What accent?

map of Pop vs Soda

A nice little coincidence this morning. I was surfing around and found a website I was unfamiliar with which has profiles of people. http://www.nndb.com/ They had a nice little summary of my #1 Hero, Frank Zappa. I first become aware of Zappa's world when I got home from school one day in Fort Worth, Texas and turned on the daily live music/dance show broadcast from Dallas. I was entranced by the wild look and outrageous music coming from a band called "The Mothers of Invention." This was late spring of '66 and I was listening to the Beach Boys and watching surf movies. I was 12. Zappa changed my world. It was a while before I could find Zappa albums in my neighborhood, but when I did, I dove in and never looked back. I still listen to Zappa music at least weekly. Frank colored much of my world outlook. I'd love to hear what he would have to say about the events occuring today. More trouble every day. I miss him every day.

Hmmm... Apparently I too come from the inland north of the USA and a close second from Philly. Which is a slight problem as I'm from New Zealand...

The quiz correctly pegged me as being from the Philadelphia area. I actually grew up in south-central Penna, but have lived near Phila. for 17 years. Though even here, there are quite strong accents for South Phila., Northeast Phila and Southern NJ.

When I lived in Michigan for 3 years, people constantly asked me if I was from New York. When I lived in Northern New Jersey, people would ask me what part of the Midwest I was from.

While in Michigan, I never could bring myself to say 'pop', though I did develop a liking for Vernor's ginger ale. OTOH, myself and my fellow displaced East Coasters couldn't believe there where no TastyKakes or Ring Ding Jrs.

Hmmmmm.......... it says I'm from the "inland north," followed closely by "the midland," whatever that means. I've also had people ask me if I was Canadian.

Odd, since I'm from southern California. And everyone knows that native southern Californians are the only people in the world who speak without an accent (unless you're a Valley Girl, in which case all bets are off).

In my case, all bets may be off anyway, since I'm a semi-pro classical choral singer, and "singer's diction" is somewhat prone to spill over into one's spoken diction (and generally improve it in the process).

BTW, it's "soda pop" - although after 20 years in the Philly burbs, I've started calling it "soda." "Sucker" has also fallen by the wayside in favor of the far less innuendo-laden "lollipop."

And I disagree with the survey on a couple of points.

[1] The "south" is far from monolithic. If you have half a clue what to listen for, it's easy to tell a Texan from a Georgian from a "hillbilly."

[2] There's also a most egregious omission: the "Picksburg" (or more properly "Ohio valley") dialect. In Picksburg you get together with some friends and "younz" (also spelled "yinz") go "dahntahn" to watch a "Stillers" game. When the game is over, younz pick up some munchies, head over to the "Sahth Side," and ride the incline up the mountain. When you look across the valley, you notice a "hahs" on "fahr." When you run "aht" of stuff to eat, it's "tahm" to go home.

Like our Kiwi friend, I was told I'm from Philadelphia or the Inland North - also funny because I'm Australian.

You can tell the silly season is starting when we start doing quizzes like this.

I was also told that I am from the Inland North; I don't think that this is very accurate, given that I am Spanish, and my accent does not sound Australian by any stretch of the imagination.

I join my fellow antipodeans; those of the Inland North should be able to understand myKiwi accent (which is odd, since *they* have very strong accents to my unaccustomed ear!

Hmm. It correctly placed me in the Northeast. Ironically, people around here (and elsewhere in the Northeast as well) tend to think I have some foreign accent which they "can't quite place" (One or two people came up with Israel). In fact, I grew up on "the 'guyland" (Long Island, east of NYC), but I also have two layered speech impediments. (One hereditary, one from my hearing loss.)

I come out from the Midland and I'm also from California. I muct have picked up more from my Missouri antecedents than I thought.

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.Philadelphia The Inland North The Midland The South Boston The West North Central What American accent do you have?Take More Quizzes

It pegs me correctly.

Apparently I'm from the 'Northeast'. Actually, I'm from the Midlands, - of the UK....lol. I always find if funny when Americans say we speak with 'an English accent' .. I always ask 'Which one?'...

Wow, it was very accurate for me, telling me I was from the "west" and that I was the kind of American speech that most people consider "does not have an accent" which is completely true. When I was at college in DC I had people telling me "you speak American English without an accent" who were from the northeast, and also people who were from Spanish speaking countries.

Also, I think everyone on the West coast says pop, but since I got used to hearing soda in the east coast and then overseas no one knows what you mean if you say "pop" (you have to say "soft drinks" or just use the actual name of the drink) I sort of got out of the habit of it and am happy back here in Portland learning how to say it again. :)

I was pegged as being from "The West," which is not entirely unexpected. My folks are both from western PA, but we moved all over the country when I was a kid. The really funny thing is that since I've moved to Philly, I've been asked more than once if I'm from Europe. Whu?

It pegged me as "midwest", failing to detect my Texas accent, which is somewhat weaker after years in the northeast, but hardly gone. Two questions that would probably have picked it up:

Do the name "Anne" and the word "an" sound the same or different?

When you say the word "drawer", is the "a" sound more like the one in "draw" or the one in "are" ?

Hah! Nailed me. Minnesota (well "North Central"), which they describe by referring to the movie "Fargo".

I have to agree that it is pop, not soda. ;-)

I have too many accents [at least one for each of my multiple personalities], but it pegged the South, Midland and Inland North pretty well.

Well, y'awl, yous kin skeedaddle on now, whilst I partake of some Real Sweet Tea, no Vernors being readily available, eh?

It's all Coke. Not pop, soda, or soft drinks. Even if it's clear, it's still Coke.

I guess us Northern Canadians sound like New Zealanders and Australians -- US Inland North.

Neato mosquito eh.

(PS trrl -- drawer sounds like "jore.")