Standard Midwestern
Standard Midwestern is the accent used by many American network television broadcasters. The Standard Midwestern pronunciation is not thought of as a standard pronunciation, but is used because it is perceived as accentless by most Americans.Individuals from the Midwestern US sometimes have difficulty understanding other dialects of English, because most other dialects, both in other parts of the US and abroad, place less stress on consonants and on syllables in the middle of words. Since Slavic languages stress consonants even more heavily than does Standard Midwestern, a Russian who learns English extremely well often sounds almost Midwestern. (cf. Vladimir Posner) This is especially noticeable in the speech of interpreters for important Russian officials.