A post on Facebook the other night led me to this random quiz: What American Accent Do You Have? Since we’ve always been fans of completely non-scientific online quizzes, why not take it for a spin, right? It was especially interesting for us to take since we get the occasional video comments like “John sounds soooo Southern” or “Sherry talks like Mila Kunis.” Not that Mila Kunis is an accent…
We both think we have pretty neutral American accents – although I’m quick to point out that the Jersey in Sherry likes to call the top of your face the “far-head.” And she gives me a hard time for not distinguishing between the pronunciation of “pin” and “pen.” So maybe this quiz would settle once and for all exactly how middle of the road our accents are (or aren’t).
I felt very validated by my result. Note the part that says “you don’t have an accent.” And the part that says “you have a good voice for TV and radio” (better than being told you have a face for radio, amiright?). I sat back as Sherry took the quiz and answered most questions the same way I did, expecting to see the same evaluation. That’s when this sprung up:
“YOU DEFINITELY HAVE A BOSTON ACCENT”??!?
We both cry laughed. Sherry has been pinned as New Jersey, New York, and even as South Carolina or Canada, but never Boston. But before I got to drop too many “paaaahk the cah in the Harvaahd yaaahd” jokes on her, we both noticed that she actually got an equal 83% ranking for both a Boston and Midland accent. So maybe she is still pretty neutral after all… just in a Boston-y kind of way. What do you Boston folks who met us at the signing think? Is there a little Boston secretly hiding in Sherry? Or is this quiz just way off?
Here’s the link again if you want to take it yourself. If you already did, what was your result? Was it spot on or not even close? Was there any question that you had a particularly hard time answering? I think Sherry repeated Mary, marry, and merry about 20 times before deciding that she said them all a little differently.
it’s pahk tha cah in tha hav-ad yahd-… there is no Boston yard! :-P
Haha! Thanks Sally! See, if I was from Boston, I would have known that!
xo,
s
I’m sorry – your saying park the car in the ?? yard?
Harvard, I think?! Right? No?
xo
s
We joked with people who use to say that, that if you “go ahead, they’ll tow it to meffid.”
Haha that was so fun. Mine was “Inland North” and definitely hit the nail on the head! I moved to RVA a few months ago from Western NY and am still adapting to understanding people’s “accent” here. Also working on saying y’all without sounding ridiculous!
I got 100% The Inland North! Can’t say I’m surprised. We lived in Richmond for a few years and a friend there always mocked me for what she called my “Ohio accent.” But I’d say it’s Pure Michigan all the way!
Mine was 100% West – haha! Wow, I guess there’s no denying I’m from Southern California now!
What makes your accent “West?” That was my runner up accent. I have an uncle who lives in California and he says things the way we do (except we say “pop” and he says “soda”)
Ha! This was fun. I scored 100% Inland North, which is 100% accurate. Funny, though. I didn’t think I had an accent, either. Must be I don’t leave Michigan enough.
“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.””
Go Michigan!!!!! People always ask if I’m from the south? Or Canada? It must be the collar/caller answer because people always say we say dollar (dole-er) vs. (Dahl-er).
YES! I didn’t realize I had an accent until I moved away from Michigan! People ask me all the time if I’m Canadian. And I have gotten a few South guesses too Jaclyn. Michiganders unite!
Side note, I never realized Michigan was “The North” until I moved away from it. I always considered myself a Midwesterner.
Yay Michiganders! My husband and I both got 100% Inland North, although we’ve lived outside of the US for a few years now. :-)
My results were 100% Midland.
So funny. I was born and raised in Northern/Central VA (Fredericksburg) but my family is all from Jersey. When I was about 17 I moved up to Jersey and people were SO shocked that I didn’t have a southern accent seeing as I was from Virginia (I was asked MANY times if my mother was married to her cousin..etc. Apparently West Virginia and Virginia are the same thing to Northerners?) Same thing happened in my early 20’s when I moved out to Reno, NV. People always said “But you don’t have an accent!”
…& apparently everyone from WV marries their cousin, right?
Mine was pretty spot on and I didn’t even try to answer the questions how I thought “I should”. I got the Inland North which is technically anywhere near the Great Lakes. I live in central Ohio now but grew up in the Northwest portion and people tell me I have a Northwhest Ohio accent,whatever that may be! And yes to the survey’s assumption, I do say “pop” not soda!!!
