What's your accent?

[IceAgeComing]

I'm apparently most like Honnolulu, Miami and "Pembroke Pines" in Florida, which I've never heard of.  No real pattern to it though, the darkest red bits seem to be in scattered sections of California, a line from southern PA to eastern Tennessee, south east Florida and New Hampshire.  I very much don't have a Michigan accent (least likely are Detroit, Toledo and also Pennsylvania); the things have seem to have caused that is not having a word for the day before Halloween (do you need a sort for a day that's already before another one?) and pronouncing "caught" and "cot" the same.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Had an extremely strong Russian accent during elementary school years. Now I have a Hebrew accent in Hebrew, and I think I have a pretty good neutral English accent.

[angus]

(do you need a sort for a day that's already before another one?)

Yes, it's called "other one eve."  For example, All Hallows Eve (Halloween) proceeds All Hallows Day.  The relevant question is, do you need a word for the day that's before the day before another one?  Hallows Eve's Eve?  Christmas Eve's Eve?  

I had no idea that anyone had a special word for October 30, other than October 30, so I looked up.  Apparently there's no universal standard, but many terms exist.  A cursory internet search turned up Mischief Night, Goosey Night, Hell Night, Cabbage Night, Gate Night, Devil's Night, Devil's Eye, Trick Night, and Mat Night, among others.

I do think you're probably right in your analysis of Michigan.  Take a look at this map from a Harvard linguistics department study:



Although it would not explain my affinity for Michiganspeak over other parts of the upper midwest.  I've only spent the night in the state once.  I wasn't there long enough to pick up on Devil's Night.

[White Trash]

Most similar: Jackson, New Orleans, Baton Rouge
Least similar: Worcester, Springfield, Providence

This is fairly accurate I'd say. But I'm surprised I matched so much with New Orleans, considering they sound like pseudo-Brooklynites. I also have very little Cajun influence in my dialect since most of my neighbors were mostly upstate crackers and Black folks.

[Goldwater]

Santa Rosa, CA
Reno, NV
Oceanside, CA

Interesting. I've taken the quiz in the past and it usually puts me in the Central Valley (where my parents and I are from). None of those places are too far, I guess.

Edit: I took it again and got Sacramento, CA; Modesto, CA; and Fresno, CA. That sounds more accurate.

Huh, so you got the same three cites as me the first time? Interesting.

[afleitch]

There's a similar app for Britain/Ireland but you have to download.

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/do-you-say-splinter-spool-spile-or-spell-english-dialects-app-tries-to-guess-your-regional-accenth

Nailed mine.

[Ronnie]

https://nyti.ms/2ldf8dE

Not too far off.  I'm from L.A, but I got Fremont, San Jose, and Honolulu.  One thing I find interesting is that quite a few of the red blotches on my map are in major metropolitan centers (Miami, Chicago, Seattle, Houston, etc.).  So I guess I have more of a city slicker accent than anything else.

[Türkisblau]

Santa Rosa, CA
Reno, NV
Oceanside, CA

Interesting. I've taken the quiz in the past and it usually puts me in the Central Valley (where my parents and I are from). None of those places are too far, I guess.

Edit: I took it again and got Sacramento, CA; Modesto, CA; and Fresno, CA. That sounds more accurate.

Huh, so you got the same three cites as me the first time? Interesting.

I've got the same cities as you, except Fremont instead of Oceanside. Odd but I guess it makes sense since my dad and brother are from California.

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

On the British one
1-3. Small towns in Suffolk
And another red dot on Bristol

[OneJ]

Q/A: (I took the test again with a few different answers)
How would you address a group of two or more people?

y'all (definitely)

What do you call the night before Halloween?

I have no word for this (definitely)

What do you call the small gray bug that curls up into a ball when it’s touched?

roly poly (definitely)

What do you call the large, wild cat native to the Americas?

panther (definitely)

How do you pronounce been?

with the vowel in sit

How do you pronounce the first syllable of lawyer?

rhymes with boy (definitely)

How do you pronounce crayon?

with two syllables-sounds like cray-ahn

How do you pronounce caramel?

with 3 syllables (carra-mel) (definitely)

How do you pronounce the words Mary, merry and marry?

