Regional Pronunciations Meme

[altivo]

An interesting one but you have to think carefully, from quickcasey:

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).

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

Folks outside North America... I dunno what you'll get. I think it includes Canada, but not UK or Commonwealth Nations. Someone should make a version of this for the UK, it would be fascinating. Oh, and marzolan, I'd really like to see your results. XD

Comments

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

The variance of British accents to get so extreme that sometimes they could almost be considered different languages. It would be hard to make a meme for this without excluding all the extremes, such as Orkish (from the Orkney Islands), and Ulster Scots.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think Ulster Scots might actually be a different language altogether. If you want to here some, Go here.

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

My results were accurate. I have a midland/western accent which is basically neutral between north and south.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

And typical for most of the Northwest too. US regional variants become difficult to identify when you get west of the Mississippi and North of the Platte. :) Having heard you, I agree with the assessment, and would add that you have a very nice radio announcer kind of voice.

[moth-wingthane.livejournal.com]

If I was American, I'd be a New Yorker apparently :)

[vimsig.livejournal.com]

Yes - so would I and I have a home counties non-accent or, to be more precise, speak the queen's english without such a big plum

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

Western/Midlands and pretty neutral, whatever that means, which means I'm earning all sorts of American-ity cred. Yay me!

I still like southern accents a great deal.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You've watched a lot of American films or listened to American radio a lot, I take it. Most Europeans sound more British to our ear than anything else.

[felder.livejournal.com]

Well for being a Brit.. this quiz has me as a North easterner ;)

Up from New York, or Conneticut/New England'ish I guess.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Makes sense to me. Since the New England-->New York-->Mid-Atlantic States had the largest original British populations, the regional language variations there tend to be closest to British pronunciations, if you allow for 200 years of divergence. This happens to be a subject that interest me a lot, so thanks for weighing in. :)

[miktar.livejournal.com]

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

o.o

Somehow, I don't think so.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I dunno. Johannesburg is definitely WAY south of the Ohio River isn't it? XD

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

I am sooooo not surprised at the results. I am a Southern pony ya know. :P

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.

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?

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

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes you are. The test is actually based on some pretty accurate tests, so for genuine Americans it should come out right unless they don't have the ear to identify the differences (some don't.)

[leopanthera.livejournal.com]

For better or for worse I have a UK RP accent, and this test thinks I'm from New York!

This test sucks. ;)

[vimsig.livejournal.com]

I have a home counties non-accent or, to be more precise, speak the queen's english without such a big plum

but there again, I would not use 'sucks' either

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Actually, I would expect the "Standard" English, like what they use on the BBC, to come out as New York or Middle Atlantic on this sort of test. So it didn't do all that badly. I'm assuming by "New York" they mean New York State, not New York City, which has small regional distinctions the same way that London neighborhoods do.

[delphinelicorne.livejournal.com]

I have a southern accent they say. Funny thing is this is not the first test to give me this result. but... Aeeh aimeu phranch.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

If you speak English with any kind of French accent, it would probably sound more Southern than not. Or, if you had a teacher who had some Southern characteristics, that would do it too.

[farhoug.livejournal.com]

This gave me both "northern" and "north-eastern" as an answer... well, it would be an odd thing for me to have any kind of pronounced accent that would fit in the parameters of that particular test anyways, since I haven't had that much exposure, yet. =)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You should do a phone post or put an MP3 file up some time so we can hear you, and tell you what region you sound like. It will probably depend on who your teaching models were for English. Most Europeans sound more British to us than American, because they've usually had teachers from the UK or Commonwealth countries, or listened to BBC broadcasts. :)

It would be fun to hear your voice.

[wolfgrowl.livejournal.com]

Actually mine was funny. I guess it is aimed at Americans and doesn't include Canada. It named a US region but said other Americans might mistake me for a Canadian. Given that I am a Canadian I found that quite amusing. Must be fairly accurate!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Which region did it give you? Canada from Ontario westward is pretty subtle to distinguish from pronunciation alone. You have to look at vocabulary choices instead. I'd expect most Western Canadians to come in as US midwesterners.

Since this is a field I've actually studied in depth, I can say that, yes, this quiz is pretty accurate given the small number of questions.

[drelonek.livejournal.com]

Central Florida for all but maybe.. two years? of my younger life.

Scored as a Western Accent. "Like Midland, Western is another accent that people consider neutral. So, you might not actually be from the Western half of the country, but you definitely sound like it."

Hurray?

[drelonek.livejournal.com]

Oh. And my family is all more or less from New York. Heh.

[calydor.livejournal.com]

Last time I did one of these, I got Inland North. Now it says I'm a southerner, which should mean that I'd understand a Texan accent, but I don't. Teh quiz is teh broken.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The quiz isn't broken. For the most part it's doing very well. See what it did with wolfgrowl above. It does have a very short list of questions, though, so that distinguishing between regions may hang on a single answer. You must have picked the "Texas" answer though offhand I don't know which one it was.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier (http://students.csci.unt.edu/~kun/survey.html) on Memegen.net (http://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).

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

Hmm. Not bad.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, it seems to get the real Americans right at least 90% of the time. Obviously it has a problem with folks from other English speaking nations.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

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

Northeastern.
You're probably from somewhere near New York City, possibly north Jersey, or Connecticut or Rhode Island. If you are from New York City you may be one of the types who people never believe when you say you're from New York.

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

East Coast Cat :D (I live on the East coast in Australia too)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Sorta makes sense, I guess.