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What American Accent do you have?

By Maureen McCabe

Real Estate Agent with HER Realtors

November 16, 2006 06:53 PM

Quiz Time What American Accent do you have?

Active Rainer and REALTOR® Teresa Boardman in St. Paul MN has an accent. I listened to their girls night out podcast on a Members Only entry. WOW! Minnesota! The others? I know Bonnie Erickson is from the midwest originally but not the Twin Cities, Illinois, Iowa with a stint in the Windy City. Lisa Dunn?

Wonder how those retired St. Paul MN. Codgers sound? They are camera shy... how about recordings of their voices?

Black Table says of the US, they all want to sound like "us." "Us" being Ohioan's, but there are lots of different accents in Ohio....

"Not everyone in Ohio speaks with the midwestern nasal twang. Some do. In the Northern part of the state this is certainly the case. But if you move towards the hillier portion of the state, you hear a lot more about warshing dishes and hunnerd dollar bills, but somewhere in the middle everything levels out into a crisp non-accented cadence that is as clear as the words on this screen. In fact, the Ohio accent is the basis of the accent taught to newscasters. Newscasters on the televisual machine, meaning: the Ohio accent is so bland that you wouldn't even know it if you heard it because there's nothing to hear except the words, man. The words."

I think I talk like an Ohioan usually...... this little quiz "heard" the Wisconsin in my voice. " 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?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."

Black Table said "somewhere in the middle everything levels out into a crisp non-accented cadence that is as clear as the words on this screen." somewhere in the middle of Ohio is Columbus!

In a recent exchange on Jason Edward's Active Rain blog... it looks like it was decided no matter what regional US accent you have saying "Real-A-tor" is just not right!

Sellsius° Blogs Podcasts are fun to listen to but they are a mechanical voice. Wouldn't more Podcasts on Active Rain be fun? Does Brian Brady still sound like Philadelphia? I think that's where he's from... Is Karen Hurst really from Rhode Island?

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Jasen Edwards

Creator, Good Selling Formula™ - Santa Barbara, CA

Hi Maureen,

Thanks for the mention and the link to the quiz. They hit the nail on the head with me and the others are kind of addictive!

Nov 17, 2006 01:54 PM

Anonymous

Lance Wells

Well that was correct. I am an Out West kind of guy.

Nov 17, 2006 02:22 PM

#39

John Novak

Keller Williams Realty The Marketplace - Las Vegas, NV

Henderson, Las Vegas and Summerlin Real Estate

The quiz says my accent is 'Inland North' which is accurate because I spent my first 18 years in Wisconsin. Today I don't really think of having an accent. In fact, when I hear my relatives from central Wisconsin speak I think 'I used to sound like that??'

Nov 17, 2006 04:23 PM

Ann Cummings

RE/MAX Shoreline - NH and Maine - Portsmouth, NH

Portsmouth NH Real Estate Preferrable Agent

Maureen, this was funny and interesting!

Mine said I have a "Midland accent, another way of saying you don't have an accent". It went on to say I'm probably from the Midland, but for all they know I could be from Florida or Charleston or some big southern city..........

I am originally from Florida, kinda grew up all over the place with my dad in the Air Force, and I've lived in NH since 1977. I don't think I have an accent, but my mom's sister thnks I do. Who knows what it would be!

I say "ANT", and they say "AWNT" up here......they speak funny up here! ;-))

Nov 18, 2006 12:02 PM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Thanks for the comments everyone. It is funny how many people think they have lost their accent but this test picks it up. Of course if it listened to voices it might be different....

Nov 18, 2006 08:01 PM

Craig Schiller

Trempealeau, WI

Elaine...

I was born in Pittsburgh, years and years and years ago leaving in the 60's.

BUT I still say 'read up the table' or read up the house, etc.

WHY? Because it sounds right to me!

SPEAKING OF REDDING THINGS UP...

Nov 19, 2006 01:39 AM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Cute Craig... I saw it in St. Paul, I saw it in Denver... now right here in Central Ohio!

I wondered if Murphy dressed up for the OSU game yesterday, Elaine is such a fan. Is that a 'scarlet' nose?

