Mason and Dixon
Here's a nifty little quiz to determine if you talk like a Southerner or a Northerner. Coming from Mississippi, I wasn't surprised to score "91% Dixie". An amusing look at regional speech patterns; I'm sure Henry Higgins would love it. [via Medley]
Interestingly enough, being born and raised in Orlando, Florida I came through as 55% (Dixie). Barely into the Dixie category. I've never lived anywhere else, but I've always said Central Florida is NOT the South -- too many people from the midwest, the northeast, and elsewhere.
What's funny about it is that my mother's family are North Carolina mountain people -- hillbillies -- and I spent much time in that area growing up, and I can "assume" the speech pattern and grasp the idiom. My mother, however, had worked to remove her own accent. My father was from Wyoming, but after +30 years in Florida, sounded more Southern than I did.
I blame it all on my "auntie" Gladys -- British, lived with us a while when I was a toddler, and taught me to read.
Thanks Brennan! That was fun!