What kind of accent do you have?

[madelise]

My results look different from yours. They gave me 3 cities my accent is most similar to -- Fresno, San Jose, and Corona. They're all in CA, so it's accurate.

I actually teach accent modification courses to corporate employees in tech and in the past, actors and pageant girls. This quiz is fun, but not super informing of actual sounds rather than dialectical vocabulary.

 

[LJsapphire]

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

it'll be posh compared to mine

 

[Snowdrop13]

100% Boston! How strange.

(Actually 100% Scottish accent in real life).

 

[dk168]

My mother tongue is Cantonese and I came to UK in my early teens to continue with my study at a boarding school.

During my first session with my EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher, she advised me that in order climb up the socio-economical ladder, I would need to speak like the news readers of the BBC, and strongly advised me to get rid of my accent.

Those were the teachings of the day back in the late 70s/early 80s.

I took her advice, as I had already decided to make UK my home the moment I stepped off the plane a few days earlier, and worked hard to improve my speech.

When I went on a multi-country holiday in mainland Europe three years later, I was recognised as a Brit by my accent, much to my delight.

To this day, I believe one of the reasons why I was granted a permit to stay and work indefinitely in UK within 10 years of being here, that included 7 years spent at school and university, with a gap year in between spent with my folks back in the Far East (I was tricked into returning to my family home, not by choice), was largely due to my accent.

I believe I was able to demonstrate and convince the immigration officer who was dealing with my request to remain in UK that I had made a significant effort to integrate into the society and it's ways of life.

No doubt having a professional qualification and being able to support myself helped with my application too.

Call me a snob, however it had been commented in the past that it was evident I had a good education by the way I speak.

Whenever I visit my mum, I would return home with an increased accent after conversing with her, my brother and their friends non-stop in Cantonese for a few days.

It is hard work as I do not speak Cantonese except when I ring my mum occasionally - there is no Chinese in my usual social and work circles formed in my adult life.

And yes, I find a deep plummy English accent very sexy, and the voices belonging to the likes of Daniel Craig, Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore, Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon, Ian Mckellen, Ralph Fiennes, Christopher Plummer etc. can make my knees go weak and turn into jelly.

I also love the French accent especially if the voice is deep.

I love deep voices in gents.

Certain regional accents bring out the worst in me, such as a Brummie (as in Birmingham) accent or estuary/cockney London accent, regardless of pitch.

And I cannot stand high squeaky pitch in a voice, regardless of gender.

DK

 

[AGBF]

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.

I think i got the same results as Asscherhalolover. This is also close to what I got on the 2007 quiz which put me in The Great Lakes or western New England (which is actually close). The results here are not so close. My three cities were: New York; Yonkers; and Springfield, Massachusetts. Who knows? It all seems to hinge on my choosing the word "sneakers" for running shoes, and I wasn't all that attached to "sneakers". That's the word we used when I was a kid. Now I would probably use another word.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Your results for this quiz have been calculated and are presented below:

What American accent do you have?
Your Result: The Inland North

93%
You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop." (This is untrue, by the way. I say, "soda".)


87%
Philadelphia

85%
The Northeast

70%
The Midland

65%
The South

25%
Boston

25%
The West

8%
North Central

 

[december-fire]

This thread reminded me of a phone call I received at work years ago.
The caller was phoning from Texas and, after providing him with the information he required, he said "You've got the cutest accent."
I was speechless because, naturally, I believed he was the one with the accent!

As Kenny said, I don't know that most people can hear their own accent.

 

[december-fire]

Hmmm, just did the tests.
No accent.
Surely that Texas gentleman wasn't just giving me a line.

 

[jordyonbass]

I've got a Melbournian accent; it's Australian but apparently you can hear slight British subtleties to it. I used to have a country Aussie accent where everything was preceded and followed by the F word

While I like my accent, I always thought the actual pitch and tone of my voice was irritable. Almost like I sound like I have a peg on my nose or have a cold. Lately I've had some people from overseas compliment my voice, one saying it is 'aesthetic' and someone else saying it's very deep. So I don't know anymore

 

[tkyasx78]

I dont think I have an accent, but the quiz says 95 % midland so I guess I am middle LOL

 

[rocks]

My "accent" is northeast, which is accurate. I do "speak southern". I lived in Georgia for several years and picked up both the soft accent (you just can't help yourself) and the dialect. Go figure.