All pronounced the same

How do you pronounce aunt?

with the vowel in aunt

What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?

I have no term or expression for this

What do you call the thing from which you might drink water in a school?

water fountain (definitely)

Do you call the sweet spread that is put on a cake frosting or icing?

icing (definitely)

What do you call the small road parallel to the highway?

frontage road (

What do you call the small freshwater lobster often found in lakes and streams?

crawfish (definitely)

What do you call something that is across both streets from you at an intersection (or diagonally across from you in general)?

I have no term for this

What do you call a large motor vehicle used to carry freight?

18-wheeler (honestly I use truck usually but lately I've been using this term)

What do you call the insect that flies around in the summer and glows in the dark?

firefly (definitely)

What do you call the area of grass between the sidewalk and the road?

I have no word for this (definitely)

What do you call the rubber-soled shoes worn in gym class or for athletic activities?

tennis shoes (definitely)

How do you pronounce the second syllable of pajamas?

with the vowel in jam

What do you call a traffic situation in which several roads meet in a circle?

roundabout

What do you call a big road on which you drive relatively fast?

highway (I hardly use it, but I like the word freeway)

Do you pronounce cot and caught the same?

different (pretty much; I try to pronounce the silent "h" in caught)

What do you call the long sandwich that contains cold cuts, lettuce and so on?

sub

Now my most similar are the following:
1. Jackson (I live here)
2. Baton Rouge
3. San Antonio (got Richmond last time)

Least Similar:
1. Worchester
2. Philly
3. Springfield (CT)

https://nyti.ms/2ldDeoE

[Crumpets]

I took the British one, and I got Cornwall: Frogpool, Tintagel, and Newlyn. I think this is interesting, since a lot of the early British settlers of the Americas came from Southwest England, and the isolated communities in Virginia and North Carolina which still speak with very old dialects tend to sound (to us Americans, probably not Brits) a lot like they're from the West Country.

I also think it's interesting since we believe that my first relative to come to the New World (and the one whose last name I share, so my father's father's father's father, and so on) likely came from either Devon or Cornwall. So in a way, it feels kind of cool to know that at least linguistically we have a couple unique pronunciations in common.

[Phony Moderate]

Something alone the lines of 'generic West Midlands', or 'somewhat watered down Brummie'.

[afleitch]

I took the British one, and I got Cornwall: Frogpool, Tintagel, and Newlyn. I think this is interesting, since a lot of the early British settlers of the America came from Southwest England, and the isolated communities in Virginia and North Carolina which still speak with very old dialects tend to sound (to us Americans, probably not Brits) a lot like they're from the West Country.

I also think it's interesting since we believe that my first relative to come to the New World (and the one whose last name I share, so my father's father's father's father, and so on) likely came from either Devon or Cornwall. So in a way, it feels kind of cool to know that at least linguistically we have a couple unique pronunciations in common.

That sort of stuff interests me. The UK app is precise enough to know I'm from Lanarkshire not Glasgow despite shifting my accent a little at school. Using it as an American and working 'backwards' might over time, be able to link generic American inflections to certain parts of the UK.

[rpryor03]

Aurora, CO/Colorado Springs, CO/Rochester, NY

[President Johnson]

German Schwäbisch (German Swabian)

In English, I would say some American (actually like the Southern accent). And certainly much better than Melania Trump. But I can't speak Oxford or British English (which is just terrible in my opinion).

[Intell]

There's a similar app for Britain/Ireland but you have to download.

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/do-you-say-splinter-spool-spile-or-spell-english-dialects-app-tries-to-guess-your-regional-accenth

Nailed mine.

How the F*k do you take it?

[Crumpets]

I just took the British accent one again, trying to do it with "how would I say this word if I was trying to put on an English accent?" in mind. I got Ipswich, which seems odd, since none of the British accent influences I can think of (namely, my high school geometry teacher, Jeremy Clarkson and Emma Watson) come from near there. Does anybody know what typifies the Ipswich-area accent that might make it seem like a "typical" English accent?

How the F*k do you take it?

It's an app on your phone. Just look up "English Dialects."

[RI]

Coincidentally (or not), this map also reflects my general views about the states:

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

You'd have to ask Franzl. My spoken English is quite annoying.

