Thats very true, I'm in high school and a lot of my older teachers have this kind of similar accent. Maybe not as strong but I still hear it(although the majority of my teachers are pretty young). You'll notice that the accents of teens and young adults have blurred out to the general american accent.
Ed G east of western! You still hear it on the northwest side, but whenever south siders visit the north side it’s east of western! Nobody east of western is from Chicago anymore!!!! All yuppies and you know what!
I live in Chicago and I only hear this accent in *some* 40-60 year old men who are obsessed with baseball/football Edit: I made friend who isn’t from America and she said I have the thickest Chicago accent ever so i really don’t know anymore
As a Chicagoan, the people saying most Chicago accents are not as strong as this are wrong. My uncle and grandpa sound EXACTLY like this, and I have met some young people who sound like this. This is the most accurate video I’ve seen on this beautiful accent.
I think it’s strength depends on the age group. Younger chicagoans accent isn’t as strong. However, the long hard A is still a strong signifier in even the most refined Chicagoan.
+BSBVlogs4u on the South Side it's Chicawgo as far as I know. I know in "Melwaahhkee" everyone says "Chicaaahgo". I wonder if the closer you get to Wisconsin the more Wiscaaahnsin people sound. :D
Usually what I hear on the north side is chicaaaago or chicaahgo but sout and west is more chicawwgo and yes the closer you get to the Wisconsin Illinois border it does sound Iike wiscahhson but that's what I hear
thank you. Especially for pointing out that a Chicago accent and a Midwest accent are different from each other. The stereotypical Midwest accent is actually very non distinct. It is what most newscasters seek to have. On the other hand, the Chicago accent is considered very nasal and grating to some ears.
Eastern Iowa and specifically Dubuque Iowa has a similar, albeit watered down accent to this. Everytime I go out west to Portland I'm either asked if I'm from Chicago or Minnesota.... never fails
These accents are only found in chicago and certain suburbs. It is found nowhere else in the state. In fact, when you hit Peoria, people have more in common with the the south than chicago.
I'm a foreigner and I've been searching videos of actual Americans teaching about their accents, and your video is by far the most convincing one I've seen about the Chicago/Midwest accent. Well done man!
I’ve met s few but it’s a little rare. I hear it more in the suburbs than in the city limits. Nowadays I mostly hear either a strong Ebonic accent mixed with Cali or a strong Hispanic accent mixed with Cali.
HaikesXO from Hoffman estates ..and we say Jewels lol not jewel when talking about grocery store...lol ...lived in Las Vegas for a few years before moving back ... we also say MA a lot not mom...so hear goes the sentence (ie) "Where's MA? she went to DA JEWELS " . 😉
I grew up in Elk Grove. Moved to the city when I was 13. I loved it out there. When I first moved here I was constantly told I had a suburban accent. Took me about 10 years to finally hear it. Trust me, the accent you have is not an actual Chicago accent. It's hard to describe, other than saying you sound "too midwestern". I know that sounds odd, bc it did to me, but after 10+ years of living in the city, I get it. It's almost as if suburbanites are trying too hard to put on a Chicago accent, but messing it up. I know that's not true, but that's what it sounds like. I have 5 uncles. 3 live in the burbs, 2 in the city. The ones in the burbs sound pretty similar to the guy in the video. The 2 in the city don't even really have an accent (that I can notice anyway). The guy in the video is definitely from the burbs btw.
I didn’t know I had a Chicago accent until I talked to a girl giving me a lap dance in New Orleans... She either liked my accent or she liked my wallet. I’ll go with the latter...
I grew up near Buffalo NY and went to college in Rochester NY, and this is pretty much the accent you hear throughout the western half of New York State, as well as Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and everywhere in between. It's what linguists call the inland northern or Great Lakes accent.
I went to Rome two years ago with my family and we asked someone to take a photo for us at this fountain... before he even took it he asked us if we were from Chicago, we said yes and asked him how he knew. He told us that he could tell based off of our accents?!? It was insane... we were halfway across the world and he could still guess were from chicago
This is awesomely real. It made a lot of sense when you mentioned that the accent really comes out in a higher pitch and I can definitely see that now.
No F'en way!!!! He sounds like a clown! Rude. No one says "Algonquin" like that & no one really turns their T to a D. What year is this man living in? Only thing I notice is saying Yer instead of Your. NO ONE IN ARLINGTON HEIGHTS TALKS LIKE THIS!!!!!
