Most Important Feature in Language Comprehension: Part I

Sounds!

Language comprehension is essentially an interpretation of the sounds we make that assigns meaning to them. When these sounds are incomprehensible or misinterpreted, it makes communication impossible. With syntax and vocabulary, the speaker and listener can use circumlocution to arrive at a common understanding. But when a listener cannot identify words from among a mass of sounds, syntax and vocabulary become secondary issues. For example, imagine an American and a Brit are having a conversation, in which they are discussing baby carriages. If the American can't tell that the Brit is saying the word "perambulator," he can't ask the Brit to explain the meaning of the word. Likewise, if a German and an American are speaking and the German is using comprehensible words in unfamiliar syntax, the American can still understand the message. But if the German's accent is so incredibly thick the American can't tell he is even speaking English, then the German's use of correct syntax is futile.

What American Accent Do I Have?

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.

It makes the most sense for me to have this accent. I've heard that the west coast is the most accent-neutral part of the US because TV and movies are filmed in California, so the rest of the US is used to hearing the "California" accent promoted as the standard way of speaking. I'm a little surprised that I didn't match up perfectly with "West Coast" accent, but this is probably because my family is Texan so I'm a little more of a mix than your average Oregonian.

I found it interesting that the quiz only asked questions about vowel pronunciation. I know that it's supposed to be the best indicator of what accent a person has, but in class Meghan used the letter to show that there are multiple ways of pronouncing it in words, like in "winter." I say "winner" 100% of the time, and I would have thought that consonant pronunciation like that would have had an effect on my supposed accent. Also, the quiz only asked about pronunciation of words they supplied, and didn't ask the participators to supply words for things - vocabulary differences can also determine where a person is from.