Wednesday, April 20, 2005

The Palm Springs accent

I was born in Nebraska and lived there until I was about a month shy of my 8th birthday. Then I lived in Oregon (pronounced Or-ee-GUN for those of you from points east) until I was 29. Since then I've lived in California, which is not pronounced Kal-LEE-for-nee-a by anyone but body builder-turned-actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I have always assumed that my Midwest roots have had a profound effect on me, that being my formative years and all. But according to this quiz I took (completely scientific I'm sure) the Midwest has been largely battered out of me, or my speech anyway.

I guess I've been Californicated, or something, somewhere along the way. Oh well, that's no big shock. I'm too impressionable with dialects. One time in college I traveled with a friend back to his home state of Texas and spent about a week there. Within a few days I was saying y'all and speaking with a twang. My friend through I was making fun of his fellow Texans (he did not speak with a twang, the legacy of being a military brat I think). I wasn't I was merely an accent susceptible dufus.

So, without further ado, here are the results of my linguistic quiz stolen from
Dave Morris.



Your Linguistic Profile:



75% General American English

10% Upper Midwestern

10% Yankee

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern




7 comments:

Dave Morris said...

I found your site this morning and really enjoy it! I'm new to this blog thing, but meeting all kinds of friends. Sounds like linguistically, we're very similar. Plus I'm a southern California guy.

I'll be back daily - keep up the good writing, G.

Dave Morris said...

PS - good luck with that "can't seem to close my eyes and drift into low levels of consciousness" thing.

Jennifer Wertkin said...

I love accents. I lived in the midwest for 7 yrs and never picked it up. But when I would come back to the midwest from visiting ny, they would say "you sound like a new yorker!"

zam said...

I turned out 65% General American, 30% Dixie, and 5% Yankee of all things. Not bad for a Cuban-American born and raised in Key West, Florida, who's been living in Texas for the past 15 years.

The G-man said...

I prefer to think I don't have an accent, it's all the other people out there who talk funny. Although, Beauty, I'm with you. Some accents just make me melt -- Australian for example, or a light Southern accent.

Y'all come back now, ya hea?

V said...

I didn't like that test. I'm a Texan and I say "y'all" and "fixin," but they didn't have a Texan classification there.

One thing I notice, is that the older I get, the more country music I listen to, and the more twangy I get.

'Course I did move to the psuedo country.... throw a rock and you'll probly hit a cow in my town. But I haven't been here long enough to not feel like a city slicker. :)

The G-man said...

So, Ari, when are you going to start posting audio clips on your blog? We'll all just tune in to hear what y'all are fixin' to do over your weekend.

I wouldn't recommend throwing rocks at cows though. Farmers and ranchers are a bit persnickety about their livestock. And they tend to have guns (the ranchers, not the cattle).

The End Debt Daily paper.li