "Vocal BADASS" Cornell however was born in Seattle 👍

[@swampshack1018]

@@BigMac-tc9em just about to comment this

[@mickroyster6442]

Meh Eddie Vedder is from California that’s just how they all sing but yeah Kurt Cobain had an Americanized Irish twang of sorts

[@deanfirnatine7814]

Cobain is from the rural NW, they typically do not share some of the linguistic oddities of Seattle and Portland although he lived there long enough to pick it up

[@derrick7648]

That’s just called lack of enunciation due to heroin

[@PredMatic]

I am from the northwest . I travel a lot through the south and south east. People often mistake me for Canadian. If I am away in the south for long enough I can talk to friends in the NW and definitely hear their accents and if course I always accidentally pick up some southern while I am away as well.

[@Chu8rock]

The whole of the Pacific Northwest has its own accent, for some reason we like to say "would of" instead of "would've".

[@Chu8rock]

@daAnder71 Auto correct probably screwed me over and I most likely didn't proofread. This is also a 2 year old comment, are you really that petty?

[@danicaoslund6083]

Wait...is there supposed to be a difference?

[@addisonscott6170]

@@danicaoslund6083 would've is a contraction of would have. Would of is grammatically incorrect. Idk what his originally comment was about or that response, but there you go.

[@TheKennethECarper]

I hate to admit it but you're right. I'm from Portland and had to beat the "would ofs" and "could ofs" out of me in order to pronounce it properly. It takes all the restraint I have in the world not to correct my family members when we're speaking. I just don't want to be a pronunciation Nazi. ;)

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@danicaoslund6083 When spoken the former is over enunciated and the latter is more or less normally enunciated. Some dialects vary from others mainly in enunciation and word choice which can make it hard to say that it's a different accent rather than full on dialect.

[@chefmike4414]

I'm born and raised in Washington. I shorten a few words and don't know why. I say "posta" instead of "supposed to", and "member" instead of "remember". Strange but it's probably just me. My dad was from Boston and his accent was very typical my grandparents were from Wisconsin. I wonder if this had any effect.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Before I had speech therapy as a child, I had this hard to explain accent that was sort of half-Germanish. The only real explanation is that the sounds I wasn't making were mostly being substituted wit ones that were asier to say.

[@danicaoslund6083]

Lived here my whole life, and my 2 cents is we’re lazy speakers. T at the end of a word doesn’t exist, and egg is “aygg” because it’s easier to say. But I guess in that sense I would say “bayg” but I say bahg... hm

[@eternalmiasma5586]

“We can only hope this is their only agreement” bro is cursing them

[@joejackson9546]

I'm noticing people in Seattle saying 'shore' for the word 'sure'

[@islandbirdw]

I live close to the BC border so of course I’ve picked up some of the Canadian west coastal words and phrases. Like “eh” and “about”!

[@edwardmiessner6502]

That woman from Ohio at 3:47 pronounced Don and Dawn exactly the same.

[@TheKennethECarper]

I don't get it. To my ears there's no distinction between Don and Dawn. Even the video doesn't make it clear. How the fuck are you supposed to pronounce them?

[@honesty_-no9he]

@@TheKennethECarper They are totally different. Don is like One. Dawn is like Fawn.

[@edwardmiessner6502]

@@TheKennethECarper Have you ever been to the New York tri-state area? The native born locals will pronounce them radically different! Don is "daahn" and Dawn is "dooawn" there especially out on Long Island.

[@corrlee]

I grew up with a South Seattle accent..sounds a lot like any other hood accent on the west coast but the N.Seattle Fremont Ballard Queen Anne accent is distinctive..I can hear it and pick it out from anywhere lol

[@FreezerSpaces]

Every type of English has an 'accent' - there is no such thing as 'perfect' English. If they gave the linguist they interviewed more than twenty seconds or air-time that would've been explained. Man, science reporting in general is terrible in the media, but linguistics in particular seems to get the feces-smeared end of the media-reporting stick.

[@bob_bobsen]

Fought Space well there’s spoken English which I guess is perfect

[@rolyatrocket4294]

Uh, when asked if Seattle has an accent she said "maybe" and made implications about some words drifting from dictionary pronunciation. If she was going to say what you said she'd just say yes there is... I mean agree with you, but that linguist wasn't saying what you said and wasn't going to

[@bobalooloo02]

accents aren't exclusive to English

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@rolyatrocket4294 Precisely, that's the question. Is the English spoken in Seattle different enough from a broader standard to justify being split off and it's a common debate in most fields between the splitters and the groupers as to where the line should be.

[@Endwidgeon]

how did i never notice that i say bag and egg differently until now-

[@beyou997]

I’m from Washington , now living in Florida. I can tell you that people notice that I say things a bit different and point it out to me lol I have a mix of the two accents

[@JK360noscope]

So it's like a banjo mixed with the sounds of I-5?

[@matthewdaniels2839]

Every Washingtonian knows an old guy that pronounces is “Worshington”