What kind of accent do you have?

[missy]

Everyone has an accent. If anyone has a world accent quiz to share I would love that...I couldn't find one that was inclusive of everyone. For those who are game though try this quiz.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html

Got this right.

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have

Hmmm I am not from Philadelphia but close.

And the "winner" is....


https://www.today.com/health/sexiest-accent-world-t1846

The survey was given to readers in 24 cities including London, Paris, Chicago, Los Angeles, Beijing and Kuala Lumpur. Of the 11,000 participants surveyed, 27 percent declared that British people have "the world's most dateable accents."

Daniel Craig, sexy Brit. Frazer Harrison / Getty Images For BAFTA
So who came close to being nearly as sexy as the Brits? Sorry, but the gap between No. 1 and the rest of the pack was pretty broad. American accents hit No. 2, with 8.7 percent of the vote — just shy of Irish accents, which ranked third with 8.1 percent of the vote.

Brad Pitt, who apparently could increase his sex appeal with a British accent.Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images
Here's the list:

1. British (27 percent)
2. American (8.7 percent)
3. Irish (8.1 percent)
4. Australian (8 percent)
5. French (7.7 percent)
6. Italian (6 percent)
7. Spanish (4.9 percent)
8. Scottish (4.7 percent)
9. Latin American (4.1 percent)
10. Scandinavian (3.3 percent)

Colin Farrell's Irish accent would carry him far, but not as far as Americans or the Brits. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP/Getty Images
Of course, the most pleasing voice of all is likely the sound of your own loved one, whatever their accent may be.

So, what's your accent?
and do you like it or would you like to change it?

Personally I love all accents and enjoy hearing different ones. I think they are all beautiful in their own right and I wouldn't want to change mine. Though I know a "Brooklyn" accent is not celebrated by everyone who has it and in fact I have a girlfriend who went to a speech pathologist to get rid of hers. Sort of like Eliza in My Fair Lady. But I embrace mine for better or worse and it is part of who I am. What do you think about yours?

 

[redwood66]

Ha! I got The West which means I have no accent. Brits do have cool accents and they always sound sexy. That's why they are in so many movies!

 

[tyty333]

I got 77% Midland (basically saying I dont really have an accent). I am from the south (not the deep south, but the physical south). Growing up
I did spend a lot of time in Virginia, Nebraska, and Texas so maybe my accent just never developed or one accent canceled out the other.

 

[missy]

Ha! I got The West which means I have no accent. Brits do have cool accents and they always sound sexy. That's why they are in so many movies!

Hahaha but no you do have an accent. To a person from England let’s say (to use your example) you sure do have an accent @redwood66

We all do when compared to people from diffferent regions.

 

[redwood66]

Hahaha but no you do have an accent. To a person from England let’s say (to use your example) you sure do have an accent @redwood66

We all do when compared to people from diffferent regions.

Of course. But mine is pretty boring.

 

[missy]

I got 77% Midland (basically saying I dont really have an accent). I am from the south (not the deep south, but the physical south). Growing up
I did spend a lot of time in Virginia, Nebraska, and Texas so maybe my accent just never developed or one accent canceled out the other.

Oh I love southern accents. The southern accent is so genteel.

Of course. But mine is pretty boring.

Haha no. I bet it’s a lovely accent.

 

[OoohShiny]

Speaking the Queen's English, one does not have an accent

 

[YadaYadaYada]

80% Midland
76% Northeast
73% Philadelphia
65% South

The first quiz got my dialect map pretty much spot on, all Northeast. Fun thread!

 

[pearlsngems]

The first quiz correctly located the part of CT where I grew up.

 

[Ally T]

I'm in the UK so this doesn't work for me, but I have a "nice" English accent. I don't speak like the Queen, but I don't have a regional accent either. People have commented that I have a lovely accent, that I talk with a plum in my mouth or that I'm 'posh' which always makes me giggle I also have a slight huskiness to my voice, which has always gone down well with the boys over the years!

 

[lyra]

I have no accent. Stop asking me to say "out" and "about".

 

[Matata]

I lost my Pittsburghese when I moved to the West Coast. When I'm tired the accent creeps back into my speech.

