When you speak to someone, can you tell where in the US was s/he originally from?

Question

How did you tell?

Answer 1

Yes. There are 2 ways to tell: their accent and their choice of words. Example of word differences: sofa vs couch, soda vs soda pop vs pop, etc. Each of those word choices is much more common in specific parts of the country. Accent/pronuciation examples: oil is pronounced like earl, doll is pronounced like dowell (earl is northwestern US, dowell is Ozark Mountain area).

Answer 2

I worked in an insurance call center taking calls from all over US. When I was testing for another position, I had to listen to a tape and transcribe the information as if were an actual phone call. I started to laugh hearing the same exact 2 male and female voices portraying different regions.

I never realized until that time, how intricately we know areas by accents, inflections, word choices. Even with people who used more neutral "professional" sounding voices, just a slight sound of a vowel or a consonant could give it away.

Answer 3

Depends, I was born in Oregon and lived in the Pacific Northwest until in my 40's then I moved to Kentucky and was there 8 yr and now living in Canada, most folks think I from the south by my accent, they dont beleive that I was ever in the west lol

Answer 4

i do okay ,but it happens to me all the time ,im from Brazil i been here 30 yrs but i still have a very heavy accent ,so when i speak people play the guessing game with me all the time ,been asked if im from New york ,or Italy ,or Germany ,or Spanish
they cannot believe im Brazilian .

Answer 5

The only American accents I can distinguish are southern, Texan, New Mexico, and New York/Bronx accents.

Answer 6

No, I can't - unless you are a truck driver! Each of the southern states have their own accents and dialects, easterners have theirs and so on........., but truck drivers, no matter where they are from always have the same accent and dialect - and I don't know why!

Answer 7

Sometimes.....I used to drive an 18 wheeler and find it easy to recognize some accents people have...

Answer 8

alot of times...by the expressions and dialect...like people from Georgia have a certain accent....when I met my b/f I knew within 2 sentences he was from the midwest...it's all in the accent..

Answer 9

Yes, I can tell if they are from the south, or from New England by the words they use and how they pronounce them.

Answer 10

I can tell a southerner and a New Yorker.