Accent Analyzing

I was close, you sounded too Canadian/Valley Girl for a Californian ;)
So, it's PA ;) Welcome to the forum :) Lauren. Is it l/A/ren or l/Q/ren?
I think I've heard both pronunciations of that name.
Does it belong to the cot/caught category or to the horrible/orange category? Does anyone know?
thanks.

I was very close and I didn't even listen to her sample until later. LOL! I should have said "Pennsylvania". Apparently that "leave" characteristic comes from German and she has that feature in her area. The Amish speak a kind of Swiss German I think. Some of them came into Alsace before they moved to the United States, I understand

Lauren,

Thank-you for explaining the "all" part. Very interesting. I listened to your sample and didn't find it unusual except for a few vowels. You have a nice, clear voice. It does sound young, but twenty-five is still young.

>>I was very close and I didn't even listen to her sample until later. LOL! I should have said "Pennsylvania". Apparently that "leave" characteristic comes from German and she has that feature in her area. The Amish speak a kind of Swiss German I think. Some of them came into Alsace before they moved to the United States, I understand<<

The Amish and Mennonites that speak languages other than English speak a range of different High German and Low German dialects, rather than any particular dialect. Take, for instance, the Plautdietsch spoken by Mennonites - it is a group of East Low German dialects rather than a High German dialect.

Milton, I'm still confused on the /A/ or /Q/.

So, perhaps you can clear that up for me? I did both sets of words and how I say my name.

http://fizleglitz.com/media/test.mp3

I uploaded a video reading the Rainbow passage to YouTube. I'm from the United States, just try to guess which State.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsRuZfsTPmM

Boston or Pittsburgh or Canada or Surfer Dude
You're CC merged with many /Q/ realizations.

None of the above places. Pittsburgh is the closest guess so far though.

Ed, you sound like a non-native who has worked VERY hard on his speech, or possibly a native that has picked up some foreign aspects in your speech. Possibly you're a second-generation X?

West Virginia or Kentucky.

Guest, I am a native speaker. The closest forigen person to me is my grandmother, who is from El Salvador. But, I don't think she would influence my speech that much.

Anyways, thanks for the info. Once a couple more people comment I will tell you where I'm from.

You have an African American accent. You could be from anywhere.

"You have an African American accent. You could be from anywhere."

Wow. That is interesting that it would come across that way. I'm just about as white as they come.

Ed, I'm from Maryland and you sound like the people here.

Okay, I'm from northern Florida. Thanks for all the guesses.