My wife and I took about 6 months last year to explore the US. We stayed in Airbnbs generally in poorer parts of town because that was what we could afford. We passed through 40-something states and one of the things I was most disappointed in was the lack of accents.
Pretty much no young people spoke with the accents I was expecting in a particular area, everyone sounded a lot like us (West Coast).
We did hear more Texan accents in 2 days in Dallas than in a month in Austin, which I suppose is to be expected.
New Orleans was delightful when it came to accents, as were a few other cities in the South.
In most places though, we only heard very occasional local accents and they tended to be possessed by older people.
I chalked it up to people just gradually moving toward a Hollywood type of accent. I also noticed that if we spent very long in one place, my accent would shift slightly toward whatever was local, so I'm wondering if the locals, upon discovering we were from the West Coast would do the same thing and let their accent drift closer to ours.
In any case, I was always listening for accents and even though I'd never really thought about it, it was disappointing to realize that a lot of accents are probably disappearing.
Pretty much no young people spoke with the accents I was expecting in a particular area, everyone sounded a lot like us (West Coast).
We did hear more Texan accents in 2 days in Dallas than in a month in Austin, which I suppose is to be expected.
New Orleans was delightful when it came to accents, as were a few other cities in the South.
In most places though, we only heard very occasional local accents and they tended to be possessed by older people.
I chalked it up to people just gradually moving toward a Hollywood type of accent. I also noticed that if we spent very long in one place, my accent would shift slightly toward whatever was local, so I'm wondering if the locals, upon discovering we were from the West Coast would do the same thing and let their accent drift closer to ours.
In any case, I was always listening for accents and even though I'd never really thought about it, it was disappointing to realize that a lot of accents are probably disappearing.