YAQ: What's My Accent?

[vakkotaur]

Via babsbunny:



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).

If you are not from the North, you are probably one of the following:
(a) A Southerner who hates Southern accents and tries really hard to "talk right"; or
(b) A New Yorker or New Jerseyan who doesn't have the full accent

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...

Northcentral Wisconsin.
Yes, I now live in Minnesota, but I don't speak Minnesotan by default.

Comments

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

?

[pndc.livejournal.com]

It reckons I'm from New York :)

(In reality, a mix-up of all sorts of bits and pieces from Northern England.)

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

Western. 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.

And if you're not from the West, you are probably one of the following:
(a) A Pittsburgher - the quiz can't tell the difference;
(b) Someone from Canada (probably southern Ontario) who doesn't have a Canadian accent;
(c) Someone from northern New England who doesn't have a New England accent; or
(d) Someone from Texas or the Heartland who was born after 1980.
You are definitely not from New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Detroit, the Deep South, etc.


Odd result that. And just what is a "Canadian accent", pray tell? I really hope it wasn't that "about" question where Americans think we say "aboot", because if it was, that quiz gets a size 13 aboot right up its ... well, wherever a quiz is sensitive the most.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure, really. I cannot recall any 'aboot' from a Canadian who wasn't consciously mocking the pronunciation. Which is unlike the 'eh?' ending to a sentence which I know if often denied but which I have heard unconsciously used more than once. What I don't know for sure is if that is a universal (or close to universal) Canadian-ism or if it's something that one encounters more "in the sticks" as it were.