Posted on 11/25/2011 4:19:03 PM PST by blam
What Kind of American Accent Do You Have?
November 24, 2011
Xavier Kun
To most Americans, an accent is something that only other people have, those other people usually being in New York, Boston, and the South. And of those other people, half of the ones you meet will swear they "don't have an accent."
Well, strictly speaking, the only way to not have an accent is to not speak. If you're from anywhere in the USA you have an accent (which may or may not be the accent of the place you're from). Go through this short quiz and you'll find out just which accent that is.
1. What is your age? Under 18 Years Old 18 to 24 Years Old 25 to 30 Years Old 31 to 40 Years Old 41 to 50 Years Old 51 to 60 Years Old Over 60 Years Old 2. What is your gender? Male Female
3. We're going to start with two ordinary words, "cot" and "caught." Do you think those words sound the same or different? Same Different Same, no wait I mean different, well, I don't know...
4. What about "don" and "dawn"? Same Different Same...ish. Maybe a little different.
5. OK, what about "stock" and "stalk"? Same Different Almost, but not quite, the same
6. Now then how do "collar" and "caller" sound? Same Different Almost, but not quite, the same
7. Do you think the word "on" rhymes with "dawn" or with "don"? dawn don Well, I don't think don and dawn sound any different in the first place so on would obviously rhyme with both
8. Moving on, what do you think about "Mary," "merry," and "marry"? All 3 sound different Mary and merry sound the same but marry is different from them All 3 sound the same
9. Our next word is "horrible." How does that first vowel sound? It's just like in the word "whore." It's the same "o" sound as in "hot." Neither one
10. Now for "pen" and "pin." Don't worry about what others say is correct, just tell us how they come out in an ordinary conversation. Same Different Close. Pen sounds almost, but not quite, like pin.
11. What about "feel" and "fill"? Same Different Well, I think they're different even though they sound very, very similar almost to the point of being the same
12. When you say "about," does the "ou" sound like the "ou" in "loud"? No Yes
13. Last question. When you say "bag" does it rhyme with "vague"? Yes No
That’s cuz you Virginians are too close to yankee land.
Hmmm. It pegged my northern inland accent from my just south of Boston IP addy.
So did your answers look just like mine?
LOL....pegged me as Midland and I’m on the opposite coast! I’ve always said I didn’t have an accent but in Texas they said I did.
About as accurate as the East Anglia world temperature records.
I am also "Inland North"
I have lived all my life in the San Francisco Bay Area.
WTF?
I have understood that most, if not all of the National TV Network broadcasters attempt to reflect the California "accent." I do know that when in the South and listen to local broadcasts, I often literally can't understand much of the dialog. Even some in DC.
He is from Alabama.
My folks who speak or spoke that way were in northwestern North Carolina.
If your dad is in northern or northeastern Alabama, it all might be an Appalachian dialect, likely attributable to the Scotch-Irish who settled the region in large numbers.
I have all kinds of problems with English vowels, so much that strangers ask me where I’m from. I say I’m from Belgium. Or Ruthenia.
Popcorn, poppop, soda pop, pop in fresh, popcycles.
Pop is totally different than soda. Soda is carbonation of some sort or something with. soda in it such as soda crackers. You misinformed eastern nuts.
It’s right on:
The West: Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you’re a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
Most of us speak American TV accent.
Inland north. Go figure, I have spent my whole life in southern California. Guess I failed.
I couldn’t fool them. Southern. LOL!
| What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West
Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta. |
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| The Midland |
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| Boston |
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| North Central |
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| Philadelphia |
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| The Northeast |
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| The Inland North |
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| The South |
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| What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz |
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Shucks! That done tickled me. They got it wrong on all counts!
I scored 100% Inland North. I have lived different places in my life but my accent is pure Chicago.
LOL. Me too.
| What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland
"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. |
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| The West |
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| North Central |
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| The South |
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| The Inland North |
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| Boston |
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| Philadelphia |
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| The Northeast |
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| What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz |
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I am going to fro up! Cyber is going to trick me one day and take me over to Uper Country and scare me to death.
Took the test: Lived in So. Cal. for 40 years, the test says I’m a North Easterner. What?
No it is RUE-END
Oddly, it didn’t ask about the letter “R” which does not exist on my vocabulary, but it did get my Boston accent correct.
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