What IS a NW Ohio accent?! I grew up there too and was told that once or twice. I’ve never thought I had much of an accent.
P.S. This was a little surprising since my dad is from New York! Maybe I need to move my kids to England so they will develop a British accent. Then they can chatter all they want and I’ll be asking THEM to read ME bedtime stories! haha!
That quiz is amazing! I’m Canadian but took it just for fun and mine said this:
“North Central” is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw “Fargo” you probably didn’t think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.”
I had to laugh at this. My husband was born in Wisconsin, grew up in Minnesota and went to college in Fargo. When he first moved to Toledo, Ohio, to go to grad school, everyone thought he was Canadian!
He has since lost his accent. I used to be able to hear it every once in a while on certain words, but I haven’t in a long time.
I’m also Canadian (Western Canada)and I got “96% – The West”! How cool! Also…I do NOT pronounce about as aboot. Just FYI. ;)
Krystal – same here. I’m from Montreal and it told me I have a North Central accent :)
This was me, too!
The people from “Fargo” sounded completely normal!
I too am Canadian and also got North Central! This quiz seems to be pretty spot on.
I do have to admit, as I was saying the words I couldn’t think of another way to pronounce them but, obviously, there are! :)
I am Canadian as well but took it just for fun and got that exact same statement lol – too funny eh? ;)
My husband is Canadian. He’s also lost his accent. He said about more like a-boat than a-boot.
What American accent do you have?
Your Result: North Central
86%
“North Central” is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw “Fargo” you probably didn’t think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
WHICH is also awesome because I am Canadian!
Also, I need to agree, I don’t know ANYONE who says “about” like “a-boot” … it’s more like.. “ab-out” if anything…
though the “eh” thing definitely does happen.
As Canadians we can’t hear the difference between a-boat and a-boot… But when I was in Minneapolis I met some people from Kansas and they started joking around that we say, a-boot, which I protested and they let go. Then 3 minutes later into the conversation, they’re laughing at me because apparently I said it! My fiancé and I had no idea what they were talking about.
Same here – from Canada and got 100% North Central! Funny thing is that I don’t think I sound anything like Fargo!!
To Kerri,
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard any Canadian pronounce about a-boot! or a-boat for that matter hahah.. at least in Ontario where I’m from it sounds more like a-bowt (Bow as in curtsey, not bow like a ribbon, which would be pronounced bough — see weird language haha)
I’m Canadian and took the quiz for fun as well… Same result!
Funny how the random questions have some accuracy!
Also Canadian and got the same results as the other Canadians on here. I cannot for the life of me hear the differenct between about and aboot – no matter how hard I try.
Cue the creepy music…I was raised in Philly until I was 7 (and that was a loooong time ago since I just turned 50.) We moved a million places after that including the south. Yet, mine came up with Northeast, probably raised in Philly. Go figure!
As a foreigner, you can’t imagine how much I loved to know that John can’t distinguish pin from pen. It’s very hard to capture the subtle differences in many english words. Sheet and sh*t, for example, is a hard one (and dangerous!). Four/for, hour/our, go/gol, where/wear, two/to, …oh, so many words/warts, so little differences! Love you guys/gas!
That’s so funny!
xo
s
I have a friend who is in her 60s now, but was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She still sounds like she just moved here although she’s lived in the U.S. for 40+ years. Her MIL made such fun of her for saying sh*ts when she meant sheets!
I too am a born and raised Puerto Rican who moved to the US when I went to college. My husband is Mexican and Spanish is what we speak at home but I learned English as a child and visited the US often so my accent is pretty much gone, although some people still detect a trace of it. When I was in college though, I got made so much fun of… My “fondest” memory was participating at the Model UN competition as as senior in high school and getting the “best pronunciation of the word sovereignty” award. I spent three days mispronouncing it… and getting sniggered at by the Georgetown kids. Fun times. I’m proud to report thought that according to the quiz I have a midland accent. Go Team John!
I heard/read somewhere that after a certain age you retain your accent…if I remember, it’s somewhere around 12-14 years old.
