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[–] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (8 children)

There is a generic American accent though. News anchors began using it heavily in the 80s because focus groups said it sounded the most neutral and hard to place. I think it’s an older Northern California accent. I must have misremembered

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Yeah that's a midlands accent. It sounds hard to place, but you can tell where it isn't. It's not a Philadelphian, or a new Yorker, or anywhere on the east coast really (so many accents over there). Definitely not Californian or southern. So really it just sounds like the midwest (not Minnesota) or like it might be Pacific Northwest. The big thing though is it's easy to understand. Boston or Baltimore for example would be terrible accents to make the default for newscasters.

    Really it's like how the BBC has an accent

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    Go tell that to any linguist and get laughed at.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (4 children)
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago* (2 children)

    The precise definition and usefulness of the term continue to be debated,[8][9][10] and the scholars who use it today admittedly do so as a convenient basis for comparison rather than for exactness

    Thank you for agreeing with me, and providing sources to back up my point.

    To repeat my point,

    Stating that there exists a generic UK accent is as useless as suggesting there exists a generic US accent. The wikipedia article suggests that linguists by and large agree with me. So again, thanks.

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