ladyfoxxx | Voicepost! LOLmerican Accent Quiz

Skip to Main Content

Entry tags:

Voicepost! LOLmerican Accent Quiz

So

mizubyte did a voice post of her doing an American Accent quiz where you answer questions about your pronunciation and the quiz gods try to figure out where you are from. Obviously I am not American, but the pull of the quiz was too much, so I decided to do it anyway, just to see what might happen.

Direct link here if the embed below isn't working:

Accentquiz by ladyfoxxx

So apparently when I try to do quizzes that are not designed for non-Americans when I have just woken up I spend most of my time saying "how could those two words EVER sound the same?" And then I burst into hysterical laughter when I find out my quiz result.

No really, I found my quiz result to be VERY VERY FUNNY. So if you want to skip forwards to where I start to make sense again that is at around 06:10. And if after reading these disclaimers you still decide to listen to this, um, sorry?

Questions:

3. We're going to start with two ordinary words, "cot" and "caught." Do you think those words sound the same or different?
Same
Different
Same, no wait I mean different, well, I don't know...

4. What about "don" and "dawn"?
Same
Different
Same...ish. Maybe a little different.

5. OK, what about "stock" and "stalk"?
Same
Different
Almost, but not quite, the same

6. Now then how do "collar" and "caller" sound?
Same
Different
Almost, but not quite, the same

7. Do you think the word "on" rhymes with "dawn" or with "don"?
dawn
don
Well, I don't think don and dawn sound any different in the first place so on would obviously rhyme with both

8. Moving on, what do you think about "Mary," "merry," and "marry"?
All 3 sound different
Mary and merry sound the same but marry is different from them
All 3 sound the same

9. Our next word is "horrible." How does that first vowel sound?
It's just like in the word "whore."
It's the same "o" sound as in "hot."
Neither one

10. Now for "pen" and "pin." Don't worry about what others say is correct, just tell us how they come out in an ordinary conversation.
Same
Different
Close. Pen sounds almost, but not quite, like pin.

11. What about "feel" and "fill"?
Same
Different
Well, I think they're different even though they sound very, very similar almost to the point of being the same

12. When you say "about," does the "ou" sound like the "ou" in "loud"?
No
Yes

13. Last question. When you say "bag" does it rhyme with "vague"?
Yes
No

If the quiz sounds like fun you can do it yourself! Link is here!

I am maybe a little ridiculous. Also I am enjoying voice posts way too much so if you have any questions or things you would like me to say or read maybe leave them in the comments and if I get enough I'll do another voice post! Because voice posts are fun!

Threaded | Flat

Lollllllllllllllllllllllllll, I totally cracked up along with you when you read "North Jersey". Oh maaan.

Oh my god, your laugh is ADORABLE.

(Oh my god, WORD on Thames. Seriously.)

a) I got the "Don" reference, lol.

b) a Kiwi here in the office pronounces "pen" as "pin" and "pin" as "pen" :D

no chance for me to do this one yet or listen to your voice post. but i did lol at the very idea!

Oh god, as a former actor from North Jersey who spent a LOT OF TIME thinking about accents in general, I have MANY FEELS about this post.

Because the thing is that as much as a Jersey (or Northeast) accent sounds nothing like an English-Australian hybrid accent, we DO distinguish vowel sounds much, MUCH more than other areas of the country do. A lot of American accents flatten out all the vowels, and there's generally not as much variation between different vowel sounds. So like, my answers for 80% of this quiz are exactly the same as yours are, but HOW I pronounce many of those words isn't the same as how you do.

I'm also just totally fucked accent-wise though, because I grew up in Jersey but I don't have a Jersey accent like the MCR boys do, mostly because my PARENTS are from New England (but not Boston) so I'm like a cross between the two. And once you start playing around with your speech for performance purposes it totally fucks up EVERYTHING, both because I mimic whoever I'm talking with to some degree, ALWAYS, and also because I'm aware of the different ways to say all of those words, and so I can do it, and it's hard for me to concretely say THIS is how I always say this word. And some words just CHANGE, like "orange" - if I'm saying the fruit, I say it more like you probably do, but if I'm talking about the Jersey town South Orange, I say it much closer to the way that Frank does, because that's how I ALWAYS hear that town name pronounced.

/FEELINGS

Your laugh is the greatest. *g* I would have answered this in exactly the same way, and North Jersey, what??? "Is Don, Is Good" cracked me up as well. It's probably weird how often I reference that in real life...

Also, I realised I haven't friended you, so I'm going to do that if it's alright with you. I really like your fic and meta posts!

You are GREAAAAAAAAAT.

Haha! I had the broadest grin on my face when you cracked up! So catching!! :-)

Accents are so much fun!
I remember when I started being able to really discern between various accents in the English language a few years into learning it in school, and how excited I was about that.

I'm not particularly fond of my own accent because of the German twang to it ;-) But I usually adapt to and incorporate what I hear spoken around me (without even meaning to) and have ended up with a funny mix over the last few years.

After I spent a year in Alabama during High School, I can't quite say it was a pretty thing to listen to... Imagine a German-Alabamian mix? :-P
But after living in Ireland for four years it has (luckily) changed somewhat. But who knows, apparently I'm from 'The Inland North' according to the test. Like, Wisconsin. Hmmm.

I am CRYING laughing. and also remembering all the years of living in the UK where people made me say things in my american accent at them :D but mostly crying laughing.

North Jersey! My mom is from North Jersey, but then went to college in Boston and then moved to California and had kids, and so I had a SUPER WEIRD accent when I was little and said things like kaaah instead of car. But she can (and does) say Mary, merry, and marry all differently, and they all sound exactly the same when I say them.

HEEEEEE, this was adorable!!! <333333

This meme is fantastic *g*

BOSTON.

LOL oh god, they don't sound the same! STOP MAKING FUN OF ME.

Also your Mary/merry/marry all sound the same.

Pen/pin only sounds the same if you're from the South I think. My nana sounds like that. (don't worry, none of us understand that either)

I can totally hear how you'd be... Northeast if you're clearly not American... um... sure! (true story, I once had someone ask me if I was from England because of my accent. Me: "... uh.. NEW England...?")

The Jersey thing though? Not in the slightest, LOL. Sorry love.

Threaded | Flat