Sixteen Questions About Your Regional Accent.?

Question

The following questions are aimed at native English speakers. Please answer the questions based on how you naturally speak with your own regional dialect. After you have answered, please state where you are originally from.

1) Do you pronounce the words "Mary", "merry", and "marry" the same way?
2) Do "father" and "bother" rhyme? If yes, do you use the "A" or "O" sound?
3) When you say the words "cot" and "caught", do they sound the same?
4) "Pin" and "Pen"?
5) "Poor" and "Pour"?
6) "Wine" and "Whine"?
7) "Serious" and "Sirius"?
8) "Don" and "Dawn"?
9) "Collar" and "Caller"?
10) Do you pronounce "tomorrow" as 'tomAHrrow' or 'tomOHrrow'?
11) When you say the word "news", is it more like 'noos' or 'nyews'?
12) Does "bag" rhyme with "vague"?
13) Do you pronounce the 'L' in "calm", "balm", "palm"?
14) What about the 'L' in "walk", "talk", and "chalk"?
15) Do the words "god", "mom", and "pot" have the same vowel as the word "honest"?
16) Does "your" sound like 'yer'?

I am very much into Linguistics, and I am in the process of working on a project where I will be interviewing speakers from all across the world who use English as their primary language.

Shareef - I apologize for the confusion on a few of the questions. I knew that many people would see the word "back vowel" and freeze up. Using X-SAMPA, it would be either [A] or [Q] for the father/bother merger. As for "tomorrow", it can either have the same vowel as the word "are" or the word "or".

Harvard did complete a study, but my project will primarily contain interviews from speakers across the world. It will be similar to William Labov's Atlas, but I want to incorporate more lexical sets, splits, mergers, evidence of vowel shifts, and individual words that have a distinct pronunciation in certain regions.

Answer 1

1) Do you pronounce the words "Mary", "merry", and "marry" the same way?
YES

2) Do "father" and "bother" rhyme? If yes, do you use the "A" or "O" sound?
YES
Both use the "aw" sound -- fawther, bawther

3) When you say the words "cot" and "caught", do they sound the same?
YES

4) "Pin" and "Pen"?
NO

5) "Poor" and "Pour"?
YES

6) "Wine" and "Whine"?
YES

7) "Serious" and "Sirius"?
NO

8) "Don" and "Dawn"?
YES

9) "Collar" and "Caller"?
They sound exactly the same when I say them out loud, but my mouth does slightly different things when I pronounce them

10) Do you pronounce "tomorrow" as 'tomAHrrow' or 'tomOHrrow'?
t ' MAW - roh

11) When you say the word "news", is it more like 'noos' or 'nyews'?
NOOS

12) Does "bag" rhyme with "vague"?
NOT AT ALL

13) Do you pronounce the 'L' in "calm", "balm", "palm"?
YES

14) What about the 'L' in "walk", "talk", and "chalk"?
I omit the L in walk and talk, but it's *faintly* pronounced in chalk.

15) Do the words "god", "mom", and "pot" have the same vowel as the word "honest"?
YES

16) Does "your" sound like 'yer'?
When I'm speaking with people from my town (informal settings), YES.
When I'm speaking in a classroom or on the telephone (formal settings), NO.

I'm originally from southwest Pennsylvania USA

Answer 2

1) Do you pronounce the words "Mary", "merry", and "marry" the same way?
YES

2) Do "father" and "bother" rhyme? If yes, do you use the "A" or "O" sound?
SOMETIMES...I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN BY "A OR O SOUND." WHEN THEY ARE DIFFERENT, "FATHER" HAS SPANISH "A", WHILE BOTHER HAS MORE OF A LOWER BACK VOWEL

3) When you say the words "cot" and "caught", do they sound the same?
NO

4) "Pin" and "Pen"?
NO

5) "Poor" and "Pour"?
YES

6) "Wine" and "Whine"?
NO, BUT I CAN HEAR THE DIFFERENCE EASILY

7) "Serious" and "Sirius"?
WHAT IS "SIRIUS"? I GUESS THE ANSWER IS YES

8) "Don" and "Dawn"?
NO, very different

9) "Collar" and "Caller"?
NO

10) Do you pronounce "tomorrow" as 'tomAHrrow' or 'tomOHrrow'?
ORTHOGRAPHY IS UNCLEAR...I WOULD GUESS 'tomAHrrow'

11) When you say the word "news", is it more like 'noos' or 'nyews'?
FIRST ONE

12) Does "bag" rhyme with "vague"?
NO

13) Do you pronounce the 'L' in "calm", "balm", "palm"?
YES...ODDLY ENOUGH

14) What about the 'L' in "walk", "talk", and "chalk"?
NO...BUT IT IT MAKES ME PRONOUNCE THEM LIKE "WAUK" "CHAUK", ETC

15) Do the words "god", "mom", and "pot" have the same vowel as the word "honest"?
SOMETIMES "GOD" IS DIFFERENT. OTHERS ARE THE SAME

16) Does "your" sound like 'yer'?
NO

Grew up in Hartford, Conn.
However, I have a hard time placing my accent...doesn't seem to match all "typical" CT features, and I'm not sure where I got it from!

