Mine said Midland - I'm from Colorado but haven't lived there in ages.

Apparently, despite living in four states and three countries in the last 25 years, I'm still accent free.

An English friend once told me I had a California accent - whatever the heck that is - I've never lived in CA.

"(And what's with all these people who don;t get that Mary, marry and merry are 3 completely different words?)"

Because Mary and Marry are the same word, but Merry is different of course

I pronounce all three like mairy but my cheesesteak husband pronounces each one differently:

Mary: mairy (like the "a" sound in the word air)

Marry: maarry (like the "a" sound in the word accent)

Merry: merry (like the “e” sound in edit)

The first time I took the test it said I was from [the upper Ohio River Valley]. I took it again and thought about the questions more and I got nailed. It said I have the Minnesota Accent.

Very bizarre. Says I am Midland, though I was born, raised, and have always lived on the West Coast. Years ago, I was traveling on a train in Sweden, talking with my friends (who were also from the Bay Area). A Swedish man came up to us and asked "are you from San Francisco?" "Yes," we replied. "I thought so," he said. "I recognized your accent."

our family had great fun with this one ! it nailed my bahstahn accent - got my daughter wrong on first go round, but she did a repeat taking a bit longer and saying words out loud and it nailed her also !
I would have posted earlier, but was busy making suppah !

The test also doesn't take into account social class and education.

A Philadelphia Biddle would have an entirely different accent than someone from the Passyunk Ave. area, yet they both come from the same city.

Everyone!
These 2 are the guide lines for HOW to take this test :

Author: jorr
Date: 12/05/2006, 10:09 pm
The first time I took the test it said I was from [the upper Ohio River Valley]. I took it again and thought about the questions more and I got nailed. It said I have the Minnesota Accent.

Author: escargot
Date: 12/05/2006, 11:02 pm
our family had great fun with this one ! it nailed my bahstahn accent - got my daughter wrong on first go round, but she did a repeat taking a bit longer and saying words out loud and it nailed her also !

...and NO it has nothing to do with education, smart people usually are stuck up on their education and do not see fun in life as normal people do.
Sorry, my bad, I am with "those who knows" all the time.

I'm not sure what "musical hearing" is supposed to be and I've done a bit of armchair reading on linguistics (as well as taken the obligatory 101 course at college), and I did say words out loud to myself while taking the quiz, which I've done a couple of times (this is not the first place I've seen that link), and every time it tells me I must be from Philly (all while my family from New England makes fun of me for having a bit too much of local accent). The problem is that people do not hear how they speak, that is why there is phonetic transcription. I would think to really make use of a quiz like that, you have to have someone else listen to you and assess what they hear.

As far as education and accent are concerned, research has shown in some fields, it is indeed true that often times regional accents fade with education, but in other areas that is not the case. One thing that I've noticed is that Politicians are much more apt to keep their regional accents than those in other professional positions, of course there is a reason for this, but there it is.

sundowner,

You're sooo right. The first time my wife (who's from the Midwest) asked for "pop", I asked her what in the heck she was talking about. Did she mean a "Coke"?

These quizez are not to be taken by people without sense of humor.

LovLivLaf -

I'm still wondering what you are getting at. This is a fun little quiz with dubious results, that is all.

dfr4848, for me it was the other way around. When I moved to Texas some people thought that asking about pop was asking about drugs. The first time I was asked if I wanted a Coke I thoutht they only had Coke, no Dr. Pepper, etc. I also thought an ice house was an old fashioned storage facility that sold ice. Also "Do you want to go with?" confused people.

Also "Do you want to go with?" confused people.

Haha. I've annoyed more than a few people by saying that. My cousin (who is clearly from Boston) and I have had more than one occasion of giggling at each others expense.

Very unreliable little test. Said I was pure Philadelphia and I've never lived close to Phili.

There was a better one of these on the internet awhile ago that was much more accurate.

Hahah!

"Do you want to go with?"

I say that too!

As well as

"Have you ever been?"

NatureGirl19317, "Have you ever been?" drives me nuts. Where is that from? It sounds aristocratic!

Lol jorr! Im not sure where I picked that up!? My family doesnt care for it though, I know that much!

Good observation though, about sounding aristocratic...

I am an aristocrat you know.



Pass the pate’ will you daaahhhling.

Hee hee!

J/k of course! Im not even sure what pate’ is, hahah! Maybe I should stick with Grey Poupon!

Oh dear! The Inland North!

BC

dfr,
I grew up in the Midwest and also say pop. Will never again say pop when out of the US.

We were at the airport in St. Thomas (returning from Anengada) and because plane had been changed, agent was walking with us to show us how to get to the main terminal.

The gal asked if we had anything to declare, etc.

Growing up in Midwest and having a beverage in my hand, I said "Just my pop."

She quickly turned and looked at me with a surprised look and asked what did I say? Needless to say I was very fast in pointing to the pop in my hand and saying "soda, soda pop."

She got a great chuckle out of it but sure made me sweat for a minute.