American accent
This refers to the spectrum of ‘standard’ English spoken by newscasters, TV actors, and a large percentage of middle-class Americans.
Prominent Features:
The short-a (as in cat) is raised and diphthongized before nasal consonants. Hence manand can’t are pronounced something like IPA meən and keənt (“meh-uhn” and “keh-uhnt.”)
Rhotic, meaning the r is pronounced at the end of words like car and mother.
Words like lot and rod are pronounced with an unrounded vowel, as lɑt and ɹɑd (“laht” and “rahd”).
The diphthong in words like boat and rode is pronounced relatively back: i.e. IPA boʊtand roʊd
Accent Samples:
Actor Topher Grace (wait till after the ad at the beginning).
News Anchor Brian Williams.
Doctor and writer Atul Gawande.