I got 55% general, 35% Yankee, which is about right. I was raised by a Midwesterner who made a serious effort to speak General American so as not to say "worshcloth," and a native Bostonian who said "tonic" instead of pop or soda, had a house with a "cellar" and who drank from a "wottah bubblah" which is so extremely regional it wasn't even a choice on that quiz!
Growing up in the 'burbs, living just with my mom, I had a newscaster-ish non-accent. In high school and college I started to absorb the accent of my core group of friends, which was a sub-sub-set of the typically perceived "Boston" accent (Matt Damon--but not Ben Affleck--in Good Will Hunting; everyone in The Departed), which was not Boston, but Cambridge, and not the upper-crusty, Harvard part of Cambridge, but working-class East Cambridge. ("Whatta you, crackin'?" for "Are you pulling my leg [ie, cracking a joke]?" "I gotta bust," for "I'm leaving." "Dude, man!" where "dude" is a general exclamation like "Oh!" and "man" is the person being addresed.)
Now I live in a suburb of Boston (I can see Boston from the top of my hill--about 4 miles away), with mostly middle class (half blue-collar and half white-collar) people from "somewhere else". . .and my accent has actually gotten what my mother would consider "worse" but what I consider "more pronounced," particularly when I am speaking very casually, in conversation with locals who have a strong regional accent, or when I am irritated ("Oh, fuhcrySAKE!").
I tend to absorb the accent of whoever I am talking to, or speak with unaccented American English in all but the most casual situations. I enjoy my regionalisms, but I know they can sound. . .whatever. . .to some ears, so I tend not to use them in formal settings. I specifically avoided one of the four 1st grade teachers at my son's school, because of her absolutely ludicrous local accent. . .Like my mom did with me, I'm trying to teach my kids to speak without a regional accent.
This and the UK accents thread are very interesting!
ETA: LOL. . .the other quiz definitively says, "Boston." You definitely have a Boston accent, even if you think you don't. Of course, that doesn't mean you are from the Boston area, you may also be from New Hampshire or Maine.
--jeniphir
