<p>This is a break off of the customer service thread…</p>
<p>My little sister found this quiz on the internet.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have[/url]”>http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have</a></p>
<p>Sure enough, it came up with “Philadelphia” as my accent type. What did everyone else get?</p>
<p>I ended up with Midland (ie, not really anything, but somewhat lightly southern) with subcategories West and South.</p>
<p>Funny. Born and lived a few years in Cali, moved to Texas, spent some time in Louisiana, moved back to Cali when I was 12… sounds pretty accurate to me.</p>
<p>The quiz was pretty accurate for me too - I had to see a speech therapist in school since I couldn’t make the ‘th’ sound. So I still say “dis and dat” instead of “this and that” like I was one of the Sopranos. I was born and raised in New Jersey so what’s da difference??</p>
<p>I got Midland. I’m from New England. My father has a Boston accent and my mother has no accent (grew up all over US, including Hawaii, and abroad). I also spent ages 3-10 in speech therapy, so that probably kicked any potential accent out of me.</p>
<p>It put me in the “inland north” where I lived a total of 3 years while in A2. Was never in that area before or since. And to call soda “pop”? Heaven forbid. So it got me wrong.</p>
<p>Tried and true Fylledelfien accent here…it was dead on. Actually, when I speak to someone on the phone for my job, and they ask what kind of accent I have, my stock answer is “accent? What accent?” :D</p>
<p>I got Inland North after living in Michigan until I was 12, overseas for 6 years after that, and in Massachusetts for the past 20+ years.</p>
<p>So hayden, as another Inland North, where do you think it should have put you?</p>
<p>P.S. I’d never refer to soda as Pop either, and I personally don’t think I sound like I come from the Midwest…</p>
<p>I got “the west”. Although it says I could be from Florida, which I am, so it got me right! I don’t think I have an accent at all.</p>
<p>When I was in college at NC, people used to think I was from the northeast (because I didn’t have a southern accent), and the people from the northeast thought I was from the south (because I didn’t talk like them either). I guess I had the ugly stepchild of accents.</p>
<p>It got me completely wrong. It says I have a midland accent aka no accent at all. I have actually quite a Minnesotan accent. Whenever I stand in front of people, they ask me where my accent is from.</p>
<p>It says that I’m from the Northeast and indicates that if I was from NYC other New Yorkers could tell from my accent. Well, I’m a born and bred New Yorker and no one thinks I am. It was my mother’s life-long dream to raise us without accents. I guess she succeeded - somewhat!</p>
<p>Interesting quiz. Pegged me as Northeastern; dead-on, I’m a nutmegger born and bred.</p>
<p>I’ve dealt professionally with a number of english speaking foreigners- Canadians, Irish, French, German, Asians of many types, mostly via telephone long before the days of email and video conferencing, and I had to make a conscious effort to NOT adapt my voice and accent to match that of the speaker on the other end. Honestly, it was quite difficult. </p>
<p>Just something the way my brain sorted and processed the accent… my words just came out in the speaker’s accent, no conscious effort on my part to mimic.</p>
<p>We would travel extensively in Maritime Canada, for two and three week periods when the kids were younger, and after two days, I’d sound like a native. It annoyed the bejesus out of my wife, my kids got a kick out of it.</p>
<p>It was never conscious on my part.</p>
<p>I have the ability to accurately mimic voice patterns, and while I played around abit over the years trying to perfect a few (Nixon, Brando as Don Corleone, Churchill, my son’s Russian music coach) I use it on occaision to annoy friends and telemarketers.</p>
<p>Interestingly, my son has the same ability for mimicry, and actually puts some of my attempts to shame. He has “perfect pitch”; I’d be interested in knowing if there’s a relationship between that ability and reproducing an accent. Maybe the acting/theater folks or linguistic specialists have some insights.</p>
<p>I took a very similar quiz about a month ago <a href=“http://www.youthink.com/quiz.asp?action=take&quiz_id=9827[/url]”>http://www.youthink.com/quiz.asp?action=take&quiz_id=9827</a> many of the questions are the same but I like the one posted here as it has a rundown of different percentages towards different accents. Of course that didn’t matter for me who came out 100% Boston which is correct “You definitely have a Boston accent, even if you think you don’t. Of course, that doesn’t mean you are from the Boston area, you may also be from New Hampshire or Maine.” Even though the “pahk the cah” stuff is less pronounced than when I was younger, the vowels are still very much in the Boston mode.</p>
<p>I’ll have my kids try this new one, they ended up mid-west non-accent on the first, which is pretty correct. We don’t live close to the city anymore and many more people are transplants who stay a few years, so the accents tend to dissipate…</p>
<p>Ha, it has me accurately pegged as Midland. I live on the Ohio/PA border, and prior to that Atlanta for 20 years. People in Ohio think I sound vaugely southern and in the south, they thought I sounded vaugely “yankee”.</p>
<p>“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."</p>
<p>violadad - I do the same thing. I can mimic anybody and I pick up accents without thinking about it. The way I sounded after 2 years in London wouold put Madonna to shame.
My husband and son had no accent but my daughter sounded quite posh. It lasted for about 2 days once she came back to her friends in the states. She was quite young and there was nothing “put-on” about it. Odd…</p>
<p>The Inland North - I guess that is correct for a Michigander.</p>
<p>How can you tell someone from the Detroit area?</p>
<p>If you ask them where they work, they often put an “s” at the end of the word.</p>
<p>For example, “I work at Fords.”</p>
<p>I guess I got more of Boston from my mother than I thought! Midland was a stong second - Dad is from Chicago. They used to argue all the time about Merry, Mary and Marry. My mother makes all three different, Dad all three the same. I only make Marry different. </p>
<p>What I think is weird is how one child may pick up the local accent while everyone else sounds like their parents. My brother has four kids, only one sounds like they are from NH. Mathson has definite NY accent, which we think he picked up from his babysitter, but not his little brother.</p>
<p>Dead-on Northeast here. I was born and bred in northern NJ, living there my first 38 years. None of us have picked up any trace of a Boston accent in the 8 years we have lived here.</p>
<p>We know a family that temporarily relocated to the UK when their kids were 7 and 4. A few years later, mom, dad and older son retain their Chicago accents while the youngest is 100% Brit. It is the funnniest thing.</p>
<p>Midland - born and bred.</p>
<p>Mine was so accurate!!! Midland, it is. I have no accent because I’m from Southern Ohio.</p>
<p>Definitely accurate. I got Northeast.</p>