Random Accent Generator

One press draws an accent of English, with where it is spoken and one feature you can hear.

Pacific Northwest EnglishWashington and Oregon. Most speakers say cot and caught the same, and boat and bait have nearly pure vowels.

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How it works

This random accent generator draws one of 54 accents of English, from Geordie to Kenyan English, with where it is spoken and one feature you can hear. Made for actors, writers and anyone curious about speech.

Read the full guide

Pick a part of the world

After your first press, the list beside the button narrows the draw to Britain and Ireland (18), United States (20) or Canada and the rest of the world (16).

Listen for one thing

Each card gives one feature you can hear. Find a recording of a speaker and listen for just that: whether the r in car is sounded, whether cot and caught match, whether a t turns into a glottal stop. Draw twice to compare two accents.

Tips

Writing a character? Draw the accent first, then decide where they grew up.

Questions and answers

What does it mean to sound the r?

Some accents keep the r sound wherever it is spelled. Others no longer say it after a vowel unless another vowel follows, as in hard and butter. Most accents of the United States, Scotland, Ireland and Canada keep it; most of England's do not.

What is a glottal stop?

A consonant made by briefly blocking the airflow at the glottis. English speakers know it as the catch in the middle of uh-oh.

Is one accent better than another?

No. An accent is the way a place or a community says its sounds. Each card states one fact about those sounds and makes no judgment.

Are the facts checked?

Yes. Each line was checked by script against the accent's Wikipedia article, read in full on 30 September 2026.

All 54 accents

Britain and Ireland 18

Black Country The Black Country, England. Cut rhymes with put, and bath rhymes with math.
Brummie Birmingham, England. The r after a vowel is not sounded, and the h at the start of a word can be left off.
Cockney London. A t is often a glottal stop, and an l at the end of a syllable is often a vowel sound.
Estuary English Along the River Thames and its estuary. Differs from Received Pronunciation in a t that can be a glottal stop and an l that can be a vowel.
Geordie Newcastle upon Tyne and Tyneside. Has a glottal stop of its own kind, made at the same moment as another consonant.
Glaswegian Glasgow, Scotland. Most speakers sound the r after a vowel, and a t is very often a glottal stop.
Irish English Ireland. The r is sounded wherever it is spelled, as in General American.
Lancashire Lancashire. Some areas still sound the r after a vowel. The towns around Liverpool, Manchester and Wigan do not.
Mancunian Manchester. A t is often a glottal stop, and many speakers still say horse and hoarse differently.

Show all 54 accents (45 more)

Britain and Ireland, continued

Multicultural London English London. The r is sounded only before a vowel, as in most accents of England. Its glottal stop came from Cockney.
Norfolk Norfolk, England. Toe and tow may still have different vowels here, and so may pane and pain.
Received Pronunciation England. The r is sounded only when a vowel follows. Long treated as the standard accent of England.
Scottish English Scotland. Fern, fir and fur keep three different vowels, and the r may be a quick tap of the tongue.
Scouse Liverpool. Cut, luck and up have the same vowel as bull, foot and put.
Ulster English Ulster and Northern Ireland. Statements in general end with a rise in pitch, and the t in butter and city is a quick tap.
Welsh English Wales. The r after a vowel is mostly not sounded, and toe and tow can have different vowels.
West Country The southwest of England. The r after a vowel is sounded, unlike in most of England, and hair and air can sound alike.
Yorkshire Yorkshire. Words such as late, face, say and game have one pure vowel, not a glide between two.

