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January 12, 2008
What Kind of American Accent Do You Have?
(if you are American)
This accent quiz dares to tell me I have a Boston accent. Just because I was born in Boston, lived the first two plus years of my life there, went to college in the state, lived the first year and a half of my marriage just over the border in New Hampshire...and my dad grew up on the outskirts of Boston, my aunts and uncles and grandparents live/d there and I visited them most summers growing up...I don't believe it for a minute. And I love New England and Boston and all the people who live there. I just don't think I sound like them.
Seriously. :-) I must have answered the quiz wrong the first time.
My husband David came out "Midlands" (which they translate as meaning "no accent"). Maybe because he has lived in New England, the Midwest, and the Pacific Coast (but wait, so have I), along with five other countries (okay, I've only done three).
Our son Jason came out "North Central" (a Minnesota accent). Just because he was born and lived the first 6 months of his life in northern suburbs of Chicago? This quiz is puzzling.
Let me do it again.
Okay, I feel better. I thought better of one of my answers (I think I misinterpreted their intended level of pickiness), and this time I came out as having an accent from "The West." It's the place I have lived longest in my adult life (10 years in California).
Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all...
Would someone from the deep South take this quiz and tell me if it tells you you sound like you come from there? Or anyone else, I'd love to hear your results. Of course, the thing only has eight whole questions, so it's not too detailed.
January 12, 2008 | Permalink
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Comments
Katherine - I took the quiz, and you know how southern my accent is. The quiz also said that I had a "Midlands" accent. Maybe I needed more questions to answer. - Amy
Posted by: Amy | Jan 12, 2008 6:06:24 PM
Gave me Midland too with West a close second. Lived in northern CA from shortly after birth until 26 and in Seattle area since then (41 now). Probably just from watching way too much TV in my youth.
Posted by: jeffy | Jan 12, 2008 9:55:00 PM
When I took the test, I was given an "Inland North" accent, which means that they think I am from Wisconsin, or Minnesota! I was born in upstate New York, lived on Long Island, but lived from the age of 12 in Connecticut and Massachusetts! From there to New Jersey, but from age 29 to 45 I lived in Switzerland, so go figure. Then back to Massachusetts, again in New Jersey, and for the last 12 years, in Virginia. I have yet even to visit Minnesota! But it is on my list, as I have friends who live there now! Fun stuff to do the test, though! Thanks, Katherine, Love you..Mom
Posted by: Patricia Taylor | Jan 13, 2008 1:51:56 AM
William just took it, and was told he was definitely from Philadelphia!!! My Virginia gentleman, born and raised on the Northern Neck, living in North Carolina for 18 years, Charlottesville for over 18 years, and NYC only six of his nearly 65 years! Do you think the not quite two years in Vietnam did something to his "accent"?!!! ;-) Mom
Posted by: Patricia Taylor | Jan 13, 2008 2:06:31 AM
Katherine. Northeast for me too. Go figure :)
Posted by: Paul | Jan 13, 2008 3:00:10 PM
I'm enjoying the accent comment party here...we're all a beautiful mish-mash.
Posted by: Katherine | Jan 13, 2008 3:12:51 PM
I was born and raised in Southern Cal spending all of my summers on the beach hangin' with the surfers ;) until I was 20. Moved from there to Northern Cal, four years in Germany in the 80's and the last five in Ideehoo and it tells me my accent is: The Midlands. Go figger.
Posted by: randall | Jan 13, 2008 4:30:22 PM
I was told Philadelphia! I guess it's because I'm from NC but moved to Ohio when I was 8 and got teased for sounding like a "Yankee" when I would visit family in the south!
Interesting quiz!
Posted by: Melene | Jan 15, 2008 2:41:40 AM
Midlands it is! Guess once you are whisked out of New York City as a baby and raised mostly in Rochester, New York, the Great Lakes accent washes into your soul. Doesn't matter I have lived now 30 of my 66 years in Virginia, does it? Great quiz. I so remember hearing that flat A in a conversation with a young girl, "It prAacticAlly mAatches my jAcket." Love, Aunt Willow
Posted by: Willow | Jan 15, 2008 2:58:47 PM
I'm solidly THE WEST. Don't know how it could have accurately come out any differently. Short of a college trimester spent in Germany, I've been in CA my whole life.
Posted by: Skeller | Jan 15, 2008 7:03:54 PM
I got Midland too. People always used to say I never had much of an accent...I think all my college roomates were midwesterners and that definitely rubbed off. The longer I'm in NC, the more I think I pick up :-) I actually heard "Well I swannee" (I have no idea how you spell it) come out of my mouth. Never heard of that before here...and 2 words they say crazy here--you'd think Beauchamp should be a French sounding name? Not here--they say it Beecham. And Buena Vista...is said b-you-na.
Anyway, it cracks me up, apparently they didn't want their French originating names to sound French any longer :-)
Posted by: Angie | Jan 19, 2008 5:32:54 PM
Interesting quiz. Raised in Michigan for 16 years and then moved to SoCal for another 6 years. In CA I was always told exactly where I was from...Michigan. According to the quiz I have no accent. I don't know...
Posted by: Random Reader | Jan 20, 2008 4:26:45 PM
