Voicepost! LOLmerican Accent Quiz

[ladyfoxxx]

So mizubyte did a voice post of her doing an American Accent quiz where you answer questions about your pronunciation and the quiz gods try to figure out where you are from. Obviously I am not American, but the pull of the quiz was too much, so I decided to do it anyway, just to see what might happen.

Direct link here if the embed below isn't working:

Comments

[mistresscurvy]

Oh god, as a former actor from North Jersey who spent a LOT OF TIME thinking about accents in general, I have MANY FEELS about this post.

Because the thing is that as much as a Jersey (or Northeast) accent sounds nothing like an English-Australian hybrid accent, we DO distinguish vowel sounds much, MUCH more than other areas of the country do. A lot of American accents flatten out all the vowels, and there's generally not as much variation between different vowel sounds. So like, my answers for 80% of this quiz are exactly the same as yours are, but HOW I pronounce many of those words isn't the same as how you do.

I'm also just totally fucked accent-wise though, because I grew up in Jersey but I don't have a Jersey accent like the MCR boys do, mostly because my PARENTS are from New England (but not Boston) so I'm like a cross between the two. And once you start playing around with your speech for performance purposes it totally fucks up EVERYTHING, both because I mimic whoever I'm talking with to some degree, ALWAYS, and also because I'm aware of the different ways to say all of those words, and so I can do it, and it's hard for me to concretely say THIS is how I always say this word. And some words just CHANGE, like "orange" - if I'm saying the fruit, I say it more like you probably do, but if I'm talking about the Jersey town South Orange, I say it much closer to the way that Frank does, because that's how I ALWAYS hear that town name pronounced.

/FEELINGS

[ladyfoxxx]

And once you start playing around with your speech for performance purposes it totally fucks up EVERYTHING, both because I mimic whoever I'm talking with to some degree, ALWAYS, and also because I'm aware of the different ways to say all of those words, and so I can do it, and it's hard for me to concretely say THIS is how I always say this word.

OMG THIS THIS THIS. I do this ALL THE TIME. I actually have to make an EFFORT when I am in other countries to NOT mimic accents, or when I am hanging around people with accents to NOT copy their accent because I do it WITHOUT EVEN THINKING ABOUT IT. I get so concerned that people are going to get annoyed with me for ripping off their accent and I SWEAR I don't do it on purpose.

I even had a moment when I got my result on this quiz where I was worried that because I'd just finished listening to Miz's recording that I'd riffed her accent somehow.

It's also been a thing since I've started making podfic - I have to specifically make sure I record with my own accent, because it's so easy for me to slip into a kind of near-American thing when I'm reading off the page and one of my first draft recordings I did of Bulletproof I was totally doing American pronunciation without even being AWARE of it til I listened back so I had to scrap the whole thing and start again. I ALSO have to be careful not to go the other way though! On a trip to America once for work, I remember my boss (who is American) just STARED at me after I'd finished telling her something and when I asked what was up she said "I'm sorry, it's just your accent is so broad I was having trouble understanding you" - I'd been so concerned about 'turning American' while I was in LA, I'd actually gone too far the OTHER way and was bunging on a Russel Crowe very ocker Aussie accent. I can't win!

LOL /FEELINGS. APPARENTLY I HAVE THEM TOO!

[mistresscurvy]

When I've been in the UK, I can USUALLY keep myself from going full-out mimicry (which I do try to keep myself from doing because lol I do not want to be Madonna or Gwyneth, thanks), but what I can't keep myself from doing is using vocab or English phrases that would make me sound like a hipster in New York but are common over there.

I'm actually running into that a bit with podfic myself - like, I DON'T sound like the MCR boys do, but I know how Frank DOES sound, so if I put on a bit more of a (genuine) Jersey accent, is that BAD? Or does it help the story? I JUST DON'T KNOW.

[ladyfoxxx]

OMG I just went and creeped on the BBB podfic claim post and saw what fic you are doing. ALL THE YAYS. I bet you do an awesome job, god I can't wait to hear that one spoken aloud.

I DON'T sound like the MCR boys do, but I know how Frank DOES sound, so if I put on a bit more of a (genuine) Jersey accent, is that BAD? Or does it help the story? I JUST DON'T KNOW.

I TOTALLY THINK IT WOULD WORK! I mean, if you know how to pronounce it the way Frank would then why the hell NOT say it the way he would if it's a story in his POV? I don't see how it would ruin the experience unless it sounded put-on or mottsy, but it sounds like you would do it RIGHT.

It's kind of like, if someone were to do podfic of tuesdaysgone and fleurdeliser's OT3 verse (DEAR GOD PLEASE) if they could do Grant's dialogue in a NOT-mottsy Scottish accent it would work SO WELL. But only if they could actually DO IT properly and not like somebody doing an impression, you know? Which in the case of a Jersey accent w/ the MCR boys you TOTALLY could.

LOL SO MANY FEELINGS.

[mizubyte]

You totally riff on how I saw Boston, btw

[mizubyte]

LOL oh god, so we are the OPPOSITE. Because I grew up in New England, but my parents are from Jersey, so I have a weird mix of accents. Add to the fact that I had five years of speech therapy to correct a lisp while living in Philadelphia, and my accent is just fucked six ways to Sunday.

I answered quite a few of the questions the same as C, but for different reasons. (Also, I don't care what she says, they DO sound different, and I can feel the difference when I'm saying them, whether or not crazy Oz girl can hear the difference)