WAY OT- Accent Quiz
Hey guys, stumbled upon this a little while ago and I thought it'd be worth a share. The New York Times released this quiz which finds out where your accent comes from. This thing is pretty spot on. Just 25 short questions on how you pronounce words and your terminology. If you got a little time to kill, give it a try.
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-qui…
and it always puts me in different parts of the country. I need a pasty question for it to figure it out.
Michigan has a very noticeable accent. It's true that General American English is located in the Midwest, but it doesn't cover the entire Midwest. It's found mostly in parts of Iowa and Nebraska, not Michigan.
Great post. Thanks. I got Detroit, Toledo and GR. Too funny.
For dissimilar cities I got NY, Boston and Jersey City.
I guess in a past life I am from Nebraska. I am adopted so maybe thats where I am from.
April 10th, 2014 at 12:19 AM ^
Grew up in Minnesota. I've literally never heard that phrase.
never heard of that term.
April 10th, 2014 at 10:48 AM ^
I grew up in the GR suburbs and we knew what it was. Granted that was mostly from news reports on rioting in Detroit but hey...at least we knew what it was. I guess?
I'm pretty far down in SW Michigan though (Benton Harbor area). So maybe we are more influenced by the Indiana/Chicago area.
In Lansing we do. Everyone I know calls it that. It was news to me that this term was so Michigan centric, let alone SE Michigan.
Similar: Grand Rapids, MI; Aurora, IL; Rockford, IL
Least: Boston, MA; New Orleans, LA; Mobile, AL.
I'm straight out of SW Michigan.
I got Grand Rapids, Detroit, and Toledo. I live in Lansing which is somewhat inbetween all three.
They got me right... and I've lived in Korea for more than a decade.
A completely unnecessary and frankly uninspiring double post.
20+ years in the South but I still tie back to MI. I believe I drawl a little now but still use MI terms. Lived in WI for 6 years in my teens, but I chose drinking fountain, not bubbler, so I don't know why it would say Madison...
Thanks for the link!
While this did come geographically close to me (it couldn't pick my actual location because I am in Canada) it didn't come close to my actual accent. It said most like the new england states. In Nova Scotia there are some areas that have a very similar accent to the New England accent (woods harbour, clark's harbour, barrington, shelburne, shag harbour to name a few) there is no one in our area that speak with a similar accent.
I think the problem was there were more questions about what words you use than how you actually pronounce them, and while people that are nearby geographically will often use the same words when describing like events they can often have different accents.
Anyway, not a bad way to waste a few minutes. Thanks OP.
April 10th, 2014 at 11:55 AM ^
the phrase wasn't "accent" but "the way you speak". Usage patterns are a big part of your local dialect, probably more telling in this survey than the pronunciation questions.
They nailed me with "gym shoes", which according to the map is only used commonly in two areas: Cincinnati and Chicago.
Not counting school, I've spent half my life in Cincinnati and half my life in Chicago. It had never even occurred to me that "gym shoes" was anything strange, and apparently that one phrase was enough to pin me down.
The final nail was "gapers block", which ruled out Cincinnati and left me with Aurora and Rockford as the only good matches. Unreal.
I've lived in Michigan, Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia, and North Carolina...and it pegged me for Lincoln, Nebraska; Madison, Wisconsin; and Grand Rapids, MI. It's as confused as my geographical identity.
Spot on. Eastern PA.
It shows how formative your early years are. Even though I have not lived there for decades, it was able to pinpoint where I was "from".
April 10th, 2014 at 10:46 AM ^
Hoooooagies for everyone
Grand Rapids, Toledo, Detroit. Guess it's obvious.
April 10th, 2014 at 10:46 AM ^
I got Grand Rapids (where I grew up), Detroit and Toledo. I now live in Ann Arbor. So yeah.
However, I lived in the New York, Chicago, DC area and Florida and am pretty resistant to language and accents. I only thing I really picked up was "soda" over "pop" because I was sick of being laughed at in college
April 10th, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
Gave this to an immigrant, ESL (well, actually E4L), friend. It passed over the city where she lived many years with her family and spoke mostly Russian and precisely nailed the two places she's lived on her own and spoken only English, even though she only lived in one of them for a year.
April 10th, 2014 at 12:21 PM ^
As a Chicagoan who lived in AA for 4 years, Rockford, Aurora, and Madison, WI sound about right.