What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
Apologies to non-American Ricochet members for this quiz, which is only for Americans. I was surprised by my results, seeing as I did not grow up in the inland north, and in fact have been to the inland north only once, and that only for a weekend.
I once spoke to a professional linguist who astonished me by tracing my accent not only to the Upper West Side, but to the block I grew up on. My family left New York when I was eight years old and moved to Seattle, but apparently you can still hear the imprint.
Unless it was a lucky guess.
I have the sense that accent in America now is not only a factor of geography but of age. Young people speak with a different intonation from their parents, it seems to me. Of course, as a conservative, I disapprove.
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Comments:
May '11
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
I concur it may be cheating.
It says:
"Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Chances are, if you are from New York City (and not those other places) people would probably be able to tell if they actually heard you speak."
Nobody thinks I have an accent. I don't "paakh the caah" as an eastern New Englander or "waulk the daug" as a New Yorker, and I definitely do not have the Connecticut Cockney glottal stop.
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
Weird. It didn't get me right at all. I was born and raised in the West and that was my lowest score. I'm fully sensitive to Michigander's foreign speech style and that's what it said I had.
Apr '11
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
Amy Schley: Scored Midland. Grew up in Charleston and have lived on the Missouri/Kansas border for the rest. I will agree that the author seemed to rely mostly on a NE/not NE mindset.
Out of curiosity, if don and dawn are pronounced differently, what do they sound like? · 3 minutes ago
In my speech, don rhymes with on, Dr. Paul's first name, Senator Ashcroft's, and Mr. Chaney's, bon bon, Bonn, the first syllable of CT if I pronounce it slowly, but not if I pronounce it normally (when it becomes more "Cuhn" than "Con"), gone, and a mock-Caribbean "man".
Dawn rhymes with lawn, pawn, mourn, prawn, torn (both Rip and sundering), brawn, etc.
From my recollection of your voice, Amy, Midland seems about right. Ah don' raghtly recawl y'all speakin' in a mannah familyar frahm mah tahm ahn dah Sowth.
Jul '10
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
Amy Schley: Scored Midland. Grew up in Charleston and have lived on the Missouri/Kansas border for the rest. I will agree that the author seemed to rely mostly on a NE/not NE mindset.
Out of curiosity, if don and dawn are pronounced differently, what do they sound like? · 23 minutes ago
I'm not sure how to describe it exactly, but don is more in the top of the mouth while dawn is more down in the back of the mouth. Very close to the difference between ahh and aww.
Mar '11
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
Apparently, I sound like a Chicago hood. That wasn't the quiz -- that was my pastor's wife when I lived in California. She didn't know whether to give me "the peace of the Lord" or her purse. The quiz said "Inland North."
Mar '11
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
I was born and spent 27 years in Western PA but, like Israel above, I've been away from the area long enough now to hear the accents of the people. Whereas, when I lived there, I never noticed it. And if people are unfamiliar, a Western PA/Pittsburgh accent is like the midpoint between a Boston and Chicago accent.
Having said that, and for some unusual reason, I never really picked up the accent and didn't use some of the vocabulary of the area: read up (meaning: to organize), pop (meaning: soda), yins (meaning: you people).
And to this day, people think for some reason I grew up in the South but I don't hear a Southern accent in my voice at all. I may live in the South now but I lived in NV for 13 years before that.
I think for that test to be more accurate it would need to include some audio and vocabulary tests as well. I tested as being from the Mid-West. With additional information it just may be able to narrow me down to Western PA but it may be tough given my seemingly neutral voice.
Mar '12
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
hmm, 17 years in the south, followed by 5 years in canada, followed by 3 years in new york, followed by 3 years in los angeles, followed by 22 years in the south and it wants to tag me as inland northeast. not sure about how well this works......
Nov '10
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
I have the same response to you and to Dan, above, that I gave to Katievs and Claire; it doesn't capture educated east coast accents at all. Oh, and I completely agree with you on the Mary/Merry/Marry thing.
Oct '11
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
Apparently I have an accent from "the West". I'm from Maine.
Apr '11
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
My result was "South." Having grown up in the Mississippi Delta, that is natural. I went to a high school reunion two weeks ago and all my friends said I had completely lost my accent. Many had not seen me in 35-40 years. I guess I still hear with a Southern ear.
Jul '11
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
Midland. Navy brat raised by an Illinois teacher.
Oct '10
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
The King Prawn
I've heard recordings of me as a child, and the Texas accent was so thick I could barely understand what was said. However, I did my best to remove the accent during adolescence because Yee-Haw sounds stupid from a skateboard.
Ha, KP, this made me laugh. Doesn't work from a surfboard either. We moved to the Florida space coast when I was nine--aerospace engineers from everywhere, plenty of northern accents--but up until high school I still had vestiges of a pretty strong southern accent. One time in tenth grade social-studies I said a-rab--emphasis on the first syllable--and the whole class erupted in laughter. I didn't have the backbone to buck the trend and betrayed my heritage as fast as I could, purging most of the southern from my speech.
Sep '10
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
Yup.
Jun '10
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
It says I'm from the West and I'm from the heart of the West.
Jun '10
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
Western Maine?
Apr '12
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
Midland.
I was trying to figure out how one would phonetically differentiate "merry" from "marry," but couldn't figure out how to do it. Any tips from non midlanders?
Oct '11
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
Scored highest on the Midland. I speak to people from all over the country and am often asked where I am from. People often guess Michigan. I was born there but only lived there until I was three. The rest of my life has been spent in CA with the exception of two years in Scotland, and I was raised by Scots with very heavy accents. I picked up a pretty strong accent while living in Scotland, but everyone there thought I was from Ireland. I gave up trying to convince people otherwise - with my last name (Flanagan) no one believed me.
Jan '12
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
I'm with Mollie here. Born, raised and still live in WA state, but have spent almost equal time in both western and eastern WA. The test identified me as inland north. In my teens when visiting cousins in Chicago I had to work hard to understand them. They, on the other hand, said I had a strong accent!
When 'outsiders' move here, their accents are quite discernible. I seem to be able to identify Canadians who haven't lived in Canada for decades. Many have told me that I was one of the few, if any, to ask if that was where they had been raised.
May '10
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
James Of England
Dawn rhymes with lawn, pawn, mourn, prawn, torn (both Rip and sundering), brawn, etc.
James,
I was with you until "mourn" and "torn". In my neck of the woods they sound very different from "dawn". They rhyme with corn, born, and the first syllable of "ornery". Not at all like lawn or pawn.
Feb '12
Re: What Kind of American Accent do You Have?
Matthew Bartle
James Of England
Dawn rhymes with lawn, pawn, mourn, prawn, torn (both Rip and sundering), brawn, etc.
James,
I was with you until "mourn" and "torn". In my neck of the woods they sound very different from "dawn". They rhyme with corn, born, and the first syllable of "ornery". Not at all like lawn or pawn. · 3 minutes ago
Tip: James speaks pretty close to Received Pronunciation, or what we Americans might mistakenly call a BBC accent.
We had a couple Texans in the group when we were traveling together, which made for some nice illustrations of the joke that English and Americans are separated by a common language.
Edited on April 16, 2012 at 6:38pm