What type of american english do you speak?

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The discussion revolves around participants sharing their results from an American English dialect test, revealing a variety of linguistic backgrounds. Many users report high percentages of General American English, with some expressing surprise at their results, particularly those from regions like the Midwest or the South. There are humorous exchanges about regional dialects, such as the pronunciation of certain words and phrases unique to specific areas. Participants also discuss cultural references, like the saying "the devil is beating his wife," and how such expressions vary across regions. The conversation highlights the complexities of American English and the influence of personal history on dialect perception, with some users noting their experiences living in different states and how it affected their linguistic identity. Overall, the thread showcases a light-hearted exploration of language and regional differences in the U.S.
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55% General American English
35% Yankee
5% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

Edit: that would have been substatially different two years ago when I lived in Pascagoula, MS...
 
50% General American English
25% Yankee
20% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

Is that bad?
Are Upper midwesterners good people?
 
70, 15, 10, 5, 0 --- last time I saw this, G. Amer. was called "midwest," and there was a distinction between "NE" and "Yankee."
 
55% General American English
20% Yankee
10% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

considering I am from Glasgow Scotland originally that blows that test right out of the water :-)
 
65% General American English
15% Upper Midwestern
15% Yankee
5% Dixie
0% Midwestern


Which is funny because I am from the Midwest, but got 0% Midwestern.
 
75 - General
15 - Dixie
10 - Yankee

The last time I took it I had 5% dixie.
 
75% General American English
15% Upper Midwestern
5% Dixie
5% Midwestern
0% Yankee

Just because you can speak English, doesn't make you a citizen. Could you pass the US citizenship test? I got 10 of 10, but I have to admit, one was little more than a guess (I knew when it was approved, but not when it was written).
 
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arildno said:
50% General American English
25% Yankee
20% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

Is that bad?
Are Upper midwesterners good people?
No.

They don't like it when someone from Kansas ("Can's Ass") says "warsh" or "fal" or "chock-lit". They think those words are pronounced "wahsh", "fowul", and "chocolate".

Of course, a lot of Upper Midwestern folks are of Scandinavian descent, so they might like you. Edit: My bad, I didn't notice the 20% Dixie you speak. You're hosed - they'll tie you up and leave you abandoned in a fishing shack on Lake Woebegone.
 
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  • #10
60% General American English
25% Yankee
15% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

I had to just choose some of the answers at random, because for some of them I wouldn't say any of those words (it's not a shopping cart, it's a trolley! :p :))
 
  • #11
50% Zoobie
30% Grey Space Alien
10% Weird, Purple Jellyfish
5% Standard American Gibberish
5% Inaudible To Human Hearing
 
  • #12
Anttech said:
55% General American English
20% Yankee
10% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

considering I am from Glasgow Scotland originally that blows that test right out of the water :-)
Well I'm 25% Scottish, so it makes sense that yours and mine are close. :rolleyes:
 
  • #13
For #2, we called it Goosey Night in NJ.
 
  • #14
50% yankee, 40% Gen Am. (that seems to be Southern Connecticut in a nutshell), 5% dixie (that must've been my 5 years at UVA),
0% midwestern. (No surprises, I freaked out the first time someone asked "Do you want a sack for your pop?")
 
  • #15
45% General American English
45% Yankee
10% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

Juvenal, where the heck in NJ are you from? It's always been mischief night in NJ.

I had a hard time with some of the choices, because I either wanted to choose "all of the above" or "none of the above." Like, #10, I would never use any of those terms. But, for "route," I pronounce it either way, it just depends on which road I'm talking about.
 
  • #16
65% General American English
25% Upper Midwestern
10% Midwestern
0% Yankee
0% Dixie
 
  • #17
70% General American English
20% Yankee
5% Dixie
5% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern
 
  • #18
50% General American English
30% Yankee
15% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern
 
  • #19
75% General American English
20% Upper Midwestern
5% Midwestern
0% Dixie
0% Yankee

I'm a midwester for sure
 
  • #20
60% General American English
25% Yankee
15% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

Not that I really have any idea what that means.

