okay, this will prove where you're from

[Haudlady]

My favorite is this... my dad grew up in a town called Weare (pronounced "where")... "Where are you from?" "Yes." Just imagine all of the possibilities... "Where are you going?" "No... I'm going to Boston."

Silly, I know... but fun!

[Fredwina]

My favorite is this... my dad grew up in a town called Weare (pronounced "where")... "Where are you from?" "Yes."

Reimionds me of some town near where I grew up. Like Versailles (VER-sales), and New Madrid ( new MAD(not MAH)-rid), MO and Vienna (VI-anna, not Ve-anna) and Renault(RE-noat), IL

[DebW]

Reimionds me of some town near where I grew up. Like Versailles (VER-sales), and New Madrid ( new MAD(not MAH)-rid), MO and Vienna (VI-anna, not Ve-anna) and Renault(RE-noat), IL

My personal favorites: Campbell (pronounced Camel), MO, the town next to Holcomb (Haw-***) where my grandmother was from. And the Courtois River, locally pronounced Codaway.

[Velobambina]

I grew up in Pittsburgh - got the midland accent too - but we always called soda - pop, never soda, heck I think I used to wonder how soda was different from pop. Of course we had a whole lot of very, very regional words that no one else knew anyway - chipped ham anyone? Not to be "nebby" but btw - what's a bubbler??? - one thing I never picked up though was the habit of saying yins (short for you-all, equivalent to yall in the south)

found a good website www.pittsburghese.com
should be a hoot if you didn't grow up there - may just make me nostalgic

I love you, Eden. I was born and raised in "the Burgh," too. Miss it a lot. How about a hoagie and an ice cold IC? Now yinz go and redd up your room.

[SouthernBelle]

Well, mine said the New York, etc. Which is hysterical. No one would ever mistake me for anything but Southern, a mix of Middle and East Tennessee and Mississippi.

[HappyAnika]

I came up as The West, it fits. I was born in CO and have lived about 70% of my time here. About 12% in AZ and 13% in CA. I'm one of the people who thinks I have no accent and everyone else does.


So I have to ask, does anyone here from PA say "beautiful" like beauty-full? I have a friend from eastern PA and the first time I heard her say that I thought she was joking, I'd never heard it pronounced that way. To me it's butte-ih-full (butte as in mesa, not your backside ).

[IFjane]

My personal favorites: Campbell (pronounced Camel), MO, the town next to Holcomb (Haw-***) where my grandmother was from. And the Courtois River, locally pronounced Codaway.

We have them here in Virginia, too. My favorite is the town of Buena Vista - (Beeyouna Vista)...and then way down in Southwest VA there is Dante (Dain't)....and Fries (Freeze)....and locally an intersection where there once was the community of Zeus (Zayus)....

[Duck on Wheels]

Hmm. I tried modifying my answers (sometimes two different answers both seemed to fit). I still came up as Inland North. Not. And my pronunciations never struck me as different from the other kids at school back in the day. So now I'm wondering ... When they ask whether you yourself hear your pronunciation as same or different for, say, cot and caught ... well maybe I hear my pronunciation as different, but that difference is not one recognized by linguists so the test is based on somebody else's "hearing"? Maybe? Or are they basing the California dialect on SoCal, which I vaguely recall as different from NoCal? Anyway ... can somebody from NoCal who got a result Western or California or the like say what answers they gave? I'm just curious.

[Crankin]

Haudlady, another MA town that causes those kind of jokes is Ayer. Pronounced "air," for all you non-New Englanders. When I first moved back here, I was driving around some of the surrounding towns to just sort of figure out how all the local roads were connected. When I crossed the town line, into Ayer, I said out loud, "Oh, we're in Ayer." My kids, who were about 6 and 9 said something like "Gee Mom, what do you mean? Of course we're in air. It's everywhere." This of course, from the child (Scott) who called Scottsdale My-dale for the first five years of his life and Miami, Your-ami. ..

[Kimmyt]

Anika, I've said that before, but it tends to be more of an expression instead of the normal way to say it. Most say it the way you do, but once in a while if I'm feeling over the top or I'm expressing appreciation for something I'll say it that way.

Hmm that doesn't really explain in which situations I would say that word, I don't know if I can describe when I say it that way... I just know that once in awhile it does slip out that way!

[KnottedYet]

Mine was tied: "no-accent" and "west". Grew up in the west just south of the Canadian border, but lived in Scotland for awhile.

Never thought a Canadian or Scottish accent made me sound midwestern!

[Mr. Bloom]

Reimionds me of some town near where I grew up. Like Versailles (VER-sales), and New Madrid ( new MAD(not MAH)-rid), MO and Vienna (VI-anna, not Ve-anna) and Renault(RE-noat), IL

Fredwina: You grew up in Southern Indiana, didn't you?

[LadyinWhite]

Mine said no accent or "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.

Born and raised in Vermont. BUT - I am a speaker by trade and I consciously worked to get rid of any hillbilly sound to my voice. My family all speak with a thick accent.

[eofelis]

"You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.

I was born in the North Shore area of Massachusetts. Moved to Wyoming at 25, now I'm in western Colorado. Never have more than passed through the Midland.

I do add an "r" occasionally on to the end of a word that doesn't need one.

Few people would guess that I'm from New England, but I can sure spot a NE accent when they show up around here.

[eofelis]

Haudlady, another MA town that causes those kind of jokes is Ayer. Pronounced "air," for all you non-New Englanders. When I first moved back here, I was driving around some of the surrounding towns to just sort of figure out how all the local roads were connected. When I crossed the town line, into Ayer, I said out loud, "Oh, we're in Ayer." My kids, who were about 6 and 9 said something like "Gee Mom, what do you mean? Of course we're in air. It's everywhere." This of course, from the child (Scott) who called Scottsdale My-dale for the first five years of his life and Miami, Your-ami. ..

I went ot high school in "Hayvrill." My mom grew up in "Glosstah." I've never been to "Wistah."