What kind of American English do you speak?

[BobLeeSwagger]

80% General American English
10% Upper Midwestern
5% Dixie
5% Yankee
0% Midwestern

Kind of makes sense, since both my parents are from the upper midwest, even though I'm not.

And I've never heard of any of those terms for an "easy class". I just called it an "easy class".

 

[13788]

ravenously: 55% gen american
20% Yankee
20% upper midwest
5% midwest
0% dixie


Makes sense, I've traveled quite a fair share of this tiny blue marble known to some as terre, earth to others and many more names to many more people, but I 've spent most of my time in the upper midwest and new england.

 

[Dr Rock]

60% General American English
25% Yankee
10% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

not really surprising since 90% of my time is spent on the east coast

 

[dickbulge]

35% General American
30% Yankee
20% Dixie
10% Upper Midwest
5% Midwest

I've only lived in Texas and Utah! How did I get such a mix? Many people can spot the southern in my speech pretty fast. (Especially givaways like "pretty fast". ) I think the test is too short to be real accurate ("real accurate" not "very accurate", see) and doesn't allow for education or conscious attempts to overcome regional pronunciation. Y'all.

I've read traditional general American is spoken east from the Mississippi to the Atlantic coast, south of the Great Lakes and north of the old Confederacy. It is not spoken in New York or Chicago.

 

[MisterMark]

65% General American English
15% Yankee
10% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

When I lived in Minnesota, my dialect changed significantly (I used the word "pop" instead of soda, for instance), but since I've been in California for several years, I'm back to sounding more like a typical American.

 

[steve319]

Originally posted by dickbulge@Apr 17 2005, 12:19 AM
I think the test is too short to be real accurate ("real accurate" not "very accurate", see) and doesn't allow for education or conscious attempts to overcome regional pronunciation. Y'all.

[post=301277]Quoted post[/post]​

LOL! Made my day, dickbulge!

It even gets its own deadpan sentence all to itself.

Great delivery, there.

 

[Altairion]

Well, so much for being from the midwest....

85% General American English
5% Midwestern
5% Upper Midwestern
5% Yankee
0% Dixie

0% Dixie....woohoo! j/k

 

[yaoifun]

60% General American English
35% Yankee
5% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern


That's a lot of yankee! That's what I get for being from Taxachusetts...I call an easy course a joke, say car-a-mel, and even since working at a grocery store, I'm yet to hear a shopping cart referred to as a buggy. I probably got my dixie from mom's side of the family, they all live in the south or midwest and mom grew up in the midwest, so that's most likely how I got mine.

 

[txquis]

I've lived in the south, the north and the midwest, so
i wasnt surprised by my results.

Most people place me as a Southern California, one of the few
areas i have never lived. LOL

65% General
20% Dixie
15% Yankee
0 MIdwestern
0 Uppermid

I do not have an accent, but i guess i do use some southern terms still.

 

[jonb]

Originally posted by DoubleMeatWhopper+Apr 16 2005, 12:28 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DoubleMeatWhopper &#064; Apr 16 2005, 12:28 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-jonb@Apr 16 2005, 07:08 PM
Oh, speaking of linguistics, anyone here know what a ghoti is?

"Fish". The gh of &#39;laugh&#39; + the o of &#39;women&#39; + the ti of &#39;ration&#39;.

[post=301165]Quoted post[/post]​

[/b][/quote]
I heard cough and section, but it&#39;s the same idea. Something similar with ghoughpteighbteau. (That&#39;s potato, for anyone who doesn&#39;t quite get it.)

That&#39;s what happens when you have a language which is a mixture of Dutch, French, some various Celtic words, and even some Greek and Latin. The old ketchup/catsup joke began with how to spell the Chinese word for this one fish preservative. (Tomatoes were added by the British to get rid of the brine smell.) That, and the 283 irregular verbs, some of which you don&#39;t even use regularly. (When was the last time anyone here said "beseech"?)

