“Midland,” huh? Guess they didn’t want to hurt us neutral, generic-sounding people by saying: Uhm, you sound BORING.
| What American accent do you have? (Best version so far)
Midland (“Midland” is not necessarily the same thing as “Midwest”) The default, lowest-common-denominator American accent that newscasters try to imitate. Since it’s a neutral accent, just because you have a Midland accent doesn’t mean you’re from the Midland.
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Y’all don’t sound boring to me. You just sound like a specific branch of Yankee.
The first and only time I’ve ever been told that I have an accent was during my visit to Australia. According to them I have a Yank accent. I asked if that was good and they said it was. Phew!
Fun test. I’m also “midland.”
Besides accents, or lack of them, word choices can indicate origin. Here in the Mountain West, we can spot a non-native if he or she says “soda” instead of “pop,” and pronounces “coyote” with three syllables, with the emphasis on the second syllable, rather than two syllables with the emphasis on the first.
Welllll Land O’ Goshen! I’m Southern! Who knew?
Funny thing is, I get accused of being a Yankee a lot. People (from the South or otherwise) say I don’t sound Southern. Hmmm…
WG – there’s a wierd pocket of semi-Dixie twang in Southern NJ that can cause this… the Suthnuhs say “Yankee” and the Joisey boids say “Yo, youse from Virginia?”
I’m a Lawn Guy Lander; probably not a category, but I don’ need no stinkin’ quiz to tell me how I tawk, y’know?
NF — Oh, mannn! And here I was hopin’ you’d take the stinkin’ quiz! What’s wrong with youse?? 😉
Northeasterner here!
The Midland accent is the most neutral of American accents – and British actors who want to get cast as Americans learn the “Midland” accent, to be most “cast”-able. Otherwise, they end up sounding like Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull or something – you know, like all Americans sound like they’re a good fella. SOME do – but there is as much variety in American accents as any other accent – and it’s best to learn the most neutral. It would be like assuming that a “Queen Mum” posh accent would also be appropriate if you were playing the “Artful Dodger”. Uhm, no.
it’s pretty funny. You know how there are some British actors who flat out cannot pass as American (Hugh Grant is one – he knows it – and that’s why he’s never tried it – I think he said something like, “I could never improvise as an American. My context is just so British – I won’t set myself up for failure that way …”) – and there are some American actors who just couldn’t pass as British no matter what they did.
Accents are so interesting to me.
Like Russell Crowe in LA Confidential – that’s a pretty good representation of a Midland accent – except sometimes he hit the “r”s pretty hard – which is a typical mistake with those of the British or Australian persuasion – because they know that the “r” is KEY to sounding American. So sometimes they punch it a bit too hard.
Or should I say “harrrd”.
Sheila, that is so interesting! I think it was Tracy Ullman who said that it was easiest for her to imitate a Southern accent if she wanted to do an impression of an American.
Kate – I didn’t know that about Ullman – cool! She is so brilliant at accents – like, Meryl Streep brilliant. I was thinking, too, about Cate Blanchett in The Gift – that, to me, was SO convincing – I never would have known she was Australian if I hadn’t known who she was.
And there is something elegant about certain Southern accents which is akin to more high-brow British accents – there’s a softness to the vowels, etc. It makes a lot of sense that talented actors could slide into that easiest.
sheila — I don’t like this neutral stuff! I’m gonna start saying “haarrrible” like you. 😉
Well, I guess I do say “boo-bye” though.
Sheila, Toni Colette surprised me too. (My younger sister and I had a hard core devotion to The Tracy Ullman Show as kids and I hope someday it’ll be on DVD!)
My sister moved from Pennsylvania to Virgina about 5 years ago and now she says things like HOARible (horrible) and Ha-LAIR-ious (hilarious). It’s been fun hearing her dialect evolve. I’ll have to check if she still says WOODer (water) the Philly way–even though she was the only one in our family to say it that way. We were raised in the ‘burbs.
I think “boo bye” is your very own regionalism. You should copyright it.
Kate — So how do you say “horrible”? I say “HOARible.” And what IS the alternate pronunciation for HuhLAIRious? Speaking from my position of utter neutrality, of course. 😉
You’re right, sheila. So people, please just get in the habit of putting that C in a circle thingy whenever you use “booo-bye” in print. Thankee.
And I spelled it wrong before: It IS booo-bye. 3 O’s. To ensure correct pronunciation.