I don’t think my comment posted the first time, but that was so fun! Mine was “Inland North” which definitely hit the nail on the head. I moved to RVA a few months ago from Western NY so I’m still working on understanding people’s “accent” here. I’m also working on saying y’all without sounding ridiculous!
Is there a Canadian equivalent? ;)
Anyone know? I bet there are a bunch of accents up there too, right?
xo
s
It nailed that I was Canadian by giving me the following rating:
“North Central” is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw “Fargo” you probably didn’t think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
Sounds like westerners in Canada are getting slotted into the The West, so it sort of applies to us.
Sadly they don’t have any category equivalents for Newfie or K-bec accents.
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_accent_do_you_have_5
This one is just a generic English language one, not as detailed but determines Country for you – still funny.
@ Barbara: Thanks for posting the link for the general English language.
Apparently I have a Canadian accent (80%). Never mind that I’ve only been as far a Niagara Falls. :-)
My second strongest is Southern. I guess it must be from all those times I’ve changed planes in Atlanta or Charlotte.
BTW, I’m a foreigner whose lived in several countries and am currently in the D.C. area. This was a lot of fun to do!
John – This post made my day! I have people give me a hard time all the time because I don’t distinguish between Pin and Pen (they’re the same, right??) :) I’m from California and live in Washington, but my family was from the South… go figure!
100% boston…. bingo!
this is dumb! i was born and raised in brooklyn and they gave me the inland north! none of the quiz answers lined up with the way i tawk!
Haha! We tawk so fancy, they can’t even figure us out.
xo
s
I figured I’d try this for fun to see what it said (I am Canadian) and I got the closest I could get – North Central:
“North Central” is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw “Fargo” you probably didn’t think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
I love accents, I work for a company with US customers and was thrilled when we just got a new customer in Alabama. Oh those phone calls were amazing. . .however our customer in Minnesota and I laugh when people think we sound the same. To us, we sound totally different!
So funny!! I got Inland North and it was spot on for me! My husband, who grew up only 2 hours south of me in Ohio, always makes fun of me for my “accent.” This is his vindication :)
I got a very similar result to John! Midland! I’ve always said I have a very “neutral” accent. Occasionally I’ll say things with a Southern twist but not a lot. And I’m born and raised in the central Virginia area. Probably only 30 minutes or so from where you guys are! :D
I got North Central… Confession, I am Canadian though, so it was spot on. Here’s what the description said…
“North Central” is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw “Fargo” you probably didn’t think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
Haha, this was fun! :)
I got Midland as well. This one is pretty weak I think. I took one based on the research of a grad student from South Carolina. It pin pointed where I was from down to the city based on my pronunciation! The city it chose is only 20 minutes away from where I grew up! I can’t find the website for the life of me. It was absolutely fascinating. I took it several times and got the same result. Here is the information about the project the quiz was based on.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/hillaryreinsberg/who-says-yall-and-10-other-maps-showing-where-americans-say
I was hoping someone linked to that! I spent a good hour on the project’s website a few months ago. Fascinating, and really fun to see tiny pockets that have developed idioms that don’t make sense to a lot of other Americans.
I got 95% midland. I’ve lived my whole life in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, but a coworker asked me if I’m really from the South the other day. Makes sense!
It looks like the quiz you’re talking about has been closed, but maybe it will be re-opened: http://spark.rstudio.com/jkatz/DialectQuiz/
Hilarious! I never take quizzes, but since I’ve had too many conversations in my lifetime where people are absolutely shocked I could grown up in the deeeeep South (Louisiana) and not have an accent, I decided to take this quiz. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT Midland, haha. Thanks, John, for pointing me in the right direction for validation! I have always insisted that I avoided picking up an accent simply by learning phonics.
Where are you from in LA? We just moved to Shreveport and I don’t notice nearly as many accents here as I did in South Carolina.
I live in NC now (moved here for grad school), but went to college in Shreveport. I’m from south Louisiana (tiny town called Eunice, which is 30 minutes east of Opelousas, 45 east of Lafayette, 1.5 hours east of Baton Rouge). In Eunice, they define anyone living above I-10 as a Yankee, so I was considered a “northerner” when I went to college in SPort, haha.
I’m from Lake Charles, LA and got 100% Midland too. I feel like Louisiana is split between those that have a heavy accent and those that don’t really have one at all. At least in my experience, there’s little in between.
Agreed, haha.
