[ARCHIVE] Quiz: Which English do you speak?

[Deleted User 114]

This was originally posted by Lenkvist

https://archive.ph/MYgwD

Hi everyone,
I came across an interesting quiz that's being conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The quiz is part of a project to build an algorithm for recognising a person's English dialect as well as predicting her/his native language.

http://archive.gameswithwords.org/WhichEnglish/

The quiz will take roughly ten minutes to answer and afterwards you will be given three guesses about your dialect as well as three guesses about your native language. You will then be asked a few additional questions about your real language situation to further improve the system.

In my case, my dialect predictions are:
English (UK)
Australian
South African

The predictions for my native language are:
English
Russian
Dutch

The third guess is correct; my native language is Dutch. Interesting to see Russian there. If English(UK) is like English, and South African is like Dutch due to the influence of Afrikaans, does that make Australian and Russian similar?
What about you? Do the predictions meet your thoughts about your own dialect? Are there any native languages you weren't expecting?

This was originally posted by Lenkvist

[trackerwannabe]

Interesting.
At the start they state
To receive copies of journal articles or research summaries, email gameswithwords@gmail.com

I see nothing there that requires participation in the study in order to request/receive said copy. There's also this.
Contact: Click here to contact us with questions about this research.

Fascinating.

Their top three guesses for my English dialect:
1) American (Standard) [correct]
2) Singaporean [fascinating...wonder where that came from]
3) Canadian [Canada's a close neighbor so, sure]

Their top three guesses for my (first) language:
1) English
2) Norwegian
3) Swedish

#1 is correct and #s 2 & 3 are historically related to English. Really interesting.

Thanks for sharing that.

[pawndemic]

I've got an interesting result:

Our top three guesses for your English dialect:?

1. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics
2. Singaporean
3. South African

This is very strange, I have no connection at all to these countries/regions.

Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:?

1. Arabic
2. Spanish
3. German

Well, I am German and learning Spanish. It makes kind of sense. I guess a lot of Germans who didn't lived for a while abroad in an English speaking country have a good mix of English and American English.

[Stasia]

Interesting. I got:

Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

1. American (Standard)
2. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics
3. Singaporean

Number 1 is certainly correct - but 2 and 3, not so much.

Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

1. Chinese
2. Portuguese
3. Vietnamese

Wait, what??? I speak Spanish, not Portuguese, and for the two others - nope, not even close.

[trackerwannabe]

I wonder if these guesses for our native/first language could be used as a guide to languages that might be easier for us to learn next.
E.g. Might I have an easier time picking up Norwegian and Swedish than, say, Russian or Arabic (which might be easier for Jacko079 and pawndemic respectively)? Well, maybe that's not the best example. Both Russian and Arabic have non-latin scripts, and might be more challenging for me in other ways. But maybe easier than picking up Danish or Polish?

I realize that that's not the purpose of the study, but I do wonder.

[GermanApple]

Here are my results, along with some commentary........

"Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

1. American (Standard)
2. Singaporean
3. Canadian"

Number 1 is mostly correct, and I guess 3 is close, I live close to Canada. But 2 is a little weird. I've never been to Singapore, and I also don't know anyone from Singapore. But there are a large number of English speakers in Singapore, so maybe that's why?

"Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

1. English
2. Norwegian
3. Vietnamese"

Number 1 is also correct. But Norwegian and Vietnamese are a little different than what I was expecting. Yes, Norwegian is related to English, but Vietnamese is not. I'm also not learning those languages.

This test has been a little fun. My accent is a blend of an American (Standard) accent and a Southern accent. Half of my family is German, and the other half is a variety of cultures, but most of that side grew up in the South. But, I live in a very snowy area, so when I talk, people sometimes look at me like "Are you sure she's in the right area?" I don't blame them, I do have an accent, but not as strong as some of my family members.

[Sidor]

Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

1. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics
2. New Zealandish
3. South African

Interesting, because this probably means I picked up a lot of my grammar preference from media since in Thailand there is a clear bias in employment of native English speaker teachers (mostly choosing a random white person over a qualified black person). You won't believe in my university I have exactly that experience (some random white American being employed to teach English). I know this because I asked him if he needed any specific education to teach English in university and he answered 'any bachelor degree will do'. That answer just didn't sit right with me even back then. New Zealandish is somewhat understandable. In the same university I mentioned earlier, I had three native speaker teachers and I think one of them was Australian or New Zealander.

Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

1. English

2. Dutch

3. Chinese

It's a bit spooky how it mentioned Dutch because I had a Dutch stepfather (but we only talked in English at home). I dabbled in a bit of Dutch lesson on Duolingo but took a break to focus on Russian. As for Chinese... other than having roughly 1/3 of my ancestry being Chinese - nope. I can't read a single Chinese letter and even my grandma who is a Chinese immigrant spoke Thai all the time.

[IceVajal]

[mention]Sidor[/mention], I got the same result!

But I always lived in Germany, have no ancestors who aren't German for a hundred years. My English was influenced by BFBS radio when I was a teenager and later by visting friends on tour. In many cases the tour package has US-American or Scandinavian bands joining.

I started learning Dutch about 8 weeks ago, I doubt it has such a big impact.

[Sidor]

@IceVijal

Now that you mentioned it, I think my experience is similar. Growing as a pre-teen/teenager in the 90s MTV era, I listened to lots of music from Michael Jackson and Janette Jackson, along with Whitney Houston and many more African-American artists since R&B was among my favorite genres.

[IceVajal]

[mention]Sidor[/mention] I'm more into rock & heavy metal, so not much POC. But it's true, I somehow absorbed it, too, from R&B.

[Deleted User 114]

So I took the test...

Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

1. American (Standard) (Correct)
2. Canadian
3. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics

Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

1. English (Correct)
2. Norwegian
3. Dutch

I guess the algorithm did well!

[DJCat]

I took the test, here are my results

Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

Canadian - correct
American (Standard)
South African

This makes sense except the South African. I speak Western Canadian English but watch a lot of British TV so I would have thought that British English would have been the third one.

Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

English - correct
Norwegian
Romanian

Not sure where the Norwegian and Romanian come from. I grew up speaking only English and hearing Polish but I don't understand or speak it

[CaitNicRun]

Very interesting! My results:

Our top three guesses for your English dialect:?

1. Welsh (UK)
2. Irish (Republic of)
3. North Irish (UK)

This doesn't surprise me. Even though I'm American, I have English ancestry and my dialect has been a mix of American/British English since I was a teen. Add to that my study of Irish over the last decade, those English dialects sound "normal" to me.

But this:

Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:?

1. English
2. Norwegian
3. Swedish

Ceard sa diabhal?

Obviously, English makes sense, but Norwegian and Swedish? I don't know any Norwegian and the only Swedish I can think of is "fondue". If that's Swedish...

Still very interesting and entertaining. It's clearly making some reasonable guesses based on what the tester thinks sounds normal. All these people without recent African ancestry twigging as Ebonic because of their music habits is a clue.

[IceVajal]

[mention]CaitNicRun[/mention], fondue is from Switzerland as far as I know.
Swedish... Ikea?

[Dodoa]

I got

• Singaporean
• South African
• Welsh
  for dialect, and
• English
• Norwegian
• Swedish
  for native language, which are all wrong. It's German, but I feel a bit proud that it thought I could be a native speaker.
  No idea where it got it's dialect guesses from, since I think I've spoken to a Welsh person once and that's all the exposure I had to any of those dialects.

[EranBarLev]

I got:

Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

1. Australian
2. South African
3. Singaporean

Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

1. German
2. Italian
3. Romanian

I don't even speak any of these languages. My English teachers were either American or non-native English speakers. None of them was either Australian, South African or Singaporean, and I've never been to any of these countries. When I was in the US I was told that I have a New York accent, even though I've never been to NY.

[pawndemic]

I hope I will not offend anyone. But it is a litte bit suspiscious to me that many guesses have Singaporean. It doesn't seem to be the case , every time it popped up.
I don't think the guessing algorythmn is very precisely. My feeling is that it detects native english speaker well (maybe because it is easier), but in guessing the native languae it is way worse.

[CaitNicRun]

@CaitNicRun, fondue is from Switzerland as far as I know.
Swedish... Ikea?

LOL It's madder than I thought....

[IceVajal]

@CaitNicRun, fondue is from Switzerland as far as I know.
Swedish... Ikea?

LOL It's madder than I thought....

We are hear to learn and to have fun! So, goal achieved!

[Stasia]

I hope I will not offend anyone. But it is a litte bit suspiscious to me that many guesses have Singaporean. It doesn't seem to be the case , every time it popped up.
I don't think the guessing algorythmn is very precisely. My feeling is that it detects native english speaker well (maybe because it is easier), but in guessing the native languae it is way worse.

I noticed that, too! I guess an algorithm is only as good as the data you feed into it - and since we are accessing an archived website, that means the algorithm isn't learning anything anymore.

[Seiryuu]

Tried it out.

