Challenge: What Does Your Voice Sound Like?

photo by Miikka Skaffari

Hey y’all! It’s time for something completely different! I found a little quiz to see how you pronounce certain words and to see if you have any regionally-specific vocabulary for certain items. I also did my own little voice recording so you can laugh at my accent:

Listen to me explain the challenge and answer the questions.

Words to pronounce:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

Questions to answer:

  • What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
  • What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
  • What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
  • What do you call gym shoes?
  • What do you say to address a group of people?
  • What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
  • What do you call your grandparents?
  • What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
  • What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
  • What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

Record Your Voice

It’s free over at vocaroo.com. All you need is a microphone. You can share your voice by pressing “Post on the internet” and copying the “vocaroo link.”

If you want to blog your version of the challenge, leave a comment with a link so I can listen! If you don’t have a blog, just record your voice and paste the link in the comments box.

 

Related Posts with Thumbnails
April 30, 2011  |  memes, questions, randomness

48 Comments

1 2
  3. Veritas
    April 30, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    Hear my carefully scripted non-regional Canadian dialect! (contains profanity)

    http://vocaroo.com/?media=vLSoaizvke7tVP2s0

    Reply
  4. MitzumiKare
    April 30, 2011 at 10:06 pm

    http://vocaroo.com/?media=vCZbisJPlaRg8tWRY

    I am older than i sound….I think. >_<

    Reply
  5. Jenny
    May 1, 2011 at 1:15 am

    Not all that different from your accent c:

    http://vocaroo.com/?media=vA6W2hDWHqEZE4ezG

    Reply
    • Jenny
      May 1, 2011 at 1:22 am

      btw, native Milwaukeeans refer to drinking fountains as “bubblers” :o

      Reply
      • Godless Girl
        May 1, 2011 at 4:57 pm

        Thanks for sharing! You definitely sound like a Wisconsinite to me! I hear it in your vowels :)

        I remember the first time I heard someone use “bubbler,” and it was hilarious to me. She also called ATMs “NYCE Machines” I think? Do you know about that?

        Reply
        • Jenny
          May 8, 2011 at 10:00 pm

          I have yet to hear someone say “NYCE Machines”, hehe.

          Some people say we have lazy vowels. I say we have awesome ones.

          Reply
  6. Kate
    May 1, 2011 at 1:52 am

    I don’t post often (ever?) on here, so hopefully I don’t ruin everything forever by doing this when I’m sleepy as hell/losing my voice… I’m not always this awkward. Either way. The challenge was too interesting to resist. :D

    http://vocaroo.com/?media=v9dT5hH6FfSNPelIv

    Reply
    • Godless Girl
      May 1, 2011 at 4:59 pm

      You have a lovely voice :) I could’ve sworn you weren’t native to the States. Words like “caught,” “coupon,” and “theater” definitely don’t sound midwestern to me. Charming :)

      Reply
  7. Sidra
    May 1, 2011 at 2:17 am

    rambling ridiculous idiocy, brought to you by three in the morning:

    http://vocaroo.com/?media=vr6Qd1CyyyxUT7r54

    Reply
    • Godless Girl
      May 1, 2011 at 5:07 pm

      Haha, did you regret posting it at 3am? Your commentary made me smile.

      Mad points for clarifying STNG’s “Data!”

      Reply
      • Sidra
        May 1, 2011 at 9:27 pm

        I had to clarify! I can’t have people thinking I pronounce Data’s name wrong because I say “dah-ta” instead of “day-ta”. Data is my one true love, I do not ever want him to think I’m like Dr. Pulaski!

        Okay, and I also have no regrets.

        Reply
  9. Dan
    May 1, 2011 at 7:40 am

    Have a UK accent :)

    Sorry about the awful quality.
    http://vocaroo.com/?media=v3kZ21dIQbFIn61pV

    Reply
    • Godless Girl
      May 1, 2011 at 5:21 pm

      I really can’t get enough of you folks from over the ocean! Such fun to listen to. I have always wanted to change my vocab for some things. I particularly like “trainers” and “trolley,” but that just won’t fly out here.

      Reply
    • Godless Girl
      May 1, 2011 at 5:23 pm

      It doesn’t sound to me like the UK has infected your accent yet! Are you trying to resist?
      I’ve never heard “sody” before. Was that something other people around you called it?

