Which American Accent Do You Have?

[6miths]

You think so, eh?


I got Northern or Western New England. Accurate I'm 150 miles to Buffalo and 150 miles to Massachusetts.

I remember taking one that utilized word usage and it was quite accurate.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

It nailed me spot on. Northern.


I grew up on a farm in Minnesota and can talk just like the folks in the movie "Fargo".


One time about 10 years ago I was in Washington DC and struck up a conversation with a nice gentleman from Switzerland. He asked me "What country are you from?"

 

[Qs Laptop]

Neutral, which is correct for this lifelong Minneapolis resident.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

I got neutral.

I am a native Texan but also lived in Louisiana and southern IL before landing in SoCal at 13.

 

[Nemo2]

I have a British accent and it says Northeastern. Close enough I suppose!

Born in England, went to Australia in my teens.....came to Canada in 1965.

Circa 1967 hitchhiked down to Atlantic City, thence Philly, from Toronto with one of the guys from assorted backgrounds that I shared a place with; he had a 'posh-ish' English accent, and as an effective hitchhiking draw he wore a bowler hat and carried an umbrella.

We're sitting at a bar in Philly and the barmaid said to him "Where are you from?", she then immediately turned to me and said "You, you're from around here, but where's he from?"

Must be that chameleon bloodstream I guess.

 

[CardsFan]

I took the "click" bait.

Spot on. Northeast New England. Grew up just south of Boston.

Quoted myself.

Interesting side note: While I grew up South of Boston, I have lived in the Mid-West most of my adult life. I have lost most of stereotypical Boston accents, but still maintained enough for this test to identify it.

BTW, my mother's sister is still my "aunt", not my "ant"

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I've got a good fishing buddy in MN who moved here from Boston 50 years ago. When it gets hot he'll say "It's a real Scoootcha out heea". Give him a couple beers and he's talking like he's back east. I talk like I fell off a Norwegian fishing boat.

 

[Aerides]

This test can't work because the accent in your head is probably quite different to your current speaking accent.

We don't change the voice in our head as quickly as we sound to everyone else. And most of us are a hodgepodge. I'm a full on brit in my head, but you'd never know it, unless I wanted you to, if we spoke in person.

 

[Morgan22]

FYI, I just tried clicking on the site and my anti-virus software is blocking it saying this site may contain malware activity. It then gives a message about a trojan program.

I hope my anti-virus is not correct...


Edit: I'm originally from the Boston area. Everywhere I've travelled in the US everyone has asked me if I'm from Boston once they hear me talk. The Boston accent is hard to hide.

 

[target2019]

Fuggedaboudit

 

[cyber888]

I have the Hollywood accent, because I watch a lot of TV
But now living in the South .. so "Y'all have a nicee day and git er done!"

 

[braumeister]

Must be that chameleon bloodstream I guess.

I'm the same way. I've always tended to quickly adopt the local accent wherever I've lived. Not consciously, it just happens. I also have a good ear for accents, and can usually tell where someone is from just by listening to them.

 

[ABQ2015]

This test can't work because the accent in your head is probably quite different to your current speaking accent.

We don't change the voice in our head as quickly as we sound to everyone else. And most of us are a hodgepodge. I'm a full on brit in my head, but you'd never know it, unless I wanted you to, if we spoke in person.

My result was Northern which has to be incorrect since I have only lived in the deep South and Southwest and often get corrected on my pronunciation of simple words by some English major friends from the Midwest. I must be answering some of the questions wrong and need my friends to administer the test for me.

 

[MichaelB]

This test can't work because the accent in your head is probably quite different to your current speaking accent.

We don't change the voice in our head as quickly as we sound to everyone else. And most of us are a hodgepodge. I'm a full on brit in my head, but you'd never know it, unless I wanted you to, if we spoke in person.

Probably one reason I have no identifiable accent is the many voices in my head, all with different accents and all clamoring for attention.

 

[Lsbcal]

I got the Northern result.

