# What American accent do you have? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 25, 2007, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373 "2007-01-25T04:42:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/61 "2007-01-25T12:29:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Take this frighteningly accurate test. The only thing I found frightening was its inaccuracy. It wants to call me Midlands when I have a definite Inland North accent, (yes, I call soft drinks “pop” the way God intended). I suppose that I may have picked up a few of my Mom’s Hoosier pronunciations, but I’ve never been mistaken for a Hoosier and even after moving to _Northern_ Ohio from Michigan, I get Buckeyes who tell me I’m “not from around here.” ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/62 "2007-01-25T12:39:06Z")
[QUOTE=Penchan] Yes I’m from the West. But I don’t have an accent! I guess my “dudes” and “hellas” will distinguish me as a norcal chick. 😃 [/QUOTE] Yo, 'sup girl? What I want to know is, who the hell rhymes “bag” with “vague”? ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/63 "2007-01-25T12:43:59Z")
[QUOTE=sturmhauke] Yo, 'sup girl? What I want to know is, who the hell rhymes “bag” with “vague”? [/QUOTE] I suspect it’s people who pronounce “bag” with a long O (rather than “vague” with a short O.) My guess would be Southern US, where “pen” and “pin” sound identical. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/64 "2007-01-25T12:54:28Z")
“O?” Please tell me you mean “a,” or my head may explode. For reference, here’s some words that rhyme to me: short “a” - bag, tag, shag, wag, hag long “a” - vague, plague, the Hague, egg (sometimes, depends on usage), shade (well, almost a rhyme) ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/65 "2007-01-25T13:06:38Z")
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena] It got me right…I am indeed a Chicagoan, and I definitely sound like one! [/QUOTE] Me too. **Sarafeena** , do you say “Shi-CAH-go” or “Shi-CAW-go”? ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/66 "2007-01-25T13:07:10Z")
[QUOTE=sturmhauke] “O?” Please tell me you mean “a,” or my head may explode. [/QUOTE] Yes. I am undercaffeinated as yet. I promise that when come back, make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/67 "2007-01-25T13:12:12Z")
[QUOTE=threnodyangelfire] I’m an Aussie and it told me I have an North East American accent. [/QUOTE] Same here - South Aussie and got a very high result for Philadelphia and ‘The Inland North’. In the summary paragraph the first suggestion was that I was probably from North Jersey. :dubious: Oh, well, t’was fun to play, at least! I think it gets thrown because it doesn’t ask us what those words that we’re saying \*don’t \*rhyme with each other, \*DO \*rhyme with. (Unwieldy sentence, that. But it’s late, and I’m tired, so it can stand.) ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/68 "2007-01-25T13:19:37Z")
Midland. And, despite the fact that I call myself a Philly gal – hell, I _am_ a Philly gal – I was born in Michigan and spent a few years in the upper Midwest. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/69 "2007-01-25T13:19:48Z")
[QUOTE=H3Knuckles] [Alec Guiness Voice]Main line suburbs. You will never find a more snobbish hive of yuppies and old money. We must be cautious.[/Alec Guiness Voice] 😃 [/QUOTE] This was funny, perhaps funnier, because, not being able to reproduce Alec Guiness off the top of my head, I read that line as David Attenborough 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/70 "2007-01-25T13:28:35Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] If an opinion from the other side of the world counts, to me those rhyme with _hairy_, _carry_, and _very_, respectively. [/QUOTE] Which all rhyme with each other, to me anyway. 😃 I’m from a region where Mary, marry, and merry all rhyme (Inland North, as the quiz terms it), and now live in NYC where they do not. It took me _years_ to be able to say them so they don’t rhyme … although I can’t do it in casual conversation. I can say them differently if pause and gather my thoughts and squint in fierce concentration. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/71 "2007-01-25T13:30:08Z")
[QUOTE=sturmhauke] What I want to know is, who the hell rhymes “bag” with “vague”? [/QUOTE] Guilty. Sounds the same to me. Who the hell doesn’t rhyme them?!? > [@](#): > > “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. Heh. Like I’m surprised. Even with living away from home for 13 years, five minutes on the phone with my mother would bring out the Yooper talk. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/72 "2007-01-25T13:39:56Z")
Yep, it pegged me as a native New Yorker (NYC). Born in the Bronx, raised in Queens, went to high school and college in Manhattan, lived in Brooklyn for 4 years, then moved back to Queens when I started a family. (No period of Staten Island exile for me ;)) As for “Mary/merry/marry” – if there had been an option to say that “mary” and “marry” were the same but different from “merry” I would have gone with that. If I make a very fine distinction I can make/hear one between “Mary” and “marry”, as the name “Mary” can have slightly more of a dipthong to it when said, especially if stretching the “a” sound out for shouting (“HEY MAAARY! OVER HERE!”). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/73 "2007-01-25T13:48:50Z")
I was born and raised in Arkansas, by parents who were born and raised in Arkansas, who had parents who were born and raised in Arkansas, and there were several questions where none of the answers accurately described how I pronounced the word(s) in question, so I gave up and chalked it up to it being another one of those online quizzes that just don’t work. I have a fairly light Southern accent, though I do try to pronounce at least some words as they appear in the dictionary, since I’ve cracked a few of them on occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/74 "2007-01-25T13:56:36Z")
Northeast accent here. Parents from Brooklyn, lived in Maine and Plattsburg and Albany, NY college in Long Island, 10 years in Queens, 10 years in Rhode Island (so far). I guess that would be an accurate assesment of my accent. ---
**Author:** ![PaperBlob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58956e/32.png) [@PaperBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaperBlob)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/75 "2007-01-25T13:56:47Z")
“Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you’re not from Philadelphia, then you’re from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington.” I was born in Bristol, PA, just north of Philly, and I’ve lived in South Jersey for 41 years. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/76 "2007-01-25T13:59:05Z")
[QUOTE=LifeOnWry] I suspect it’s people who pronounce “bag” with a long O (rather than “vague” with a short O.) My guess would be Southern US, where “pen” and “pin” sound identical. [/QUOTE] I’m guessing you mean “a”, but I know what they mean. There are some annoying people who say “bayg” when they mean “bag” . They’re the same folks who write with a “pin”. Let me tell you, my Aunt Carolyn from Kansas City really confused my little Quahog son with that one. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/77 "2007-01-25T14:08:38Z")
I got “Inland North”. Look, I’ve never even _seen_ the great lakes and nobody has ever taking me for being from Wisconsin. I’m pure North East coast and the only thing I’ve ever been mistaken for was British (and once, Frence but I think he’d been drinking). Sacre blue! ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/78 "2007-01-25T14:16:02Z")
My result was Inland North, which is correct. ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/79 "2007-01-25T14:23:35Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. Why, lil’ ol’ born and bred Jawjan me with a southern accent? However did it guess? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373/80 "2007-01-25T14:30:22Z")
I got Midland, but the test lost its validity when it made me choose whether “on” rhymed with “dawn”, “don” or both. It rhymes with neither of them (which _are_ homophones). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-american-accent-do-you-have/389373.md?page=5)