What's your dialect?
I took this Dialect Quiz out of curiosity (and also because I'm procrastinating from doing important stuff) and this is spot on Chicago... but apparently, I would also pass for a New Yorker? Now that's ridiculous, because the accents are completely different, but I guess we have the same words for a lot of things, hmmm...
Even if you're not from the States, if you have time on your hands, take it and let me know what state would suit you best, based on the lingo or pronunciations you choose :)
My most similar cities:
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1 Philadelphia PA 35.8
2 Toms River NJ 35.6
3 Elizabeth NJ 35.2
4 Allentown PA 34.4
5 Newark NJ 34.4
I have no idea what a pennsylvania accent in general sounds like, so no idea if this is accurate or not.. I'm also guessing that 35 is pretty low, unsurprisingly given my Britishness! Some of the words in the quiz I've NEVER heard of, but it was interesting how some of the answers would be applicable to different regional British dialects! I have a pretty boring standard northern English accent (the main difference between the standard northern and southern accent being that we use a short a sound for words like "dance" and the u sound in words like pub and duck is different (the standard southern one sounds more like an a sound, I have no idea how to describe the northern sound!).. although even that is a bit muddled with me, as I come from an area without a strong regional dialect, where people's accents seem to be quite influenced by their parents, and my dad lived in the south for most of his childhood... you might already know this, heh (not about my dad, because that would be weird, but about English accents!).
My English accent is pretty boring (to anyone from Britain, that is!), so I like the fact that in Japanese I've naturally ended up speaking in a mixture of western dialects - due to living in Fukuoka for 3 years, with a husband who is from the Hiroshima area, and a lot of my first Japanese friends being from Kansai. I wonder if it's natural for someone learning a language to become slightly obsessed with dialects, as my husband got really into trying to speak in a Yorkshire dialect when he was studying in England.
Ahh, I need to learn to write shorter comments!
FASCINATING, way to be an east coaster! I know Pennsylvanians who DO pronounce soft a's like "aunt" = "ah-nt" and pajamas = "pa-jah-mas". Over in Chicago, it's "ant" like the insect and pa-jam-as, so maybe that's why you'd be more of an east coaster than a midwesterner?
ReplyDeleteWe should totally do video-logs/voice memes, because now I'm really curious! I'm smiling, just imagining your reaction to your husband picking up a Yorkshire dialect :) As for the Japanese language, I have a friend who learned Japanese from a teacher in Osaka, so it's HILARIOUS hearing a caucasian guy speaking with an Osaka accent, pffft!
Nice, I was surprised by my map, because it's totally spot on for Chicago, and then randomly points me to New York, huh. Do you have an accent that you're aware of? I swear I don't, but any time I'm I out of town, people say that I sound like a Chicagoan, so I had no idea that it was that obvious!
ReplyDeleteBoo! Your link wouldn't open for me. :( I'm curious where it would put me because I was born in Wisconsin, lived most of my life in Mississippi, and now I live in Massachusetts...
ReplyDeleteBoo! I think the quiz eventually went viral on Facebook, so I wouldn't surprised if their servers were overloaded! i'm curious for you too! I have a dear friend who was born in Korea, but moved to Texas when he was young, so he has the strongest drawl out of anyone I personally know :)
ReplyDeleteYayyy, east coast! I guess! Hehe.
ReplyDeleteAhh, I actually say aunt like ant, but I pronounce pyjamas like that :)
Hehe, I really HATE hearing my voice.. it's a pity that the page that I used to have for a radio show I did for 6 months at uni isn't still around, because that had clips of me making an arse of myself, haha.
Yeah, it was really cute... the best bit was that he didn't sound even vaguely like he was from yorkshire, bless. His English is good, but he has no ear for accents at all, really.
Most non-Japanese I know who lived in the Kansai area have a really strong Kansai accent, but people I know who have lived in other areas just have a hint of the local accent. I guess because people from Kansai never really try to soften their accent when talking to other people, whereas most people from other parts of Japan do, (whether consciously or not), especially when they're talking to people who aren't Japanese. My parents in law try to soften their accents for me and speak in standard Japanese when I talk to them, but they don't manage it at all, haha. I'm not sure that they realise how much non-standard Japanese they use, I was so shocked the first time I met them and I only understood about 40% of what they were saying (whereas watching tv at the time I could get 90-100%, depending on the programme).
I really wish I had an interesting accent (although I guess to a non-british person my accent is probably interesting enough just because it's British?), sigh!
What do you know, apparently a QLD accent here in Australia is similar to a New York/ New Jersey accent! I'll probably just blend right in this December then!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha Oh man, I wish I could be there to meet up with you in the east coast! Let me know how you fit in, haha :)
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