And tell me, when it's raining while the sun is shining, who in the world says "the devil is beating his wife"!?
 
  • #21
50% General American English
30% Yankee
20% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

But I think most of all I speak american english norwegian :biggrin:
 
  • #22
70/10/10/5/5
 
  • #23
There is a flaw in this test that would allow them to distinguish more:

You drink from:

A water fountain
A drinking fountain
OR A BUBLER!1
 
  • #24
Anttech said:
55% General American English
20% Yankee
10% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

considering I am from Glasgow Scotland originally that blows that test right out of the water :-)
You're missing 10% somewhere.

Mine are :

65% General American English
20% Yankee
10% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern
 
  • #25
55% General American English
30% Yankee
10% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

And I'm a Slav.
 
  • #26
Moonbear said:
Juvenal, where the heck in NJ are you from? It's always been mischief night in NJ.

The Bergen/Passaic County area in northern NJ. "Guido" central.
 
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  • #27
65% General American English
15% Dixie
15% Yankee
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

General American English is really just California English. My theory is that this happened due to the television and movie industries.

I was probably 18 years old before I realized that I didn't speak the "proper form" of American English; that there really is no such thing. Since nearly everyone on Network TV talked just like me, it was implicit in my thinking that I spoke correctly and everyone else in the country had an accent. It only hit me when one day someone commented on my accent...what...MY accent? Hmmmmm. :eek: Never thought about that way before. I was floored! Of course I immediately reailized my naivety and had a good laugh about it.
 
  • #28
80% General American English
15% Upper Midwestern
5% Yankee
0% Dixie
0% Midwestern
 
  • #29
70% General American English
20% Yankee
10% Upper Midwestern
0% Dixie
0% Midwestern

I call east-coast bias. They didn't ask for any phrases that are unique to the west-coast, or at least the Southern California, vernacular. I also know I picked up at least a little Dixie when I lived in Western North Carolina, just nothing they tested for.
 
  • #30
45% General American English
25% Dixie
25% Yankee
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern
 
  • #31
Ivan Seeking said:
Since nearly everyone on Network TV talked just like me, it was implicit in my thinking that I spoke correctly and everyone else in the country had an accent. It only hit me when one day someone commented on my accent...what...MY accent? Hmmmmm. :eek: Never thought about that way before. I was floored! Of course I immediately reailized my naivety and had a good laugh about it.

The exact same thing happened to me when I was living in New Jersey. I'm thinking to myself "I have an accent? You're the one that talks like some Mafioso wannabe straight out of the Sopranos."
 
  • #32
65% General American English
15% Upper Midwestern
10% Dixie
5% Midwestern
5% Yankee

I can understand the 15% Upper Midwestern comes from (I was born in Northern Minnesota), don't know about the 10% Dixie however.
 
  • #33
55% General American English
20% Yankee
15% Dixie
5% Midwestern
5% Upper Midwestern

I've lived in Houston, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Saratoga Springs, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Kansas City, Missouri & Washington, DC. I guess I've picked up bits and pieces. :biggrin:
 
  • #34
Your Linguistic Profile:
70% General American English
15% Yankee
10% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern
 
  • #35
juvenal said:
The Bergen/Passaic County area in northern NJ. "Guido" central.
I'll have to ask my friends who went to Bergen Catholic. One of them grew up in Bergen County, the other is from NY, but still went to Bergen Catholic. As far as I know, they both still call it mischief night, but maybe they adapted to the rest of us later in life.

I remember being surprised it was called anything else when I moved to MI. They call it Devil's Night there, and then turn into little arsonists! It shocked me to no end that they not only had a nastier name for it, but took it to such an extreme...I thought egging a house was bad enough, but to set fire to things should land the little cretins in jail!

hypnagogue said:
And tell me, when it's raining while the sun is shining, who in the world says "the devil is beating his wife"!?
I was wondering the same thing. With some of those questions, I've heard people use the other terms, just never adopted it myself, but that one just sounded too bizarre to be true! It just doesn't make any kind of sense at all.
 
