how good are you at identifying specific states from accents?

by MaxEntropy_Man Fri Aug 09, 2013 5:19 pm

i was listening to NPR yesterday and some senator was being interviewed about how the senate foreign relation committee's power has been whittled down during the last two administrations. since i started listening to the interview midway, and his name was not mentioned till the end, i remember thinking first that this guy is a southerner. my second thought was that he sounds so much like al gore. turns out he was bob corker from TN.

by nevada Fri Aug 09, 2013 5:51 pm

Southern accent and NY accent are easy to identify. People from the midwest and Boston supposedly have an accent but I have never felt it.

by Idéfix Fri Aug 09, 2013 6:01 pm

I can distinguish Boston, New York, and southern accents. I can't tell Texas from Tennessee. The rest sounds too much alike to my ear.

by MaxEntropy_Man Fri Aug 09, 2013 6:03 pm

Idéfix wrote:I can distinguish Boston, New York, and southern accents. I can't tell Texas from Tennessee. The rest sounds too much alike to my ear.

that's what i thought about myself until yesterday.

by MaxEntropy_Man Fri Aug 09, 2013 6:13 pm

nevada wrote:People from the midwest and Boston supposedly have an accent but I have never felt it.

midwestern english is considered to be the american norm. so it is by definition accentless, although i can make out minnesota if i listen carefully. there are certain things they say which is a dead give away. you are not hearing the boston accent because you've probably only heard people who moved later in their lives to boston. it is in fact unmistakable. there is a cultured boston accent, the kennedy accent, and then there's the street accent. i like neither.

here's an example:

by MaxEntropy_Man Fri Aug 09, 2013 6:20 pm

and then there's the maine accent. somewhat similar to the boston accent with r's thrown in at weird places. idea is idear, drawing is draw-ring.

by MaxEntropy_Man Fri Aug 09, 2013 6:26 pm

here's kennedy's opening statement from a 1960 debate with nixon:

listen to how he pronounces the word "half". i still hear some new englanders say that word like him, but i think in the last 50 years even new englanders say half like the rest of america, with the vowel sound similar to the word "have".

by goodcitizn Fri Aug 09, 2013 7:30 pm

MaxEntropy_Man wrote: i still hear some new englanders say that word like him, but i think in the last 50 years even new englanders say half like the rest of america, with the vowel sound similar to the word "have".

My neighbor grew up in Concord. I always smile when he says, "Paak'd the caa" for "Parked the car". Of course, accents are becoming less pronounced everywhere. I wouldn't say that about people from Jackson, MS but certainly it is far less noticeable in Atlanta.

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