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Oddly enough, people here used to think I was from the midwest

zuzu
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?
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50 thoughts on Oddly enough, people here used to think I was from the midwest

  4. I took this before and for some reason a bunch of online friends were shocked that for me ‘bag’ and ‘vague’ rhyme… Spot on, though, Northern Midwest with a Northeastern variation.

    Except only half of the Midwest calls soda ‘pop’. Here in WI, it’s soda, dammit.

  8. Told me Midland, but I grew up in the West and most of my family is from Texas or Oklahoma. I know that the Texas accent comes through on occasion.

    Oh and as long as you don’t say “sodie pop” you are good.

  10. What American accent do you have? Your Result: North Central “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.Boston The Midland The West Philadelphia The Inland North The Northeast The South What American accent do you have?Take More Quizzes

    I accept it without dispute. Minnesotans do have a accent similar to generic Western Canadian. I _did_ think the characters in Fargo sounded funny, but funny-familar rather than funny-strange. Like, “dude, that’s totally what my Grandma sounds like” funny.

    Arianna, where are you from in Canada?

  11. It had me as Inland North, even though I’ve never been anywhere near there except to change planes. I grew up near Boston, and some people think I have a Boston accent, although I disagree.

  13. There’s a very interesting aspect to Inland Northern speech.

    White speakers of North American English in the main urban centers of the Inland North region (like Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee) are currently participating in what’s known as the Northern Cities Vowel Shift or more specifically, the Northern Cities Chain Shift. It’s a major linguistic innovation, and what’s particularly notable about it is that it is affecting the short vowels, the sounds of which have typically remained stable.

    The main tip-off to this phenomenon is the shift of short “a” to a diphthong; it sounds to the untrained ear like a very “nasal” short a, but if you listen closely, you can hear the separation.

    It’s not “done” as a shift, either; there are speakers in less- and more-advanced stages of it.

  14. I’m pegged as “The Inland North”, which is where I’m from. Second place was the Northeast.

    I like the word Pop. It is fun to say. I’ll have a Pop!

  15. “You have a Midland accent” is just another way of saying “you don’t have an accent.” You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.

    I was always told by my journalism professors that I’d be good on TV…

  16. Inland North, and I’m from Canada (southern Ontario, to be precise). I’m interested that Arianna got Boston.

  17. Philadelphia. Guilty as charged, though it’s been almost half of my life since I lived there. I was also tickled that I was with my Bostonian ex long enough to take it using my fake Boston accent and come out accurately that way too. (We didn’t live there together either.)

  18. It pegged me as Northeast too. Given that pretty much when I leave the state, people say “You’re from New York, aren’t you?”, it knew from whence it spoke.

  19. Knifeghost:

    The Ottawa Valley originally, Ottawa now, though I sojourned a year in Scotland, which just added to my altogether screwed-up accent.

    If you’re not from the area, you probably don’t know how different “Ottawa Valley” is from “Ottawa” with regards to accents.

  21. Ok, I know I’m getting spammy now.

    I’m starting to wonder how it managed to classify ‘Boston Accent” without there being any “r” questions, now that I’ve looked up what a Boston Accent is supposed to sound like…

  22. it said i was midland as well, though i’ve lived virtually all of my life out west. have no idea what questions i answered triggered that scoring…

  23. That quiz had me pegged. I’m from the West (well, New Mexico), and it said I might also be from Dallas, where I used to live. I think it just shows I speak perfect Ameriglish.

  24. Midland for me, even though i’ve lived my entire life in Georgia and Texas. Though to be fair, it did leave me the option of living in a large city, which is true (Fort Worth, close enough to Dallas to spit).

    Back when i was in Georgia, though, i had a great drawl, which my family will never let me forget.

  25. Hmmm, North Central. Although really I’m from southern Quebec and I thought the Fargo people sounded really funny when I first saw it, and not in “that’s how my grandmother speaks” kinda way. The first couple ones, caught/cot, dawn/don, we went over in my sociolinguistics class a few weeks ago and everyone in the class was amazed that the teacher pronounced them differently, while she was startled that we didn’t.

  26. I got Northeast, but I don’t think I sound like a native speaker of any kind.

    Zuzu, it’s weird that you got Northeast. I vaguely remember you as merging cot and caught. I know most people I talk to do; granted, I live in immigrant-rich Morningside Heights, but even when I venture to other areas of Manhattan, I rarely hear people distinguish cot and caught, to say nothing of distinguishing have and halve or pronouncing the L in leaf the same way it’s pronounced in feel.

  27. I got Boston; I’m from western Mass, though I don’t have the classic “pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd” accent.

    Arianna, it has a lot to do with those similar vowel questions. For example, “don” and “dawn,” or “cot” and “caught.” They sound almost exactly the same in my accent.

  28. hoo hoo… I’m from canada and I got “North Central”: “Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.”

  29. You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri)

    Dude, people from southern Ohio totally have an accent. It’s got these twangy a’s.

    Incidentially, I am at a total loss as to how bag and vague could ever rhyme.

  30. Throughout the US and Canada, the word bang is pronounced with the bay vowel rather than with the bat vowel. In certain regions, like California and Oregon, there’s also a tendency to pronounce bag with the same vowel.

  32. Incidentially, I am at a total loss as to how bag and vague could ever rhyme.

    Come to the Pacific Northwest and you’ll hear it firsthand.

  34. Incidentially, I am at a total loss as to how bag and vague could ever rhyme.

    Come to the Pacific Northwest and you’ll hear it firsthand.

