Wednesday, November 23, 2005

The joy of language

I'm one of those odd people who likes language . . . the way a language evolves, the differences in a main language between the subtle dialects, the similarities between languages from the same "family" and so on.
Keeping in line with this interest is the following test. My dad, back home in America, sent me this link and it's kept me amused ever since. Apparently, the web page is a test, of sorts, that asks about how you pronounce words, what you call things and generally how you use English. The goal of the test is to give you a broad example of how "Yankee" or "Southern" your English sounds. It is for this reason that my non-American "viewers" might not find much use in this test. Granted, it could still be fun for all but a non-American English speaker might find it difficult to answer some of the questions regarding pronunciation.
Now, to give you an idea of the scoring system:

I scored around a 60% or so . . . my comment basically stated I was on the Mason-Dixon line. I feel that this is reasonably correct seeing as I've lost some of my accent being in Australia. Also, I was born in the northern most of the Southern states (yes it was and IS a southern state . . . the capital of the Confederacy was located in my homestate afterall).

My dad scored 89% . . . his comment stated something along the lines of whether or not he still used confederate money. While that's harsh I can see some truth in the test picking out his Southern vernacular. Afterall, he was born in North Carolina and the family roots are strong in both the Carolina states.

My wife, the Australian, took the test after I "encouraged" her. She saw absolutely no purpose in doing so and, as usual, thought I was an idiot. She scored around the 30% mark and was told she was very "Yankee" to which she took offense. You have to give the test some slack seeing as there is no "British" or "British Colonial" accent score.

Anyway, here's the link:

English On-line Dictionary (of sorts)

1 Comments:

Blogger Andrew Scott said...

I couldn't even tick an answer for 9 of the 20 questions. The question that really stumped me was "What's it called when you throw toilet paper over a house?". I didn't even know there was a word for this! I guess I really am not American. :)

So, although I (barely) passed the test, my rating was "56% Dixie. Barely in Dixie". I'd agree with that: barely in Dixie...

06 August, 2006  

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