 

[stracci2000]

I still have the Pittsburghese, even though I haven't lived there for 22 years.
When I hear it in others, like on TV for instance,, it makes me homesick

 

[AGBF]

I will take this quiz, but I am not ready to do so yet. I think I know why I once went into training to become a historian. I remember a thread about American accents that we had before on Pricescope and I took that one (as I am sure others posting here did). I would like to dig out that thread and link it to this one for comparison purposes. I believe that although I spent all my life in southwestern Connecticut I came out having the sort of accent that people in Buffalo, New York had. In other words, I did not have a regional New England accent according to the way that quiz interpreted accents. I will go look for that quiz!

Deb

 

[Gussie]

They didn't have "East Texan" so I was a mix of West and South.

True story: I was in Chicago once and ordered iced tea at a restaurant. I was quite puzzed when the waitress brought me Asti Spimante. I told her that she must have gotten my order wrong. She said, You did order Asti, right?" We all died laughing!
If you don't get it, you are not from the South!

 

[AGBF]

I found the old Pricescope thread dealing with regional expressions and accents. The first link will take you to the thread and the second one will take you to the quiz that was recommended by a poster during that thread, one that many of us who were participating in that thread took.

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/regional-slang-and-phrases.72603/
http://www.youthink.com/quiz.cfm?action=go_detail&sub_action=take&obj_id=9827

Deb
This old quiz said about me:

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.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

I'm from NY, long island in particular. My accent can change for various local dialects depending on where I am. Long island is different from Queens, Brooklyn, Staten island. I can tone it down but I can't cover it, anytime I've been anywhere else in the country they know where I'm from after a few sentences.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Interesting! I grew up in Pittsburgh for the most part (did spend ages 12-15 in Idaho) and have been in Chicago for the past 29 years.

 

[AGBF]

They didn't have "East Texan" so I was a mix of West and South.

True story: I was in Chicago once and ordered iced tea at a restaurant. I was quite puzzed when the waitress brought me Asti Spimante. I told her that she must have gotten my order wrong. She said, You did order Asti, right?" We all died laughing!
If you don't get it, you are not from the South!

My husband, who is from Northern Italy, had a similar experience when he first came to the United States. He was in Boston and went to a Chinese restaurant, perhaps for the first time. (He certainly was unfamiliar with what they served.) He asked the waiter for some bread and then was surprised to see the waiter "coming at (him)" with brown drink. He asked what it was and the waiter told him he had ordered "a sombrero".

Deb

 

[ksinger]

Well, I'm pretty sure I don't have a Boston accent, even though the gotoquiz site said I did.

OMG. I think I failed an accent test! Maybe I'll take it again and see if it changes.

OK...I re-did it, and did indeed find one that is had answered dead wrong, and one other that I changed and TADA!! I got The Midland - since my family hailed from Missouri and Colorado, it works better. MUCH better. I'll take that, although I'm pretty sure I still have some Okie-isms that give me away to someone who is dialed in to those sorts of linguistic things. And I can slide into a more pronounced Okie accent at will, so....

 

[House Cat]

My dialect is a refined mix of Sacramento, Oakland, and Fresno. I’ve never had a quiz know me so well. I’ve lived in the first two and was raised by adults from the last.

According to the second quiz, I don’t have an accent. I remember wanting one so much when I was a kid! I tried on several. French was my favorite.

 

[mrs-b]

I have an Australian accent and, despite 3 years in London followed immediately by 15 years in the US, my accent is the same as when I was 'fresh off the boat'.

My accent, tho, is soft, rather than broad, and despite sounding Australian, I was brought up pronouncing all my consonants and not sounding out every vowel in my upper nasal cavities. Consequently, when I lived in England, and not sounding like Paul Hogan, Brits often - and I mean often - used to listen to me speak and get a sort of confused look on their faces. I didn't sound like I was straight off the set of Crocodile Dundee, but they also knew I wasn't American. They could tell I was a native English speaker (more on that in a second), so they'd gravitate to the one country they'd heard of, which they knew spoke English but which wasn't America or Australia. So as often as not, I'd get:

"So, are you....Canadian?"