  • #36
Moonbear said:
hypnagogue said:
And tell me, when it's raining while the sun is shining, who in the world says "the devil is beating his wife"!?
I was wondering the same thing. With some of those questions, I've heard people use the other terms, just never adopted it myself, but that one just sounded too bizarre to be true! It just doesn't make any kind of sense at all.
That's a very well known saying in the south.
 
  • #37
Evo said:
That's a very well known saying in the south.

Come to think of it, I guess it does make some sense. After all, whenever I see a duck-billed platypus, I immediately think to myself "The devil is committing insurance fraud."
 
  • #38
85% General American English
10% Yankee
5% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

Why isn't there any "Californian"

"How do you pronounce 'Hello'"

1) Hello
2) *quick head bob upwards*

What are males?

1) Sir
2) Mr.
3) Dude
 
  • #39
Maybe it's from a twisted It's a Wonderful Life adaptation?

"Look Daddy. Teacher says every time it rains while the sun is shining, the devil beats his wife."

eh OK, I'll stop. For now.
 
  • #40
80% General American English
5% Dixie
5% Midwestern
5% Upper Midwestern
5% Yankee
 
  • #41
hypnagogue said:
Come to think of it, I guess it does make some sense. After all, whenever I see a duck-billed platypus, I immediately think to myself "The devil is committing insurance fraud."
That's so strange. I only think of Satanic insurance fraud in conjunction with warthogs.
 
  • #42
It's an old New Orleans superstition "When there is sunshine and rain together, a colored nurse will tell the children, "Gadé! djabe apé batte so femme." (Look! the devil's beating his wife!)"

http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/hearn/nos.htm

NEW ORLEANS SUPERSTITIONS
by Lafcadio Hearn
from An American miscellany, vol. II, (1924)
originally published in Harper's weekly, December 25th, 1886

hypnagogue said:
After all, whenever I see a duck-billed platypus, I immediately think to myself "The devil is committing insurance fraud."
:smile: I think you just started a new saying!
 
  • #43
Evo said:
"Gadé! djabe apé batte so femme."
"Gadé!" must be "Regardez!" and "batte so femme" must be "bat sa femme", but "djabe apé" must be some character from Vodun, not exactly "the devil".
 
  • #44
zoobyshoe said:
"Gadé!" must be "Regardez!" and "batte so femme" must be "bat sa femme", but "djabe apé" must be some character from Vodun, not exactly "the devil".
It doesn't translate literally, I'm wondering if it's the cajun bastardization, kind of bad slang French? Remember these aren't French speaking, they're slaves in Louisiana. Some of the cajun is undecipherable.
 
  • #45
zoobyshoe said:
"Gadé!" must be "Regardez!" and "batte so femme" must be "bat sa femme", but "djabe apé" must be some character from Vodun, not exactly "the devil".

"djabe" would "diable". Djabe is the cajun pronunciation. It is more of an old french than modern french.
 
  • #46
"Gadé! djabe apé batte so femme." Is more of a way the cajun speak but it can "translated" to international french into "Regardez! Le diable bat sa femme"
 
  • #47
iansmith said:
"djabe" would "diable". Djabe is the cajun pronunciation. It is more of an old french than modern french.
Wow, thanks Ian!
 
  • #48
60% General American English
20% Dixie
10% Upper Midwestern
5% Midwestern
5% Yankee

[edit] That makes almost no sense... I have lived in California for a total of 17 years, Minnesota and South Dakota about 5 years each... What the heck is Dixie?
 
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  • #49
iansmith said:
"Gadé! djabe apé batte so femme." Is more of a way the cajun speak but it can "translated" to international french into "Regardez! Le diable bat sa femme"
Yep, you're right that "djabe" must be diable. But this isn't Cajun, it's Creole. The "apé" is what's puzzling me. It might be "apre" (with a circonflex over the a) which means "severely, harshly".
 
  • #50
30% Dixie. Surprised it wasn't higher, being born and raised (not reared, notice) Alabamian. This was something they constantly tried to correct us on in grammar school: "You RAISE corn, but you REAR children."
 

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