<p>Midland. I am from Dallas, which is one of the choices for the Midland accent. I didn’t move to the U.S. (Dallas) until I was 11, though…</p>
<p>the south…I’ve lived in NC all my life. Spent the first half of my life in a rural area with no “outside accents” so my drawl was pretty firmly entrenched by the time I married and moved to a city with a much larger mix of voices. Even other southerners think my accent is funny. It’s such a regional thing.</p>
<p>I got Midland and I consider it to be an accurate appraisal. I have lived in Kentucky my entire life. I’d love to show the results to a few nutty people I’ve met. Occasionally I have had someone tell me that I have a Southern accent. Funny though, it only happens after I have disclosed where I am from. When I have visited my husband’s relatives in Alabama, they tell us that It’s obvious we are not from “around their neighborhood”! </p>
<p>In my state, their are several regional accents. People fom eastern KY do not sound like people from western KY. People from Louisville and N. KY sound midwestern, as do some people from the central part of the state. I was born in Louisville, moved to Lexington at age 14, and moved to N.KY in my early 20s. I’ve always had a TV broadcaster accent - no Southern drawl.</p>
<p>I just took the second test, and it came up west again, so they agree. (And I HAVE been to California twice, and Colorado once. 
) But there was a comment: “If you really want to sound “neutral,” learn how to say “stock” and “stalk” differently.”</p>
<p>How? I only know them as homonymns, and have never heard them otherwise. Should I say “stoke” for stock? Pronounce the L in stalk?</p>
<p>Stock rhymes with Sock. St-ah-ck. </p>
<p>Stalk rhymes with Walk. St-all-k</p>
<p>I got Midland…having lived in New Hampshire my entire life I can only explain this as a mid-life crisis.</p>
<p>And oh yes, we use elastics here, not rubber bands.</p>
<p>Fendergirl - but walk and sock rhyme to me! </p>
<p>I’m thinking perhaps I’m supposed to pronounce the “L” in stalk. Like stall-k (with the “all” in the middle like you wrote it). But do you really say “wall-k” and not “wok”? A balk in baseball - do you pronounce that “L” as well - ball-k? (I say it like bawk) Talk? (tock)</p>
<p>I am very surprised I came out with a southern accent. Of course I grew up here, but originally from N.Y.C. Most southerners will ask where I am from, as many of the words that my family continue to use are very “northern” sounding. I suppose it could be my cultural upbringing kicking in too. No matter where you live…culturally ya might sound like where your folks are originally from, IMO. (Does that make any sense??? :)</p>
<p>I once pronounced stalk with the l, and a girl corrected me. So I’ve always assumed the correct pronunciation of the word is ‘stock.’</p>
<p>The thing about these accent tests is that whenever I think too much about how I pronounce two words, I get confused. Do I really say walk like wok, or does my usual pronunciation have a little of the l in there? And so on.</p>
<p>skiers-mom: don’t be insulted. We, in the West, speak what is known as General American English (aka “Walter Cronkite” speech); For many of my colleagues (Speech Therapists) who specialize in accent reduction, that it the goal to aim for! Most clients are foreign born, but many southerners, Bostonians and NYers, who are trying to climb the corporate ladder, pay big bucks to rid themselves of their local dialects!</p>
<p>by the way, walk, balk, talk, stalk…the “l” is considered silent in GAE. It is considered a difficult articulation to go from “l” to “k” so gets omitted …</p>
<p>Shocking. I’m from Los Angeles and I speak like I’m from the West.</p>
<p>I’m shocked. Really. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>binx - yes, you say the L in stalk. and walk is wall-k. and balk is ball-k. and talk is tall-k.</p>
<p>Blucroo - You made me think of something else when you mentioned speech therapists. My siblings - especially the one who still lives in Erie - have a “crisper” speech than I do. I assumed that living in the southhas softened my speech somewhat. But I also wonder if going to speech therapy for years (couldn’t say my Rs or Ss) may have impacted it as well. All my grandparents were immigrants, and for years when kids asked me why I “talked funny”, I told them it was because I was Swedish! (Didn’t realize I had a lisp.)</p>
<p>My D has been in Ohio for a week now. She asked me on the phone the other night if her accent was changing yet. She is like violadad - picks up whatever she is around. (Maybe it’s that musician’s ear.) It is a lot of fun to hear her mimic folks. She is dead on. But no, I didn’t hear her sounding any different. Perhaps she readjusts when she’s talking to me. </p>
<p>I wondered if my kids would pick up southern accents, but, although they can all “do” it, they don’t otherwise have one. D struggled with her southern first grade teacher though - she kept getting spelling words wrong because the teacher “mispronounced” them.</p>
<p>agreed fendergirl.</p>
<p>What blucroo said. Where I come from (NY) stalk is pronounced ‘stawk’, and the vowel sound is the same in the other words. Sock, on the other hand, rhymes with tock, not talk.</p>
<p>Inland North, and yes, I say pop for soda.</p>
<p>Here’s a cute map showing what you call carbonated drinks: <a href=“http://popvssoda.com:2998/[/url]”>http://popvssoda.com:2998/</a></p>
<p>pop definitely wins out!!! yay for the midwest</p>
<p>Where I come from stalk and stock do sound different. Stalk is “stawk” (the aw pronounced as in the word awe) and stock is “stahk” (the ah pronounced as in “the crowd ooed and ahhed”).</p>
<p>As for what to call carbonated drinks, boy am I in the minority. I grew up calling them soft drinks.</p>