[FL-LIST] dialect test

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 11/30/06 6:05:33 AM, mamihoka at TCUE.AC.JP writes:


> I've found this test very interesting, because my results is 'you may
> think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but
> when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying
> questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" ,,,'. 
> 
> I am a nonnative speaker of English and I do have Japanese accent on
> my English. 
> 

Apparently I am from Japan, too, since I got the same response. No one has 
EVER accused me of being from Wisconsin. Still, "inland North" is not too far 
off for someone from east-central Iowa.

The quiz could be far more accurate if it were not obsessed with the 
"ah"/"awe" distinction. It missed entirely the Southern pronounciation of "on." No 
mention of the diagnostic word "tour." A true dialect test (as opposed to an 
"accent" test would have included some lexical and morphological questions.

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