 

[KaeKae]

The first test put me from NYC/North Jersey which is exactly right.
The second one confirmed it, saying I'm from the Northeast.


A while back, I read something that claimed the NYC accent is closest American accent to the British accent. I wonder if any of our a British posters were to take the test, if it would agree. A friend originally from England unknowingly proved that to me, in a way, when she noticed that she and I were the only ones among our California friends who pronounce and my name in a certain way. (Differently from the locals)

 

[Maria D]

As expected.

Merry, mary and marry - 3 different words people!

 

[monarch64]

Lol, HOW SO????!!!!

 

[Maria D]

Merry - same e sound as set.
Mary - rhymes with fairy.
Marry - just about the same a sound as apple.

Marry rhymes with Barry and not berry.

Do you pronounce berry and Barry the same? Berry rhymes with merry.

 

[KaeKae]

As expected.

Merry, mary and marry - 3 different words people!

Lol, HOW SO????!!!!

TOTALLY different!
Merry= meh-ree
Mary= mare-ree
Marry=ma-ree

 

[Maria D]

Here's a conversation I once had with my hairstylist when I lived in Long Island. (I'm from Massachusetts, just south of Boston.)

Him: So you're going to the Hamptons this weekend? Watch out for shocks!
Me: Yes, I am. What do you mean, is there something in the water?
Him: Yes, did you read that article in Newsday about the shocks?
Me: No! Like from what? Eels?
Him: Huh? No, not eels...what do you mean eels? Not electric shahks, shocks!
Me: Electric sharks? What are those?

Yes we finally figured out that he pronounced sharks the exact same way I pronounced shocks and vice-versa.

 

[monarch64]

I pronounce all of those the same!

May-ree
Bay-ree

 

[Maria D]

I pronounce all of those the same!

May-ree
Bay-ree

It's OK, for me cot = caught, don = dawn....

 

[monarch64]

Y’all should hear me swear. I turn most monosyllabic curse words into 2-3 syllables based on how EYE-rate I am...

 

[GK2]

I’m from Yorkshire in the UK, but the city I live in has a very distinct accent from anywhere else in the county or country. We have a very odd way of pronouncing ‘o’ in words (or werds). The easiest way of describing it is this: ‘fern cerl’ is a phone call, and ‘sner’ is snow. There’s a particular phrase often cited as a way to speak our accent: ‘er ner, there’s sner on Frerm Rerd’, which translates as ‘oh no, there’s snow on Frome Road’!

I don’t speak with that accent - I often get asked how long I’ve lived in the city and get odd looks when I say I’m born and bred in the city.

 

[GliderPoss]

I’m Aussie but my Mum was raised in the UK and always “encouraged” us to enunciate correctly so I’ve been told I speak very “nicely” and do occasionally get asked if I’m British
Interestingly if you watch old TV Australian news broadcasts - it was very much “Queens English” rather than the broader accent used today.

 

[missy]

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....

Karen, I failed the quiz too. Retaking it did not help me. All those words sound different and sneakers are what we wear to gym and I am sticking to that.



Only about 90 miles off.

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.

Thanks for sharing that thread Deb. I will check it out.

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

Haha I think you are very posh @Austina

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!

Ooh I love that @Alex T! Plummy. Perfect.

I've got a Melbournian accent; it's Australian but apparently you can hear slight British subtleties to it. I used to have a country Aussie accent where everything was preceded and followed by the F word

While I like my accent, I always thought the actual pitch and tone of my voice was irritable. Almost like I sound like I have a peg on my nose or have a cold. Lately I've had some people from overseas compliment my voice, one saying it is 'aesthetic' and someone else saying it's very deep. So I don't know anymore

Jordy I think your accent is very close to the Boston accent.

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.

