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Are there differences in the accent of NY and California English?

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Yes. Wikipedia has a whole page on NYC English, which differs from all other accents in the U.S. (although it is quite close to the accents of the surrounding suburbs). One reliable NYC (and surroundings) shibboleth: horror is pronounced with the vowel of borrow rather than that of sorer. – Peter Shor Apr 25 '11 at 14:18
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If by LA you mean "Los Angeles," then the answer is that an LA accent is a California accent, by definition (if by LA you mean Louisiana, that's entirely different). While some people say that NorCal and SoCal accents differ, neither is more "California" than the other. BTW, I've lived in both NorCal and SoCal, and I've never heard a discernible difference between the local accents. – Dori Apr 25 '11 at 22:59
This question was a little too broad for a really great answer to be given. – Billare Apr 28 '11 at 15:44

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In large geographic areas that speak the same language, there will always be differences between locations that are distant from each other. You see this effect all over Europe, more so because of the many borders where languages can intertwine more, but it still happens in the US. You can see differences between Northern and Southern California because of this. You can see the same types of differences in other parts of the east coast, Texas, the midwest, etc. Accents and idioms are all slightly different.

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This is correct. Also, when I lived abroad, the expat community was almost equally composed of British nationals, Americans, Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders, with lesser numbers of Irish and South Americans. Curiously, all of the non-Americans could easily discern a southern California accent which is markedly different from New England and New York English. The chief marker is speed of production. SoCal natives are slow in speech, northern East Coasters speak at perhaps twice the speed. – The Raven Apr 28 '11 at 1:28
And yet, when I (a SoCal native) want to imitate a Southern (Mis'sipi or Alabama) accent, the most effective thing I can do is to slooooooooowwww dooooowwwwwwwnnnn. It's a much stronger signifier than any quirks of pronunciation, or even "Lawd sakes, honeychile!" – MT_Head May 17 '11 at 8:47
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yeah i think there is difference between various accents in the US. specially from east to west. but there is something that should be said, we mostly watch movies that have been made in cities that are located in west of THE US and it makes us so familiar with this accent. thank you

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You've never heard of "Friends", "30 Rock", "Saturday Night Live", "Late Night with David Letterman/Conan O'Brien/Jimmy Fallon", "The Today Show", "The Wire" or "Law & Order"? I can think of all those East Coast shows that have been exported outside of the US, and I don't really watch television. – Jon Hanna Feb 22 at 11:04

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