    I don’t get it either — do they say bag with a long-A sound (bayg….???) or are they giving vague a short-A sound?

    btw, it did correctly pin me as midwest, that no-accent accent that most TV announcers have. Grew up in Indiana.

  35. Long-A.

    Throughout the US and Canada, the word bang is pronounced with the bay vowel rather than with the bat vowel. In certain regions, like California and Oregon, there’s also a tendency to pronounce bag with the same vowel.

    In pristine English, “bat” is /b{t/, “bad” is /b{d/, “bang” is /b{N/, “bag” is /b{g/, “bay” is /beI/ (that’s a capital I, not a small L), and “vague” is /veIg/. Almost all Americans and Canadians pronounce “bang” as /beIN/, “bank” as /beINk/, “twang” as /tweIN/, etc. In the West, and apparently also in Canada, “bag” becomes /beIg/, “hag” becomes /heIg/, and “wag” becomes /weIg/.

    Supposedly, in New York and New Jersey “bad” becomes /be@d/ (roughly the same as the vowel in British “bear,” which is transcribed as /be@/), “ban” becomes /be@n/, “bass” becomes /be@s/, and “bath” becomes /be@T/ (but “bat” is still /b{t/, “map” is still /m{p/, and “batch” is still /b{tS/); I’ve only heard four or five people here talk like that, though.

  36. If you’re not from the area, you probably don’t know how different “Ottawa Valley” is from “Ottawa” with regards to accents.

    Honestly? When I read that you scored “Boston”, I guessed you were from the Ottawa Valley.

  37. MRain65 Says:
    November 27th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
    Inland North, and I’m from Canada (southern Ontario, to be precise). I’m interested that Arianna got Boston

    .

    Hey there MRain – Inland North, and I’m from southern Ontario also, (started southeast, now southwest).

  38. Alon, you seriously hear people in NYC merge cot and caught all the time? I can’t say I’ve ever heard a native New Yorker do that. I do hear people who moved to NYC from other states do it, but never a native New Yorker. Maybe it’s just our respective sampling biases. Most of my family are native to New York City, although they don’t live in Manhattan and weren’t brought up in Manhattan. Brooklyn and Queens.

    I’m pretty sure that Manhattan has a higher percentage of non-native New Yorkers living in it than the other boroughs, so that might be it too. You’re just not hearing people who were born in NYC.

  39. Sigh – and I worked long and hard to get rid of my Valley accent. It was utterly atrocious until the last couple of years. I still can’t pronounce words with too many Rs properly… like library, and rural. They just turn into Lib’ary and Ru’l. It’ll come eventually.

    Ok Knifeghost, where are you from that you immediately guessed Valley? Almost everyone here in Ottawa accuses me of having some sort of British accent when I try to explain to them that it’s just plain old hicktacular Valley. You’d think they’d recognize the accent by now – almost all the Valley kids that actually get out just come here, that I’ve noticed anyway.

  40. This test is ridiculous, it doesn’t distinguish midland from south. I have the deepest Southern accent you’ll ever hear, but it gave me midland.

  41. I have the deepest Southern accent you’ll ever hear, but it gave me midland.

    Like this?

    “I’s the deepest su’thurn aksent y’all evah herd”.

    or more southern belle?

    “I’ve thuh deeep’st su’thurn acksent y’all ‘ave evar herd”

  43. Arianna: I’m from out West (Grew up in BC and Alberta, now live in Victoria) and spent a year in Montreal. There’s no earthly reason why I should know the Ottawa Valley accent, but I’ve heard it described a few times, and being a language nerd, I remembered it. At first I thought you were a Maritimer, but I compared the Maritime and Boston accents, and it didn’t jive. Then Ottawa Valley came to me. Apparently you people (I love how condescending and othering “you people” sounds) pronounce “pants” in a particularly funny way. According to my brother.

  44. Alon, you seriously hear people in NYC merge cot and caught all the time? I can’t say I’ve ever heard a native New Yorker do that.

    I hardly hear anyone distinguish the two. I don’t specifically know whether the people I interact with are native New Yorkers, though. But I know for a fact that the Valenti sisters grew up in Long Island City and speak like Californians (but they went to magnet schools).

  45. I also got inland north and I grew up in central NY, so it definately pegged me right. The biggest thing it got wrong was saying that I probably call soda “pop”. People from the Syracuse/CNY area tend to call it soda, pop is more western NY (Buffalo area). My husband is from Corning and says “pop”.
    I actually have no idea how bag and vague wouldn’t rhyme, it’s the only way I’ve ever heard them pronounced.

  46. Inland North…

    Well, I lived in Michigan until I was 5, Rhode Island until 18, and then upstate New York until 23.

    I guess my extended stay in RI didn’t rub off on me that much.

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  49. Depends on how strong the New England accent was in the part of Rhode Island you grew up in, it may well have rubbed off on you. The quiz diagnoses Inland Northern based on the vowel mergers of standard American (Mary-merry-marry but not cot-caught), rather than by the vowel shift.

    Go here and listen to the word (if it works…). If it’s closer to “cot” than to “cat” for you, you’re probably from the Inland North. If it’s closer to “cat,” you’re probably not.

  50. I’m not surprised it stuck me in Midland, considering that my accent is a mashup of Michigander, Pacific Northwesterner, rural drawl, and Theater, plus a childhood watching too many Brits on PBS.

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