I moved from Chicago to Boise, Idaho in 1970 and once in awhile I still fall back to that Chicago accent, especially in certain words. Every once in awhile, I have a tendency to pronounce quarter as quawta; coffee as cawfee; chocolate as chawclat; Chicago as Chicawgo. I grew up in East Rogers Park, which at that time was predominately Jewish, so I think I picked up that particular way of pronouncing A's in that manner from the 1940's through the 1960's. The thing that really bothered me though was when Boise people would say I was from the East -- Chicago people always believed they were Mid-Westerners. Easterners were (and still are) a whole different breed of cat.... By the way, I remember when The Bears played at Wrigley Field -- Soldier Field was then built years later.
I'm from Chicago my friends from new York love the way I say words with SA like salad, salmon Saturday ect, I never realized it until they brought it to my attention lol
It's a neighborhood accent, not all the same. We have been affected by TV, video, etc. children now hear a lot more input from outside the family and neighborhoods, so we have lost it. Not necessarily "working" class...
That scene from "Ferris Bueller" when Rooney tells Ferris' mom that he's been absent NEEEEEIIIIIIIN TEIIIIIIIMS (9 times) always comes to mind when Chicagoans/Michiganites say that they don't have an accent 🤣🤣🤣
"Algaaanquin," I loved that part. We do emphasize our A's but not too much, haha. If you're from the suburbs, and sometimes the city too, we really pronounce the 'ow' like at the end of 'know' pretty hard.
I was born and raised on Long Island, New York, hearing the strongest New York accent you could ever dream up. And I even had one. Now living in North Carolina, I just went through a Chick-fil-A drive-through and almost asked the girl if she was either from a Scandinavian country or South Africa (Dutch Afrikaans). The next employee told me that she was from Chicago! That’s the only reason I ended up seeing this video. I love it! Hilarious!
I think this is spot on for the percentage of Milwaukee and Chicago that carry this accent. I have family in Milwaukee with this exact accent and it's common there.
To everyone saying only older people have this accent. I was 21 when I moved out of state and my accent was so thick everyone thought I was from boston and would ask me to repeat phrases. I’ve lost most of it now (sad) but it does happen. Now it’s usually people who have family or have been to Chicago enough who still recognize my accent when I say certain words. My mom and family had thick accents but I have friends my age from northwest Chicago who also speak like this.
Exactly! I grew up outside of Chicago. People posting only old people speak this way obviously never grew up here. I have not lived here for years, but when I come back I pick up even the slightest accent and yes a lot of young people have it.
I have lived in Las Vegas for over 20 years now but from the Chicago suburbs. I always considered myself accent neutral but even I notice I still have a little accent left when I say "car".
I don't know. In the Blues Brothers I think he did a pretty good job with a Chicago accent. Things like "No they don't got my address" and "You want I should clean the windshield". I don't remember him ever using the Canadian "umlauted o"( like saying "out and about" like "oot and a boot")... during the entire movie.
I loved when Dennis Farina came on Law and Order. They first tried to sell his character as being from NYC, and he talked about when he was younger going to "Da bars, in da Brahnx." They later changed his character's back story to being from Chicago originally.
I'm from Wales in the UK and when I first met my cousins from Milwaukee years ago I was blown away lolol. They have some of the Chicago feel but mixed with a little more of a Canadian feel. Super interesting. Maybe one of the hardest accents to try and replicate in all of the US. I'm trying my hardest to master it so I can make fun of them every time we meet xD
its an interesting and pretty cool accent for sure. Wish we Americans took better care to preserve our regional accents and be proud of them, but most people want to speak with a generic american accent nowadays
@@greenmachine5600 yes that’s totally true. Why do you think that is ? I’m from SoCal and whenever I met someone outta Cali they say I sound like a surfer 🤣
This accent you're using is the strongest I've heard. I was born and lived in Chicago until I was 11 when my family moved out to the south suburbs. My Mom and the older generation did have this accent (maybe slightly softer), and somehow the suburbs "softened" mine. I wasn't aware of it, but when I go into the city I can hear that Chicago accent. They say "Chi-CAW-go" a lot. I say "Chi-GAH-go". However, this extreme accent seems to be dying out with the older generation.
Maybe, maybe not. There's the midwest accent which is pretty flat basically. Then there is the Chicago accent. Ditka and the Daleys have the Chicago accent. We actually have two accents here. Chicago north and Chicago south. South side sounds more like this guy and especially among the older generation.
I grew up in the Belmont Dragon area. Moved to the boonies of Hang---Hanover Park. Moved to California 40 years ago. I still get asked if I'm from Chicago.
