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The most powerful dialect in America isn’t loud, it’s default.

The California dialect isn’t about drawls or dropped consonants. It’s about vowels sliding sideways, uptalk sneaking into declarative sentences, "like" doing an unreasonable amount of labor, and a vocal cadence that sounds relaxed even when someone is delivering bad news.

It also relies heavily on the word "dude." Like snow for eskimos, Californians can speak entire sentences, deliver entire speeches with only the word "dude."

Previously: • This linguistic analysis of ‘The Pop-Punk Accent’ is absolutely fascinating • Want to ride a penny-farthing? You’ll need a top hat!

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