My accent
Written on Thursday, February 21, 2008 by Jessica
I saw this quiz on Lisa's blog. For me, it was spot on:
| What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but 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." | |
| The Midland | |
| The Northeast | |
| Philadelphia | |
| The South | |
| The West | |
| Boston | |
| North Central | |
| What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz | |
Posted in
Miscellany
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I got the same as you.
J-
Sounds like you! You do call soda, pop and tennis shoes, sneakers.
I need to learn how to pronounce the word out as "oot" and say, "eh" a lot after I finish every sentence.
Z.
Actually, I say tennis shoes, not sneakers, although my grandma has always said sneakers, and she grew up in the same place I did. :) Of course, she also tends to say "oleo" instead of "margarine."
'Round these parts, we actually pronounce "out" as "owt," not "oot." Now, for most Canadians, their "out" sounds a lot like "oot." And I think once you head out to Minnesota and North Dakota, you're going to need to say "oot" to fit in. (I think so, but I'm sure a native will correct me if I'm wrong!)
Honestly, I think the pronunciation differences across the country are so much fun. I don't know why, but it's fun to compare differences. (I'm a nerd.)
So do you say pop? It seems to me people up here call it soda. I always called it pop until the last few years when now I call it soda. Fun!
Now that's interesting. I always thought Wiconsinites said "pop." I figured that if you ventured into Milwaukee, you might here "soda," but other than that, I thought it was strictly "pop."
I'm asking my Wisconsin coworker right now what he says.
Okay, he's not around. I guess I'll have to find out later.
I guess I was wrong. I have been assured that in Wisconsin, it's "soda" no matter what.
The quiz's summary does say, "Chances are you call carbonated drinks 'pop'" (my emphasis).
The "chances are" disclaimer must be for Inland North speakers who live in Wisconsin!
I speak the same as you. I take comfort in the fact that experts say midwestern English is the most like true English.
True English? What about those English people who live in England? Isn't what they speak a little closer to true English? :)
Seriously, I've certainly noticed some difference between how I say some words and how a newscaster might say them. For example, "Orange." A lot of people pronounce it "arnj." Quite a few turn it into two syllables: "ar-inj." Me and everyone around here? "Ornj."
Oh, and mischievous! Everyone around here says "mis-CHEE-vee-us," like the word "previous." But you know what? "Mischievous" is not spelled in a way to be pronounced like "previous." I was in college before I noticed. Now I either pronounce is correctly or avoid the word altogether so as not to sound like a know-it-all.
English in England is true English. That's what they mean. They say midwestern accents are closest to English accents than any other in America.
I say pop. LOL