I had my mom help me as I read the questions & spoke and she judged how similar the words sounded. Apparently, I have a 100% Midlands accent. Good for T.V. and radio. I’m gonna blame this one on years of theatre classes, since I was born in Minnesota and moved to Colorado when I was six
It said I had The Midland and The South in equal parts..which is nice I guess..I am not a “redneck hick Okie” LOL
Although a lot of people would say that Oklahoma has a language all it’s own….the running joke of if you can properly pronounce Eufaula, Gotebo, Okemah and Chickasha you know are you from Oklahoma.
My Result: The Inland North
“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.””
WHAT?? I am straight from Jersey. I used to say “bag”, “cash”, and “trash” with the most horrible accent. I am from no where near Chicago, and I call carbonated drinks “soda”, thankyouverymuch. ;)
So funny! I love hearing your results, guys! And the outrage… haha!
xo
s
Oh, that’s funny, I’m “probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island”. Hmn, nope. Just a few thousand miles further east ;-) I guess we learn an accent in school here. Or maybe I picked it up from TV-shows, that’s more likely (school is a long, long time ago).
100% Philly! No surprise there. While I’ve never actually lived IN the city, I’ve lived in a suburb 15 minutes outside of Philadelphia my whole life (except 4 years in college). What’s funny is that living in the suburbs, I can definitely tell the difference between people that actually grew up in the city, but I guess a quiz can’t!
I agree with you completely!
This was huge fun! I have an North West accent, which apparently means I could be from North Jersey. Do you think this means I have a similar accent to Sherry? That would be a lot of fun, because I am Australian and have never even been to the USA (not yet anyway, next year). Clearly the poor test was always set up to fail with me trying it, but I got a huge smile from doing it.
That’s so funny! I’m accent twins with an Aussie!
xo
s
I’m also an Aussie and I got the same result!
I’m always fascinated by how one country can have so many different accents. To my ear, people’s accents from different parts of Australia don’t really vary much at all.
I’m a kiwi and I got the same answer! Maybe I watched too many episodes of The Nanny as a kid?
Hilarious!
xo
s
I’m Aussie as well and got 100% North East – “Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island”
Nope, sorry, I’m from Tasmania! Lol
Hilarious, I also got 100% Northeast – “Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island”……and I’m an Irish woman!! I agree KaitlynG, even here in Ireland, as teeny as it is, there are so many different accents.
Ha ha!
I’m also an Aussie, and I got 100% North East. (Because all of the different words sound, well, different!)
If you want people who can tell where you are from by your accent (or even your lack of one!), try the Welsh.
My husband and I live in Melbourne, but while in Wales, a Welshman picked my husbands accent to be from Perth (correct!) and mine to be from South Australia.
Australian accents aren’t quite as pronounced and different as American (or British), but I’ve really tried to notice now. It’s an amusing study.
85% Inland North, which makes sense since I was born in Toledo, Ohio (on the Great Lakes) and lived there for my first 27 years.
Then 80% Midland, which includes southern Ohio. I have lived in Cincinnati for the past 15 years.
I love this kind of stuff!
I got 100% Northeast, which makes sense given that I’ve spent most of my life on Long Island. It sure was eye-opening when I arrived at college in Virginia and people found my pronunciations of words like “carrot” and “forest” exotic!
And John, there is DEFINITELY a difference between “pen” and “pin.” ;-)
I got Midland too, which is spot on since I’m from Missouri!
I had to take it twice, though, because I pressed the wrong option for #12 (“ou” in “about” pronounced like in “loud”) which gave me The South. Funny how one answer can change everything!
Mine was 83% midland with 77% south. Born and raised here in Memphis, TN.
I got 100% Inland North, which is absolutely correct as I’ve lived in Michigan my whole life. It is amazing how going through those questions I kept thinking, “How could anyone possibly answer this differently??” but obviously there is a lot more variation than I realize, haha. How on earth do you pronounce Mary, marry, and merry differently?? Let it be known that while most Inland Northerners do say “pop” some of us, such as myself, decided one day that “soda” is a much prettier word and changed our ways. :)
I also got 100% inland north (born and raised in Flint!) and I thought the same thing about Mary, merry, and marry. They’re all the same! :-)
My thoughts exactly on Mary/marry/merry & I say soda, too – switched as a kid for the same reason! Now, no one in my family says “pop” (so harsh!). Also a life-long Michigander (TC area).
