Comments on: English as she is Spoke

By: Canadian accent « The Dagger Aleph

Canadian accent « The Dagger Aleph — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:58:41 +0000

[...] In the comment thread on this Crooked Timber post on the quiz, someone writes, In fact, the only people in the world without an accent are people who’ve moved to Toronto from elsewhere in Canada, normally Edmonton, Nova Scotia or Hamilton. Unless you consider ending every sentence so it sounds like you’ve just asked a question to be an accent, which it isn’t; that’s just annoying. [...]

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 02:54:49 +0000

I insist that "bag" as "bayg" is not rare in Milwaukee. See also. It may be new, most of the people I can remember saying it were under 40.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 04:57:29 +0000

Bag / vague is very rare and its also new. As I understand, “Bag” is pronounced “bayg”, “vague” is not pronounced “vagg”. I may have heard it around here but it’s the only Minnesotaism I don’t have.

By: Bernard Yomtov

Bernard Yomtov — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 03:09:23 +0000

The quiz pegged me as northeastern – Philadelphia/Boston which I am now (Boston), but most of my life I have lived in the south.

Just to support Kieran’s statement about people not thinking they have accents, as I answered the questions I couldn’t imagine any English speaker answering differently.

“Bag” and “vague.” Are they serious?

By: erin

erin — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 20:11:28 +0000

I think “no accent” is a clumsy way of saying “Standard American Dialect” (AKA Northeastern Ohio dialect). It’s still a dialect, of course.

By: bad Jim

bad Jim — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 10:43:27 +0000

Finally! I moved from “Midland” to “The West” by admitting I can’t practically distinguish “stalk” and “stock”.

My relatives in the D.C. area, whether they came originally from Iowa or New York, don’t sound noticeably different from us Californians. They might not agree that we sound like them. I’ve never asked.

By: Cala

Cala — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 04:10:03 +0000

I was told whichever one means you have a good radio accent.

Do Unfogged commenters roam the Internet in packs, now?

Axes of Unfogged! The Unfoggedtariat are upon you!

In fact, the only people in the world without an accent are people who’ve moved to Toronto from elsewhere in Canada, normally Edmonton, Nova Scotia or Hamilton.

Western Canada near Edmonton has an identifiable accent. You have to sort of scrunch up your mouth while you do the Eastern lilt with your voice, so it doesn’t lilt as much.

I never noticed the Pittsburgh accent growing up, but now when I visit my parents all the neighbors and the people interviewed and my relatives talk funny.

By: mds

mds — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:48:10 +0000

But if you say you are from New Mexico, I can pretty much tell you which county after talking to you for an hour.

I can also do this, but it requires asking during the hour which county the person is from.

By: abb1

abb1 — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 20:59:55 +0000

I told them everything sounds the same to me (indeed it does) and they told me I’m from midwest. That’s the place where people with bad hearing get exiled, apparently.

By: Western Dave

Western Dave — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 19:34:51 +0000

Well, it correctly identified me as originally being from NY but I don’t know how it can identify Philadelphians without a water vs. wudder question. And as for standard English being Inter-Mountain west, what Wyoming sheepherders are you talking to? In the west, there are two major accent groups, urban and rural. Of course, from there it gets much more complicated. But if you say you are from New Mexico, I can pretty much tell you which county after talking to you for an hour.

By: kid bitzer

kid bitzer — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 18:17:06 +0000

it would be much more useful if it would quiz us on how we pronounce “banana facile”.

By: Jay C

Jay C — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 18:11:22 +0000

I guess the reason why “quizzes like are easy to blame” is that quizzes like this are generally inane and useful mainly for a moment’s entertainment. Myself, I was born and raised in Southern California (to New York-born-and-raised parents), and have lived in New York City for 24 years: and yet the result on my accent quiz was:
“Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak” – with possibilities of South Jersey, Baltimore or Wilmington thrown in.

Philly? Baltimore? Fuhgeddaboudit!

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 18:04:44 +0000

I thought that the Newfies had their own language called “screech”.

The test is Americocentric and pretty much useless for Brits and Aussies, I think. The ten questions are fine-tuned to pick out specific groups, and don’t work if you aren’t in one of those groups. Canadians who don’t speak Minnesotan (i.e. Newfies) will be missed too.

By: wsam

wsam — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 17:08:15 +0000

Canadian spelling is the best

In fact, the only people in the world without an accent are people who’ve moved to Toronto from elsewhere in Canada, normally Edmonton, Nova Scotia or Hamilton. Unless you consider ending every sentence so it sounds like you’ve just asked a question to be an accent, which it isn’t; that’s just annoying.

Don’t people just grunt and bang hockey sticks together to communicate in Saskatchewan?

What about curling? Does curling count as a language? Or is it just a dialect?

By: vanya

vanya — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 16:58:48 +0000

FWIW, I and my wife took that test and it pegged us both exactly (me New Hampshire, and her Philadelphia). I thought for a little internet quiz the test was actually pretty good at identifying subtle vowel markings that most people don’t notice – neither of us talks with a stereotypical accent (I don’t rhyme “can’t” with “haunt”, or drop my “r”s. She doesn’t front her vowel sounds as much as a typical Philly resident would do).

And Michael Sullivan if you’re from California and people think you sound English you may want to consider speech therapy, you may have a speech defect. People think my Boston born son has an “English” accent when he speaks – he actually has Aspergers and simply doesn’t follow normal intonation patterns.