Thursday, January 11, 2007

Jennifer Jordan Led Me Astray

from doing what I meant to be doing a few minutes ago with an entry on her blog.

So, of course, after I saw her results for the Accent Quiz on the GoToQuiz.com site, I had to take it, and ended up:
Your Result: The Midland

"You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.

The actual accent is mongrel. I was born in Houston, Texas, to parents from Kansas. The first six-and-a-half years of my life were spent there. I retained the accent for quite a while after we moved to California. I was kidded about being "Tex" until about the fifth or sixth grade, and even now, people catch me saying all kinds of words in the Lone Star style. Then, after lots of influence from the West coast, I married this fellow from Buffalo, who teaches subjects including accent elimination, and has tried (without consistent success) to teach me the difference between "pin" and "pen."

All of this proves that I may be edging toward the 26% in this article, called to my attention by my sister Sandra, who should have been doing other things, too.

I'm not there yet, though. I did finish a chapter today. I may finish a second one before I call it a night.

Wish me luck -- I'm making my own by getting the hell off the Internet. If you heard me say that aloud, you'd tell me I should be on the radio...

2 comments:

JD Rhoades said...

Either I took this wrong or the quiz is screwy. My accent, according to the quiz is "the Northeast." Anyone who's heard me speak knows I definitely don't talk like no Yankee.

Stephen Blackmoore said...

Well, actually, Dusty, I've been meaning to talk to you about that.