My sister married a guy from NJ this summer and we had a huge discussion with his family about the Mary, merry, marry thing. Apparently it is very limited to NJ to say them differently (we googled it). They couldn’t believe we said them the same, and we couldn’t say them differently if we tried.
So funny!
xo
s
I’m a Kentuckian, born and raised, and no one here says “pop” or “soda.” To us, it’s “Coke.”
To use it in a sentence at a restaurant –
Me: “What kind of Cokes do you have?”
Server: “We have Pepsi, Sprite, and Dr. Pepper.”
Hopefully you get the gist – fun quiz!
I was Inland North – it doesn’t surprise me (me = from northern Iowa) since most of my students wonder if I’m from “around here” (here = Des Moines, IA) — there is an actual difference in accents in IOWA! (northern = MNish and Southern = southernish
Totally agree!
I’m from southeastern MN and got Inland North. I went to Iowa State and have many friends from all over Iowa. It seems like there’s an imaginary line at about Des Moines – above, northern or almost no accent; below, a bit of a southern addition.
I got Midland like John. But that makes sense. I used to do phone support for clients all over the US and Canada, and no one could ever guess where I was from. :D
Ha! Love this – it totally called me out on being Canadian ;)
I got 100% Philadelphia. Having lived in the Philly suburbs all 25 years of my life I would say this is pretty accurate!
So fun! Mine was 100% Midland, 69% South, 69% West. Definitely not what I was expecting as a Texan living in Oklahoma!
Another Canadian that got “North Central”. I think it’s the “about” question that pegged us as Canadian.
95% Midland, which makes sense. I live in Florida which is technically the south, but South Florida doesn’t count as southern lol.
The quiz said I have an Inland North accent and I do! It mentioned people not being from the Great Lakes area thinking that I have an accent. How did it know I grew up in Michigan and have lived in Chicago for the past 8 years?!? Crazy. And yes, I do say “pop.”
Midwest gal with a midwest accent aka “no accent.” I did learn to speak on the east coast (Delaware) though, so I’m kind of always surprised that I get this. My mom always gets the “Philly” accent result.
I do rock out “soda” instead of “pop” and I’m consistently cranky that there are ZERO places to get a decent hoagie around here – though the hoagie thing is less about the accent and more about the food. Other than that, I have apparently adapted!
Midland! I’m from Central/Southern Ohio, so that’s perfect.
On a side note, less than 2 years ago I moved an hour away from my hometown. I was giving a spelling test at school and the word was “pull.” I said, “Pull, as in to pull a door open.” EACH CHILD looked at me like, “What?” and a few seconds later, “OHHH you mean _____” and said something that sounded a lot closer to “pool” than “pole” which is apparently how I say it.
It said I had a 96% west accent but that most people would say I didn’t even have one. It said I’m most likely not from the west but from a big city like Atlanta Austin or Dallas, which is funny because I’m from central Texas. I don’t think I have too bad of an accent, but foo think it’s thicker than the quiz let on. I’m a big fan of the word y’all. ;-)
I just took the quiz and I am 93% Philadelphian. Good thing since I was born and raised (on the playground was where I spent most of my days – ha!)
Mine was 93% Inland North. Central Wisconsin born and raised!
That was fun! I’m Canadian and it scored me 88% for North Central, which if you read the description, the part about being Canadian is spot on. Although whenever I watch Fargo, I always make fun of the accent. But according to this, apparently I sound the same so the joke’s on me….LOL!
“North Central” is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw “Fargo” you probably didn’t think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
100% Northeast.
Hilarious as I have always lived in Southern England and have a very English accent :-)
Hilarious! My result was North Central, 80%. At the end of the description, it says “Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.” Ha! I am from Toronto (yes, home of the crack-smoking Mayor Rob Ford). I guess it was the “about”/”about” distinction that put me over the edge :)
I say most of the words in the quiz the same besides pen/pin and bag/vague. My result was “The West.” This is kind of hilarious to me because I am a Mainer! Born, raised, and still live in central Maine so I’m about as east as you can go! haha!
Ha! Mine came up as Inland North, and it makes sense since I come from Michigan :)