Harvard Dialect Survey

[Pawz4me]

Oh, that makes sense, since people in the midwest have no accent.  It is the base from which all others add to or take away to get their distinctive dialects.   :lol:

 

~Signed Accent-less from OH

 

;)

 

Everyone has an accent.  Just because the powers that be somewhere along the line decided that typical midwestern speech is considered standard American doesn't mean people from there have no accent.  I don't have a good ear, but I generally have no problem at all picking out a midwesterner.  And if you come here I guarantee you that you will get comments on your accent. ;)

Edited December 26, 2015 by Pawz4me

[Twigs]

1 of the 3 locations is the largest city in the county I've lived in my whole life, so very accurate! Fun to see all the different words 1 particular thing can be called!

[kitten18]

Very accurate for me. 2 of the 3 cities were within 50 miles of where I grew up.

[Mrs. Y]

Everyone has an accent.  Just because the powers that be somewhere along the line decided that typical midwestern speech is considered standard American doesn't mean people from there have no accent.  I don't have a good ear, but I generally have no problem at all picking out a midwesterner.  And if you come here I guarantee you that you will get comments on your accent. ;)

Yeah.  I was kidding.

 

My aunt's friends in Pittsburgh used to tease me like crazy when I was a child.

[VaKim]

It was all over the place for me, and I've never lived more than 15 miles from where I am now, lol.

 

I should have my dd take it. She has some very interesting peculiarities from reading and watching everything British she can find.  :)

[OnTheBrink]

Mine said New Mexico. I've never lived there at all. Texas, and CA, along with the midwest, but never NM. 

[Lady Florida.]

Two responses put me dead on in my NJ hometown. They are apparently unique to specific area. The others had me in Florida and one answer put me in Jackson, MS. ??? I've only ever driven through Missississippi* (I had to sing while typing that, to get it right. Apparently I don't write it enough.  :lol: ) and even then it was only the part along the Gulf that I drove through.

 

I think having lived many years in a state with people from all over the country has had an effect on my dialect. Some things from NJ have oddly stayed with me even though we left in 1969. Others are a combination of Florida-speak and things I picked up from friends who are also not Florida natives.

 

 

*  â™ªâ™ªâ™ªâ™ª M - I Double - S - I - Double - S - I - Double - P - I â™ªâ™ªâ™ª

Edited December 26, 2015 by Lady Florida

[PeacefulChaos]

I already posted and mine was quite accurate, but I really like how it broke down each question. Because the way all of us talk is a funny thing - I consider small town outside of St. Louis Missouri my hometown but for 9 years before that I lived in rural mountain Virginia. My grandparents are from Iowa.

DH hasn't taken it but I think his results would be off. His mom lived all over, a lot in jersey, but doesn't really pick up the 'Jersey' sound unless she's hanging out with her siblings who still live there. His dad is a weird mix of nothing, a bit of southern and Amish flair. I don't know how to describe it but occasionally he will put emphasis on a word differently (sounds PA-ish to me).

 

It's just interesting because so many things influence how we speak and the words we use.

[SproutMamaK]

I got Buffalo, NY which is about as accurate as possible given that I live in Southern Ontario which wasn't an option (the test is US only). The other two cities it gave me I have never visited. (Newark and Pembroke Pines, FL)

[Lady Florida.]

All of us lost our NJ accents but my mother was funny. When she spent a long time on the phone with one of her sisters who still lives there her accent would come back for a few hours. If I called her and she spoke in a NJ accent, I'd know she just recently got off the phone with Aunt H. She didn't even realize it until I pointed it out one time. 

[J-rap]

I've lived in the upper Midwest and both coasts.  My top three included Buffalo and northern Illinois -- nowhere that I've lived.  

[TravelingChris]

THe first time I did it, it said I was Ft. Lauderdale or Austin.  I have never lived in either place.  THe second time it said Washington DC and Arlington VA which is where I grew up.

[Southern Ivy]

Mine show Springfield, Oklahoma City, and Amarillo. 
I've lived within 3 hours of 2 of those places most of my life, so I'd say it's pretty accurate. 

[Chris in VA]

Not terribly accurate, but sorta, for me. My dad was raised in England and moved to New England, and my mom was raised in New England--so I say "soda." But I grew up mainly in Ohio, so "you guys" and other midwestern phrases come into play.

 

I had Patterson, NJ and St. Louis as two of the 3 cities in my profile.

[teachermom2834]

Mine gave the exact city I grew up in. I answered the way I grew up saying things but I have changed in the twenty years since I left. I am going to take it again giving answers for my currently mixed up dialect.

[KungFuPanda]

Mine said Baltimore, Birmingham, and Philadelphia. I'm not from any of those places. I've never been to Birmingham or Philadelphia, but I've lived near Baltimore for 17 years. The region was correct. I pick up language quirks fairly quickly once I move somewhere. I have some residual appalachian twang, but I don't sound nearly as "authentic" as my WV family or even my siblings that moved at a young age. They do have spouses from WV, so I think that keeps your dialect cleaner. There are people who claim not to hear my accent, but I assume they just aren't that observant when it comes to languages or they believe it would be an insult to point it out. I can FEEL it getting thicker after a visit back home or even a phone conversation with my mom.

 

I do pronounce 'lawyer' like it is spelled. I never could accept the "Loy" thing so that's always a big tell on these dialect quizzes.

 

Took it again. With different questions it puts me in Richmond, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem.

Edited December 27, 2015 by KungFuPanda

[mom31257]

I grew up an hour from one of the cities that had a separate distinctive answer, and the other 2 are in the south, too. 

 

 

[Arcadia]

The survey put me as a New Yorker but I am a foreigner.

[Pink and Green Mom]

Mine was all north Jersey/NYC area.  It was "mischief night" and "sneakers" that gave it away. 

[Lady Florida.]

 

I had Patterson, NJ and St. Louis as two of the 3 cities in my profile.

 

Paterson. One T. Named after William Paterson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the 2nd governor of NJ. My hometown, which we left when I was 13.

 

Mine was all north Jersey/NYC area.  It was "mischief night" and "sneakers" that gave it away. 

 

Goosey Night and sneakers gave me Paterson and Newark. Apparently Goosey night is fairly specific to Passaic County. Those two are among the few things I still say that give me away. 

 

My birthday is Oct. 30th. My grandmother never missed an opportunity to remind me I was born on Goosey Night. 

 

http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2014/10/mischief_night_cabbage_night_goosey_night_what_does_it_all_mean.html

 

"Goosey Night is more prevalent in western Bergen County and Passaic County, and the origins of the term are murkier. Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox used the term in a letter to parents urging them not to let their kids go out. Carol D'Alessandro of the Passaic County Historical Society said she remembers using the term growing in Pompton Lakes, but doesn't know where it came from.

"The Jews of Paterson," a history by David Wilson, calls Goosey Night a "Paterson Tradition," during which boys in the 1940s would soap up car and store windows, but also offers no explanation as to where the term came from."