Where Are You From?
Discussion
Interesting quiz in the NYT today - they reckon by answering a few questions on how you pronounce certain words and which words you use for certain things (for instance, did you skive off, bunk off, doss, nick off etc. from school) it can tell where you come from.
Most people don't guess where I'm from, I don't really have strong accent as I've spent more of my life in the south although I was born and raised in the north - the quiz pinpointed it surprisingly accurately.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/15/ups...
Most people don't guess where I'm from, I don't really have strong accent as I've spent more of my life in the south although I was born and raised in the north - the quiz pinpointed it surprisingly accurately.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/15/ups...
It identified me as being from somewhere in central Scotland other than a hole in the middle for Ayrshire. So anyone from Fort William down to Edinburgh, Borders or the isles. I was born in Stirling, grew up nearby till 10, then moved to Aberdeen till 22 before back to Edinburgh and Glasgow, so it isn't wrong, but apparently I didn't pick up any Aberdonian in my 12 years there!
I was born in Sunderland and lived the first 22 years of my life in the North East. I’ve lived in Germany since 2013 and have to swap between German and English for my job, god knows what my accent is now. Last week I had a very confused scouser on the phone who reverted to speaking broad scouse as soon as he discovered I wasn’t actually German, trouble was that I then couldn’t understand him!
Surprisingly accurate seeing that I've lived in Worcs, Yorks, Notts, Derbys, Sussex and have picked up words from all of them - result was Yorks which is where I grew up.
Not all the questions are accurate though - unless they mean something different in other places - IMO parky isn't when you are cold it's when the weather is cold and nesh isn't being cold, it's feeling the cold because you are soft.
Bloody Americans, coming over here, making up our quizzes
Not all the questions are accurate though - unless they mean something different in other places - IMO parky isn't when you are cold it's when the weather is cold and nesh isn't being cold, it's feeling the cold because you are soft.
Bloody Americans, coming over here, making up our quizzes
Depends a lot on what time in your life. I was born of strongly London parents (Wood Green and Clerkenwell) but brought up just off Western Avenue near the old Hoover factory in LB of Ealing. It rightly had me in the south-east but too south and too east. My father had Brighton connections and my mother lived for a good period in Stroud so bot of these might have influenced the outcome. I have lived in south Buckinghamshire for the great majority of my life as an adult, and am married to a woman whose parents were Londoners but on the maternal side had Scots and Irish links. My accent is probably neutral south-east England.
Considering it is American it is pretty accurate but as they know so much about the English language as it is spoken, why can't they use it properly themselves?
Considering it is American it is pretty accurate but as they know so much about the English language as it is spoken, why can't they use it properly themselves?
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