Accent quiz

[feuervogel]

I like this quiz a lot better than some other dialect/accent quizzes I've seen. I did, in fact, grow up south of the Mason-Dixon line, by about 20 miles. I spent 3 years in Pennsylvania for college (where people said don and dawn exactly the same) and a year in upstate Noo Yawk (where I picked up a habit of saying "kawfee," thankfully now relegated to the past), and I've lived in Nawth Caruhlahna for about 12 years (except the disastrous year in Oregon, which didn't affect my accent any).

Actually, several Oregonians commented that I didn't have an accent; it's not very strong unless I get around other heavily-accented Southerners. What I think they meant was "you don't sound like a hillbilly," because a lot of Northerners equate a Southern accent with mental deficiency or being an utter backwater hick (which to some people are equivalent), which makes me extremely stabby. One kid I spent a little time rotating with said he heard it after I said "Nice meeting you" as we left a patient's room. (It came out approximately "naahs meetin yeew.")

I have picked up one North Carolina-ism since I've been here, and that's the double modal: might could/might should, where might means approximately maybe. I like it, actually.

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

Southern. Love it or hate it, your accent says you're probably from somewhere south of the Ohio River.

If you're not from the South, you probably were overanalyzing the questions. Take the quiz again but don't think so hard next time.

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

Comments

[krait]

I grew up all over the place, so my accent is pretty much Generic/"Radio Broadcaster Neutral". :D A bit Southwestern (I pronounce Spanish words/names correctly, and overuse "like" when excited nearly as much as a Valley Girl) in usage/grammar, but that region doesn't really have an accent to call its own...

[krait]

Haha, I was right! Know thyself. :D

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

Neutral. Not Northern, Southern, or Western, just American. Your national American identity is more important to you than your local identity, because you don't really have a local identity to begin with.

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

[krait]

So very wrong about the lack of local identity, though...

[amakarie.livejournal.com]

You don't really seem to have a southern accent to me; I always thought you sounded like you were from the north or midwest. :S

[feuervogel]

It's not a strong accent at all. It's actually more Mid-Atlantic Standard than southern per se, but the quiz didn't really distinguish between those two. One of my Goethe classmates was from central Virginia, and our Brazilian classmate said our accents were different when we spoke English, but they were fairly similar. I broaden my I's more than he does, I think.

caught, on, and dawn all rhyme for me, but cot and don are different. I think that's one of the quiz' criteria for southern.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Bah! I am a Yankee (born and raised in New York), and I like Southern accents. I don't equate them with mental deficiency (I know, you said "a lot" and I won't argue that, but I will provide a counterexample). I actually think they can be quite nice. Although I tend to think of them as more the Texan accent or perhaps sort of the... I'm not sure, maybe Georgian? I was first exposed to Southern accents when my brother went to college in Texas and made friends with Texans, so that was my primary exposure (including someone I quite liked who had a lovely Texan drawl and was in no way mentally deficient) and other exposures were from television. When the accents are more mild or maybe less of what I think of as Southern, I might not know they are Southern (it's not like it's always clear where a character is from) or might simply not think about it.

But I've always thought it was a pretty accent. And very, very different from my own.

[feuervogel]

There's a very lovely Georgian accent, with broad vowels and soft consonants. One of my college classmates had it. But most people think of the hillbilly accent when they think of southern, probably because all they know about the south is Jeff Foxworthy and Deliverance.

Kind of like how a lot of Americans think all Germans are Nazis, because all they know is WW2 movies.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Wait? Germans aren't evil? Maybe it's only the one I live with who is.

(Although in fairness, he's definitely not a Nazi. In fact, he's a blood traitor. He'd have been in big trouble for that.)

[feuervogel]

Your German is very evil ;)