LilleOSC Senior Member United States lille.theoffside.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6699 days ago 545 posts - 546 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Arabic (Written)
| Message 1 of 74 12 February 2008 at 7:31pm | IP Logged |
If you have an American accent there is a website that helps tell you which one you have depending on the
questions you answer for a quiz.
Quote:
To most Americans, an accent is something that only other people have, those other people usually being
in New York, Boston, and the South. And of those other people, half of the ones you meet will swear they "don't
have an accent."
Well, strictly speaking, the only way to not have an accent is to not speak. If you're from anywhere in the USA
you have an accent (which may or may not be the accent of the place you're from). Go through this short quiz
and you'll find out just which accent that is. |
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http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have
My results:
"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."
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Alfonso Octoglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6869 days ago 511 posts - 536 votes Speaks: Biblical Hebrew, Spanish*, French, English, Tzotzil, Italian, Portuguese, Ancient Greek Studies: Nahuatl, Tzeltal, German
| Message 2 of 74 12 February 2008 at 10:23pm | IP Logged |
I'm not a native English speaker and I'm not from the U.S.A., but I lived in Ontario, Canada, for two years. So I answered the quiz according to the English I learned, heard and practiced in Canada and the results seem to reflect that.
My results: North Central
"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.
Interesting! Because it's accurate when it says my English has something to do with Canadian accent. :)
My English is far from perfect and my pronunciation deficient in many cases, but, as a learner, I've been always very scrupulous in order to reproduce, the best possible, the sounds my teachers and other native speakers pronounce when learning my target languages. I try my best to imitate them.
Edited by Alfonso on 14 February 2008 at 1:44pm
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leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6558 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog
| Message 3 of 74 12 February 2008 at 11:17pm | IP Logged |
My 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."
I'm from the Seattle area, so it was right!
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vhdhkfh Diglot Newbie Korea, South Joined 6217 days ago 22 posts - 20 votes Speaks: Korean*, English Studies: French
| Message 4 of 74 13 February 2008 at 12:34am | IP Logged |
English is my second language and by no means am I fluent in it.
Anyway, I did the test just for fun.
It says I have a New Yorker's accent. I don't know where that came from.
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Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6711 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map
| Message 5 of 74 13 February 2008 at 3:05am | IP Logged |
Funny test, but it may be problematic for those of us who aren't US citizens and who hear English from all over the planet. I was bracketed as an Inland Northener from around the Great Lakes, which may or may not be a plausible guess (though of course wrong). However I noticed that many of my answers depended on making clear differences in vowel length or not("cot" vs. "caught"). I generally do mark that distinction so this one trait counts very heavily in the statistics. On the other hand I don't use different vowels in Mary/merry/marry or about/loud. It maybe true that people from the Great Lakes area show the same traits in their dialect, but I doubt that I have got my habits specifically from that area. And I don't say "pop" for fizzling unhealthy drinks..
It reminds me of an episode in England where I was diagnosed as Welsh without having ever visited Wales.
Edited by Iversen on 13 February 2008 at 7:49am
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Eriol Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6874 days ago 118 posts - 130 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Portuguese
| Message 6 of 74 13 February 2008 at 3:33am | IP Logged |
As a non-native I had to give up on number 8 because I pronounce "Mary" and "marry" the same but "merry" differently. I don't speak enough English to do a test like this anyway...
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LN Groupie United States Joined 6280 days ago 39 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English Studies: Russian
| Message 7 of 74 13 February 2008 at 4:46am | IP Logged |
My results:
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.
Not surprising, since I learned all of my English in New York City...
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William Triglot Newbie Hong Kong Joined 6142 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin Studies: Cantonese
| Message 8 of 74 13 February 2008 at 6:01am | IP Logged |
I got "The West (the lowest common denominator of American speech)". Accurate, as I am from Colorado
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