The quiz I'm taking over the world with
Both the Boston and the California accents neutralize the distinction between cot~caught and don~dawn; but the Boston accent is distinctive because (unlike California) it retains the distinction between father~bother.
So whereas California reduces the General American "ah" and "aw" phonemes into one, Boston preserves both phonemes, just in a different distribution.
Another thing is that a Californian would definitely be "Mary-merry-marry" merged, whereas a Bostonian would definitely be "Mary-merry-marry" unmerged.
I took the quiz and, seeing that I'm Californian and the quiz answered as Western accent, it was correct!
"Another thing is that a Californian would definitely be "Mary-merry-marry" merged, whereas a Bostonian would definitely be "Mary-merry-marry" unmerged."
I had no idea that was true! Guess I need to get out more...=)
Yep, as a New Englander, I pronounce "Mary~merry~marry" all differently, as well as "Cary~Kerry~carry".
I also pronounce "serious~Sirius" differently, and pairs like "hurry~furry" don't rhyme for me. ;-)
I wonder why it labelled me as North Central instead of Western? The bag-vague merger maybe? I don't think I sound like the people from Fargo...
Hmm. Looks like only 10% have the bag-vague merger. Interesting. How do you distinguish bag and vague, other than the b vs. v difference?
According to this quiz, my speech reflects that of someone who hails from Minnesota/North Central U.S. region.
I don't.
I'm from San Francisco, CA. Born and raised. Haha. Fun quiz, though! =]
I took both of the quizzes and here're my results.
." "Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Chances are, if you are from New York City (and not those other places) people would probably be able to tell if they actually heard you speak." said the old quiz.
The new & improved quiz was even more certain: "New York City. You are most definitely from New York City. Not New Jersey, not Connecticut. If you are from Jersey then you can probably get into New York City in 10 minutes or less
Of course, the first quiz does say "If the answer you got was way, way off what it should be, well, there's probably a reason for that, but we can't figure it out now." The reason is that I'm from Australia. But it's interesting to know that the American accent closest to Strine is the New York accent.
I'm left puzzled, though, by questions twelve & thirteen.
12 "Do you say 'about' and 'mouth' with the same vowel sound as 'loud' and 'browse'?"
13 "If you say 'write' or 'price' does the i in those words sound like the i in 'ride' and 'prize'? I'm not just talking about length but the actual vowel sound itself."
How else do people say these words?
>> I'm left puzzled, though, by questions twelve & thirteen.
12 "Do you say 'about' and 'mouth' with the same vowel sound as 'loud' and 'browse'?"
13 "If you say 'write' or 'price' does the i in those words sound like the i in 'ride' and 'prize'? I'm not just talking about length but the actual vowel sound itself." <<
It's a phenonenon known as "Canadian raising" that many Canadians and some Americans possess. It means that before voiced consonants (b,d,g,v,z) the "ow" sound in words like "loud" is pronounced as "ah-oo" (ah as in father; oo as in moon), but if the "ow" sound is followed by a voiceless consontant (p,t,k,f,s), the "ow" is pronounced as "uh-oo" (uh as in "love" and oo as in moon).
To many British people, Canadians say "about" like "abote", because British (RP) people pronounce their "o's" as uh-oo, and Canadians say "about" with uh-oo. Some Americans perceive it like this too. Some people hear "aboot" instead of "abote" for "about", because their "o" sound is different, and the closest sound they have is "oo" --they don't hear the initial "uh" part. Some people exaggerate it to "oo" for comic effect as well.
Crocodile Hunter says "eh-oo" (eh as in the "a" in "made", oo as in the oo of "too") for his "about"/"loud" sounds -- so he pronoucnes loud as leh-ood.
>> 13 "If you say 'write' or 'price' does the i in those words sound like the i in 'ride' and 'prize'? I'm not just talking about length but the actual vowel sound itself." <<
This is also very common in North American English--mostly in Canada and areas in the US near the border.
It allows us to distinguish words like writer and rider, because remember we pronounce our t's as d's in the middle of words: writer and rider both have "d" and not t. But with the vowel raising:
rider rah-eeder
writer ruh-eeder
(say them really fast and you'll hear it)
For the Americans who don't have this feature, words like writer and rider sound the same, so "He's a writer" could mean he writes books, or he rides horses.
Some people from the Southeastern US have a similar phenomenon, where:
rider = rahder
writer = rah-eeder