Thursday, November 22, 2007

What Accent do You Have?

I was reading The Corner the other day and came across a quiz entitled, What American Accent do You Have? My results?

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?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz


Well, this doesn't really fit what most people from other areas than the South tell me. When I am in New York, people almost always detect a Southern accent but when I am in the South, people say I have a Northeast accent--the switch back and forth probably comes from living in both areas. And I have never called a soda "pop" in my life. What about you?

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22 Comments:

Blogger mike savell said...

Come off it Helen,even if you did beat us in the end we did manage to teach you english,most people here like the american truncated
forms of words and use them all the time so I guess you teach us language as well,could it be as my parents would have said that we are all lazy?Good luck,
mike savell,UK

8:59 AM, November 22, 2007  
Blogger Dave said...

I've heard your voice on your Glenn & Helen show podcast....

Anyone who says you have a "northeast" accent seems rather confused. There is definitely a southern twang to your voice.

9:36 AM, November 22, 2007  
Blogger Dave said...

Incidentally, I just took the quiz and scored as a Southerner, despite having lived in New York City my entire life.

I do not think that a quiz of 13 questions can accurately discern dialect. Seems to me one would need to read sentences aloud and then have a computer interpret the different sounds. A text-based quiz doesn't seem sufficient.

9:39 AM, November 22, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Inland north here, too. Mother from Boston, father from Providence. Raised in southeast VA. Spent 12 years in northeast TN. Even I don't understand myself when I'm speaking.

9:47 AM, November 22, 2007  
Blogger DADvocate said...

Midland with the South my second highest category. I guess that comes from having parents from the Midwest and myself growing up in the South.

Now living and working in Ohio, my friends and co-workers consider my accent strong Southern but understandable.

11:35 AM, November 22, 2007  
Blogger Cham said...

Midland. They say I could be from Philadelphia. Close enough.

12:42 PM, November 22, 2007  
Blogger TMink said...

Nailed me! Southern.

Trey

8:29 PM, November 22, 2007  
Blogger Marathon Pundit said...

Inland North for me too. Although when I'm tired, that Chicago noise comes out--think Dennis Franz of NYPD Blue--a Chicago area native.

After an 11 hour drive to Kansas this summer, on my first groggy day there, that's how I spoke, and the people there were entranced--so I played it up the rest of the trip.

Unfortunately, those flat "A" sounds that come out of Hillary are from her days in Chicago.

Until she plays up her Hillary-drawl.

11:33 PM, November 22, 2007  
Blogger tomcal said...

Midland.

But I can be an Okie any time I want.

11:34 PM, November 22, 2007  
Blogger Unknown said...

HMPH! I have a standard upper-Canadian accent with overtones of western New York (a STRONG accent and not listed).

My ears pick up at things like 'soda,' it is 'pop' not soda! LOL

When I first moved to western Ontario my ears really perked up at 'you's.' "What do you's guys want?"

Accents are funny things ...

4:29 AM, November 23, 2007  
Blogger Unknown said...

I looked at it and went no further than the first two questions. Stupid test designed by a teenager, my guess.

Grew up in K.C. where we used pop, soda and soda pop interchangeably.

7:56 AM, November 23, 2007  
Blogger Dean Esmay said...

"Pop" for carbonated beverages is very very common in places like Detroit and Chicago.

10:17 AM, November 23, 2007  
Blogger Serket said...

My top match was midland by a large lead. Does this mean what is often called the Midwest? Interestingly, the west did not appear on the list and I am from Utah. Although, I've heard that people from Utah and Chicago have similar accents. I guess from all of our Mormon ancestors living in Illinois for a while. :) An interesting tidbit about the Utah accent, is that we say the 'r' in 'foyer'.

1:03 PM, November 23, 2007  
Blogger Danny said...

Well, despite the fact that I was raised in India and Australia, that quiz says that I have a "Northeastern" accent. That is just plain crazy!!:):)

Now, Dean- you have heard me speak- what do you think I sound like?
-Sid

3:02 PM, November 23, 2007  
Blogger Unknown said...

I scored Inland North, which makes sense since I grew up in RI but have been living in Minnesota for the last 22 years. At one point I lost my Rhode Island accent, and my relatives on the phone told me I sounded like a character from "Fargo".

7:01 PM, November 24, 2007  
Blogger pockosmum said...

Your result: Boston

Right on the mark, and it's not soda, or pop, it's tonic, people! ;-)

4:56 AM, November 25, 2007  
Blogger GTC said...

Well! This quiz was a surprise. I grew up in Birmingham, lived for less than five years in Dallas and Boston, and have lived in Tennessee for over thirty years.

Quiz result? I'm as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak!

Go figure!

11:57 AM, November 25, 2007  
Blogger Helen said...

GTC,

That does not surprise me at all!

1:19 PM, November 25, 2007  
Blogger Leatherwing said...

Inland North, yet I've lived in the South (Ark, Tex, Louisiana) my entire life. I don't think all Southerners speak the way the testers expect.

2:08 PM, November 28, 2007  
Blogger Ajabah said...

I've noticed that my accent changes according to the accent of the people I'm talking to. Sometimes it changes to match theirs more closely, other times it changes to exaggerate the differences. I'm still not sure what triggers which reaction, but yours might do something similar.

3:34 PM, November 29, 2007  
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