Haha add me to the chorus of people who have never heard of but very much enjoy that saying "God bless their little cotton socks"


When my best friend T (from Maryland) first met me in the 1980s he said he didn't understand much of what I was saying in the beginning. That I spoke way too fast and combined with my accent it was challenging for him to understand me or keep up with me while walking. (And it wasn't just me he couldn't understand either. He had trouble understanding all our NYC friends). Apparently NYCers walk very briskly. Walking and talking. We do (almost) everything fast. Not everything. But almost.

My dh says he still occasionally has trouble understanding what I am saying. He talks too slow and I talk too fast yet somehow we make it work. My central processing speech unit is set too high according to my dh. Harumphhh as HRH Francesca would say in response to such nonsense. My speed of speech and walking is just fine.

 

[lissyflo]

It seems like a NY accent being closest to British is true, on the basis of my accent anyway! I’m a born and bred Londoner with the kind of accent that most Londoners don’t think of as an accent (not cockney or estuary).

As I’m English I don’t hear English accents as sexy, but I LOVE a Welsh valley accent and soft Irish lilts I could listen to all day!

 

[missy]

It seems like a NY accent being closest to British is true, on the basis of my accent anyway! I’m a born and bred Londoner with the kind of accent that most Londoners don’t think of as an accent (not cockney or estuary).

As a Brit I don’t hear British accents as sexy, but I LOVE a Welsh valley accent and soft Irish lilts I could listen to all day!

Haha I am not sure about a NY accent being close to the Brit accent. I wish! But I will say I find most accents very sexy. I really love hearing different accents and it is very appealing. Whether it is a Boston accent, Australian accent, New Zealand accent, English accent, French accent, Italian accent, Ecuadorian accent, Welsh accent, etc. I could go on and on. I don't discriminate because I enjoy them all.


Though there is something special about hearing a tough boy from Brooklyn talk. But that might have something to do with my teenage years bwahaha. Somehow I ended up with a boy whose accent is sort of non-descript. But I love him anyway. A whole bunch!

 

[Austina]

As a Brit, I can confirm that a NY accent is NOTHING like any British accent I’ve ever heard

 

[missy]

As a Brit, I can confirm that a NY accent is NOTHING like any British accent I’ve ever heard

Whaddya talkin 'bout Austina! Fuggedaboutit.


Hahaha you have to try this

http://funtranslations.com/brooklyn

OMG ROFLMAO.

 

[KaeKae]

As a Brit, I can confirm that a NY accent is NOTHING like any British accent I’ve ever heard

My ears would agree with you. But according to what I read (I'll poke around and see if I can find that article, but it was quite a while ago) linguistically, there are correlations. Sort of makes sense, as a lot of the earlier immigrants came through NYC.

 

[missy]

OK here are some examples

Hello, how are you? In Brooklynese : hello howahrya?

Nice to meet you. In Brooklynese: Nice tuh meet you.

What are your plans for the day? What are your plans fawh de day, or what?

Could you please direct me to the nearest subway station? Could yuh please direct me tuh de nearest subway stashun?

Are you enjoying your visit here? Are yuh enjoyin' your visit here, or what?

Dinner is on us, don't even think about taking out your wallet. Dinnuh is on us doan even tink about takin' out your wallet. Yuh got me so fahr?




Clearly it is not the Queen's English.

 

[Tekate]

My accent is New York! but I do have yard sale from Raleigh Durham.. I don't remember people ever selling stuff when I was a kid in NY.

 

[doberman]

This is exactly what I'd expect. I've lived in the coastal northeast for most of my life while as a child I lived in Wisconsin and Chicago, with both parents from Chicago. My favorite accent story is from where I used to work. I worked alongside a man from the Carribbean islands, a woman from Columbia and a woman from the Philippines. The man told me, "Doberman, we think you have an accent".

When I came to this state as a child I was initially appalled by the accent though I've long since become used to it. My father in law said I sounded British lol. My in laws have such an accent that I was shocked. But my phrases are pure coastal northeast. So, fuhgeddaboutit you guys.