readingthedark

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The South
The Northeast
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have?

Ok, born in NYC, dragged into Upstate redneck boondocks within a year or two. As soon as I could muster my own chaos, I started going back to NYC as a cultural touchstone. I don't have the accent of all the kids I grew up with and I would commit hari kari if I did. I don't sound like a NY-er either. (Somewhat like a Southern accent or the generic U. S. Military one, with a bit more mumble and redneck slowness.)

I vowed I wouldn't have an accent by fourteen at the latest. Time spent in radio and such have given me an obnoxious radio voice (when needed) and, oh I hope, no accent. It would ache to know that I talked like the people who used to beat me up for being the creepy goth kid.

Note: I can lapse into the Upstate NY drawl as an attempt to prevent being beaten up, but that can't count. Anyone who doesn't learn to mimic their captors is choosing extra pain.

None of this may be valid. I'm typing fast. But I've heard that accents are hard to lose when someone identifies with being from where the accent comes from. This would imply that I'm the opposite. I was raised in a farmtown and I didn't want to be a part of it. One of my many bits of rebellion was to make sure I don't sound like them.

Now for the freakiest twist: I like going back there. It's a wild luxury to be from a town so small that everyone knows everyone and you live in the proverbial fishbowl. It's unreplicatable. So I miss it, now, as an adult, in a way I never thought I would. It's pleasant to duck into a grocery store and ponder how you've known everyone for decades. People you haven't seen in ten years say hello and your name as they duck by.

(inspired by