lastlife Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6481 days ago 85 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese
| Message 25 of 74 18 February 2008 at 9:45pm | IP Logged |
"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.
I'm from Florida.
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JasonChoi Diglot Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6367 days ago 274 posts - 298 votes Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Latin
| Message 26 of 74 22 February 2008 at 8:00am | IP Logged |
Wow.. I was surprised to see how accurate it is for me:
"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."
I'm from northern New Jersey ;)
-Jason
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Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6902 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map
| Message 27 of 74 23 February 2008 at 6:52am | IP Logged |
Though I don't have any kind of american accent (one of the lucky few ;o), I tried this test, based on the more or less standard UK accent that I try to mimic in my speech, admittedly with varying degrees of success.
To me there is a clear difference in pronunciation between all those alternatives, except ou in loud and about, and this came back as a "North Eastern" accent in the test.
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slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6683 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English
| Message 28 of 74 23 February 2008 at 7:38am | IP Logged |
My results:
"You definitely have a Boston accent, even if you think you don't. Of course, that doesn't mean you are from the Boston area, you may also be from New Hampshire or Maine."
I always thought I had an Spanish accent...:o)
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Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6876 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language
| Message 29 of 74 27 February 2008 at 12:02am | IP Logged |
It pegged me as Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) and said it's another way of saying I "don't have an accent."
I think that's an accurate description, as I am from Nebraska, which is part of the midwest. However, I was born and raised in a town very near (almost within jogging distance if you are into marathons...or 15 minutes by car) from the Colorado border, and I've been told that's actually the West.
My entirely family is from Colorado (I'm a first generation Nebraskan) so doubtless their accent has influenced mine someone, and when I go to Colorado I hear practically no difference between their speech and mine. But, I go to university on the other side of the state, not far from Missouri, which is decidedly Midwest (Lincoln, specifically). Once again, I hear no difference in accent (nor from most of the other students on campus, the majority who are from Nebraska).
Somehow, I have noticed how sometimes members of my family tend to have a twangier sound to some of their words (like imitating a movie cowboy, I guess, for those of you who don't know what I mean), but I've never noticed that myself. After living a year in Mexico, I sometimes (like today) catch myself saying "this" but sounding almost exactly like "these" even after five years or so. I don't think living a year in Germany has really changed the way I speak, however.
In short, I'm not sure how "midland" I really am.
By the way, it said I mostly have southern qualities, which is really odd. I've barely been down there, but maybe it's because I analyzed the sounds closely before choosing an answer? Closely after that it said Western qualities, which I understand.
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SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6667 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian
| Message 30 of 74 27 February 2008 at 10:36am | IP Logged |
My result: Inland North.
It's accurate, because I'm not far from Cleveland. The only possible inaccuracy is that I call it "soda" rather than "pop." However, I went to school in New England.
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Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6876 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language
| Message 31 of 74 28 February 2008 at 12:28am | IP Logged |
I say both soda and pop. Pop is the regional word, but to me I've used them both enough that they are both "native" to me now. I recognized this once when I asked for a soda once, and the person laughed and said "You mean pop." I couldn't remember which word was the correct one to use in my region, as I was so accustomed to both. I'll probably make this mistake again.
I don't say "coke" generically though (to me a Coke is any version of a Coca-Cola), and I never say "fizzy drink" but that's more British and Australian (and I'm not sure where else) I believe.
Anyway, that's more of a dialect question than strictly an "accent" one.
Edited by Journeyer on 28 February 2008 at 12:30am
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TDC Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6929 days ago 261 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, French Studies: Esperanto, Ukrainian, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Persian
| Message 32 of 74 01 March 2008 at 1:58am | IP Logged |
I got south which would be correct because I'm from NC. But my next highest level was Midland, which was nearly the same level.
However, I don't pronounce "on" to rhyme with "dawn" or "don" but with "bone".
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