Community Chat

[Oznell]

Do you like accents?   Sometimes I like to take online quizzes that purport to define our accents.

Usually, I get the result "Midland" accent.  If the test emphasizes "dialect" more than "accent",   I get a different result.  Just took the Babbel test, and it pinned me as "Northeast".

As far as accent, I think "Midland" is pretty close-  it's supposed to be one of the most "neutral" (that's questionable) U.S. accents.

But, I think I have aspects also of an Upper Midwestern, and also Great Lakes accent- or what is now called "Inland Northern",  thrown in there too.

It's fun to confuse them.  Although born in Arizona, the first accents I heard and absorbed from my parents and siblings were all Canadian.   Later, when I lived in Arizona again, and Louisiana, some of my Canadian sound was planed away, like the famous "abote" for "about",  etc.   Other aspects remain.

Another quirk that they always look for in these quizzes is:

Do you pronounce "Mary, marry and merry" all the same, or differently?   By that standard, I'm right in there with a lot of Midwesterners and Far Westerners, who make no real difference in the pronunciation of all three words. That always freaks Easterners out, or at least, Eastern Seaboarders out!

How do you say Mary marry and merry?   How about "caught" and "cot".   

What's your accent?   If you've taken a quiz, are the results wrong, or accurate?

Later, edited to add:   I can't find the best quiz I took, which identified me as "Midland".  The Babbel one, for me, wasn't accurate.  Here's one to try-- it's too short, but I think better than Babbel, and does concentrate on the sounds of words and syllables you make--  "hoar i ble" vs. "haw ri ble",  etc.

Google     Voices   What American Accent Do You Have?  

[Alsace Gal]

@Oznell 

I've never taken one of those quizzes.

I'm a Californian, and all three Mary, Merry amd marry sound different to me, meaning I pronounce them different from each other, at least I think I do.

Caught ifs more drawn out and Cot is short.

[Tori3569]

NYC born and raised, so I think I sound like a typical New Yorker, even though when I travel, people don't believe I'm from NYC for some odd reason.    Mary, marry and merry are pronounced very differently here.  Caught and cot too-different sounds. 

Adding that I took the Babbel quiz and it said Northeast of course. The "soda" was a dead giveaway. 😁

[deepwaterdotter]

Upper Midwestern, doncha' know?

[KBEANS]

 I have the same accent as Bugs Bunny. Need I say more? 😝 

[aroc3435]

@Oznell   My accent is New York/New Jersey/East Coast /New England--Connecticut--per the Babbel test, which was fun and accurate for me.

And I read the follow up articles and listened to the New England and Northeastern videos.

Fun topic.  Thank you for posting.

aroc3435

Washington, DC

[Malcontent]

@Oznell 

I don’t have an ‘accent’, my American family does.

[VanSleepy]

Born and lived in Chicago until my late 20s, so yes, I say Mary, merry, marry and Barry, berry, bury all the same. Have lived in NJ since then and it is always words that have the short "a" sound that makes people ask, "Where are you from?" I have, though, trained myself to say roof and root beer the New Jersey way ☺ 

[Mersha]

I still have a very distinct Pittsburgh accent even though I have not lived in the area for decades.

I think once you have one, it is always with you.

For instance:  Are ya go'n dahntahn ta watch da Stillers play after ya wirsh the clothes and red up da room?

Everything must be slurred together also.

[Oznell]

Oh, I love these anomalies!   Thanks for sharing your pronunciations, @Alsace Gal ,  and @Tori3569 .

I was just reading a "Business Insider" article, that said, about 57% of Americans say "Mary marry and merry" the same,  17% pronounce all three of them differently, like you, @Alsace Gal , and 26% pronounce two of them the same, with the third different.

The ones like me, who say them the same, are participating in something called 'vowel merging'.    I can definitely hear the differences that you and @Tori3569 , and @aroc3435  (as an Easterner, I'm assuming you pronounce the three differently too ),  enunciate when you say them.  It's neat, like ringing different tones on church bells...

The whole subject is ultra fascinating.  I'm no linguist, obviously, but love this stuff.  There have been big vowel shifts in English going on for quite a while, according to language specialists.

The Inland Northern group, has interesting "a" vowels especially, bending the "a" so that in some words, it has virtually two syllables, rather than one. 

Inland Northern accent kind of follows the Great Lakes, from Syracuse, thru Rochester, Buffalo, to some extent, Cleveland (although Cleveland is a bit different) and Chicago, of course (again with a variation), to Milwaukee, etc.

I've said here before, I love the way Chicagoans say "Bob"--   "Baab".    Is that close?  It's not quite that, but...

Ironically, my husband is a Chicagoan, and doesn't have the accent, although he does have that pronunciation of "roof".  Not like the long 'oo' sound in tooth, but shorter ---  "ruuf".    Love that!