Made me laugh every time. But on the 'native English speaker' thing, you'd be amazed how many times I've been asked what language we speak in Australia - once, at least, that I can remember, by a school teacher. But there were many, many times, often by people who should have known better. When we first moved to the US, my husband took our laundry to the dry clean. After dropping it off and making change, the Chinese lady with the VERY heavy Chinese accent, looked at my husband and said - very clearly, so he'd understand "You...speak...very...good...English." He smiled, said thank you (because he does, in fact, speak very good English), and left.

This is not the worst of it, tho, as evidenced in this article about a student who did a paper at Southern New Hampshire University, comparing American societal norms with those of another country. The student chose Australia - and was failed because, apparently, according to her professor:

“Australia is a continent; it is not a country. That error made it nearly impossible for you to accurately complete your week 2 research outline correctly”, she replied.

“I want you to understand that any error in a project can invalidate the entire research project,” the professor told Arnold in her email. “Research is like dominoes, if you accidentally knock over one piece the entire set will also fall.”

You've gotta love it! ( - and yes, I checked this before I posted it - including reading the apology, also, from SNHU on their twitter feed after this blew up and went viral!)

http://www.news.com.au/world/north-...y/news-story/a5fdaf2f42da5eab6734749b1854d5c3

G'day mate!

ETA ...and just to add, we often find American accents broad and difficult to understand, too! And we have met a LOT of Americans who - God bless their little cotton socks! - believe they have zero accent at all.

 

[Dee*Jay]

"God bless their little cotton socks!"

I swear, I'm incorporating this into my litany of saying from this moment forward! That's going right up there with "Bless your heart!"

 

[LJsapphire]

I have a West Midlands (British) accent, sometimes known as a Black Country accent. It's not the greatest, people assume you are stupid. People also think its the same as the Birmingham (Brummie) accent, but there are differences. We dislike being called Brummies.

@mrs-b I read that story about the student and professor recently.

 

[kenny]

I, as I suspect is so for many people, do not recognize or hear my accent.

 

[Austina]

I’m also a Brit and have a classless accent. Although an American lady on holiday recently said she thought I had a posh British accent

 

[ksinger]

I've had this article in my personal stash of stuff, since 2012. It's a VERY interesting read. I could put the whole thing here, as I said, I have it saved. But wonder of wonders, it's still out at Slate, so here's the link.

Northern Cities Vowel Shift - How Americans in The Great Lakes are Revolutionizing English
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/...akes_region_are_revolutionizing_english_.html

There are also a lot of videos about the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, out on youtube.

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

That was fun. My three cities were, New York, Yonkers and Patteron NJ. That's awfully close to where I was born. Although I now live in the Midwest, I must still retain good old Brooklyn.

Annette

One sister-I-law wanted to know why my brother and I speak with different accents. I think we do. His changed and mine not so much.
Annette
ps. I took the other test and came up 94% Philadelphia-which encompasses NY. It said if I spoke everyone would know I was from NY. Most people ask me if I'm from NY or Boston.

 

[monarch64]

Southern, although it can be rather homogenized due to my midwestern upbringing. The first quiz gave me Jackson, Mobile, and Baton Rouge as cities...second gave me “the West.” My father has a thicker southern accent; my mother is from Wisconsin, and I grew up 2 hours north of Kentucky where many of my relatives are from. I think I have kind of a weird accent—sometimes thick-ish southern drawl, sometimes no accent at all, depending where I am and with whom. When I travel north, people say I sound southern. When I travel south, they say I don’t have an accent at all.

I was encouraged from a young age to go into public speaking in some regard. I enunciate well and have good modulation and fair expression when speaking or reading aloud and have always been praised for it. So my accent must not be too hard to listen to!

 

[monarch64]

"God bless their little cotton socks!"

I swear, I'm incorporating this into my litany of saying from this moment forward! That's going right up there with "Bless your heart!"

I’ve never heard their little cotton socks before! Love that!
My mother always said “bless your little pea-pickin’ heart.” No idea where that came from. She was also fond of saying “well, kiss my grits” in a fake southern accent during the 1980s when the show “Mel’s Diner” was popular.