Have lived in the SF Bay area all my life. But my Mother was from Chicago and Dad was from New York. So maybe that influences the result?

 

[Richard4444]

Yup. My origin in New York was exposed.

Rich

 

[Nemo2]

But my Mother was from Chicago and Dad was from New York. So maybe that influences the result?

Early 1990s...I was out walking my dog on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, and got talking to a guy, maybe 80s, who had just taken over a small hobby farm.

Thick Scottish accent.....asked him when he left Scotland.....he said he'd never been outside Canada....born and grew up in a remote farming community in Alberta....all Scots.

So yeah.

 

[Time2]

Early 1990s...I was out walking my dog on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, and got talking to a guy, maybe 80s, who had just taken over a small hobby farm.

Thick Scottish accent.....asked him when he left Scotland.....he said he'd never been outside Canada....born and grew up in a remote farming community in Alberta....all Scots.

So yeah.

I grew up and lived in Michigan for 40 years, been in Florida the last 25 years. It picked me as Northern, "That could either be the Chicago/Detroit"
Yep, smack dab in between them!


I ran a business in Florida for many years, it was uncanny how many people identified me out as being from Michigan. Many also said I had an accent, did they ever listen to themselves?

 

[CardsFan]

This test can't work because the accent in your head is probably quite different to your current speaking accent.

We don't change the voice in our head as quickly as we sound to everyone else. And most of us are a hodgepodge. I'm a full on brit in my head, but you'd never know it, unless I wanted you to, if we spoke in person.

Bold by me.

Evidently it got many of us correct, so it CAN work.

YMMV.

 

[Nemo2]

I'm the same way. I've always tended to quickly adopt the local accent wherever I've lived. Not consciously, it just happens. I also have a good ear for accents, and can usually tell where someone is from just by listening to them.

Winter of 1997, camped with my late wife on a Baja beach; next to us was a German couple, residents of Lake Tahoe, who were awaiting the arrival of friends...one of whom had been stationed with the U.S. military in Germany.

Post arrival we're all sitting around b.s.ing and I conceded that the friend's German vocabulary was more extensive than mine, (not even a remotely difficult accomplishment).

"Yes", said Ingrid the German wife to her friend, "But you sound like a G.I. while he sounds like a German".

 

[aaronc879]

My internet security suggests I don't open that link so I won't. Be careful.

 

[GenXguy]

It's worthless.

Western... LOL

I grew up in the Midwest, so did my parents, and I still live here.

I've barely been to the west. I already say "stock" and "stalk" differently.

 

[ABQ2015]

I grew up and lived in Michigan for 40 years, been in Florida the last 25 years. It picked me as Northern, "That could either be the Chicago/Detroit"
Yep, smack dab in between them!


I ran a business in Florida for many years, it was uncanny how many people identified me out as being from Michigan. Many also said I had an accent, did they ever listen to themselves?

Most of the Midwestern friends that I mentioned earlier are from Michigan. Michigan accents are easy to detect even for me.

 

[Poopycat]

I came out Neutral, which isn’t a surprise. Californians (or in my case, former Californians) often have generic sounding accents.

One of my favorite accent quizzes is the one the New York Times did, for those looking for another dialect quiz,

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html

 

[W2R]

Neutral

You`re not Northern, Southern, or Western, you`re just plain -American-. Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don`t really have a local identity. You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be. Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up.

Well, that makes sense. We traveled all over when I was a kid, and although we had a house in St. Louis and then in Hawaii, for my family these were mostly places to leave from. With all that traveling I never felt like I had a permanent home. Which, as some of you know, is one of several reasons why I don't like to travel now.

When I was in my teens and twenties and thirties, something I always wanted was to be FROM somewhere. I wanted to be able to respond to that all-too-common question, "Where are you from?" without becoming speechless and blushing and stammering and feeling like a weirdo. Well, I have taken care of that. I have been in SE Louisiana for 25 years by now and it's beginning to feel a lot like home. Feels pretty good.

Anyway, I'm rambling on but trying to say that I'm not surprised that my accent is a bit non-descript.