heh. I was going to try this quiz just to see where it places a Canadian girl who spells things with 'u' in them ... and then it asked me if I thought it was 'Devil's night' or 'Mischeif night' and the latter choice scared me away from finishing it. Cause that isn't any type of english I want to do.
Might have to do it though since it keeps showing up on my friends list ... see what they peg a Canuck as ... *L* probably 'general'.
It's very loosely based on some of the questions from the Harvard dialect study that was conducted a year or two back. I recognise some of the things they ask. The Harvard study was thirty or forty pages long, though, and included spelling questions, pronunciation questions, and word choice ones. I filled that out just to be a data point.
It should be noted that I retain a few very New York City specific linguistic quirks no matter how hard I'm trying to cover my tracks. I have attempted to pick up other region-specific quirks to obscure this fact, but I was always taught that people who are waiting for the bank or museum or what have you stand on line, not in line, and that the thing in front of the house that is too small to be a porch is the stoop, not the front steps, and that the things you slide down at the park that scorch kids with shorts are sliding ponds, not slides.
it does sound like a cool study, the harvard one ... I know there's been some comparative ones like that between Canadian english and American english (and a really cool bunch of specials that aired on CBC awhile back) but hadn't heard of this one.
As for the 'new york references' ... I'd heard of all of them somehow, but not sliding ponds. That's a new one for me *L* interesting term for it!
I think I remember reading that "sliding pond" and "stoop" are two New York terms that hail from the days when the place was New Amsterdam. They're a few of the last remainders of the Dutch hold on the city.
Yep. cadhla didn't believe me when I told her about that particular phrasing- until I took her to the Museum of Natural History and the person down by the cash registers called out, "NEXT PEOPLE ON LINE, OVER HERE PLEASE".
New Yorkers have been on line forever. Computers caught up to them, not the other way around.
Interesting. I use "on line" rather than "in line" but "front steps" rather than "stoop" and "slides" rather than "sliding ponds". I wonder if this is a within-NYC split along borough/neighborhood lines.
Well, this Canadian got 60% General American English 20% Yankee 10% Dixie 5% Midwestern 5% Upper Midwestern but, whatever its source I cannot take seriously a linguistic quiz that can't spell the word "something." Really, ouch. And everyone knows that rain when the sun is shining means that monkeys are getting married. ;)
As a linguist, I certainly remember the Harvard study. I got 60% General 20% Dixie 20% Yankee No Midwestern. Considering I left the USA 30 yrs ago, and that I've lived on both coasts and my family is from the south but I lived my formative years in New England, I think the test reflects my background fairly well. However, as was said above, it's too short to really measure anything. AND it leaves my British years out completely. A rather famous phonetician visited my university once and was asked to place me: he listened a while and then said: Mid-Atlantic. Halfway between Newfoundland and Dover. I thought that was pretty damned good.
Your Linguistic Profile: 70% General American English 15% Yankee 10% Upper Midwestern 0% Dixie 0% Midwestern
This test seems to show what you're used to hearing. If everyone around you speaks with a Yankee accent, you'll more likely choose a Yankee word. Plus, what is a Yankee?
Little AZ girl who places people by hearing Spanish or Indigenous accents. And who also was amused by the cutesy words used in the East. Too bad there's no allowance for Southwest or West Coast accents...
I suppose that by Yankee they mean anybody from somewhere north of about Philadelphia- that's further north than the Mason-Dixon line that used to divide North and South, but you can't tell me that the people in Delaware, or even in southern NJ, count as Yankee in terms of their speech. The Harvard linguistic study was a lot more precise about this kind of thing, and rather better focused, too.
I got 45% Yankee, 35% General American (whatever that is), and 20% Dixie.
Seeing as I've been to Virginia once (years & years ago), D.C./Baltimore a few times, and other than that I've never been South, the Dixie rating was rather surprising. The best I can guess is that it's mislabeling British influences.
"Upper Midwestern" might be the same as Canadian for some things. I know "Canadian Raising" ("about", "house", etc) is also common in some northern (mid-)western states.
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camwyn
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 05:03 pm (UTC)60% General American English,
30% Yankee
10% Dixie,
0/0 for Midwestern.
I'm lots less discernable. *nod*
no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 05:25 pm (UTC)Might have to do it though since it keeps showing up on my friends list ... see what they peg a Canuck as ... *L* probably 'general'.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 05:31 pm (UTC)It should be noted that I retain a few very New York City specific linguistic quirks no matter how hard I'm trying to cover my tracks. I have attempted to pick up other region-specific quirks to obscure this fact, but I was always taught that people who are waiting for the bank or museum or what have you stand on line, not in line, and that the thing in front of the house that is too small to be a porch is the stoop, not the front steps, and that the things you slide down at the park that scorch kids with shorts are sliding ponds, not slides.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 05:38 pm (UTC)As for the 'new york references' ... I'd heard of all of them somehow, but not sliding ponds. That's a new one for me *L* interesting term for it!
no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-16 07:52 am (UTC)"Oh, you mean queing", says the California boy.
-M
no subject
Date: 2005-04-16 03:50 pm (UTC)New Yorkers have been on line forever. Computers caught up to them, not the other way around.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 09:39 pm (UTC)60% General American English
20% Yankee
10% Dixie
5% Midwestern
5% Upper Midwestern
but, whatever its source I cannot take seriously a linguistic quiz that can't spell the word "something." Really, ouch. And everyone knows that rain when the sun is shining means that monkeys are getting married. ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 07:05 pm (UTC)60% General
20% Dixie
20% Yankee
No Midwestern.
Considering I left the USA 30 yrs ago, and that I've lived on both coasts and my family is from the south but I lived my formative years in New England, I think the test reflects my background fairly well. However, as was said above, it's too short to really measure anything. AND it leaves my British years out completely. A rather famous phonetician visited my university once and was asked to place me: he listened a while and then said: Mid-Atlantic. Halfway between Newfoundland and Dover. I thought that was pretty damned good.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-16 10:02 pm (UTC)70% General American English
15% Yankee
10% Upper Midwestern
0% Dixie
0% Midwestern
This test seems to show what you're used to hearing. If everyone around you speaks with a Yankee accent, you'll more likely choose a Yankee word. Plus, what is a Yankee?
Little AZ girl who places people by hearing Spanish or Indigenous accents. And who also was amused by the cutesy words used in the East. Too bad there's no allowance for Southwest or West Coast accents...
no subject
Date: 2005-04-16 10:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 03:59 pm (UTC)Seeing as I've been to Virginia once (years & years ago), D.C./Baltimore a few times, and other than that I've never been South, the Dixie rating was rather surprising. The best I can guess is that it's mislabeling British influences.
"Upper Midwestern" might be the same as Canadian for some things. I know "Canadian Raising" ("about", "house", etc) is also common in some northern (mid-)western states.