I wonder sometimes what a California accent sounds like. Does someone from Scotland know they have an accent? It's great fun to try to figure out where someone is from by the way they talk.

I remember Jonathan (follow The Tenor link) telling a story about the first time he heard himself give a radio interview. He turned it off because he realized that he sounded like a hick. Then he found out that the girls thought it was sexy that he sounded like a Southern boy. And he liked that. :)

Professor Higgins claims that there's a living, quite a fat one, in fact, in the science of phonetics.
There's something that's smoother about that upper crust British English as opposed to American English. Take for example the way the Brits pronounce secretary. I won't even try to explain it, but it's like they pronounce it as a single syllable. It flows and sounds like music. American English doesn't generally sound like music.

I think my favorite accent comes from Yorkshire. Not sure what it is, but that one sounds very homey. I remember our guide from the Ghost Walk we went on in York. He scared poor Rebecca out of her wits (hehe!), but he was cool. I had a fun time talking with him. He referred to the U.S. as "the colonies."

There's something about particular voices that draws me in. Garrison Keillor is a great example. The man is definitely the greatest living American storyteller, but there is something about his voice. I've listened to him tell the same story countless times. I could probably quote some of them. His voice is like a cup of hot chocolate or that feeling of being little and sick in bed and your mother coming in and giving you some cough medicine and rubbing that smelly stuff on your chest.
Seeing him for the first time was just as cool as seeing John Williams or Michael Ball or -fill in the blank-.

Doris Day is another one. I love to listen to her talk. I think it's the way she pronounces her consonants.

I think that might be why American English isn't exactly pleasant on the ear. There is too much emphasis on consonants. That's why it's so much easier to sing in Italian or French rather than English. Go listen to La Traviata or Carmen. The emphasis is on the vowels, making it much easier to sustain a note. Languages likes French and Russian have that shushy quality to them. It's almost slurred. American English is so harsh. Perhaps that explains why American women will go into a swoon over a British accent. It sounds like music. :)

Quote of the moment...
Tell me why the stars do shine~Tell me why the ivy twines~Tell me why the sky's so blue~And I will tell you just why I love you~~~~~Because God made the stars to shine~Because God made the ivy twine~Because God made the sky so blue~Because God made you, that's why I love you
Garrison Keillor's signature song