[FL-LIST] dialect test
RonButters at AOL.COM
RonButters at AOL.COM
Thu Nov 30 15:54:25 UTC 2006
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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