What's Your Accent?

Vicky pointed me to What American Accent Do You Have quiz, and it was fun to take (and short - 13 questions).  Since I recently talked about the frailties of pronunciation, it was amusing to see the words the quiz asked me to differentiate.  Words like "Dawn" and "Don."  Now, I have to admit that I hear the difference between the two (I should considering I'm Dawn!), but I have to really work hard at saying "Don."  My mouth looks weird and my face contorts.  I look as if I'm in pain.

Then there's "pen" and "pin."  When I was growing up in Texas, there was NO difference between these two words, and I was made fun of for pronouncing "ten" (rhymes with "pen") with just one syllable as opposed to "tee-en."  No bitterness there, none at all.

My results? 

The Midland

"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.

Interesting, because I spent the first part of my life moving all the heck over the place.  Here's the litany that my children have memorized:  I was born in Mississippi (in the back seat of a car, no less), moved to Virginia, moved to Pennsylvania, moved to Oregon, and then moved to Texas.  All this was by the time I was ten (or is that tee-en?).  I stayed in Texas for fourteen years, and I escaped (most) vestiges of an accent.

What's your accent?

Comments

[Austen]

I wasn't entirely satisfied with some of the answer options. Nevertheless, this result isn't surprising considering that I've lived my entire life in Virginia:

"That's a Southern accent you've got there. You may love it, you may hate it, you may swear you don't have it, but whatever the case, we can hear it."

(I do often swear I don't have it.)