CHICAGO: If Hepatitis C Were Attacking Your Face Instead of Your Liver You'd Be Doing Something About It

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Your result: TEH 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.

I also felt very confident about my answers, reprazent.

JordanC (JordanC), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:11 (seventeen years ago) link

I've seen the whole "Mary, marry, merry" thing before as an example of differences in pronunication -- but I can't figure out how you would pronounce any of those words differently from each other.

I want to have a good voice for TV and radio. :(

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:12 (seventeen years ago) link

hawrible.

whoore.

and jenny, i guess it's because my accent is only at about 20% of it's strength from what it was 7 years ago that i forget i may still have one. when i saw my younger sister at a family event last month she told me she couldn't stand to listen to my accent (i think i was pronouncing my r's).

otto midnight (otto midnight), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:12 (seventeen years ago) link

I think, John, that I just like busting your chops about something so silly as how people from different regions of the country that have distinct regional accents pronounce a word.*

I don't know how I say horrid. As I sit here in the computer lab whispering "harrid... whore-id" to myself, they both sound right to me.

I got South second to midland if I said that "pin" and "pen" sound similar. The fact that I could go either way there is, I believe, entirely attributable to Jeff. Anecdotally, a WV cousin of mine thought my name was "Ginny" until we ten or eleven because he'd never seen my name written out and "Ginny" and "Jenny" sound the same coming from people with southern accents.

jenny (pullapartgirl), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:13 (seventeen years ago) link

*It's the asterisk to nowhere...

jenny (pullapartgirl), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:14 (seventeen years ago) link

That quiz is malarkey -- you can't know how you really pronounce things until you record yourself pronouncing them and use speech analyzer software to determine the height, length and roundness of vowels. Relying on people's perception of how they say things only gives you results about people's perceptions, not what they actually say. The quiz focuses almost entirely on vowels too, which is just one indicator of regional dialect.

Malarkey.

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:15 (seventeen years ago) link

And I, in turn, enjoy getting overly defensive and self-righteous about something so silly.

Amanda -- malarkey, but accurate for me, at least. Since I have, after all, lived in Chicago almost all my life.

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:15 (seventeen years ago) link

i had a football coach who used to chide us for our "huss-shit effit out thay-yah."

otto midnight (otto midnight), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Weirdly my dad says "hawrible" and it's always bothered me.

JordanC (JordanC), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Wait, so you say "hahrrible" too??

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:16 (seventeen years ago) link

No, I definitely say "whorrible".

JordanC (JordanC), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:20 (seventeen years ago) link

The Whorror would be a good band name?

JordanC (JordanC), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:20 (seventeen years ago) link

"huss-shit effit out thay-yah."

awesome. i miss those accents.

JuliaA (JuliaA), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Kevin played football?

jenny (pullapartgirl), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:26 (seventeen years ago) link

my best friend from back home went to UMaine and his senior year lived in a rented house north of orono (which is just north of bangor). his next door neighbor was this 70-something retired couple named herbie and barbara day, neither of whom had ever left the north woods in their lives. they spent their time sitting on their front porch getting sauced and speaking in the most impenetrable down east accents ever.

xpost- QB/WR/CB. i was actually much better on defense than offense.

otto midnight (otto midnight), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Kevin, I can't even parse that.

I am in the black for vacation time for the first time since June! I have .26 days of vacation.

JordanC (JordanC), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:30 (seventeen years ago) link

So what's the difference between "whorrible" and "hawrible"? The first pronunciation in Webster's is "h®r-ə-bəl," and when I looked up what "®" was, it said it was like the "aw" in "law." The second pronunciation is "här-ə-bəl," and the "ä" is like the "o" in "mop" or the "a" in "mar." So I figured you either said "harrible" or "hawrible," and that "hawrible" pretty much = "whorrible."

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:31 (seventeen years ago) link

(As I suspected, ILX doesn't do O's with dots over them.)

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:32 (seventeen years ago) link

(Single dots, that is -- not diareses.)

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Kevin, I can't even parse that.

Quarterback, wide receiver, cornerback.

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:34 (seventeen years ago) link

So basically Webster's doesn't list "whorrible" as a pronunciation?

xpost, I meant his coach's accent

JordanC (JordanC), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh sorry -- it took me a while, too: "Horseshit effort out there."

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:36 (seventeen years ago) link

So basically Webster's doesn't list "whorrible" as a pronunciation?

Yes, but I'm having trouble distinguishing between "whorrible" and "hawrible" myself.

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Or, if you prefer:

The vowel sounds of American English
http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/IPA/VowelChartLF.gif

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Aha.

"whorrible" = "or"

"hawrible" = "arrrrr"*

*pirate

JordanC (JordanC), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Because most times you encounter an O, it's going to be one of these three sounds:

bot
boat
bought

I'm suggesting (and this is what I think Webster's is doing) that the O in "bore" is not a unique sound -- it the "aw" of "bought" plus an R.

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:45 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost Okay, Jordan, I was misunderstanding. The pirate sound is what all these East Coasters (Jenny, Jeff, Sarah, and Nick) say -- what I was previously writing as "hahrible" or "harrible."

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Next time we hang out for a few beers, if I get buzzed enough I'll do the UP accent and BLOW YOUR MINDZ

danno martinez (danno martinez), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Right, so we're on the same page. That is what I do NOT say.

In Apocalypse Now, Brando says "the harrur", right?

JordanC (JordanC), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:49 (seventeen years ago) link

In keeping with Kevin's football coach quote, my hockey coach used to say things like "Ya gotta get da fuuck up dere on da wing and hit dem sissy faggots 'fore dey cross da line fer dachrissakes!"

danno martinez (danno martinez), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:51 (seventeen years ago) link

I think the first time I heard "harrible" and "harrur" was from my high-school drama teacher, who was from Pennsylvania.

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:54 (seventeen years ago) link

All I know is I went to college with someone from Philly who said "ahrange juice" and called me "Law-rel". I rhyme horrible with oar. Or whore. But not "hoor".

Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:57 (seventeen years ago) link

called me "Law-rel".

i'll just call you shirley.

otto midnight (otto midnight), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Surely not.

Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:59 (seventeen years ago) link

you'd prefer lavern perhaps?

or something without vowels maybe. lrl.

otto midnight (otto midnight), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:03 (seventeen years ago) link

How are "bot" and "bought" pronounced differently?

nklshs (nklshs), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:06 (seventeen years ago) link

boo-ought, i would guess.

JuliaA (JuliaA), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:07 (seventeen years ago) link

i was saying "boo-ought."

hans moleman (otto midnight), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Depends on how much you flatten out the "o" in bot, I think. In mid-Michigan, it's more or less already "baht", so there's slightly more O-ish-ness in "bought". As in "bough", not that anyone ever says bough anymore.

Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Haha, Amanda's going to kill me, she keeps telling us we need to learn to use the alphabet indicators thingies, and I just described a sound as O-ish.

Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Sometimes it's what's called an "open o" as in the way that English people pronounce "bought", "caught", "ought" and BOT is pronounced either with an "ah" sound (represented by "a" in the bottom right of the "sounds of American English" diagram upthread. It's the difference between a sound that is tense (open o) and one that is lax ('ah').

The IPA can be used to describe any language, which is why it's handy when doing phonological transcriptions or interpreting phonological transcriptions of languages that we may or may not know. If you know the IPA and you see a transcription of a language you have no idea how to pronounce, it gives you everything you need to pronounce the word. It won't tell you what it means or how it's written (its orthography) but it will give you an idea of how to say it. You can also analyze patterns that way. It's also why it's futile to try to describe sounds as "flat" or "weak" or "wrong" or by using other vague/subjective adjectives. The IPA uses places and means of articulation to determine the differences between sounds.

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Sorry about that.

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:27 (seventeen years ago) link

FUCK!

So, today my old boss (who is way cool) and the two other guys I work directly with were going to go have lunch, bullshit, piss & moan, have a beer or two, etc. Well, today one of the higher-ups is in town, and co-opted our lunchtime. So, instead, we were going to lunch with my new boss, the higher-up, and a couple others. This option was slightly less appealing to me, but still, the prospect of a free lunch somewhere new was enticing.

So, I was sitting around waiting for a particularly nasty file to distill, and I heard people getting ready to go behind me. I figured they'd say "hey, let's go" when they were ready, and we'd go. Then I looked around and EVERYONE is gone. I got completely ditched! Now I don't have a clue what to do... I think I know where they went, but it's a ways away, I don't have my car, so I can't just go over there. What do I say when they get back? I'm fucking pissed about this.

danno martinez (danno martinez), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Open O is also slightly higher than 'ah'. This is also visible on the diagram, which represents the shape of your mouth. Roughly.

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:29 (seventeen years ago) link

That sucks, Dan.

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Does anyone have a cellphone? Could you call them and say WHY YOU DITCH ME?

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:38 (seventeen years ago) link

I assume they do, but I don't know any of their digits.

danno martinez (danno martinez), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Wait a second -- I'm not sure it's about tense and lax at all, but if there's something more tedious than discussing pronunciation on the internet, please don't tell me what it is. I don't wanna know.

How about them [sports team]?

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Boo Dan! That once happened here to another clerk and going to a hearing. The attorney asked her to go, the clerk said yes, and then a half hour later called her from the hearing asking where she was. The attorney had just left without getting the clerk or telling her she was leaving...

Bot = baht
Bought = bawt

I say ARRR-nge. I draw the line at Lawrel, although I could easily lapse into it.

jenny (pullapartgirl), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 18:43 (seventeen years ago) link


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