Nov 19, 2006 03:31 AM

Ginger S

Wilkinson & Associates, Wilmington NC - Wilmington, NC

Wilmington NC Real Estate & Relocation~

Hey Maureen,

I've got the Bawstin accent tempered by many years of living in Manhattan( no accent)

Was hoping to sound like Scarlett Ohara after settling here in NC, but Coastal NC has been so overun with Yankess I have virtually no role models.

Well see you rond HAVAD YAHHHD

Nov 19, 2006 12:52 PM

Maureen Francis

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel - Bloomfield Hills, MI

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

Wow. That test was accurate. Nailed me for inland north, which I undoubtedly am.

Nov 20, 2006 11:30 AM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Ginger: I never would have guessed it!!

MF: I was not sure if Michigan would be Inland North... it is but a guy in my office from Birmingham MI (? I think) makes fun of my accent (my itty bitty, teeny tiny WI accent.)

Nov 20, 2006 04:30 PM

Maureen Francis

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel - Bloomfield Hills, MI

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

What do you think Michigan would be?

Who is the guy in your office from Birmingham? Maybe I know him.

Nov 20, 2006 10:08 PM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

MF wrote: What do you think Michigan would be?

A part of Canada? I think of Detroit and Cleveland having a different accent from WI, MN. Did Carole take the test? Is Carole from Cleveland originally?

Nov 20, 2006 10:19 PM

Maureen Francis

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel - Bloomfield Hills, MI

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

Canada! Shirley you jest. Even Windsor sounds different from Detroit and they are only separated by the Detroit River, which might be about a half a mile wide.

Nov 20, 2006 11:19 PM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

I jest... why do people in Windsor speak Canadian and people in Detroit speak US English probably with an Inland North flavor?

Nov 20, 2006 11:27 PM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

I jest... why do people in Windsor speak Canadian and people in Detroit speak US English probably with an Inland North flavor?

Nov 20, 2006 11:27 PM

Maureen Francis

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel - Bloomfield Hills, MI

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

Because they still have to speak the Queen's English, and we won the Revolution.

Nov 20, 2006 11:31 PM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

I need a Canadian test..... for our Canadian Active Rainers.

Nov 20, 2006 11:33 PM

inactive AR account

Dayton, OH

I know this is an old blog, but I laughed so hard when I read it!

And you are right- lots of us "southerners" "warsh" clothes. And while personally I "wash" my clothes, when I met my husband's family, in Findlay, OH, they actually asked me, in their flat, nasal accents, what part of the south I was from. I said "southern Ohio". They said "we meant south of the Mason-Dixon." My mother in law is from Vermont, so I hear lots of r's added to the end of words.

I once worked as an answering service operator and if we had a very rude, impatient New Yorker on the phone, we would politely aggravate them (okay, passive aggressive) by slowing down our speech and increasing the southern drawl. Drives 'em nuts!

Btw, I'm a soda girl. Go figure.

Dec 06, 2006 02:11 AM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Ok... ask your huband if he know Betsy Fry or Amber Fry or Jeff Ferguson. All three live in the Columbus area now but there is this Findlay Ohio thing ... or of course there's the football player...Rothelswhatever.... 6° of separation from Findlay Ohio...

Jeff works with another guy from Findlay who really knows Betsy Fry, who is named Karl or Carl but I don't know his lasts name. Jeff and Carl (Karl? ) are home inspectors in Columbus.

I had a closing yesterday with a guy from Kettering with a southern accent. He had his wife's POA (she is also from Kettering) so I did not get to hear her accent, never met her but their agent asked why he had a southern accent and she did not.

Dec 06, 2006 02:20 AM

inactive AR account

Dayton, OH

I'll ask my hubby about those folks.

You brought up the couple from Kettering... Now that you mention it, I am probably the only one out of my family of 6, 4 sibs/ 2 parents, all Dayton natives, all lived in the same house, who has an accent. I have no idea why. One bros lives in Cincy, so you'd think he'd have at least developed an accent by now, but even growing up people who knew all of us would ask why I was the one with the accent. I must have an ear for that and picked it up through my friends? Funny.

Dec 07, 2006 02:05 AM

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