okay, this will prove where you're from

[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.

[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!

[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."

[SheFly]

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. ..

When I first moved here from Canada, the biggest challenge I had was passing road signs telling me No. Reading. I couldn't figure out why they didn't want me to read there... From there, I passed another sign saying Reading - so now it was ok? Totally flabbergasting until I figured out that it was North Reading (pronounced Red-ing)...

SheFly

[laughlaugh18]

Or are they basing the California dialect on SoCal

If they are, it's not the SoCal I grew up in. My answers made me "Midland", but I'm a born and bred Valley Girl, from long before Moon Unit came up with the song!!

OTOH, I took their Los Angeles quiz (under their State quizzes), and on that quiz I came up as "100% Angeleno and proud of it". Go figure.

And, yes, SoCal is different from NoCal.

[Crankin]

Surly Pacer,

Apparently only people who live in or next to Worcester say "Wister." I worked in Shrewsbury (Shoosbry to some) and that was the first time I heard that pronounciation. I spent some time in Worcester as a kid, my mom's family was from there, and none of them said that! Yes, my dad worked in Hayvril when I was a kid... I used to make fun of my husband when we first moved back here. He would pronounce everything like an outsider "Haver-hill."
When I had been here a week, I called a bakery in Lowell for directions to get there from Rt. 3 (I was living on the NH border at the time). First, all I heard was a muffled "blah, blah, blah." Then when I asked for the nearest cross street, the woman said "What's that?" I hung up in frustration. Here I was, a native New Englander, and I could not understand her. I was not used to giving directions by land marks. In AZ, especially in the east valley, people give directions by, well, direction; like I live one block south of Elliiot Rd., between Rural and McClintock. Well, now after 17 years, I am used to it! But, I have to say, around where I live, very few people have the Boston accent anymore.

[7rider]

I was not used to giving directions by land marks.

Old timers in Gloucester MA give directions by where things USED to be. Like "Oh, it's down by where the Finast was. Right next to the old Radio Shack." Well, uh....there hasn't been a Finast in town for 20 years, nor is there a Radio Shack nearby!!!

[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?