Lolol I remember asking a guy from Chicago to pass me the ketchup for my hot dog and he gave me a crazy look and told me YOU DO IT PUTTING KETCHUP ON A HOT DOG IS SACRILEGIOUS WITH THE CHICAGO ACCENT 🤣🥲🤣🥲😆
Born and lived in Chicago and NW burbs all my life. This guy sounds like all my friends. Can’t even detect an accent. If he’s not from Chicago, very well done. 👍. In an effort to sound more sophisticated, I battle myself to not say Dat (that), yous guys, Middens (mittens), Agg (egg), and many other “problem” expressions. 🤣 Also, many PhD students DO talk this way at the local universities. I have listened to plenty of PhD presentations. It’s not just The Jewel workers! Unfortunately the accent can make you sound less educated, which is why I think I sometimes try to downplay it in my own language. But usually I don’t can’t if I sound like a local.
It is. This accent is only found in white people over 60. And even only a few have it. My boss who is old and from the Chicago area doesn't have an accent ANYTHING like this. Nobody talks like that anymore
Chicago native left at 21 and fun to hear home. His accent is the regular accent of many Chicagoans. Made me long for an Uno’s pizza or a Chicago hot dog which is a full meal. No city has a more beautiful waterfront. Try walking out on the North Avenue Pier and look back at the city at night, spectacular. Oh and I stuttered badly so had years of speech therapy so have Northwestern U. theater school accent😉
My accent was only brought to my attention when I dated a broad from the suburbs... never knew I had one before her... but this guy sounds like he’s from Canada. Then again, I’m an Italian Chicagoan , raised by old fashioned dagos from the city. This guy sounds like he ripped a SNL skit.
I really like the accent, its unique and got character. I'm not from the US, so don't really know much about US accents, but it sounds similar to the way I've even heard some Canadians talk, such as when they pronounce the 't'' as 'd''
its an interesting and pretty cool accent for sure. Wish we Americans took better care to preserve our regional accents and be proud of them, but most people want to speak with a generic american accent nowadays
i, from chicago, came here curious what my accent sounded like i left with the knowledge that my As are ugly and i sound like a cartoon edit: i didnt even notice him doing an accent for the whole video
I grew up outside of Chicago and have lived in the Seattle area for over 25 years. When I come back to visit it blows my mind! I have relatives that have hard core accents ( its mostly Chicago, southern Wisconsin, Detroit about the same sounding) The number one word is "DO" the o is dragged out dooo. Also You know, is said yaah knooow but it is not New York. I even pick up immediately on people that just have a slight accent. You have to move away for a long time and seldom visit to know this. It is both women and men.
I think it depends. My grandpa sounded just like this and he was from Lincoln Park (when it was a slum) and also lived in Racine during the growing season (sharecropping). He then worked a drill press all his life. Grandma was also working class, from a little further north in Chicago and she didn't have that strong "Da Bears" accent. I still hear it a lot stronger in the south side and amongst working class folks. It gets blended a lot with the cheesehead/Minnesotan accent and I can't always tell the difference until they whip out a "you betcha" and then I know it's cheesehead. I can imagine my grandpa saying "so's it's Fry-day an da eye-talians next door are comin over to play pinochle and we'll put on some brats. Are you gonna come by? You know day got a grand daughter dat's real cute!"
I recently traveled to Toronto and Kid you not I had five people come to me and asked me if I was from Chicago and when I would ask why they would amswer you have a Chicago Accent. Honestly it was so surprising and funny I would play it off and say its probably my Spanish ( Mexican) accent and they would say no its not that it's a Chicago Accent.
For those who think this accent is Jersey, this is totally 100% authentic Chicago. On the South and West side most still speak like this. The accent is almost impossible to reproduce. You really have to crank the vowels up 3 notches to get there, and you're not even close. Think nails on a chalkboard.
The Chicago accent is definitely real and distinct and I didn’t realize it until I moved away, and then moved back and listened to the local news. look up video “greatest Chicago accent ever” for proof
I'm a Chicagoan, born and raised. I sound nothing like this. In fact, no one I know in Chicago proper speaks like this. Suburbanites, however, do have this accent - while simultaneously claiming to be from the actual city of Chicago. If you were born or grew up in an area with a zip code that begins with three digits other than "606," then you are not from Chicago.
Oh get over it. I grew up in the suburbs but if someone not from there asks where I'm from I say Chicago because La Grange won't mean anything to them. Where in Chicago did you grow up? My grandmother grew up on the south side and she talked exactly like this, as do most of my relatives from the south suburbs. And my friends father who grew up in Bridgeport.
This guy is a union electrician who plays softball during the weekdays and had a fridge full of beer in the basement. I'm a lifelong Chicagoan; he fits the stereotype.
How did you say "pop"? Was it closer to paup like Paul or pahp like Papi? The same thing with rock. Most people say Honda with an o sound like dog, but i guess Chicagoans say Honda like Hahnda like pasta. Always thought that was weird. Of course these are white accents. Blacks and Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans (most Latinos in Illinois/Chicagoland are Mexican or Puerto Rican) have their own accents, and strangely sound much more similar across the country.
