Can you distinguish accents?

[Rom2006]

Can you recognize accents? Here (http://207.210.65.247/hosting/rom/12.wav) is a wave file of someone speaking. Which state or province do you think they come from?

[super]

hey! who recorded me with out asking!? :-P

jus kidding. but it does sound like a fellow torontonian.

[aysiu]

I'm an ignorant American. I can't tell the difference between a Canadian and an American until I hear the word sorry. I can't tell the difference between an Australian and a Kiwi. Sometimes I can't distinguish between the Scottish and the Irish.

[Muhammad]

I can distinguish between all kinds of Arabic accents. :razz:

[az]

Can you recognize accents? Here (http://207.210.65.247/hosting/rom/12.wav) is a wave file of someone speaking. Which state or province do you think they come from?

What do we win if we figure it out?

The man speaking is a was born in Vancouver, but grew up and was schooled in Ottawa. After graduating from university with a major in political science and a minor in education, he moved to Kansas and now works for the U.S. department of education reading storybooks to tape for classroom dictation.


Am I close?

[Rom2006]

Am I close?
The speaker lived in the same area all his life.

[matthew]

Fun game. I'm guessing the wav is from this site: http://accent.gmu.edu/
I didn't cheat by testing every male reading the script to compare to this one so I'm not completely sure where this man is from, however I am going to guess Toronto.

[matthew]

I can distinguish between all kinds of Arabic accents. :razz:
mabrouk! <grin> I can do a few, but I am certain my ear isn't nearly as good as yours for Arabic.

[kleeman]

I I can't tell the difference between an Australian and a Kiwi. .

Good grief man there are at least suxty sux differences in the accent

[Rom2006]

Fun game. I'm guessing the wav is from this site: http://accent.gmu.edu/
I didn't cheat by testing every male reading the script
It's not on that site :D so you won't find it there, but yes, they used the same script.

[matthew]

It's not on that site :D so you won't find it there, but yes, they used the same script.
Okay, my next guess is that it is a non-native English speaker who has tried very hard to have a North American accent. That said, I can't narrow it down any further. :)

[Rom2006]

Okay, my next guess is that it is a non-native English speaker who has tried very hard to have a North American accent. That said, I can't narrow it down any further. :)
No, it is a native speaker.

[weasel fierce]

Speaking of accents, its sort of funny. Im Danish, but my accent isnt all that distinctive. I usually have fun talking to people at work, and seeing how long it takes, before they ask me where Im from :)

Im in the US btw

[Rom2006]

Speaking of accents, its sort of funny. Im Danish, but my accent isnt all that distinctive. I usually have fun talking to people at work, and seeing how long it takes, before they ask me where Im from :)

Im in the US btw
Interesting. I bet that's because the sound structure of Danish is so similar to English, with the short 'i' sound, and the soft d/th sound.

[skoal]

I know what my Finnish overlord master sounds like. It's this guy (http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/torvalds-says-linux.mp3)!

\\//_

[xequence]

Trick question! It isnt an accent. Its normal english. It could be someone from any province...

[tseliot]

Trick question! It isnt an accent. Its normal english. It could be someone from any province...
What's normal English???
I think it's a speaker who lives in North America but I can't tell where. It couldn't be British or Irish (etc.) or Australian (these ones are the only accents I know and I'm Italian).

However North America is incredibly BIG and I can't distinguish the accents of the different states (I've never been there and I don't know the names of every single state in the US and Canada).

[matthew]

What's normal English???
Great question.

I'll add to your observation a bit. I am an American and have traveled to about 30 of the 50 states, most of Europe, bits of Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. I've heard a lot of different English accents. Going with the OP's statement that this is not a person who has learned to speak in a way foreign to the local area in which he grew up (therefore this isn't a trick question) I believe we can continue to eliminate some areas.

I agree with tseliot that the speaker is not from Britain, Ireland or Australia. I am going to add I don't think he is from New Zealand either (an area which does have an accent very distinct from Australia once you have spent time with both). Neither do i believe he is from anywhere outside of North America.

Now, in the United States I believe we can eliminate most of the Southern/Southeastern states from Texas to Florida up to Tennessee, Kentucky and the Carolinas. I don't think he is from the Virginias either. I also think it is safe to eliminate the New England states in the Northeast. He doesn't have a specific ethnic heritage sounding influence at all so I believe we can safely eliminate a first generation immigrant as well as areas that tend to have a strong German/Norwegian holdover accent like the Wisconsin/Minnesota/Dakotas area or French Canadian provences. The accent is a little too clean for me to think it is from the Midwestern U.S.

So...all that said, I'll go back to my original guess of Toronto and add maybe Vancouver or possibly one of the states in the Western US. My third-tier option would be Michigan/Illinois/Indiana area, but I really don't think that is likely.

[gord]

try living in england, every town has its own accent and it varys widly from county to county. you'd never of thought that so many accents could grow in such a small place

[Mgcross]

Can you recognize accents? Here (http://207.210.65.247/hosting/rom/12.wav) is a wave file of someone speaking. Which state or province do you think they come from?

This is really quite difficult...it really depends on the individual in question. I'm from Nova Scotia, lived there for my whole life until the age of 19, at which point I moved to Vancouver. People were always surprised when they found out I came from the East, as I have a very neutral accent. Some of the people in my hometown, whom I went to school with from P-12 had a very Maritime accent, which is hard for me to describe. My God, now that I think about it, even in small Nova Scotia, you can find at least 4 different accents, the most amusing being a Cape Breton accent - sounds like a British accent mixed with Newfoundland, and stirred with an Irish spoon.


I'll guess....um......Halifax, NS.

[Kapre]

it was fun listening to it. But since I just migrated to Canada just a couple of years ago, I would say (from my experience listening/talking to all our customers from different regions of Canada) it is from Vancouver.

K

[Rom2006]

A