Anything but E90

[reldnahkram]

My Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English

30% Yankee

15% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Yeah, my speech is a bit of a hodgepodge. Strange, given that I've spent nearly all my life living within about 20 miles of Philadelphia. What are other long-time Philly folks getting for results?

Does anyone remember when I started saying y'all? I suspect it was somewhere around junior or senior year of high school, and I picked it up from using it on AIM. I think I've gradually used it more and more over the last five years.

Comments

[uncleamos]

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English

40% Yankee

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

BUT...I blatantly lied and claimed that I don't use y'all. It will be true as soon as your corrupting influence is removed, oh sayer of y'all.

ILLEGAL CONTRACTION!

[sildra.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I got, except that I got 60% on general and 5% on Dixie, probably because I don't say "y'all." But there were a lot of questions where I wanted to give multiple answers and it wouldn't let me. I wonder where my upper-Midwest comes from? I haven't been living here that long... Of course, growing up in California, but being mostly influenced by my parents who were from New York means that I'm going to get weird results no matter what.

[mumbly-joe.livejournal.com]

As a longtime NY-er, I got:

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English

35% Yankee

10% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

And I told the truth that I don't use y'all.

[liegt-am-meer.livejournal.com]

Your Linguistic Profile:

45% General American English

40% Yankee

15% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

It makes sense. The Philadelphia accent is not entirely Northeastern and does share some features with Southern accents. Not that I have a Philadelphia accent, really. If anything, I think all the "Yankee" is from my father being from New England and then me living in New York for four years.
And for the record, my German is quite Berlin-accented, I've been told. Which makes sense, of course. I say "wird" funny and use words like "Kiez" that nobody seems to say anywhere else.

[ilanala]

That test is sadly biased against westerners. I guess we get lumped into general, or maybe Yankee, but there was at least one question on there where I just had to pick a random answer because I'd never heard any of the expressions. At any rate, I probably fit into a weird category of "Californian with foreign parents, friends from all over the country, and a tendency to pick up expressions from people she hangs around with a lot".

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Westerners don't matter ;P. There was one question (the one about an easy class) that I just picked one for as well. Taking the test again and not answering just drops my General score to 45% - clearly each question counts as 5% towards one category or another.

[ilanala]

Fine, I see how it is. :-P

That was the same question I had no answer for. Maybe whoever made the test is just weird.

[sildra.livejournal.com]

I answered "blow-off" for that, because one does "blow off" a class like that, and the others sounded completely unfamiliar.