Top three guesses for English dialect:

1. American (Standard)

2. Canadian

3. Australian

I'm Canadian, but since I live pretty close to the border, consume American media, and have had some dialect training for American dialects, I can't say I'm too surprised by the algorithm's guess.

Top three guesses for native language:

1. English

2. Norwegian

3. Swedish

[ArcticKatRina]

My results:
Guessed dialect:
1) American (Standard)
2) US Black Vernacular/ Ebonics
3) Singaporean

Guessed native language:
1) Swedish
2) English
3) Norwegian

I grew up in Nome, Alaska. It was a gold-rush town around the turn of the 20th century. Historic figures include three gold miners from Sweden who struck it rich, known as the “Lucky Swedes.”
I don’t know if that has any influence on the way I speak, but it really makes me wonder. I don’t speak Swedish at all, but throughout the years, has Nome had a subtle Swedish influence I’ve never noticed before?
On the other hand, Norwegian would make more sense, since I have some Norwegian ancestry.

As for Ebonics, my best guess is that, historically, the indigenous people of northwest Alaska had a hard time adapting to English and may have had similar experiences to the African Americans. Then again, it could also be that I’ve watched enough movies and TV shows that Black Vernacular seems ordinary.
I have no idea what to make of Singaporean.

[pawndemic]

noticed that, too! I guess an algorithm is only as good as the data you feed into it - and since we are accessing an archived website, that means the algorithm isn't learning anything anymore.

Aah, is there a neuronal network behind this? Apparently I didn't pay enough attention to this detail. Well, then maybe it could be caused by the trainigsdata.

[SweNedGuy]

Singaporean pops up as first English accent, Black US vernacular (whatever that is supposed to mean) and Standard American come next.
The English speaking countries I have visited are the UK and Ireland.
Guesses for my native tongue are Greek, Romanian and Italian.
My true native tongue is Dutch. My L2 is French.

Adding vocabulary preference can tell a lot more than just some grammar testing. What about spelling testing? (Make sure there is no implicit US spelling checker active).

[Davey944676]

Gave it a whirl...

Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

1. English (England)
2. Scottish (UK)
3. Welsh (UK)
   Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:
4. English
5. Swedish
6. Hungarian

Interesting. The first section would make sense - My native city (Liverpool) is a stone's throw from Wales, and I also know lots of Scottish people. No idea where the Swedish and Hungarian fits in, though...

[bar999]

Guesses for dialect:

1. Singaporean
   2. English (England)
2. Welsh (UK)

Guesses for native language:

1. Russian
   2. Polish
2. Spanish

I've never been to Singapore and haven't spoken with a single Singaporean person so I don't know where it came from...
The second guess is correct.

My first language is Polish.
I also learn Spanish which could be the reason.
Russian is quite similar to Polish.
I'd say the algorithm worked for me.

[AelienFelis]

Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

1. Australian
2. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics
3. New Zealandish

Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

1. Polish
2. Russian
3. Hungarian

It guessed my native language perfectly.

TLDR; guesses for my English dialect are weird.

---

What the hell are those guesses for my English dialect?!
I've never even heard about number 2 (seriously, what is that? Google to the rescue, ig), I have absolutely no idea how number 3 sounds like, and as much as I've listened to number 1 (for example in movies and series), I definitely don't speak like that!
Also, I've never visited any English speaking country.
I've been learning regular (?), school English for more than 20 years, both GB (more – that's why I have that flag in my signature) and US (less), with at least 12 years of studying general English grammar and passing many exams along the way (school: A2, B1, B2 and Cambridge B2 First), so I'm pretty surprised by the outcome.
I don't watch that many movies or series, and even if I do, I usually turn on subtitles and, honestly, if there's anything irregular, different than what I've seen in my grammar textbooks, it always sounds weird and unnatural to me, so how could I speak that way...? My main contact with English are novels, and I think that editors use standard English grammar, so where would I learn something non-standard...?
Although, if I remember correctly, I think I've done this or similar quiz in the past, and I think Australian was also one of the guesses that time. Weird.

[Sofia222677]

Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

1. New Zealandish
2. Singaporean
3. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics

Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

1. Vietnamese
2. Romanian
3. German

I've never set foot in an English-speaking country. The English variety I'm exposed to the most is standard British English, with General American being a close second. I've got no clue what New Zealandish sounds like; I've recently watched a handful of videos featuring SIngaporeans, but that's about it. I know about AAVE, but I've never listened to it extensively.

As for guessing my native language, at least it got a language from the same family (Romance). I've been learning German for a couple of years, and I'm still terrible at it. No idea where they got Vietnamese from.