What! I have an Accent????

This is way too good to be true. Thomas MacEntee of “Destination: Austin Family” found this wonderful little quiz that tells you what kind of an American accent you have. Several of my genea-blogger compadres have taken the test themselves. (They are such a fun group!) If you want to check out your own accent, you can take the quiz at http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have. 

Thomas's post, http://destinationaustinfamily.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-american-accent-do-you-have.html, talks about his own interest in accents. 

My results from the quiz say that I speak Inland Northern American English. 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?” or “Are you from Chicago?” Chances are you call carbonated drinks “pop.” Bingo!

Did I not just blog about this very thing in my recent post, “Squawkers and other Regionalisms?” Wikipedia has a wonderful article about the Inland North Dialect that you can read about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Northern_American_English. 

A cool map shows the region for this dialect. For an equally cool map of all the dialects check out this url: http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NatMap1.html. 

For the record, I break the dialect when I pronounce the word “on” to rhyme with “dawn” instead of “don.” Hey, so I'm not as perfect as you thought! 

My hunch is that the majority of you taking the test will find that you also have The Inland North accent. If not, chances are you speak The Midland dialect. 

Thanks, Thomas, for a fun couple of hours — albeit not very productive ones. 

Until Next Time! 

Note this post first published online, March 28, 2008, at Desktop Genealogist Blog at The News-Messenger Online http://www.thenews-messenger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=BLOGS02

© 28 March 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder