Monday, April 18, 2005

My American Linguistic Profile

Collecting my Thoughts is back from a little hiatus and has published a link to an interesting little test. You can answer twenty questions that will tell you what kind of American English you speak. Since I am not American, I thought that it would be interesting to give it a try, and here's what it revealed.




Your Linguistic Profile:



45% General American English

30% Yankee

10% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Midwestern



For the record, Collector, who lives in Ohio, not terribly far away, scored 85-10-5-0-0, so, apparently I speak more Dixie and Midwestern than she. Isn't that weird?


Actually, Canadian English might properly be considered a subset of American. Our lexicon, pronunciation, grammar, and punctuation are very similar. We spell like the Brits, Aussies, and Kiwis, but we talk much more like Americans.


 

6 comments:

  1. If I go with your list, I'm 65-0-30-5-0

    GO DIXIE!

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  2. Some Canadians I know are descended from families who lived in the northeast U.S. and crossed over after the American revolution. Might be that Yankee sound.

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  3. Canadian English:
    Washroom vs. Bathroom
    Process (pro ses) vs Prosess (praw ses)
    About (a boot sorta) vs About (a bowt)

    In Canada curling involves "stones" and ice; in America it involves either weight lifting or women's hair and a hot iron rod.

    And is it windshield or windscreen? Boot or trunk? And do you use 'lorry' at all, or is it exclusively 'truk' as in the US?

    Processed cheese, usually orange and usually used in grilled cheese sandwiches... Is this called Canadian Cheese in a manner that we refer to it as American Cheese?

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  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. At one time, Ontario (and most of what was then English-speaking Canada) was predominantly ex-Yankee. Perhaps that explains it. Good thinking, Norma.

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  6. This is fun! I scored as:

    80% General American English
    10% Upper Midwestern
    10% Yankee
    0% Dixie
    0% Midwestern

    In Oregon, where I now live, I just can't seem to get used to people calling a carbonated drink "pop." Growing up in California, we always called it "soda." There are some new words here that I'm adjusting to-- for example, when something is expensive, it's called "spendy" rather than "pricey."

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