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Speaking of accents By Randy A. Salas
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT) How do you talk? Or do you pronounce it tawk or tock? The way Americans pronounce words tells a lot about where they live and grew up. Try these quizzes to see if they confirm what you think you already know about your accent.www.memegen.net/view/show/2313 Thomas (Xavier) Kun's "What American accent do you have?" quiz became an Internet sensation quickly after he created it in October. On blogs and in posts at sites such as Snopes.com and Fark.com, people enthusiastically shared quiz results showing what American accent they have. Months later, that quiz is still the most popular feature at the original site, GoToQuiz (www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have). There's only one problem: Kun doesn't want you to take it; he wants you to try the revised version, which is linked above. "I suppose it's great that the first quiz is still taking over the world like it is," he wrote in his MySpace blog (www.myspace.com/tomkun83), "but I want the other quiz to take off because it doesn't give as many wrong answers as the first one." Both quizzes ask if you pronounce words such as "cot" and "caught" the same or differently. But the more-extensive second test adds more questions and more detailed results. My test: The original quiz pegged my accent as being Inland North, which includes Minnesota, but I grew up in Orlando and my pronunciation of the quiz words hasn't changed since I moved to Minneapolis. On the fine-tuned test, my accent was described as being Northern, which includes Inland North but also western New England, closer to my parents' home state of Rhode Island.www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.htmlAre you a Rebel or a Yankee? AlphaDictionary's quiz tackles that question by asking about words common to a region to determine how they affect your speech. So it's not just how you pronounce words, but which ones you use in the first place. For example, what do you call carbonated drink? In Minnesota, "pop" is the preferred word, according to the quiz and my experience. But I've always used "soda," which the test says is common in the Northeast, where my parents and older siblings grew up. After each multiple-choice question, the site gives you immediate details about your answer. Once you complete the quiz, you're given an overall score of Yankeetude. Then, if you dare, you can follow the link to the Advanced Rebel-Yankee Test.My test: When I responded that I pronounce "caramel" as either the two-syllable "car-ml" or the three-syllable "car-a-mel," the test's immediate response was, "Make up your mind." Funny. My overall score: "52 percent Dixie. Barely in Dixie." I did move to Minneapolis more than 16 years ago.Further explorationIf you'd like to learn more about the way you speak, the most compelling additional resource is George Mason University's Speech Accent Archive (accent.gmu.edu), which lets you actually hear how native and non-native English speakers from different areas sound as they read the same paragraph. You can even browse the audio samples by clicking on various regions on a world map. Those wanting more can try Evolution Publishing's English Dialect Links (www.evolpub.com/Americandialects/EngDialLnx.html) and the University of Kansas' International Dialects of English Archive (web.ku.edu/idea). They'll fill you in on what it's all about. Or do you pronounce it aboht? Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Randy A. Salas is a columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Do you have a favorite Web site or a question about how to find something on the Internet? Send a note by clicking here.
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