United States 20

Appalachian English Appalachian Mountains. The r is always sounded, and the glide in a word like tide often loses its second half.
Baltimore accent Baltimore. The r is sounded, and cot and caught are kept apart.
Boston accent Boston and its suburbs. The traditional accent does not sound the r after a vowel. Younger speakers sound it more than older ones.
Cajun English Southern Louisiana. Keeps an intonation of French origin, and hair can sound like air.
California English California. Known for the California Vowel Shift, a chain shift of vowels first noted among young speakers in the 1980s.
Chicano English Mexican American communities of the Southwest. The pitch rises on important words in the middle and at the end of a sentence.
General American United States. The r is sounded in words such as pearl, car and fort.
High Tider Islands and coastal towns of the South Atlantic United States. The r is sounded strongly, and pin and pen sound the same.
Inland Northern American English Great Lakes region, United States. Defined by the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, a chain shift of vowels that began in the 1930s or earlier.
Maine accent Maine. The traditional accent does not sound the r after a vowel, and horse and hoarse are kept apart.
Miami accent South Florida, around Miami. The r is sounded, and the rhythm is heavily influenced by Spanish.
New Orleans English New Orleans. Shares features with New York City speech, such as an r that is not sounded after a vowel.
New York City English New York City. A high, gliding vowel in words like talk and caught, and cot and caught are kept apart.
North-Central American English Upper Midwest, United States. The vowel in coat can be one pure sound, sometimes put down to Scandinavian and German immigration.
Pacific Northwest English Washington and Oregon. Most speakers say cot and caught the same, and boat and bait have nearly pure vowels.
Philadelphia English Philadelphia. Most speakers have always sounded the r, and cot and caught stay apart.
Pittsburgh English Western Pennsylvania, around Pittsburgh. Cot and caught sound the same, a defining feature of the accent.
Southern American English Southern United States. Marked by the Southern Vowel Shift. The r is normally sounded, though some older accents leave it out after a vowel.
Texan English Texas. In the traditional accent pen and pin sound the same, a feature now fading in the cities.
Western American English Western United States. The r is always sounded, and Mary, marry and merry are said the same way.

Canada and the rest of the world 16

Atlantic Canadian English Atlantic Canada. Has Canadian raising, and the speech of Lunenburg in Nova Scotia may leave the r unsounded.
Australian English Australia. The r is never sounded at the end of a syllable or before a consonant.
Bermudian English Bermuda. The r after a vowel is not sounded, as in British English or the New York accent.
Canadian English Canada. Known for Canadian raising: two vowel glides start higher in the mouth before certain consonants.
Caribbean English The Caribbean. Differs from island to island: Barbadian English always sounds the r, while Jamaican English does not.
Hong Kong English Hong Kong. The r is sounded only before a vowel, and an l at the end of a syllable is often a vowel sound.
Indian English India. The t and d sounds are often retroflex, made with the tongue bent back, most of all in the north.
Jamaican English Jamaica. Whether the r is sounded varies with the word and the setting. The th sounds often become t and d.
Kenyan English Kenya. Long and short vowels are not told apart, and two-part vowels become single vowels.
Malaysian English Malaysia. Two-part vowels tend to become single vowels, and the t in butter is usually a plain t.
New Zealand English New Zealand. Most speakers do not sound the r after a vowel, and a statement can end on a rising pitch.
Newfoundland English Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The th sounds often become t and d sounds, a feature that came from Irish English.
Nigerian English Nigeria. The s at the end of a word such as boys is a plain s sound, not a z.
Philippine English Philippines. The r is sounded, as in American English, and the th sounds can become t and d.
Singapore English Singapore. Mostly the r after a vowel is not sounded, and unstressed syllables can keep a full vowel.
South African English South Africa. Has the trap-bath split, as New Zealand English does: trap and bath take different vowels.

How this list was compiled: 54 accents and regional varieties of English, every one with its own article on the English Wikipedia. Each article was fetched in full on 2026-09-30 and each line checked by script against it (x.src): the script asserts that a phrase carrying the place and a phrase carrying each sound feature are in the text. A few glosses lean on a second article read the same day (what retroflex means, that most accents of England do not sound the r after a vowel, how London's l behaves), and the script asserts those too. The line gives one feature a listener can hear, in plain words, as a fact about sounds and never as a judgment; no spelling imitates a speaker. Left out: creole languages, which are not accents of English; accents whose article gave no sound feature that could be said plainly; and every word of praise or blame. The three groups and the wording are our own. Licence: own work