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1:43am May 15, 2015

madeofpatterns:

Plot twist: Acapela releases voices with well-done Southern and AAVE accents; they’re not novelties.

(They do have some good voices with other accents now.)

Yes seriously please. I want a working-class Okie or Arkie accent (think Merle Haggard kind of). Bonus points if they have a slider between Okie/Arkie and Californian accents that lets you choose exactly how much of each, by situation. Because that’s what my family does unconsciously.

I tried a Southern scent for awhile but it was a choice between a ridiculous Scarlett O'Hara inspired one, or a male one that had few distinctively Southern qualities. And those were designed by a guy from Arkansas who should know better. FFS. And of course the Acapela voices are all novelties – “rapper” and “lonesome Texas cowboy”, give me a break.

For that matter I want working class and poor regional accents from around the USA. The richer people here get the more alike they tend to sound. Moving to Vermont I discovered there’s a unique Old Vermonter accent that has a bit of a twang to it. And everywhere has those kinds of accents… just usually not among the upper middle classes these companies cater to. People think American accents are homogenous because they hear it on TV, but really every state has multiple regional accents. Even small states like Vermont. Not to mention American Indian accents, immigrant accents from different countries blended with whatever part of the States they moved to (like my Minnesota Swede relatives), etc. They have Indian English but that’s because English is a major language in India due to colonialism.

I want to be able to sound like my family and I can’t.