All my cousins sound like this that are a generation older than me. All from the NW Burbs... Very accurate lol our generation you can only tell when we say our A's... Especially -at's...I moved to Ohio in 2003 to go to school and was told that's when you really can hear it.
I was on the blue line one day listening to this and i was thinking, "ive never heard a chicago accent", only to look up and heres a guy doing this exact accent..... i was like "hmmm....okay".
This accent is spot on Chicago (I was born there). But not every Chicagoan has it. There is neutral Mid Western which predominates in the area, outer burbs particularly. But it's an accent we've all heard, (Hello, Detective Sipowicz), more pronounced in the inner city we get a private kick out of when we hear it.
As a person that lives near Chicago, this is one of my favorite American accents. I mostly hear it with the older generation but I seem to have developed a bit of the accent lol
I love how ppl who have never been to Chicago or have only interacted with generalized Midwestern accents, say... Nah, ur off--that's Minnesota or Boston or etc., etc. Like, really? Go listen to a video on those accents and come immediately to this. I will say that many ppl who have an accent don't have it THIS thick, but maybe it's bc I am not on the south side too much when I go back. Someone mentioned Bartlett, and that's surprising bc I've only ever heard one person by Bartlett or Wayne speak in any way even remotely close. Anyways, thanks for uploading. There aren't enough examples of even decent quality on here
Ha, thanks for the kind words. Both sides of my family have been in Chicago since before the Civil War, so I'm pretty confident in how all my south side family sounds. I am definitely laying it on thick, but it's not all uncommon to run into folks with this strong a dialect, particularly the older generation.
+voiceforanychoice interestingly the Chicago accent as we know it was very different around the Civil War. it most likely sounded a lot like a Boston accent back them because we hadn't taken on the super large amount of Polish and Irish immigrants yet.
also, the Chicago accent alternates between Minnesota and Boston vowels. they say cot like Minnesota but caught like Boston. In Minnesota cot and caught are said with the same vowel which is ä and in Boston cot and caught have the same vowel which is ɒ. so when people it say it sounds Boston or Minnesota they are partially right. besides, all 3 accents had the same British origins: East Anglia and Ireland
funny he mentioned buffalo, heard a guy speaking last week in what i thought was a chicago accent & I asked him if he was from chicago & he said no buffalo which shows how far that type of accent goes compared to the north east where if you just look at new york, philly & baltimore, all with in 2 hours of each other but have very different accents.
Not just Buffalo, but most of upstate NY, at least from Utica westward through Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. The first time I went to Chicago I thought, "This is really cool. Everyone here talks like they're from Buffalo or Rochester." I felt right at home.
lol @ all the people that probably moved to Chicago from a different State claiming this is not a Chicago accent!!! This is 100% a true Chicago accent. I was born and raised on the North Side and this is exactly how the true Chicagoans spoke during the early 80s and 90s. Take your ass back to Des Moines or St. Louis if you don't like the accent.
Here is a fun fact for you. In 2020 about a million people voted for the top fifty sexiest American accents and Chicago came to be 5th so apparently people do love it.
Living in Chicago for a short time, I did notice a difference between the south side accents and the north side accents. Without knowing, I would have said this guy was south side all the way.
Remember that Irish and Italians migrated to NYC and Chicago..Go deep downtown where the older fellas work and that's where you'll find the true Chicagoians who are mostly Irish/Italian..Like myself I got more of an Italian accent but everyone tells me I sound Chicago.
Absolutely! I’m a Proud Chicagoan and live in Texas but ahhh get asked all the time New York??? “No, Chicago” my response. City of Broad Shoulders! Second to none!
I can't be the only foreigner looking up this accent, right? Anyway, very useful video to notice the differences between NY/NJ accents and the Chicagoan one.
i laughed hard, mainly because I sound like this!!! on a side note, when I taught English abroad I was complimented on my accent due to the ability of how easy it was to understand me. you'll notice the speech is slightly slower as well, making it very easy for people learning English to pick up on it.
no one told me i had a midwest/chicago accent until i spent some time in NC where everyone made fun of how i talked. I always thought I sounded like everyone else
@@edg6762 they do not. Anyone under 50 doesn't have an accent this exaggerated. Most white Chicagoans have a more neutral American accent now with only a slight midwestern twang
The oldest Baby Boomers & older folks from the City proper have the Chicago accent, mostly. The elder South Sider's always maintained an especially thicker accent than have Nort Siiiders, imo :)
I'm a metalhead and a big Cannibal Corpse fan and I was surprised to hear some of the guys' accents knowing they were from Buffalo NY, I mean NY you don't associate with this accent here, but I see it's in the Great Lakes area so that explains that.
