Tavis Smiley's accent

[Aav 13]

Hello, I watch the Tavis Smiley show on PBS and have a hard time understanding him, although I can get what most of his guests tell. Is this because of his Indiana state origin, and if so is this what Indiana accent looks like?

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello, I watch the Tavis Smiley show on PBS and have a hard time understanding him, although I can get what most of his guests tell. Is this because of his Indiana state origin, and if so is this what Indiana accent looks like?

I've never heard of the show and I wouldn't know an Indiana accent if I heard one, but I can tell you that the final part of your question should read "... is this what an Indiana accent sounds like?"

 

[Tdol]

I watched a few minutes and didn't find his accent hard to follow, but he did speak fast and mumble a bit at times.

 

[probus]

I would describe Tavis Smiley's accent as slightly mid-western. The mid-western accent of AmE is characterized by several false vowel sounds. Nevertheless, it is easily comprehensible to all native speakers of AmE. If you find him hard to understand I suspect that you also have some trouble with the standard CNN accent. His is not very far from that.

 

[konungursvia]

I think he may, as his show is on BET, allow himself to use terms from AAVE, which makes people new to that dialect find it harder to understand.