Wednesday, January 10, 2007

What American Accent Do You Have?

I haven't done one of these things in awhile...I was most impressed by the result:

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."

Philadelphia
 
The Northeast
 
The Midland
 
The South
 
Boston
 
The West
 
North Central
 
What American accent do you have?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

8 comments:

LoieJ said...

I bet you don't say pop, right? That is much farther west than you live.

Anonymous said...

I, on the other hand, don't have one at all (an American accent that is) - in fact I've been told I speak just like Prince Charles. Not totally sure how I feel about that, but there you go...

LutheranChik said...

Actually, I do say "pop." It's very Michiganian. Like Faygo Redpop.

Anonymous said...

I'm just amazed. I took the quiz, and apparently I still have a northeast accent, even though I've lived in the south for 30 years now.

BTW, in Georgia, pin and pen sound EXACTLY the same! So confusing --- people have to say "do you mean an ink pen or a stick pin?"

Tom in Ontario said...

I'm amazed by how regional some accents can be. We live about 1/2 an hour west of Buffalo, NY and Western New Yorkers have a fairly distinct accent, noticable by a few of their vowel sounds. But people in Fort Erie, Ontario, directly across the Niagara River from Buffalo, speak like the rest of us Ontarians without a trace of the strong Western New York accent. I don't know how that river acts as such a barrier.

I'm also amazed that Americans can know we're Canadian, apparently by our lack of accent ;-)

Anonymous said...

I took the quiz - I thought it was hilarious, I'm told I come from New York City, Rhode Island or Connecticut. Actually, I live in the UK, and have done for three score years abnd ten!

Anonymous said...

This is what I get: ""North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot."

Actually, I *am* Canadian.

Anonymous said...

Heh heh, I tested as "The Midland" --I'm the type people claim do not have an accent. That means I'm supposed to have a good radio/TV voice. Listen for me on NPR any day now ... ;)

But that's because I've sung in choirs for years, with numerous directors who coax/cajole/plead/whip those bright vowels ["bright" would mean Eliza Doolittle's speech patterns before 'enry 'iggins] and hard "R" sounds out of East Texas elocution.

If the test had any long "I" sounds on it [I guarantee "I" pronounce the words "pie" and "sky" differently from you, LC]my subdued, yet present, East Texan drawl would have shown up.

By the way, do note, Pres. Bush has a West Texan drawl. It is less "southern" in sound than an East Texas drawl.

And before anyone asks --the way I pronounce the words "terror" and "nuclear" very closely approximate Webster's pronunciation guide ...