Part II -- What American Accent Do You Have? (Houston: live in, metro)

[TexasReb]

Ok y'all,

Much has come up lately about Texas speech, and a while back we did the "What American Accent Do You Have" quiz/survey. Lots of good comparrisons, but something that was rightfully brought up was certain problems in it (On, Dawn and Don, one of the worst).

Here is Part II of the same...which welllll, sorta/kinda corrects a few errors from the earlier one. Still not perfect, but maybe better than the first one.

Y'all try this one when you have a chance and post your results (I will do the same in my follow-up in a minute)!

Quiz - Which American accent do you have? - YouThink.com

[love roses]

Which American accent do you have?

My Results:


Western Western is kind of neutral, but not quite since it`s still possible to tell where you`re from. So you might not actually be from the West (but you probably are). If you really want to sound "neutral," learn how to say "stock" and "stalk" differently.


This isn't too far off for me. I've had people ask me if I'm from Nebraska. I had one guy who asked if I was from Alabama. I hadn't heard that one before and told him that I was actually born there. I think my teen years in Houston watered down my accent some, but if I've had a few beers or am around people with a strong accent it comes out full force.

[TexasReb]

Once again, mine was Southern, which doesn't surprise me any! LOL

BTW -- I loved that question about do "heel" and "hill" sound the same...as Hill is my surname! LOL

I remember once going to a family get together of my ex for the first time (Kansas) and introduced myself to a cousin of hers. When we shook hands and I told him my last name, he got a sort of confused look on his face and said, "Heel...?".

It dawned on me what was going on. So I just joking replied, well, I think what it happening is that I am talking in Texan and you are hearing in yankee! LOL And we both got a laugh out of it.

But anyway, point being, it really never occured to me that yeah, I DO pronounce both the same. And that is the way he heard it.

So, I think the biggest problem with quizzes like this is that, in order to get a true picture of how you really sound, you have to ask someone else outside of your own region...if that makes sense. Even today, I had to go ask my g/f if that the way I pronounce the same the first person singular pronoun comes out like "ah".

To ME it doesn't..always. But she says it does...as she is a native of Colorado and she pronounces it what "I" hear as "I-ee". I didn't necessarily thing so (the way I said it, that is), because from my subjective outlook, I was thinking of it being "awwwww". But when it came down to it, in the whole scheme of things, the way she heard it from her own accent, I probably DO say it a bit more "ah". I know I do. I listened to muhself on tape, by gawd! LOL

So everyone be honest with yourselves as in think on (own...LOL,) how you really truly say it... and I am the first to say it is not always easy to do!

Linguistics are both a complicated and facinating subject! LOL

[Cathy4017]

Northern
You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for.





Now that is just TOO TOO weird. I tried very hard to answer the questions honestly.



I must REALLY be missing something.

[jeffari-al-texani]

Which American accent do you have?

My Results:


Southern People used to hate Southern accents but now everyone wants one.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

Northern
You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for.





Now that is just TOO TOO weird. I tried very hard to answer the questions honestly.



I must REALLY be missing something.

CATHY!!!! My friend, my dear friend...YOU have a northern accent?? I just really doubt that, so you MUST be doing something wrong! LOL

On a related tangent, I went back and read an earlier post of mine...which came across very awkward, but when I went back to edit, the time had expired!

Anyway, here was the original:

To ME it doesn't..always. But she says it does...as she is a native of Colorado and she pronounces it what "I" hear as "I-ee". I didn't necessarily thing so (the way I said it, that is), because from my subjective outlook, I was thinking of it being "awwwww". But when it came down to it, in the whole scheme of things, the way she heard it from her own accent, I probably DO say it a bit more "ah". I know I do. I listened to muhself on tape, by gawd! LOL

The way I meant to explain it was that, to me, when the question came up as to whether or not I said "I" like "ah"...I really didn't think so. BUT..that was because when I think of someone saying "I" like "ah", I associate it with a much more rural accent than I percieve myself to have. So, no, I don't think I say it like "awwww".

HOWEVER, from the point of view of my lady friend who is from Colorado and says "I" like "I-ee", then YES, I DO say it "ah". And in listening to a tape of myself, there is no doubt I do...

But remember, THEY have the accent, we don't! LOL

[tstone]

Once again:

Which American accent do you have?

Neutral You`re not Northern, Southern, or Western, you`re just plain -American-. Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don`t really have a local identity. You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be. Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up.



I don't really have a local identity, hmm.???

My identity = huge Texas city. A good majority of people in Texas live in the large metros where the accents are much like mine.

[Delta Planter]

In speech patterns, I'm with poster #5, jeffari-al-texani. I sho' ain't with him on religion, though!

[Lucidus]

Which American accent do you have?

My Results:


Neutral You`re not Northern, Southern, or Western, you`re just plain -American-. Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don`t really have a local identity. You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be. Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up.

Background: Born and raised in West Texas by family from East Texas.

[jeffari-al-texani]

Originally Posted by Delta Planter

In speech patterns, I'm with poster #5, jeffari-al-texani. I sho' ain't with him on religion, though!

What do you have against Methodists???