Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic What American accent do you have? (quiz)

For me it said the south which is correct. I was born in Richmond, VA 2 blocks from the White House of the Confederacy. Even though I spent 8 years in New Jersey and have lived in Maryland since 1983 (a couple blocks south of the Mason-Dixon line) I still say things like y'all, skillet, and creek.

The answer for me was Midland, which apparently means I don't have an accent at all.

I'm torn on this. I'm from Mississippi originally, and I know there are certain words I say where you can really hear the accent. But I've lived in Florida since I was about 8, and overall I really think living here has mitigated my accent a good deal (which makes me a little sad, actually). So maybe the quiz is right - mostly.

Mine said the West, the lowest common denominator of American speech, although the Midland was a very close second. That would make sense since I live in Colorado. I think they should have tested with the word "sure": Does it sound like the r-controlled vowel in "bird" (which is the West), or does it sound like the r-controlled vowel in "tour" (which is Midwestern and several other areas)?

Edited: I've been reading the Wipipedia link above, and it certainly points out the limitations of the quiz. Bostonian and North Central were 3rd and 4th place for me and rated fairly highly (about 75%, it looks like), but my accent is nothing like a Bostonian's. They don't pronounce many "r"s, which is why we imitate it by saying: I pahk my cah in Hahvahd yahd (I park my car in Harvard yard), whereas I have pretty growly "r"s.

Thank you.

As least I know what geographical area I sound like now.

How an Aussie with English parents ended up with that accent is anyone's guess!!!

Does anyone know in what part of the country 'bag' rhymes with 'vague'? And does that mean they say "bage" and "vage" or "bag" and "vag"?

LOL! I wondered the same thing.

I had my mom, my sister and my son take this test last night. My sister and son showed up as Midlands as well, but my mom was "The West". Which baffles me, because I'm pretty certain we all answered the same way. Mom grew up in the Western US and has lived there the majority of her life, so that makes sense. What actually doesn't make sense is why the rest of us *don't* score as "West".

I also find it funny that we all score "Boston" pretty high on the graph and yet we've only spent one week there. Must have been something in the water...

Yeah, I was wondering that, also. On the face of it, they seem so far apart it's hard to imagine how they could sound the same.

LabRat

It said my accent was Midlands, which sort of makes sense as I grew up in Pennsylvania. But I've lived 15 years in the south and I *know* that's influenced my accent.

Maybe it's "bahg" and "vahg" (sounds like fog)(at least in my accent ) that rhyme... still sounds bizarre, though.

PJ

Oh, no, I've heard people say "vag" for vague. Drives me absolutely bonkers. Of course, I can't remember who they *are* right now, so I can't tell you which accent does it. :p

(I still claim it's not an accent and is just flat out mispronunciation. Yup yup.)

Bethy (who scored Boston this time, but is usually Midland...hmm...maybe it's a sign she should go visit Boston for the first time ever?)

I have 3 stories about the U.S. Southern Accent - all told to me by my sister, who moved to North Carolina as an adult.

1 - The fumigator told her there were "spotters" in the barn. She asked if "spotters" were a type of snake. (The fumigator was saying 'spiders'.)

2 - Her kids came home from Sunday School and told her they had learned about Jacob and his whale. She told them it was Jonah and the whale. They insisted it was Jacob. Turns out they had learned the story of Jacob's well.

3 - Shortly after their family moved to North Carolina my nephew had his first spelling test. He spent all night practicing "sat", "mat", "bat", etc. He came home with an F on the test, and told his mom, "They didn't say any of the words I practiced!" His mom asked what words they gave on the test, and he said he'd never heard those words before, but he spelled them the best he could. His mom looked at the test and saw the words "seat", "meat", "beat". My sister had to go to the school and explain to the teacher that her son's first language was Spanish. He had spelled the words he heard phonetically - according to Spanish spelling, where "se" is pronounced like "say" (that is, Spanish "e" is pronounced like the long English "a"). The words my nephew heard sounded to him like "say-at", "may-at", "bay-at".

According to the quiz I have a North Eastern Accent. New York City, Jersey, Rhode Island or Connecticut being the most likely.

"Midlands". I've spent my entire life either IN Chicago or on the outskirts of it, but northern Illinois wasn't included in those results, only southern.

The Inland North with the Northeast the most and the West the least. But I've lived my whole life in California, which was west last time I looked. However, I was born in Minnesota and grew up in a household of Minnesotans transplanted to California. Grandpa was Norwegian. Or as wikipedia said, "Minnewegian".
So I guess in California, full of immigrants from elsewhere, it's more a potpourri of accents than a distinct accent alone.

Artemis

Midland, reporting in. Let's see, my top two are...Northeast and Inland North. Just chalk it up to another military family. We spent most of our time in TX or AL, but we lived in a very Mexican part (and have Mexican relatives) in Texas, and one half of the family is from Queens. I just moved back to the Gulf of Mexico from Gawgia, but so far 'Y'all hasn't crept into my vocab.

Cheers
JD

Oh, I can definitely see this, Sue. When I lived in the Rockies, folks weren't born in a barn, they were barn in a born (sound wise to me anyway).


I came out Midlands, and I'm from Kentucky. The other day at work, though, someone told me I didn't have an Appalachian accent at all. That must come from the influence of other places I've lived.

And just an interesting aside for Labby. I've heard it said that an Appalachian accent is close to a Scottish accent.

urk! Midland accent. And yet I live, normally, 45 minutes from Boston. Me and a friend were talking about this just the other day...I just don't really seem to have an accent. Weirder still...my brother's been told he has a German accent by several people...our family's been in the US since the mayflower....

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.

Pretty accurate since I'm from one of them bigger Southern Cities. Yeehaw. Hee hee. Surprisingly most local Houstonians have no accent at all. It's the surrounding cities that have the Texas twang mostly.

Wow. That quiz pegged me as from Philadelphia. I actually was born and grew up in Arlington, VA, but my mother is from Philadelphia, so it makes sense to me that I would inherit a lot of her pronunciations. Neat!

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.
Result Breakdown:
100% The Midland
87% Philadelphia
85% The Inland North
81% The South
64% The Northeast
33% The West
19% Boston
15% North Central
Quiz Created on GoTo Quiz

Seems like all of us who don't speak english as a first language get the 'Inland North' result...curious!

To know if my pronunciation of the words was different or the same I had to repeat them a few times so when I saw 'bag' and 'vague'I was surprised because just by reading them I knew it's pronunciation was different.

It'd be interesting to know if anyone in this board pronunces them the same or at least pretty similar.

Carolyn