But is this really relevant? I mean, there are other issues regarding forum community that ought to be discussed, including how severe BRTD's mental condition is or whether angus is as eloquent in RL as on the forum. I mean, Jesus, his posts are piece of art. Almost essays. Should be published.

Also, realisticidealist had made an useless post in this thread, man. Who gives a flip about his "general views about the states". I do not and sure as hell my family doesn't either.

To end this post with a positive note, I consider this board as somewhat acceptable, in contract to Atlasia or whatever board ag moderated. Don't remember really. I think poor guy gone bananas. Peace.

[kyc0705]

Took the NYT quiz, got Philadelphia, New York, and Providence as most similar. Least similar were Amarillo, Lubbock, and Irving.

[ilikeverin]

I'm so glad to see this link being shared! The NYT quiz is definitely linguist-approved.  We'd often use it to keep people entertained while their relatives were participating in linguistics experiments at the Columbus science museum last summer.  It's easier to try to convince people that they have an accent/dialect when they get concrete examples of ways in which people might talk differently depending on their dialect.

For those who are complaining about the lack of sound differences rather than lexical features... well, trust me, it's hard enough as a phonetician being able to reliably distinguish between sounds, so asking folks without any training to do so would be nigh impossible.

I usually get Minneapolis and Madison, with the third city either being Grand Rapids or Spokane, which makes complete sense... the combination of my Minnesotan upbringing with my (at the time) strong desire to differentiate myself from the native Minnesotans around me led to a dialect with recognizably Minnesotan features but some avoidance of the biggest Minnesotan bugaboos.

I took the British one, and I got Cornwall: Frogpool, Tintagel, and Newlyn. I think this is interesting, since a lot of the early British settlers of the America came from Southwest England, and the isolated communities in Virginia and North Carolina which still speak with very old dialects tend to sound (to us Americans, probably not Brits) a lot like they're from the West Country.

I also think it's interesting since we believe that my first relative to come to the New World (and the one whose last name I share, so my father's father's father's father, and so on) likely came from either Devon or Cornwall. So in a way, it feels kind of cool to know that at least linguistically we have a couple unique pronunciations in common.

That sort of stuff interests me. The UK app is precise enough to know I'm from Lanarkshire not Glasgow despite shifting my accent a little at school. Using it as an American and working 'backwards' might over time, be able to link generic American inflections to certain parts of the UK.

Nah, except for some pockets of the East Coast, I'd imagine almost every American would get Cornwall.  That has more to do with Cornwall than it does with patterns of US immigration; Cornwall's rural character helped it preserve some of the features of the English spoken in the 1600s/1700s, just as the US's colonial character helped it preserve some of the features of the English spoken in the 1600s/1700s.

[BuckeyeNut]

Columbus science museum

You worked for COSI?

[ilikeverin]

Columbus science museum

You worked for COSI?

Not exactly.  I was a research assistant in one of the OSU Labs in Life.

[MAINEiac4434]

Boston-Worcester-Springfield, apparently. But I do pronounce my "Rs." Most of the unique terms I use (firefly, pronounciation of caramel, turnpike, rotary, etc.) I picked up from my mom who has a thick Boston accent.

Took the British one, got Wexford, Ireland, Cork, Ireland and Bristol, Cornwall, with dark red spots in Ipswich, Exeter, Southampton, Brighton and the furthest west point of the Cornish peninsula in Britain and Waterford in Ireland. Everything north of Milton Keynes is blue except for Glasgow which is yellow, and everything north of Dublin, west of Limerick and south of Cork in Ireland is blue except for small areas, particularly around Lough Corrib.

[parochial boy]

I guess Cornwall's similarity to the US also stems from the fact that, like the US and in contrast to most of England, it is both rhotic (you pronounce the "R" in "start") and has an inclination towards flat vowels (for instance you say "grass" rather than "grarss").

I got Yonkers, Jersey City, New York on the US test, which I guess is the closest to the generic Southern English I speak.

I got Gloucestershire for the UK test, which is surprising since I have never been there, and have never even met someone from there as far as I know. I guess because I speak English with a non-rhotic, South of England sounding accent, but also use flat vowels, that might sound a bit like the local accent.