Can you identify these accents?
This topic is only slightly relevant to Diana Gabaldon's books, but I couldn't resist sharing it.
What accent is this?
This is a little quiz to see if you can identify accents from different parts of the world. You watch a brief video clip of each person reciting two lines from a Rudyard Kipling poem, and then try to guess where they're from based on their accent. (Thanks to Janet McConnaughey at Compuserve for mentioning it, and inspiring me to track down the link.)
Give it a try and let us know how you did. My score was a pretty dismal 22 points. It's very hard for me, as an American, to distinguish between, say, Australian and New Zealand accents, or German and Austrian.
Listen closely to the various English and Scots accents. I got most of those wrong, but maybe you'll do better. From the reference in FIERY CROSS, I always assumed that Glaswegian accents were incomprehensible...but in this quiz that was one I got right, oddly enough.
I can't help thinking that Claire would be good at this. <g> From her encounter with Jack Randall in OUTLANDER (Chapter 12, "The Garrison Commander") where he tests her on identifying accents, she seems to have a pretty good ear for the nuances of the way people speak.
Have fun!
What accent is this?
This is a little quiz to see if you can identify accents from different parts of the world. You watch a brief video clip of each person reciting two lines from a Rudyard Kipling poem, and then try to guess where they're from based on their accent. (Thanks to Janet McConnaughey at Compuserve for mentioning it, and inspiring me to track down the link.)
Give it a try and let us know how you did. My score was a pretty dismal 22 points. It's very hard for me, as an American, to distinguish between, say, Australian and New Zealand accents, or German and Austrian.
Listen closely to the various English and Scots accents. I got most of those wrong, but maybe you'll do better. From the reference in FIERY CROSS, I always assumed that Glaswegian accents were incomprehensible...but in this quiz that was one I got right, oddly enough.
I can't help thinking that Claire would be good at this. <g> From her encounter with Jack Randall in OUTLANDER (Chapter 12, "The Garrison Commander") where he tests her on identifying accents, she seems to have a pretty good ear for the nuances of the way people speak.
Have fun!
I played and got a 31 -- I was able to discern the NZ and Aussie accents simply because I have a couple friends from those parts, but the one that had me completely bamboozled was the person from Chicago, IL!!!!! Now that's bad. I think I'll just stay in bed today......
Midge : {
My parents grew up in Chicago. I know what a Chicago accent sounds like, believe me! And whatever that was, it wasn't a "typical" Chicago accent, IMHO. (Needless to say, I got it wrong too <g>.)
Karen
As far as the rest, I had difficulty discerning any major differences. I guess I need to travel more!
Diane
Travelling doesn't really help you much to distinguish either foreign languages or native speaking languages with the accuracy needed in this test.
You need to have longer contacts. But maybe I think so as I didn't do so well [s].