Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Just for Fun

What American accent do you have?
Your Result: The Midland

"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.

The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
North Central
The Northeast
The West
Boston
What American accent do you have?
Take More Quizzes

11 comments:

jenbmcd said...

I have a Midland accent too. And here I always thought my voice sounded horrible (i.e., not ready for radio or TV). Hmph.

Girl with the Interesting Hair said...

It pegged me as a Philadelphian, no ifs, ands or buts. Completely correct & embarrassing.

Bill said...

I must confess, I have no idea what a Philadelphia accent might sound like. (Pennsylvania Coal Region, yes, but ...)

"Yo, Adrian"?

Lauren Swartzmiller said...

I got the Philadelphia accent result as well. Interesting, as I was born and raised in upstate New York and have never set foot in Philadelphia, south Jersey, Baltimore or Wilmington, the places suggested as the possible origin for this accent. Well, I always knew I sounded strangely.

Many thanks for the link, kind sir.

Girl with the Interesting Hair said...

I grew up in the Philly 'burbs & never thought I had the dreaded (according to my Bostonian mother) accent. If I could reproduce it phonetically for the rest of you, I would. I moved to San Francisco about 7 & a half years ago, dated a native who has Philly relatives, and HE said I had traces of the accent. And I do catch myself every once in a while. Whaddaya gonna do?

Interface said...

It said I as from the north east too, maybe New Jersey but probably New York City. I am an Australian, born and bred in Melbourne. But I have visited New York.

Lillie said...

It pegged me exactly right: from the Northeast.

I remember in college some Philadelphians bonding over their pronunciation of H20: "wooder."

Bill said...

The longer quiz intrigued me, until I read the results. It gave me two: Southern first and then Midland. Southern couldn't be further from the truth.

The Southern markers would seem to be saying "feel" like "fill" and saying "time" with an "ah" sound, so I don't know how it pegged me as one of them people when I most definitely didn't answer those questions that way.

Bill said...

Vindication here (another rather flawed test, as evidenced by its lack of "none of the above" choices on some very "none of the above" questions):

34% Dixie. You are definitely a Yankee.

Bill said...

Another test, another lack of "none of the above" choices on some bizarre questions. But at least I'm not Southern at all!


***Your Linguistic Profile:***

60% General American English

20% Upper Midwestern

10% Yankee

5% Midwestern

0% Dixie

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?
http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofamericanenglishdoyouspeakquiz/

Bill said...

I know I've seen a good one of these quizzes, but as I recall it was designed to give data to a scholar, not to give a result to the taker.

I mean, potato bugs? I'm not even sure I could identify one if it were crawling up my leg. Drive-through liquor stores? And who doesn't say both "water fountain" and "drinking fountain"? Crawfish, crayfish -- whatever. I don't TP or toilet-paper (on Devil's Night!), but if I did I might say either. I say cruller when it's a cruller! I say Coke when it's Coke and tonic when it's tonic, and I take a certain amount of pride in my "pop" heritage, but I say "soft drink" formal writing and "soda" so that the masses will understand.