December 04, 2006
One More Test - Accents
This is an easier test than the preceding one because there are no right or wrong answers, except your age and gender for which I have now firmly resolved those issues. I answered the questions honestly, and what I got is below. Ain't that a surprise for a Southern boy? Over the years, I've had several people ask me if I was from England. I told them Birmingham. The test may have pegged me wrong, but I believe that people from the midwest and, certainly, the U.K. would quickly figure out where I live once they heard me speak. Y'all take a crack at it.
| What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop." | |
| The Northeast | |
| Philadelphia | |
| The Midland | |
| The South | |
| Boston | |
| The West | |
| North Central | |
| What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes | |
In a related article: Queen Elizabeth II's Speech Becoming More Common
Maybe she needs to quit watching those "Dukes of Hazzard" re-runs.
This quiz hit the nail on the head!
What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia
Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
Posted by civil truth at December 4, 2006 08:05 PM
It pegged my wife too, even though our answers differed only for Q's 7 and 8.
What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North
You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
Posted by civil truth at December 4, 2006 08:38 PM
Strongly "Boston," though it noted that I could well be from NH or ME. Actually, I'm geeky enough about American dialects that I knew Boston was going to necessarily be an approximate, as inside of 128 has a different accent. What they call "Boston" is Northeast New England, minus Boston proper.
Yes we do have more accent variety here. Places settled longer have more variation, not less. Linguists often use that fact as an indicator of where a language family originated.
Posted by Assistant Village Idiot at December 4, 2006 08:52 PM
Pure midland which is danged funny considering I was born in Germany, raise for a large part in the South and have lived the last 40 years in South Texas. Hmm, whachuall doin for dinner?
Posted by GM Roper at December 4, 2006 09:04 PM
I came out Midland. I found this funny: ""You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri."
I now live in southern Ohio. My father grew up in southern Ohio and my mother was born in MIssouri. Everyone here tells me I sound quite Southern. The problem is probably that. although I grew up in Tennessee. I have Midland parents and use their phraseology with a Southern accent.
Posted by DADvocate at December 5, 2006 12:47 AM
DADvocate, that makes sense. The way that one phrases words isn't necessarily influenced by an accent. For instance, I can pronounce a word the same way as someone from Ohio but say it a little slower.
Posted by Woody at December 5, 2006 09:36 AM
Okay that one was totally wrong. It said I was inland north and said Wisconsin. I have a definate southern accent. I've lived in Florida for the bulk of my life and Texas for three years during my formative years. No one ever accused me of being a yankee.
But I really thought this one was funny on the word "horrible" - "It's just like in the word "whore.""
And I've never, ever called a soda a "pop".
Posted by Oyster at December 5, 2006 04:04 PM
civil truth wrote: It pegged my wife too, even though our answers differed only for Q's 7 and 8.
What about questions 1 and 2?
Posted by Woody at December 5, 2006 04:33 PM
Missed that! Don't worry, our answers to question 2 also differed. Guess I'll have to go back three spaces and lose a turn...
Posted by civil truth at December 5, 2006 07:43 PM
"You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Mine... The 1st part is WAY wrong but I have a damn good voice for radio... And I'm 23 miles from Dallas...
Posted by TexasFred at December 10, 2006 10:17 PM