      Thanks for following my feed! I’m glad you came out of lurking mode to say hi.

      Reply
      • Ann
        May 4, 2011 at 4:16 am

        Nope, not infected by the UK, but I’ve only been here 2 months. LOL

        I’m not sure where “sody” came from. My sister said it and people in our hometown. Perhaps it’s just a hometown thing.

        Reply
  12. Christian H
    May 1, 2011 at 3:08 pm

    From small town Ontario, Canada: http://vocaroo.com/?media=vjxAZTR93BXynEwuF

    (If you’d have “either,” “neither,” “rather,” and “envelope,” you’d have heard from grandfather’s British influence. Alas, they did not appear.)

    Reply
  13. Taneli Huuskonen
    May 1, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    http://vocaroo.com/?media=vhjbBKnzbSqWhOQTT

    I’m in my late forties, and I’ve been learning English since I was 9. I’ve spent a year in Florida, a couple of months in California and another couple of months in British Columbia. Other than that, my visits abroad have been short. Occasionally I’ve been mistaken for a native speaker of English, but never for a local, as far as I know, no matter where I’ve been.

    Reply
  14. JIMocracy
    May 2, 2011 at 2:36 am

    http://vocaroo.com/?media=vBw9spJTZ7LbTYXtc

    I left Texas after graduating from high school when I joined the Army. I tried desperately to conceal my drawl (or as some call it, twang) but some people have been able to place me back to Texas when they first meet me. Dang!

    Of course sometimes I have fun with it and just go off in Texan (although I must admit my southern vocabulary is severely lacking). Without using words like ain’t and ya’ll, or phrases like “I’m fixin’ to record my voice for the whole, wide Internet”, you lose some of the effect.

    Anyhow, this seemed like a fun thing to try. I have always been fascinated with regional dialects and accents and often poll my co-workers to hear the differences. Thanks Godless Girl!!

    Reply
  15. Three Ninjas
    May 2, 2011 at 3:10 pm

    The links aren’t working for me right now and I’m not in a place where I can record my own, but I really want to!

    I desperately wish I had a New Orleans accent, but I don’t! Though Mathias/tangentbot does make fun of the way I pronounce the word “room”. ^_^

    Reply
  16. grimmlock
    May 2, 2011 at 4:01 pm

    I haven’t done it just yet, but at your mean insistence on twitter last night (https://twitter.com/#!/godlessgirl/status/64854152647409664), I’ll record one tonight. (I fell asleep while playing Portal 2, so that’s why I didn’t do it last night)

    Reply
  17. Brock
    May 2, 2011 at 7:08 pm

    Alas, I don’t have a microphone. I have a fairly neutral Ohioan/Standard American accent, though, nothing special. You should have asked “What do you call that strip of grass between the sidewalk and the road?” Akron area, it’s called the “Devil Strip” Most of NE Ohio calls it the “Tree Lawn” and most others I’ve spoken to have no idea

    Reply
  19. TheSecretAtheist
    May 23, 2011 at 9:07 pm

    I may have to do this in a bit when I’m where my working mic is. Interestingly, I pronounce “caramel” two different ways. When I worked at a coffeeshop any of our drinks with the word in the name I would pronounce CAR-mel but when describing the ingredients I would say that they had CARE-a-mel in them. I’m weird, I know.

    Reply
  21. TheSecretAtheist
    May 24, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    Ah, the southern explanation for sun showers is the DEVIL is beating his wife. All my life I have wondered why God would beat his wife if he was such a good guy. I mean, I now see that it would likely be the kind of thing he WOULD do, but back then I was confused about it.

    Reply
  22. TheSecretAtheist
    May 24, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    Ah, I re-listened to Godlessgirl’s recording and understand the gymn shoes question a little better. I think that tennis shoes are different than gym shoes, since they are for tennis. I think, are there any differences in like, basketball shoes and tennis shoes? I know there can be differences in running shoes and walking shoes and tennis shoes… I guess I tend to try to be specific rather than general in most things.

    Reply
  23. limey
    May 25, 2011 at 8:34 am

    Another English one coming up

    http://vocaroo.com/?media=vG8HcFGoIozTRn8RX

    You have The Secret Atheist to thank for sending me this way.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. I’m not dead! I don’t want to go on the cart!!! « The Secret Atheist
  2. Godless Girls Voice Challenge | The Agnostics Wife's Blog

Leave a Reply