Oh Really?

[howeird]

Snagged from scendan

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Northeast Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Chances are, if you are from New York City (and not those other places) people would probably be able to tell if they actually heard you speak.
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The Midland
The South
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have?

The poll is interesting - it differentiates between the common mis-pronunciations of the West Coast and the correct ones which are heard on network news. But they blow it in the end - my accent is the one you'll hear on the national news, not the West Coast one they claim. The test is definitely written by someone in LA. ;-)

Something to keep in mind: words like "pen" and "pin" are spelled differently because they are supposed to be pronounced differently. Ditto "don" and "dawn".  There's one regional idiosyncrasy which I am up in the air on. The "o" in "horrible", "orange", "Oregon", etc. The further west you go, the more likely it is to rhyme with "whore", but growing up I heard both.

For the record, my accent is New York, tempered with Seattle. I've dropped the worst of the Brooklyn bits, but still insist on pronouncing words the way they are written, with the exception of the "t" in "often".  W.S. Gilbert would be proud.