What type of american english do you speak?

In summary: General American English 20% Upper Midwestern 10% Midwestern 5% Dixie 5% Upper Midwestern0% Midwestern I don't think so, because I've never heard anyone from the Midwest say "fal". In summary, the majority of the people in the US speak General American English, with some accents in specific regions.
  • #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.
 
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  • #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?
 
Last edited:
  • #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."
 
  • #51
80% General American English
10% Dixie
10% Yankee
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

I guess. The insurance fraud one is good. Don't see many platypuses these days though...
 
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  • #52
I could'a swere that HRW was dixie!
 
  • #53
70% General American English
20% Dixie
10% Yankee
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern
I would have to say this test is surprisingly accurate... for me.
 
  • #54
yomamma said:
I could'a swere that HRW was dixie!
No, no - that's Pixie. :biggrin:
 
  • #55
I could make a comment, but it would cost me more chocolates
 
  • #56
55% General American English
25% Yankee
10% Dixie
10% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

What's Dixie?
 
  • #59
50% General American English
25% Dixie
20% Yankee
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

I don't think this says much, because on more than one question I had to chose at random because there was no 'none of the above'.
Saying that, I'm pretty sure I speak English English, rather than any type of American English (with maybe a we bit of Scottish).
 
  • #60
Chi Meson said:
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?")

A sack for your pop? Where in the midwest were you living? I was born and raised in Green Bay, WI and have spent the last 8 years in Milwaukee. (I have never before lived outside of Wisconsin...) I have never heard of calling a grocery bag a sack... I am so confused.

But these New Englanders (I just moved here about a month ago) are sometimes completely unintelligible. I will go to the grocery store and the checkout person will say something and all I can do is smile, cause I have no clue what they just said to me...
I have so much to get accustomed to...
Cheers,
Ryan
 
  • #61
45% General American English
35% Yankee
20% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

That's a weird reply since I'm French. :smile:
 
  • #62
Norman said:
I was born and raised in Green Bay, WI and have spent the last 8 years in Milwaukee...

...But these New Englanders (I just moved here about a month ago) are sometimes completely unintelligible.
This is so funny. When I was a kid in New Hampshire, a family moved to town from Wisconsin. Their accent was completely outlandish. We'd never heard such a thing!

Most people are aware of the general regional dialects, from TV and movies if nothing else, but I'm not sure most people in the US are familiar with the hiarious Wisconsin accent. It doesn't get much press. There have been some California vs Wisconsin Cheese commercials made in California in the past few years, that tried to take aim at it, but I'm not sure if they pulled it off.

Once I left NH, of course, I became the one with the outlandish accent. To avoid standing out like a sore thumb, I have toned it down to near neutral. Now, when I go back to New England, everyone there sounds pretty hilarious. Most of those small cities in Massachusetts are particuarly thickly accented.
 
  • #63
somasimple said:
45% General American English
35% Yankee
20% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

That's a weird reply since I'm French. :smile:

Yeah...I don't think this test is accurate at all.
 
  • #64
Townsend said:
Yeah...I don't think this test is accurate at all.
Because it only gives you one choice: some kind of American usage. Even people from Lower Sylvania for whom English is a third language end up seeming to have some kind of American dialect, because that's the only choice.
 
  • #65
Non-Americans will naturally speak Genglish and Yank. But if you can't Yank, you're not a jerk.
 
  • #66
Genglish??
 
  • #67
dduardo said:
Take the test now:

http://www.blogthings.com/amenglishdialecttest/
That test is really funnie, and stu-bad.
I am not an AMerican, but

50% General American English
25% Yankee
20% Dixie
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

It really makes me laugh :smile:
 
  • #68
60% General American English
25% Dixie
10% Yankee
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

MammaMia! :biggrin:
 
  • #69
70% General American English
20% Upper Midwestern
5% Midwestern
5% Yankee
0% Dixie

I have lived my whole life in the PNW, was relived to see no dixie! I had to pick a random answer for the hard class question, I had never heard or used any of the terms!
 
  • #70
45% General American English
35% Yankee
20% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

But i do try to speak the queens english whenever the opportunity arises.
 

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