And then you get the interjections; some of these words don&#39;t even have vowels like psst and sh. Others, like uh-oh and ahem, have a glottal stop. Still others, like tsk-tsk, have clicks.

 

[jonb]

Originally posted by DoubleMeatWhopper+Apr 16 2005, 01:14 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DoubleMeatWhopper &#064; Apr 16 2005, 01:14 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Pecker@Apr 16 2005, 04:13 PM
I&#39;m from Texas - it&#39;s pronounced "A-mur-kin." 

In central Louisiana, is "uh-MAIR-k&#39;n".

[post=301177]Quoted post[/post]​

[/b][/quote]
John Pratchett just said Merkin.

 

[prepstudinsc]

Originally posted by dickbulge@Apr 17 2005, 12:19 AM

I&#39;ve only lived in Texas and Utah&#33; How did I get such a mix? Many people can spot the southern in my speech pretty fast. (Especially givaways like "pretty fast". ) I think the test is too short to be real accurate ("real accurate" not "very accurate", see) and doesn&#39;t allow for education or conscious attempts to overcome regional pronunciation. Y&#39;all.

[post=301277]Quoted post[/post]​

I&#39;ve been to southern Utah (St. George and Cedar City) and those places can be as "southern" as the real South, down to the confederate flags that are emblazoned on the pickups and that fly from flagpoles. There is a hint of a southern accent, too. It might be the redneck factor or something. LOL

 

[D_Martin van Burden]

65% General American English
20% Yankee
15% Dixie
0% everythin&#39; else

 

[B_DoubleMeatWhopper]

Originally posted by jonb@Apr 17 2005, 08:12 PM
John Pratchett just said Merkin.

Are you sure he wasn&#39;t talking about his pubic toupée?

 

[jonb]

It&#39;s of alt.fan.pratchett fame. Merkin&#39;s become a slang for American ever since. (I even used it in an essay I wrote on violence in the media called Merkin: The Fierce People, an obvious reference to Chagnon&#39;s essay. A less ideologically-motivated person would&#39;ve called the Yanomami the sick people, since they&#39;re significantly shorter than even other Amazonians, and a couple millimetres shorter, on average, than pygmies.)

 

[jeepwranglerboi]

60% General American English
20% Dixie
20% Yankee
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern


For some odd reason I say "ya&#39;ll." I have no idea how I acquired that saying but I suppose that is my Dixie percentage. Like Jeff, I too do not really have much of an accent. Most people peg me as being from southern California as well, which is pretty funny for a native New Yorker&#33;

 

[jay_too]

40% General American English
25% Dixie
20% Yankee
5% Midwestern
10% Upper Midwestern

How did I get 10% Upper Midwestern? I don&#39;t have any close friends from the cold climes, and I have never spent time there. I wonder if the Midestern and Upper Midwestern are a result of living in CA?

jay

 

[surferboy]

Originally posted by jay_too@Apr 18 2005, 03:02 PM
40% General American English
25% Dixie
20% Yankee
5% Midwestern
10% Upper Midwestern

How did I get 10% Upper Midwestern? I don&#39;t have any close friends from the cold climes, and I have never spent time there. I wonder if the Midestern and Upper Midwestern are a result of living in CA?

jay

[post=301787]Quoted post[/post]​

No, because I&#39;m a Cali boy. I&#39;d have Midwestern and upper Midwestern if it was because of Cali.

 

[prepstudinsc]

I had Upper Midwest and Midwest in my results, too, and I was born in northern CA. Maybe there is something to the California thing, Jay_too.

 

[lapdog2001]

Your Linguistic Profile:
55% Yankee
25% General American English
10% Upper Midwestern
5% Dixie
0% Midwestern

Where the hell did this lifelong Yankee get 5% Dixie&#33; :lol:
They should have listed &#39;Tonic&#39; in the soft drink question, then my Yankee quotient would have been even higher&#33;

LapDog :9