online accent quiz

[Alice Faber]

Dennis R. Preston wrote:
> Roger is right about the complexity (and even leaves out the social
> complexity now folded into more detailed geographical investigation),
> but I find nothing wrong with intelligent quick-and-dirty fun stuff,
> especially since the test revealed the following about me:
>
> "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't
> have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania,
> southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but
> then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one
> of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good
> voice for TV and radio."
>
> I been trying to tell you all that I AM Peterson and Barney.
>

>
> PS: I grew up in a Southern Indiana suburb (New Albany) of Louisville, KY.

I agree, here. I participate in a number of online communities where
this particular quiz has made the rounds. For a very short diagnostic,
it does a remarkably good job of sorting people out. Obviously a longer,
more scientific instrument would do a better job. But, in the world of
"which 40's movie star are you?" quizzes, this does a fine job. In
particular, I think it works because so many of the questions aren't
gameable by non-linguists. And, yes, it pegged this suburban New Yorker
as northeastern.


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Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
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