14 Responses to American Accents »»

Comments

1. Roy Comment by Roy | 2007/06/21 at 23:12:56

   [url=http://www.youthink.com/quiz.asp?action=take&quiz_id=9827]What American accent do you have? (Best version so far)[/url]

   My Results:

   [url=http://www.youthink.com/quiz.asp?action=take&quiz_id=9827][img]http://www.youthink.com/quiz_images/full_674423600.jpg[/img][/url]

   Mid Atlantic

   Also known as a “Philadelphia accent” but also heard in south Jersey, Baltimore, and thereabouts.

2. Tanja Comment by Tanja | 2007/06/21 at 23:13:13

   I’m Midland too.

3. Roy Comment by Roy | 2007/06/21 at 23:13:52

   booooo. no bbCode

4. biquet Comment by biquet | 2007/06/22 at 09:04:59

   Midland, unsurprisingly, though I have picked up a bit of the “cot”/”caught” distinction since moving out East.

   I’m bristling slightly at the quiz writer’s characterization of the Midlands dialect as “neutral,” not because it’s inaccurate but because the term carries too many connotations. It’s easy to read the Midlands description and come away thinking “I talk normally and everyone else talks funny”–which of course is what speakers of every dialect think.

   I would use a more specific linguistic term and call the Midlands dialect “unmarked.” But that’s a nitpick. It’s not fundamentally wrong to call this dialect “neutral,” just potentially misleading.

5. Roy Comment by Roy | 2007/06/22 at 09:57:37

   One thing that I thought was odd was the “BAG”/”VAGUE” question. In what accent do these two words rhyme? Brandon?

6. Joey Joe Comment by Joey Joe | 2007/06/22 at 10:16:06

   

7. Roy Comment by Roy | 2007/06/22 at 11:37:20

   OK, so it turns out that according to the explanation site http://freeshells.ch/~xavier/survey.html the bag/vague rhyming occurs in “North Central” aka Upper Midwest Fargo-like area and perhaps Canada. Interesting.

8. biquet Comment by biquet | 2007/06/22 at 12:37:30

   The “bag”/”vague” thing is an example of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift*. The dialect spoken in upper Midwestern cities is changing right before our very ears. The /a/ sound in “father” is moving forward in the mouth, getting closer to the short ‘a’ sound in “cat”. This in turn is pushing the short ‘a’ vowel forward and up into the space occupied by the short ‘e’ in “bet.”

   Find a white person from Milwaukee and ask them to say “backpack.” The vowel you hear in both syllables is different from the one we use. The Milwaukee speaker will produce something closer to “beckpeck.” There may be some diphthongization, but it won’t be as extreme as “bake-pake”.

   So how does it end up rhyming with “vague”? I think the example only works if speakers of the upper Midwestern dialect pronounce it more like “vegg,” which is possible but unattested (seeing as how I don’t have a native speaker nearby).

   *Or, as I wrote first, the “Northern Cities Vowel Shit.”

9. Roy Comment by Roy | 2007/06/22 at 13:03:22

   ooo I have a new favorite word: ‘diphthongization’! Thanks for the insight; linguistics has always fascinated me.

10. keaven Comment by keaven | 2007/06/22 at 13:08:56

    I just knew that brandon wouldn’t be able to resist commenting on the “neutral” classification I, however, will keep my oppressive-white-male comments to myself

11. Jamie Comment by Jamie | 2007/06/22 at 16:27:15

    “Northern - the Western New England accent that news networks go for.” I sound just like Katie Couric.

12. Mom Comment by Mom | 2007/06/24 at 10:31:00

    http://www.youthink.com/quiz.asp?action=take&quiz_id=9827

    Northern

    You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for.

    The schematic (would not paste/copy) covers eastern North Dakota and Minnesota to the eastern New York Mountains - all the areas that I grew up in (except TEXAS) - so go figure. Keafer’s grandparents grew up in the mid North and since his grandfather was an English teacher - I s’pose the influence was strong no matter where we lived - and through at least three generations!

13. Mom Comment by Mom | 2007/06/24 at 10:48:03

    These are Dad’s results *even with his Portuguese accent go figure …

    My Results:

    [url=http://www.youthink.com/quiz.asp?action=take&quiz_id=9827][img]http://www.youthink.com/quiz_images/full_428371978.jpg[/img][/url]

    Midland

    (”Midland” is not necessarily the same thing as “Midwest”) The default, lowest-common-denominator American accent that newscasters try to imitate. Since it’s a neutral accent, just because you have a Midland accent doesn’t mean you’re from the Midland.

    ps - put the wrong link for mine - sorry

14. keaven Comment by keaven | 2007/06/25 at 14:50:21

    Hmmm.. i wonder if dad put in what he thought was correct, rather than what he actually speaks heh

    anyway, thanks for the mini-history lesson mom

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