Where I'm from (continued)
I just took a quiz designed to pinpoint a person's particular variety of American English. Not too surprisingly, the results said that my idiolect would seem least idiotic in Providence, R.I.
As far as I know, I have never been to Rhode Island, and no one in my family is from anyplace near there. I would have been just as unsurprised to learn that I sound like people in Dallas or Denver. What would have surprised me would have been to learn that I sound like I'm from any of the places that I've actually lived. Always painfully aware of how I sound, I try to speak as generically as possible. I have, however, adopted some of the expressions people use in the places I've lived, expressions like "neutral ground" and "y'all," which didn't fool the computer for one millisecond.
I had hoped to let this quiz determine where I will live out my days, but I'm afraid the winters in Rhode Island would greatly reduce the number of said days. Luckily the quiz seems somewhat unreliable. The answers to many of the questions depend not on how you choose to talk but rather on where you happen to be at the moment. For example: I could have said that "the City" is New York or Los Angeles or one of several other choices. I could have said that a train that runs underground is called BART or the El/L (which isn't even mostly underground, is it?) or Metro. I could have said that a sandwich on a long loaf of bread is called a hoagie or a poor boy or a grinder. I think for all of these questions I chose Other, because they had no generic, all-purpose answers. Just try taking BART to get a grinder in New York (assuming that's your City).
Of course, a soft drink is never soda or pop. Apparently not in Providence anyway.
As far as I know, I have never been to Rhode Island, and no one in my family is from anyplace near there. I would have been just as unsurprised to learn that I sound like people in Dallas or Denver. What would have surprised me would have been to learn that I sound like I'm from any of the places that I've actually lived. Always painfully aware of how I sound, I try to speak as generically as possible. I have, however, adopted some of the expressions people use in the places I've lived, expressions like "neutral ground" and "y'all," which didn't fool the computer for one millisecond.
I had hoped to let this quiz determine where I will live out my days, but I'm afraid the winters in Rhode Island would greatly reduce the number of said days. Luckily the quiz seems somewhat unreliable. The answers to many of the questions depend not on how you choose to talk but rather on where you happen to be at the moment. For example: I could have said that "the City" is New York or Los Angeles or one of several other choices. I could have said that a train that runs underground is called BART or the El/L (which isn't even mostly underground, is it?) or Metro. I could have said that a sandwich on a long loaf of bread is called a hoagie or a poor boy or a grinder. I think for all of these questions I chose Other, because they had no generic, all-purpose answers. Just try taking BART to get a grinder in New York (assuming that's your City).
Of course, a soft drink is never soda or pop. Apparently not in Providence anyway.