American accent quiz

[boxofdelights]

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Northern. Whether you have the world famous Inland North accent of the Great Lakes area, or the radio-friendly sound of upstate NY and western New England, your accent is what used to set the standard for American English pronunciation (not much anymore now that the Inland North sounds like it does).

If you are not from the North, you are probably one of the following:
(a) A Southerner who hates Southern accents and tries really hard to "talk right"; or
(b) A New Yorker or New Jerseyan who doesn't have the full accent

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Same Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different... Different

Yes indeed, I am from Michigan, lived there from the day I was born in Pontiac General Hospital until I graduated from U of M. But the other year at Wiscon, someone asked me where I was from, and when I said Michigan, she said, "Hunh. Your accent has moved West."

Speaking of Wiscon, programming is up! I have my membership and hotel reservation and three roomies, two of whom I've never met. Will I see you there?

Comments

[loligo]

I lived in Michigan from the ages of 9-21, but my parents are both Michiganders, so those formative years I spent in places like New Jersey and California were totally negated by the Northern accent at home -- and then we moved there.

I've lived in the southern parts of Illinois for 12 years now -- longer than I've ever lived anywhere but MI. I take on parts of the local accents (we're actually right at the boundary of five different accent/dialect areas here) when I'm talking to locals, but it will never affect my inner sense of how words really sound.

[boxofdelights]

Yeah, and that's what the quiz measures: not how you say the words, but how you think you say them.

My mom's a lifelong Michigander too, except for a few years working in San Francisco, where she met my dad. (He's not a native speaker, but when I was a kid I didn't know he had an accent.)

[amaebi]

Do you know, growing up where loligo lives now, I didn't know *anyone* had an accent.

[aedifica]

I will be at Wiscon, and I hope to see you there!

[boxofdelights]

excellent! Do you want to join me for a meal?

[aedifica]

I'd love to! If I may bring a ckd along, I will, but if you'd rather I not bring him, that works too. (He and I are long-distance sweeties, which means that I try to spend a lot of time with him whenever I do get to see him--but Wiscon will be a long enough weekend that I won't feel too deprived if we separate for a while. :-)

I don't think you and I ever have met in person yet despite attending Fourth Street at the same time, and I'm looking forward to meeting you!

[boxofdelights]

Fourth Street was seriously No Fun for me. I kept trying to strike up conversations with people I knew from Wiscon or LJ or alt.polyamory, but they all had too many people they were more excited about talking to. I didn't have the courage after that to try to talk to anyone I didn't already know.

I'll be delighted to meet you and your sweetie!

[oursin]

I'll be at Wiscon! See you there.
That accent quiz claims I'm a New Yorker born and bred - deuced odd, what?

[boxofdelights]

Yes, I assure you, you don't sound at all like a New Yorker to American ears!
I'd love to share a meal with you, if you're not booked up.

[firecat]

Same here.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I keep getting southern. I think I'm overthinking things.

[boxofdelights]

Did you pick a lot of the "similar but not exactly the same" choices?

and no, not Wiscon this year.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Yah.

I was /born/ in Maryland, but I moved away when I was 3, to Long Island, and then moved to Boston when I was 4.

If anything, I would think some of my pronunciations of things like caught/cot would lend itself to New York area pronunciations.

So, as I say, overthinking. And not Southern. Which is not to say I don't like Southern accents, I just don't /have/ one.

[plasticsturgeon.livejournal.com]

ME TOO. Wtf.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

Guh! I can't wait! Also - Programming!

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

I got Western. Born in Southern Illinois, which is southern/midwestern, but to an Ohio father and a California mother, with a small speech impediment I way overcompensated for.

I have only passed in Ontario.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

As usual, I am winging the room thing, but I've had a membership since the great GoH rejection. Yay programming!

[mswyrr]

I got full on generic. The little doodle even told me that I have no regional identity! Presumptive bugger.

[lcohen]

don't know yet about wiscon--i have a room and membership and all those good things--i'm even working on the concom. but i have two concerts that weekend, too.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know about accents shifting. I grew up in Michigan, too. (I don't think I was out of the state for more than a week at a time between being born at Sinai Hospital in Detroit and graduating from U of M.) After moving to upstate NY, and now living in Boston for the last 12 years, my accent has absorbed enough eastern features for some listeners to think I'm from Toronto.

I'm not good at describing my vowel sounds, though. I just go by what people say when they listen to my ordinary speech.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I also got Northern, but I know what you mean about "accent moved west." I think the quiz is asking how you hear certain words in your head, and thus what your native pronunciation would be. But if you're a vocal chameleon like me you tend to pick up the regional variations of the people you're conversing with. (Or sometimes I just do it because that particular accent gives me some social advantage.)