P.S. Didn't Harvard already do the same (more extensive) study? How will your study/results be unique?

Answer 3

1) Do you pronounce the words "Mary", "merry", and "marry" the same way? yes.
2) Do "father" and "bother" rhyme? If yes, do you use the "A" or "O" sound? yes, the "a" sound
3) When you say the words "cot" and "caught", do they sound the same? not quite
4) "Pin" and "Pen"? no
5) "Poor" and "Pour"? no
6) "Wine" and "Whine"? yes
7) "Serious" and "Sirius"? yes
8) "Don" and "Dawn"? no
9) "Collar" and "Caller"? yes
10) Do you pronounce "tomorrow" as 'tomAHrrow' or 'tomOHrrow'? AH
11) When you say the word "news", is it more like 'noos' or 'nyews'? noos
12) Does "bag" rhyme with "vague"? not at all
13) Do you pronounce the 'L' in "calm", "balm", "palm"? sort of
14) What about the 'L' in "walk", "talk", and "chalk"? no
15) Do the words "god", "mom", and "pot" have the same vowel as the word "honest"? yes
16) Does "your" sound like 'yer'? no

born in Midwest United States, raised in Southwestern US, going to school in Midwest

Answer 4

1. Yes
2. Yes, "ah."
3. No.
4. No.
5. No.
6. No.
7. Yes.
8. No.
9. No.
10. 2Mah-row.
11. Pneus.
12. No.
13. Yes.
14. Yes.
15. The 'oh?' Yes. The 'E' remains silent.
16. No.

I currently live in the panhandle of Florida. I was born and raised in SW Michigan. Spent most of my adult life either living on the W coast or traveling abroad.
Most here speak with a unique Southern drawl, where as words such as 'Right' are interchangeble with 'Rot.'

Answer 5

1) Yes
2) Yes. I use an "aw" sound
3) Yes
4) No
5) Yes
6) Yes
7) Yes
8) Not quite. I say "dawn" with a longer "aw" sound than "don"
9) Not quite. I say "caller" with an "ah" sound, whereas "collar" has more of an "oh" sound
10) Either way.
11) "Noos"
12) No!
13) Only slightly
14) I do with "walk" and "chalk", but not "talk"
15) Yes
16) No

I'm originally from Southern California. However, my accent varies with whom I am talking to (It sounds a bit Russian when I speak with Russians...ect.).

Answer 6

1.) Yes.
2.) Yes. It's the "ah" sound.
3.) Yes.
4.) Nope.
5.) Yes.
6.) Yes.
7.) Yes.
8.) Yes.
9.) Yes.
10.) "tomAHrrow"
11.) "noos"
12.) No.
13.) Yes.
14.) No.
15.) Yes.
16.) No.

I'm from central Indiana.

Answer 7

1 No
2"a"
3 Yes
4 NO
5 No
6 Yes
7 No
8 No
9 No
10 tomOHrrow
11 nyews
12 No
13 No
14 No
15 Yes
16 No
India

Answer 8

community accents ("dialects") are actual very dynamic. mutually as they'll enhance in any region that doesn't have loads of combining with neighboring areas, they might additionally enhance interior of subcultures. commonly, areas that work together greater finally end up "sharing" their accents (why Canadians talk greater like human beings and why New Zealanders talk greater like Aussies even although we've been all settled by the British). because a community accessory is barely a distinction of pronunciation between 2 people who talk a similar language, this is assumed that community accents have existed as long as people have had spoken languages, yet each stepped forward in its own timeline. some (questioning of So Cal Valley talk right here) can enhance over the direction of a decade or so, and then pass out of trend because of the fact the custom interacts greater with different communities.

Answer 9

Yes to 5, 6, 13 and 14. But for 13 and 14, it's a devoiced fronted allophone.
15 - a mixture: yes, no (we don't even write it that way), yes.
No to all the others with a Yes/No answer.
For both 10 and 11, the latter.
I am originally from Brentwood (County of Essex), UK.
Excellent original question! Are you trying to draw isoglosses?

Answer 10

1) Yes
2)Yes they do rhyme and I use lette A
3)Yes
4) e 5) Yes
7) and 8) No
9)NO collar e caller
10) tomorrow
11) noos
12)yes
13)Yes ( is pronounced with the toung up in your paladar an open L)
14) it has a mute sound or no sound at all
15) Yes the same letter
16) NO
I am from Guatemala. Studied in California.