What is a West Coast (U.S.) accent?

Solution 1:

The Atlas of North American English has a rather broad definition of the West. Its primary characteristics are:

• The merger of words sounding like cot and caught (they're pronounced the same)
• The fronting of /uw/, as in boot but not /ow/, as in boat
• No monophthongization of /ay/, as in ride

So, these features more or less distinguish the West from its neighboring dialects, but don't do much to specifically define the West. There are also some finer grained distinctions within the West that would make a broad and complete definition impossible. For example

• Apparently fill and feel are pronounced the same in Salt Lake City, per this stupid criminal story.
• There is a distinct vowel shift occurring in Northern California (academic description) some features were stereotyped in the Shoes video.

Solution 2:

I grew up on the West Coast but went to college on the gulf coast. One thing I notice about westcoasters, we don't articulate our "t" very well. For instance, people in Washington say "Ren'in", not "Renton". "Didn", not "did not". Also, it's Portlund, Orgun, not Portland, Oreeygone. Like the beautiful city of Nawlins, LA, we should all try to pronounce the names of places like the locals do.

Solution 3:

West coast accent can also include the word "aunt" being pronounced "ant" rather than "aw-nt"

Some word are used more than others like "like" and the style is considered more informal than the East Coast, Midwest, or South.

West Coasters often say "soda" when others say "pop" and in parts of the South every soft drink is a "Coke."