Can You Tell Where A Person's From Just By Reading Their Posts?

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I guess the majority of you guys are from US/UK and if not, somewhere in the english speaking western world. But is it possible to analyse the subtle nuances in someone's 'posting tone', their grammatical fluency, or use of colloquialisms to thus deduce where the poster comes from? Personally, when i read a post i hear it in my head (abstract concept alert) and i usually make a decsision about whether or not i'm listening to a British english speaker or an american english speaker. It could be a fun game, but i suspect you all know each other anyway...

― Sans Fah, Tuesday, 15 October 2002 15:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Tone and colloquialisms can tell a lot, but a better clue is whether the writer uses British versus American spellings.

Bear in mind that ILX has a fair number of Canadians, which oculd make your game more challenging.

― j.lu (j.lu), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 15:43 (twenty-three years ago)

For a long time I thought Martin Skidmore was American, I'm not sure why though.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 15:50 (twenty-three years ago)

The weird ones are English.

― Nick A., Tuesday, 15 October 2002 15:52 (twenty-three years ago)

yep

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 15:58 (twenty-three years ago)

there's not many non-anglosaxons here, i guess.
you can probably tell by the spelling.

― joan vich (joan vich), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 17:02 (twenty-three years ago)

i thot u guyz were all from my town! imma go smoke a spliff n hit the waves dude!

― chaki (chaki), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 17:46 (twenty-three years ago)

i thot u guyz were all from my town!

Nar.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 17:49 (twenty-three years ago)

There's a mighty New Zealand contingent too.

I'm not sure whether to be flattered or insulted, Tracer, so I'll settle on neither.

I think some people are obvious (it's hard to see how someone could be more obviously English than my friend Tim B without having actually been written by P.G. Wodehouse), but it rarely matters until the FAPs come up.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 17:50 (twenty-three years ago)

i think chaki is from mars

― boxcubed (boxcubed), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 17:51 (twenty-three years ago)

when i read my own posts i think i'm from minsk via that place in deliverance

― jones (actual), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 17:54 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm from England.

― mr lovepants, Tuesday, 15 October 2002 18:25 (twenty-three years ago)

did you know that people don't use capitals in athens georgia!!???

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 18:28 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah we do!

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 19:24 (twenty-three years ago)

When I read people's posts, I mentally assign accents to them according to where I think they are from. Does anyone else do that, or am I just very weird?

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 20:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I hope no one's assigning me a New York accent!

― Jody Beth Rosen, Tuesday, 15 October 2002 20:22 (twenty-three years ago)

i assign accents too cj, and as i read i imagine the persons voice with that accent.

― donna (donna), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 20:24 (twenty-three years ago)

I treat every person here like a character in a DeLillo novel -- you all talk the same.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 20:42 (twenty-three years ago)

I read them all in female Australian voices - but not quite my voice.

― toraneko (toraneko), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 02:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Some people have got plenty of Englanderisms. Usually if the spelling is correct and there is good grammar I figure they are from the UK.

― A Nairn (moretap), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 02:42 (twenty-three years ago)

I assume everyone is a computer program & speaks with one of those synthesized voices.

― Ess Kay (esskay), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 03:14 (twenty-three years ago)

i picture what people are wearing, and what their computer looks like in their room, and what the weather's like outside their window.

i lived in england for a long time, and now australia - and the contrasts between these 2 places and how my lifestyle is different + timezones etc - that's what i picture when all of you are writing - like, what's it like there right now???

i thought nabisco was english though, so i had him placed in the wrong environment totally!! sorry!!

― jayne (jayne), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 03:25 (twenty-three years ago)

After meeting Ned, everyone on ILx now sounds like Ned. Except Andrew.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 03:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Usually if the spelling is correct and there is good grammar I figure they are from the UK.

Oh no! Surely the american contingent doesn't spell all THAT badly!! ;- )

― lyra (lyra), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 03:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Only English people would ever use the word "whilst".

― Miss Laura, Wednesday, 16 October 2002 07:17 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm Scottish and I use the word whilst frequently.
nah!

― Plinky (Plinky), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 07:26 (twenty-three years ago)

i'm gonna screw this theory by saying yo in all my british-penned posts, yo.

― g-kit (g-kit), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 08:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Spelling and grammar - you've obviously never reaqd my posts then.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 08:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I think I may have used "whilst", but I am sort of sad that way.

I don't really make assumptions about where people are from most of the time.

― Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 09:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Whilst sometimes when reading long tracts from people I know better in other online places I assign (innacurate) accents. But a lot of stuff here is only about 2 sentences, which is too long for my mind to get into the swing of that sort of thing. Y'all.

― Sofa King Alternative (Sofa King Alternative), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 13:39 (twenty-three years ago)

After meeting Ned, everyone on ILx now sounds like Ned.

Good, good, the Nediverse continues its expansion as per the plan.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 15:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes Toraneko, I sound exactly like an Australian woman. Stick with that accent. (It will at least sound better than my actual accent.)

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 17:48 (twenty-three years ago)

I imagine you sounding a bit like Fred Wedlock, Martin.

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 18:09 (twenty-three years ago)

I assumed CJ was from the Wirral, but apparently she is Welsh.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 18:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Welsh by parentage, Nick. Not from the Wirral - in fact never even been there although got close for a while as went to Uni in Manchester. Born in Bahrain. Went to school in Cheltenham, but now live in Oxfordshire (after several years in Australia and Far East). So, not nomadic at all.

God knows what I sound like though. Just ordinary, really.

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 18:23 (twenty-three years ago)

That's not so very far out, CJ, in that I have a very similar accent. But I'd rather everyone thought I sounded like Kylie.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 19:54 (twenty-three years ago)

I now have a mental image of Martin in the "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" video.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 20:04 (twenty-three years ago)

My bum is just like Kylie's too, obviously.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 20:06 (twenty-three years ago)

You do know that she's only six inches tall, don't you?

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 20:10 (twenty-three years ago)

I am quite short myself, CJ. The similarities really are huge!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 20:15 (twenty-three years ago)

More Oxfordshire people, eh? Maybe that Oxford FAP wasn't such a bad idea. Although if I could get home from Oxford then I could get home from London anyway. Yes, I should learn to drive like everyone else I know did five years ago, but it scares me.

I wonder if CJ's accent is anything like mine, since I've lived in Oxfordshire for most of my life now (sigh) but my father always teases me and my mother for having Gloucestershire accents. I think that's only actually true of my mother, since I've never lived there, but most of the places people decide my accent is from are places I've never lived in either.

― Rebecca (reb), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 21:08 (twenty-three years ago)

I am fascinated by people's accents, Rebecca, and I'm pretty good at guessing where people are from. I don't think I have any discernible accent, because I have travelled quite a lot and I'm sure I have picked up local inflections and colloquiallisms wherever I have been. I don't think I sound very Oxfordshire - at least, I don't go round calling everyone 'my duck'!!

Several of us on another message board recently phoned each other up to resolve this question of 'what do you sound like' and I was told I sounded rather posh, with a typical English public school accent - one guy said he thought I sounded like Charlotte Rampling in black leather, but I think he was just playing out some private fantasy :)

― C J (C J), Thursday, 17 October 2002 04:46 (twenty-two years ago)

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