Accents/Linguistics...

This has nothing to do with being 60+ or books but, it does relate to words! The New York Times has a 'test' to pinpoint your home town or where you were raised, whatever, by accent/linguistics etc. My wife and I took it and were pinpointed in the Chicago area, which is accurate. My wife's profile, however, also included Toledo, Ohio, which we have only been through on the Interstate. It was interesting also, that when she took the test, after a few questions, her questions varied from mine.

It would be interesting to see how others raised in, say, Portland, Maine until age 16 & then transplanted to Atlanta, Georgia might be located linguistically.

I did this and it pointed me to Birmingham and mid-North Carolina. I grew up in Middle Tennessee and have been living in upstate South
Carolina off and on for over 30 years but the decision was more based on vocabulary than the actual sounds of my speech. Non-college locals can spot me as being here because of the University. Parts of my adult life were spent well outside the Southeastern US.

I got Chicago where I was born and raised, even though I've spent significant chunks of my life in other parts of the country (including Boston, metro NYC, central North Carolina, southern Alabama, northern Florida and southern Oregon). Even though I have a bit of chameleon ear where I can pick up accents around me very easily, anywhere I've been sooner or later someone asks me if I'm from Chicago.

Very interesting! It placed me unequivocally in the Northeast, highlighting Boston, Providence, and Yonkers(!). That's where my speech patterns were formed--the greater Boston area--even though I've lived more than half my life now in Northern California.

And that's without even asking me how I say "apricot" or "insurance" or "president," never mind "Oregon."

4 > "Oree-gone"? What the state needs is a good rhyme such as that of my homeland: "The noise that annoys is Illin-noyz."

5: That's how I grew up saying it. When I moved to No. Cal., I heard a pronunciation that's much more nearly like "organ," with just a little schwa in the middle.

6 > In these here parts (20 miles north of the border) "organ" is preferred. The locals use the "gone" pronunciation to mark outsiders.

7: Thanks for the confirmation. That was my point: I was definitely using the "outsider" pronunciation that I learned in the Northeast and had to make an effort to relearn it when I came to the West Coast.

For my part, I grew up in Quincy, Mass., which is "kwin-zee" to locals (as the family whose name it was pronounced it) and "kwin-see" just about everywhere else.

I grew up not all that far from Muncie, Indiana. When I moved to the NYC suburbs, I was confused when they kept talking about people who were from or lived in "Muncie." Turns out it was Monsey, NY.

We won't even get into local pronunciations of Marsailles, Illinois, or Cairo, Illinois.

For some reason it took forever to load, and then offered no cities. However, the map showed the most similar area being exactly where I come from: Rochester, NY area.

It gave me Glendale, Fresno, and Salt Lake City; I think I've been to Fresno once, and never been to SLC. I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area all my life, and was born in SF!

Just found this thread and had to take the quiz. It pinpointed me to the Spokane, WA area, which is only about an hour and a half by car from my home town! Pretty tricky!

I did the test and scored Aurora, Spokane and Overland Park - after it almost crashed my computer.

I grew up, and my speech patterns were formed, in South Australia. I have lived my adult life in Western Australia.

I did the test and it was definitely correct: midwest US: Southern Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. "Warshcloth, George Warshington"!

I suppose it's cheating for a non-US citizen to do this little test, but it puts me in Jersey city, New York or Honolulu! Not bad for an Englishman born a Cockney, brought up an Essex boy, three years amongst the Geordies and then lived most of my life in Africa!

Having spent so much of my life in countries where English is not the first language, I'm told my accent has become very neutral, and I know I have picked up a lot of Africanisms, although I can hear myself becoming a bit of a Cockney again when I visit my old cronies in east London. In the USA I often get, "Gee, that's a cute accent. Are you from England?" but I also often get mistaken for a South African (fair enough, I've lived there and absorbed a few of their linguistic habits) and even an Australian (after only two short visits to that land). In Montana I remember a check-out girl in a supermarket, after we'd gone through the "Gee that's a cute accent" routine, asking me thoughtfully, "Do we have accents too?" I tried as gently as I could to inform her that actually it's quite a strong accent. Funnily enough someone else in the USA once asked me, "Are you from Montana?" but they might just have been taking the piss.

I just took the test again, and for the third time in years got unsatisfactory results. It shows me as essentially North Carolina with a bit of Springfield, Illinois, But actually I speak Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania overlaid by Washington DC metro area. Go figure.

I am still a Michigan Yooper. You betcha.

I think the test doesn't slice and dice by ethnicity, education level, and age. Dutch and Irish west siders, and Finnish and Italian Yoopers sound different.

The distinction between "dinner" and "supper" in Michigan depends on whether you live on a farm. Dinner was always at noon on the farm, and supper was dinner leftovers or a quick meal. There is no "dinner" when you move off the farm, just "lunch." Except when you "go out for dinner," which is always an evening meal in a restaurant. Nobody on the farm goes out for dinner. They go to a relative's for "Sunday dinner" served in mid-afternoon and eat on the "good dishes." But that's my recollection from the late 1950s/early 1960s.

Also, in Michigan, we pronounce other states as "Wesconsin, " "Orgahn," "Florda," and "Cahlahrado" (the last a like the a in "cat"). We only say "Illinoiz" to piss off the Chicagoans who sail up here on vacation in their Sperry Topsiders and Izod polos.

The strip of grass between sidewalk and street is an "outlawn."

>17 nohrt4me2: The distinction between "dinner" and "supper"

In normal (as opposed to posh or upper class) Britain, dinner was the midday meal and tea was the evening meal. Supper was a late night snack. That has certainly changed nowadays, with lunch being the midday meal and dinner referring to the evening meal.

In our house (Pennsylvania, Maryland) dinner was the big meal and supper was the late meal so many days they were the same meal. On the weekends or holidays we had dinner around noon or 1 pm and then a less grand supper in the evening. Tea was just a beverage.

That was fun! I took it, and it was fairly accurate- I grew up just outside of Detroit, and of the 3 areas that were identified at the end, Detroit was among them.

My husband also took it, and it wasn't nearly as accurate. He grew up here in Georgia, but he was given a wide southeast US range, with Chattanooga as the largest southern city. Nothing in Georgia at all.