Gene Expression

My “dialect”

Posted by Razib Khan on November 29, 2006
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I grew up in the Northeast (almost New England) and the Pacific Northwest. Here is a map of American English dialects.

Via Shaitan. You can take the quiz here.

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  1. #1 Mustafa Mond, FCD
    November 29, 2006

    I be havin’ a Midland accent also.

  2. #2 Agnostic
    November 29, 2006

    Tie b/w the West & Midland — doubly nondescript!

    good memories of my college days in southern New England w/ the “Mary vs merry vs marry” and “cot vs caught” xD

  3. #3 Richard Carter, FCD
    November 29, 2006

    You mean there are different types of American accents? Bizarre! ;-)

  4. #4 Oran Kelley
    November 29, 2006

    You’ll notice Philadlephia has its own category, which is because the quiz is based on the work of William Labov, who works at the University of Pennsylvania.

    You can find out more about how it works here.

  5. #5 Michele
    November 29, 2006

    Midland! With the exception of having lived in Tokyo and Hong Kong, I have lived in California my entire life. People can always recognize that I am from California. And yes, I have to confess that I grew up in “the valley” but that was many, many years before there were Valley Girls.

  6. #6 keil
    November 29, 2006

    Inland north represent.

  7. #7 ogunsiron
    November 29, 2006

    Inland north here (But I’m a canadian in quebec). I suppose the other accents are less “differentiating”. For pretty much every pair or triplet of words, i chose that they sounded different .

  8. #8 chet snicker
    November 29, 2006

    are you freezing in kanada?

  9. #9 Mustafa Mond, FCD
    November 30, 2006

    You mean there are different types of American accents?

    Dude! Like, totally.

  10. #10 eoin
    November 30, 2006

    ” The Northeast” even though my accent is Irish. Makes some sense, i spose.

  11. #11 Theresa
    December 2, 2006

    They got me!:

    Inland North — You may think you speak “Standard English straight out of the dictionary” but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like “Are you from Wisconsin?” [have been asked that] or “Are you from Chicago?” [have been asked that, too!] Chances are you call carbonated drinks “pop.” [Of course!]

  12. #12 chet snicker
    December 2, 2006

    shut up mickey!

  13. #13 pconroy
    December 4, 2006

    Interesting, as I’m actually Irish, but have lived in New York City for almost 20 years…

    What American accent do you have?
    Your Result: The Northeast

    Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Chances are, if you are from New York City (and not those other places) people would probably be able to tell if they actually heard you speak.
  14. #14 Charles Iliya Krempeaux
    November 1, 2009

    I was curious to see what the test would say about me, given I’m Canadian (and not American) and here’s the result…

    ““North Central” is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw “Fargo” you probably didn’t think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.”

    Seems like a reasonable result (given the last sentence).

    (I’m a Canadian from Vancouver, BC BTW.)