What's your accent?

[100% pro-life no matter what]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=2&



So, I'm not from the Upper Midwest or Northwest!!  Many people (who only have influences from one place get three cities right next to each other, but mine was more generic- anywhere in the Southeast or Mid-Atlantic.  It guessed Montgomery, Shreveport, and Mobile.  My least similar were Tacoma, Seattle, and Portland (OR).  But, North Carolina seems to be the darkest red on that map if we look at the whole states, just darker than Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Arkansas.

Why isn't the picture from the Gallery showing again?  Here is a link to the map: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=2&r=82000850180010b00000j04000n0400j8811000020200l000j&

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Greensboro, NC
Durham, NC
Montgomery, AL

I mean I guess it makes sense cause a large part of my growing up was in Fayetteville, NC (as well as Virginia).
But I don't really think I sound very Southern when I talk.

It's more regional terms and a few pronunciations.  Even though everywhere I got was in the Deep South, I honestly don't have a thick accent at all.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=2&



So, I'm not from the Upper Midwest or Northwest!!  Many people (who only have influences from one place get three cities right next to each other, but mine was more generic- anywhere in the Southeast or Mid-Atlantic.  It guessed Montgomery, Shreveport, and Mobile.  My least similar were Tacoma, Seattle, and Portland (OR).  But, North Carolina seems to be the darkest red on that map if we look at the whole states, just darker than Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Arkansas.

Why isn't the picture from the Gallery showing again?  Here is a link to the map: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=2&r=82000850180010b00000j04000n0400j8811000020200l000j&

This time, I got Raleigh, Greensboro, and Richmond. 

Basically, North Carolina, Virginia, Middle and West Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, North Georgia, parts of Upstate South Carolina, and the St. Louis area in Missouri were all dark red.  Most of the rest of the country was at least light red, as I don't really have a super obvious, distinctive accent.  The only real blue areas were New England,  much of the Great Lakes (especially Minnesota and Michigan) plus North Dakota, the Northwest, and Utah.

My least similar were Boston, Worcester, and Minneapolis.

This is based on vocabulary more than pronunciation.  My actual accent is probably closest to a mild version of a North Carolina accent, but it's more complicated than that.  I have three main influences on my accent- the Carolinas, Eastern Pennsylvania, and Tennessee (all three places I have lived or that I have family from).  The thing is that, while the Philadelphia/Scranton part (grew up in PA) will come out in a few words (though less and less with each passing year), I don't really use any of the local Pennsylvanian vocabulary as it's been a while since I was there on a regular basis.

My mom's from North Carolina, and I probably learned how to talk mostly from her.  She grew up with a thick Southern accent and consciously tried to get rid of it, though some traces remained (like the pen/pin merger, which I inherited).  Add in the fact that my grandparents have/had very pronounced accents, and I grew up with some traces of a North Carolinian accent.

I've lived in Tennessee since I was 18, and it (plus my friends mostly from Tennessee/the South) becomes more and more of an influence on how I talk (my brother loves to make fun of me for it).  The thing is that a blend between Tennessee and Pennsylvania actually kind of sounds remotely similar to a North Carolinian accent, so that's probably the most accurate even though it's more complicated than that.

Now, I have one friend who insists that he can hear a Pennsylvania accent in me, but then, when I went to my HS reunion, a bunch of people commented that I had developed a Southern accent.  I think either is very mild, but it is sometimes interesting to watch videos of me talking from different points in my life to hear how it changed over time.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

These sorts of quizzes focus too much on vocabulary and not enough on what "accent" actually is.

Very much agree with this.  I got Birmingham/Montgomery/Mobile, and while I probably do have a Deep South vocabulary, I definitely don't have a distinctive Southern drawl.

These are both true, but it's kind of hard to get at nuanced questions of pronunciation in an online quiz like that.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

catch me not making an account, but I remember doing this test before and mine were literally all cities in Georgia. Savannah, Augusta, and Columbus if I remember correctly. But basically most all of the South was deep red.

And there was some weird non-southern area that I was similar to, I can't remember where though. It might have been like, the part of California not near the coast.

Probably Bakersfield.  That area of California has a local accent that has a lot in common with Southern accents (notably the pen-pin merger) due to historical migration patterns.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Given the talk about politicians' accents, I thought it might be fun to bring this back.  I just took it again and got Greensboro, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem.  So, I guess I talk like a North Carolinian!

I've taken this periodically throughout the years and it seems that I get North Carolina about half the time and Alabama/Mississippi about half the time, but it's rarely a mix of those.  I know that they have more than 25 questions, so it might depend on which get asked.

I do think North Carolina is more accurate than Alabama/Mississippi.  My mom is from North Carolina, and it stands to reason that I would have learned a lot of how to speak from her.  Then, I would have influences from growing up in Pennsylvania and living in Tennessee my whole adult life.  North Carolinian English actually does kind of sound like a Southern accent with a slight East Coast touch (i.e. Ar-inge, Flar-Duh, or Far-ist), at least as it's spoken by my family who has lived in Raleigh for centuries.

The other thing I have noticed is that my accent has not been remotely static over the years.  Rather, it's gradually become much more Southern and less East Coast.  My little brother loves to make fun of me for it.  There are certain characteristics to a Southern accent that I've always had; for instance, I didn't know until I was 17 that anyone pronounced pen and pin differently, even growing up in Pennsylvania.  I suspect that was because I learned that from my mom (whose once strong accent had faded but maybe wasn't totally erased).  Then, my brain must have unconsciously autocorrected it from other people.

Also interesting to me is how I mentally now hear accents.  Unless it's really thick (like someone from a very rural area or over a certain age), I don't really register hearing a Southern accent anymore, unless I'm consciously looking for it.  I imagine that it is like British people not hearing a British accent (and I imagine that American ex-pats get accustomed to it over time).  Whereas, the last couple times I have gone back to Pennsylvania, I have thought that a lot of the people there talked really weird that I probably never would have thought of when I was a kid.