Arizona Accent (Phoenix, Tucson, Glendale: 2013, college, live in)

[Prickly Pear]

I am targeting this post to other Arizona natives, who haven't lived outside of the state for an extended period of time.

I am an Arizona native, my family has been here since territory days and most came here before WWII. Though I have no ties to people, family-wise, outside of Arizona, I am aware that my family has mostly come from the mid-Atlantic region... Eastern Maryland and Central Pennsylvania (slightly closer to Pittsburgh) in particular, with a splash of New York (the City and Ithaca region). Growing up I had no transplant friends either to "modify" my speech.

Here in college I meet a lot of out-of-state students, from the Northeast and Midwest region in particular. I keep getting told that I have an accent... a Midwest accent in particular. Some have even gone as far to say I sound like I'm from Iowa. And a lot of times this comes from people who are actually from the Midwest. I find this peculiar since I have not even put one toe in the Midwest, along with the people who raised me. I always assumed I had a "standard American" accent, one you'd associate with Californians and most of the country, rather than a unique one like a New York or Southern accent. But getting told this repeatedly makes me question my own speech.

Does any other natives to the Grand Canyon State get told they have an "accent"? Maybe not a Midwestern one in particular but... just not a "standard American" accent? I thought this was the accent characteristic to this region. I don't want to use myself as a poster child, but Arizona is the youngest state on the mainland, the population overall is new to the area so maybe Arizona is starting to develop its own unique accent? Any thoughts on the matter, or do I just talk strange?

[JGMotorsport64]

This dialect test was created at Harvard. It's VERY accurate. Arizonans actually have our own dialect.

It will break it down by City. The uploaded didn't pinpoint the cities, but the test actually matched me with Glendale/Phoenix/Tucson. It picks the three cities you speak most like, all of mine were in AZ.

Enjoy Folks.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...-quiz-map.html

[johnp292]

Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64

This dialect test was created at Harvard. It's VERY accurate. Arizonans actually have our own dialect.

It will break it down by City. The uploaded didn't pinpoint the cities, but the test actually matched me with Glendale/Phoenix/Tucson. It picks the three cities you speak most like, all of mine were in AZ.

Enjoy Folks.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...-quiz-map.html

That was pretty cool. I just took the test and it hit exactly the city in NJ where I grew up!

[PhureeKeeper]

My former inlaws (from Minnesota) all said I sounded "western".

[jamies]

Wow! It put me there too. Clearly this test is no good because I live in Mohave County.

That is amazing though. I'm not a native, as in my great grandparents didn't fight injuns, but I have been around twenty years or so. I think of the "Arizonian" dialect more as the accent of some native americans, especially the Navajo.

At least it didn't put me in Cali, not sure I couldda lived that down.

[sloguy1496]

I'm virtually an Arizona native (originally from North Carolina but moved to AZ before I picked up the dialect) currently going to college in California. Arizona generally sounds a lot like California. Other than a few different slang terms used out here, language and cadence are nearly identical (based on everyone that I have met).

Interestingly, I got Phoenix, Santa Ana, and Oceanside after completing the dialect test, which sort of proves my point.

[azdr0710]

Originally Posted by :-D

Here in college I meet a lot of out-of-state students, from the Northeast and Midwest region in particular. I keep getting told that I have an accent... a Midwest accent in particular. Some have even gone as far to say I sound like I'm from Iowa.

interestingly, Iowa has been determined by linguists to be the state with the "least" accent, I've read....

I presume anybody has an accent if you're talking to somebody from far afield.....even rural vs. urban Arizona has noticeable distinctions, of course....

[azdr0710]

wow, I took the test and one of the three resulting similar cities is one my mother's side is from and where I lived as a kid for several years....very sharp test

[Diane de Poitiers]

I had some guy from Canada tell me (this being when talking on the phone) that I had an accent, although he couldn't imitate or explain exactly "how" I had one.

More recently, I had a library co-worker tell me that I sound like I'm from Georgia, because I have a slight "Southern drawl".

[mrsltd]

Wow; born and raised in Southern California, yet it pegged my speech as being closest to Santa Rosa, Modesto, or Reno.