OT Accent Quiz

On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:16:20 GMT, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_america...nt_do_you_have

How about that. This quiz got me right, I grew up in southern Illinois.

Your Result: The Midland

"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.


Oh, yeah, it's really accurate - apparently, not only do I sound like
I'm almost certainly from Philadelphia (which I had been fairly certain
_was_ in PA), the quiz corrected my previously-held erroneous belief -
Philly is apparently in "north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or
Rhode Island." It hedged its bets, though - if I'm not from Philly or
the Northeast, I'm surely from the inland north, the midland, the south,
Boston, or the west. It does seem fairly sure I'm not from "the north
central"...and it may have finally gotten something correct, depending
on what it defines as "north central."

Whoever wrote the quiz has obviously never been to Charleston, much less
heard someone from there speak...and Dallas is most definitely not a big
"southern" city...of course, since there are only about 73 people left
_in_ Florida that are actually _from_ Florida, I can well understand
confusion on that one: How do you pronounce "Feliz Joyeux Chanukah?"
and "That shizzles my nizzle, OG?"...."You're a Guatemalan Jew from
Quebec who got to the south counties via a Jet Blue raft from Havana,
or, a hip-hopping wigger on the way to Pliff Dribbly's crib to par-TAY
with the Coo-vass-ee-A and Cokes"...

R

wrote:
Ken Fortenberry wrote:
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_america...nt_do_you_have

Oh, yeah, it's really accurate - snip

Well, apparently it works pretty well for most people.
And if it didn't work for you at least it gave you an
opportunity to issue forth a rant about whatever the
hell it was you were ranting about.

--
Ken Fortenberry

Ken Fortenberry wrote:
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_america...nt_do_you_have

It pegged me closely enough for a mid-Atlantic, south of the
Mason-Dixon Line resident; but I was initially unimpressed with my
identification with the Midland category. That really seemed like a
"catch all" for anybody without a discernable accent until I realized
that my "lack" of an accent is somewhat of a conceit.

Given the other quizzes on that site though, I'm rightly skeptical of
its actual merit. I scored just as highly as a Mainer as I did in my
home state.

Joe F.

rb608 wrote:

Given the other quizzes on that site though, I'm rightly skeptical of
its actual merit.

Yeah, I scored 100% on the Canadian quiz.


Chuck Vance (OK, so it probably doesn't hurt that I married one)

"vincent p. norris" wrote in message
...
A mere 13 questions. Interesting how little it takes to pin (rhymes with
gin) someone down to a particular geographical region.

Many years ago, probably during the '60s, Garry Moore (remember him?)
had a linguist as a guest on his show. The linguist had a blackboard
with about 20 lines of words on it.

He asked a lady volunteer from the audience to pronouce the first
line: greasy."

Then she pronounced the second line: Mary, marry, merry.

The linguist said, "You grew up in St. Louis."

The lady shrieked and said "You're right!"

Took only four words.

I remember the show, but not that episode. At any rate, the trick was
already VERY old by then.*

But I don't think much of this test. I grew up in SW PA. My accent
is very different from that of an aunt who grew up in southern
Indiana and that of a cousin who grew up in Ohio. Those areas can't
be lumped together.

One shouldn't think much of this test, beyond "it's cute" or "it's kinda
fun"......that sort of thing. However, it does contain the germ of some
very important and powerful ideas. But then, you already knew that.

Wolfgang
*can anybody here say "shibboleth"?

wrote in message
...
On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:16:20 GMT, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_america...nt_do_you_have

How about that. This quiz got me right, I grew up in southern Illinois.

Your Result: The Midland

"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.


Oh, yeah, it's really accurate - apparently, not only do I sound like
I'm almost certainly from Philadelphia (which I had been fairly certain
_was_ in PA), the quiz corrected my previously-held erroneous belief -
Philly is apparently in "north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or
Rhode Island." It hedged its bets, though - if I'm not from Philly or
the Northeast, I'm surely from the inland north, the midland, the south,
Boston, or the west. It does seem fairly sure I'm not from "the north
central"...and it may have finally gotten something correct, depending
on what it defines as "north central."

Whoever wrote the quiz has obviously never been to Charleston, much less
heard someone from there speak...and Dallas is most definitely not a big
"southern" city...of course, since there are only about 73 people left
_in_ Florida that are actually _from_ Florida, I can well understand
confusion on that one: How do you pronounce "Feliz Joyeux Chanukah?"
and "That shizzles my nizzle, OG?"...."You're a Guatemalan Jew from
Quebec who got to the south counties via a Jet Blue raft from Havana,
or, a hip-hopping wigger on the way to Pliff Dribbly's crib to par-TAY
with the Coo-vass-ee-A and Cokes"...

Leading one to wonder whether becoming ever more boring and stupid is the
result of an uncontrollable compulsion or a deliberately active
pursuit......like a hobby or something.

Wolfgang

On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:55:39 GMT, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:

wrote:
Ken Fortenberry wrote:
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_america...nt_do_you_have

Oh, yeah, it's really accurate - snip

Well, apparently it works pretty well for most people.
And if it didn't work for you at least it gave you an
opportunity to issue forth a rant about whatever the
hell it was you were ranting about.

Budweiser...and, of course, how the Clintons are gay Nazis...no, no, no,
not Bill and Hillary...Hillary and Chuck...

HTH,
R

Wolfgang
*can anybody here say "shibboleth"?

I can't. I have a lithpth.

vince