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How do you speak English?

NeitoNeito
in Flamewars
This Dialect map quiz of the United States has been going around for a while, and I got to thinking about how, even after the Internet and Television has messed with local accents, significant amounts of English are still shockingly localized. There's the infamous Soda/Pop/Coke debate, but around Boston it's still pretty easy to call sweet, fizzy drinks Tonic. Milkshake only occasionally means what non-Bostonians think it means up here (Milk, Ice Cream, Syrup); what other places call a milkshake is a Frappe. It's also fairly common to pronounce the "r" in "idea", especially if you're from (or have roots in) Vermont or Rhode Island (I-de-er, if you're wondering how that works). It's also very fuh-stra-ting to deal with difficult people, rather than fruh-stra-ting. A bunch of roads feeding into a single, circular road is a Rotary here, and just about nowhere else.

It's also entertaining when it comes to some of our odder city names. Haverhill is "Hay-vrill", not "Hav-er-hill, Worcester is "Woost-er" not "War-che-ster".


I think the one that got me the most was that soft-rubber-soled shoes, worn casually or as part of athletic activity, are only called sneakers in the northeast. I never had a reason to think that wasn't universal.
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Comments

  • PeguPegu
    edited December 2013
    Canadian.
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    Post edited by Pegu on
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    I'm British, live in Germany, and people in the cities of Boston and Honolulu speak English closest to mine.
  • Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)
    Well, I think I just confused the hell out of the quiz, but my most similar spots are apparently Boston and Fort Lauderdale. Also, apparently, most people don't use the word "sunshower."
  • BantaBanta
    Having lived in SoCal, Texas, Pittsburgh, and now Portland, I find it hilarious that this test is telling me I have more in common with people living in Orlando and Norfolk than any of the places I've actually lived.

  • GeoGeo
    edited December 2013
    I gave my dad the quiz who thought it was a hoax (we were at a restaurant and I was on my smartphone). It accurately picked up that my dad spoke like a person from Springfield, Massachusetts (which is where he was from). It also identified some "Yonkers-speak"...and he works 10 minutes away from there. Suffice it to say, he was blown away by how accurate it was (as was I).
    Post edited by Geo on
  • RymRym
    image

    I've picked up very little regional accent as I've moved.
  • chaosof99chaosof99
    edited December 2013
    I learned english through school classess, TV shows and being on the internet. I use conversational english almost exclusively at work when communicating with southeast asian coworkers (who aren't exactly native speakers themselves). Also, people at my workplace call me "native speaker", but that is mostly because they don't have a good grasp on english themselves and ask me to check their english reports etc. for them.

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    Post edited by chaosof99 on
  • DromaroDromaro
    edited December 2013
    My map

    I've lived in SoCal my whole life so it's pretty accurate for me. Not perfect however.

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    Post edited by Dromaro on
  • usrNameusrName
    edited December 2013
    This one is actually my second map the first one was more accurate the second time it game me the quiz I got different questions and the only city that stayed the same was Irving where I have some family. The first time I had Fort Worth and San Antonio. I live 90~ miles away from San Antonio in Uvalde and I used to go to Dallas for medical reasons so I have to say pretty accurate.

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    Post edited by usrName on
  • NeitoNeito
    Rym said:


    I've picked up very little regional accent as I've moved.

    You also, if I'm remembering right, didn't spend a significant amount of time outside of where you grew up until you had already solidified your speaking habits.
  • canine224canine224
    edited December 2013
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    Post edited by canine224 on
  • NeitoNeito
    Ok. This is the New England in me, but how can you pronounce Caught and Cot differently?
  • DromaroDromaro
    I'm wondering that myself. It appears to not be a New England thing.
  • canine224canine224
    I pronounce cot like bot with a "c" and caught like bought with a "c". It is just the way I have always did it. I did not even know people pronounced those words the same.
  • NeitoNeito
    Fun fact: That explained nothing. Bot and bought are pronounced the same to me, as well.

    Another thing: Does anywhere outside of Boston use "Have gotten" as a construction?
  • RuffasRuffas
    edited December 2013
    canine224 said:

    I pronounce cot like bot with a "c" and caught like bought with a "c". It is just the way I have always did it. I did not even know people pronounced those words the same.

    Cot:bot::caught:bought.
    Mine's half a country off, but northern Florida and Texas seem to have very similar accents.
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    Post edited by Ruffas on
  • Dazzle369Dazzle369
  • RuffasRuffas
    The main problem with that is that there's not just the one English. Standard British English is what he's describing. There may also be a Standard Australian English, but Standard American English is a fabrication; it's not spoken natively in any part of the country. And that's completely ignoring the non-native Englishes, which are the standard where they're found.
  • WalkerWalker
    There were a lot of cases in the quiz where I use things interchangeably and it didn't have an option for that. I've got my Ohio family, my North Carolina environment, hip hop, and media at large pulling me in different directions, so my dialect is all fucked up and changes a lot.
  • muppetmuppet
    Neito said:

    Fun fact: That explained nothing. Bot and bought are pronounced the same to me, as well.

    Another thing: Does anywhere outside of Boston use "Have gotten" as a construction?

    Cot sounds like "hot" and caught sounds like "awwww" in the middle.

    The quiz gave me Springfield/Yonkers. Never been to either. I guess Connecticut is too fine a location, although a few questions pinpointed western CT specifically, which was weird.
  • sK0pesK0pe
    Weird, so Australian English (from Perth) is spoken in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pembroke Pines (Florida).
  • ChurbaChurba
    Neito said:

    Another thing: Does anywhere outside of Boston use "Have gotten" as a construction?

    Yeah, I do from time to time.

    image
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    I got, unsurprisingly, Boston and Springfield, Massachusetts. Surprisingly, I also got Orlando, Florida.
  • HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
    I got Boston, Worcester and Providence. Yeah, BOSTON!!!! We don't pronounce the R in some words and add an extra R in others!!!
  • DromaroDromaro
    It's the first law of linguistics. You cannot destroy R's. You can only move them elsewhere.
  • HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
    Dromaro said:

    It's the first law of linguistics. You cannot destroy R's. You can only move them elsewhere.

    Conservation of N-R-G?

  • NeitoNeito
    The "Extra R" thing is more Rhode Island, though.
  • theknoxinatortheknoxinator
    Surprising no one, I speak like someone from the Pacific Northwest. And apparently people in Salt Lake City speak similarly.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    Here's mine; it's a bit different from the other Australians so far:
    image
  • gomidoggomidog
    I got Detroit, Buffalo, and Minneapolis.

    My parents are from Michigan and lived up in the U.P. I grew up between Rochester and Buffalo.
    Sounds about right.
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