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What American accent do I have?

Posted on March 22, 2007March 22, 2007 by Eric, your haikuist

What American accent do you have?

Your Result: North Central
 

“North Central” is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw “Fargo” you probably didn’t think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.

The West
 
The Midland
 
Boston
 
The Inland North
 
The South
 
Philadelphia
 
The Northeast
 
What American accent do you have?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

It’s always a little jarring to even be reminded that I have an accent. Surely, it’s everybody else? No?

When I saw Fargo, I really did feel that the accents were only a slightly-exaggerated version of the accents I grew up with in Saskatchewan. That’s probably the first time I actually heard someone in a movie doing that accent.

When I moved to Toronto, I noticed immediately that everybody was taking like the actors on Degrassi High and The Kids in the Hall, even though until that moment, I had never even thought of them as having any accent at all. And now, living in Vancouver, I almost never notice the local accent, though I noticed it when I moved here (they say their short-as and long-os funny here). When I meet someone from the Prairies, though, I can usually pick up on it, especially if they’re from a small town. And then once they start talking about a whack of bunny hugs and gautch in the slough, the jig is up.

On my international adventures, I always get called out on my Canadian pronunciation of “aboot”, which I simply cannot hear. This annoys me to no end, since I was always convinced it was a myth, and I really can’t tell the difference between the way I say “about” and the way Americans say it.

Category: me

6 thoughts on “What American accent do I have?”

  1. meggomyeggo says:
    March 22, 2007 at 8:00 pm

    Haha Philly? Maybe I should retake this. Actually, so I will admit to having a bit of a Sask’ccent (term courtesy of some fellow SKers) but I think that a lot of American television as a child helped neutralize me somewhat. I tried a demo of an English learning application for Japanese children – an exercise to improve your pronunciation. You read a short passage into a microphone and the application calculated the accuracy of your pronunciation based on the American model of “good” pronunciation. I scored 87% and at first was like…”oh, probably because I am Canadian” but the researchers dropped their jaws and were like, “no…that’s the highest we have ever seen!!” So now…I want them to model an automated voice after me. Haha.
    What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you’re not from Philadelphia, then you’re from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you’ve ever journeyed to some far off place where people don’t know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn’t have a clue what accent it was they heard.The Midland The Inland North The South The Northeast North Central Boston The West What American accent do you have?Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

  2. David says:
    March 22, 2007 at 10:19 pm

    Inland north, baby: when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like “Are you from Wisconsin?” or “Are you from Chicago?” Chances are you call carbonated drinks “pop.”

    Quite a neat little quiz.

  3. Gillian says:
    March 23, 2007 at 5:01 pm

    I have a strong North Central accent — surprise, surprise! I won’t how long it takes for the accent to dull, if you’re living in a different region.

  4. Gillian says:
    March 23, 2007 at 5:01 pm

    Whoops, I meant, “I wonder….”

    My brain is shot from writing scripts all day.

    –G

  5. T. says:
    March 24, 2007 at 12:01 pm

    Midland for me. I’m accent-less!

  6. Eddy says:
    April 7, 2007 at 6:51 am

    Midland as well. Radio talk shows, here I come. (Hmmm… must be from my dad’s influence.)

    Fun poll. ‘sup WUB?

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