Learn English – What Defines a Utah Accent

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I have heard a number of people refer to the "Utah accent." What is it that distinguishes a Utah accent from others?

I have noticed that, in some cases, people from Utah omit the 't' from words such as 'Layton' and 'mountain.' In other cases, it seems like they pronounce 'milk' with an 'e' instead of an 'i.' 'Creek' sounds like 'crick.' 'Mormon' like 'Marmon.' I am not sure if any of these are specific to Utah.

Finally, what about differences between regions, for example, what is a Cache Valley accent?

Best Answer

A few examples of things I've noticed (especially in Cache Valley) are:

  • pronouncing the word "deal" and "real", "peel", etc. as "dill", "rill", "pill" etc. ....similar for the words "really" ("rilly") and "dealer" ("diller")
  • pronouncing the word "our" the same way most pronounce "are"
  • pronouncing words like "light", "right", "bright", etc. as "loyt" and "royt", "broyt"
  • Pronouncing "luggage", "garbage" and "baggage" as "lugg-eege", "garb-eege" and "bagg-eege".
  • pronouncing the word "it" as "uht" as in "Where is uht?" and "Give
    uht to me!"
  • pronouncing the word "different" as "diff-ernt"
  • pronouncing "Monday", "Tuesday", etc. as "Mon-dee", "Tues-dee", etc.
  • pronouncing "You're" as "yerr"
  • Also, the letter "r" is pronounced slightly differently than anywhere else I've noticed, although I can't quite describe it.

Rod Tueller who sometimes helps broadcast Utah State Unviersity Basketball games on KVNU has a classic Cache Valley accent.

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