Dialect quiz

[Ban my account ffs!]

Apparently some of the things that made me particularly regional (MN/ND)

I have no idea what drive thru liquor stores are and am flabbergasted that they exist.

I don't know what those bugs are called that you touch and they curl up.  I've never seen one.

I insist that a freeway is a limited controlled access highway with no intersections or traffic lights.  A highway can have at grade intersections and traffic lights.  And there should be no trouble calling it a freeway because it SHOULD BE FREE.

The strip between the road and the sidewalk, where you plant street trees, doesn't really have a name.  Maybe the "tree strip" or "tree yard".  A strip down the middle is probably a boulevard if it's done up or just the median if they just mow it once a month.

The little shrimpy looking things that hide under your boat pulled up to shore are "crayfish" and are only referred to as "crawdads" when you are visiting Louisiana and are preparing to eat some.

You drink from a drinking fountain... though water fountain wouldn't be unheard of.

Caramel is a two syllable word... always.  You struggle to call it a "caramello".

Pop is pop.  It's what you drink.  If you wanna be super local you might call it "soooo-dee pahp"

"Jimminy Cricket" is a curse phrase, replacing the uncouth "Jesus Christ!"

Also, while I always use "you guys", there are people here that use "yous" or even "yous guys" to refer to multiple people, as in "yous have a nice night now".  (of course you'd respond immediately with a smile and "thank you.  You too now!"  If it's close to Christmas like now, you might throw in "yous have a merry one now"  (now is apparently vital in these cases in case you might be thinking of another day or next year or something)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yep!  People talk like their peers, not like their parents; just look at the children of immigrants, or, in all probability, every single person who responds here (e.g., I look like a Minnesotan and not like a Michigander).

This is not actually true of everybody...

[Ban my account ffs!]

Luckily Hash explained it to me so I was able to capture it.

I had to retake the quiz with slightly different questions.  Just more MN centric than before.  But same general trend.

[Frodo]

I couldn't reproduce the map here, but basically it showed I have a coastal southern dialect (Florida and the Mid-Atlantic especially) with some Pacific Northwest influence mixed in.  


Make of it what you will.  

[Flake]

Louisiana looks about as red as Miles avatar.

[Ban my account ffs!]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL8ovinmeC8

that guy sounds more feminine than me but his accent is pretty much the same.

[Redalgo]

Snowguy's map was almost exactly the same as mine - I seemed to have a little more red shift in parts of the the Pacific Northwest east of the Cascades and a bit of yellow where his blues were lightest in the South. In terms of phrases, I use "interstate" instead of "freeway," and call the little gray insect he was asked about the "sow bug."

[Hatman 🍁]

I got Washington state.

I suppose this makes sense. Once you cross the border here, the accents change big time. But I guess the divide is less between BC and WA (English Canadian accent is pretty homegenous west of Quebec).

[Deus Naturae]

Most similar:
Boston, MA
Providence, RI
Springfield, CT

Least similar:
Akron, OH
Pittsburgh, PA
Cleveland, OH

[bedstuy]

Most similar:
New York, NY
Paterson, NJ
Yonkers, NY

Least similar:
Akron, OH
Toledo, OH
Fort Wayne, IN

It's weird because I don't think of myself as possessing much of a New York accent.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Most:
Springfield, MA
Jackson, MS
Baton Rouge, LA

Least:
Toledo, OH
Milkwaukee, WI
Detroit, MI

[kcguy]

I'm impressed that this one got things right.  The last one I took said I was from NYC.



Top cities:  Saint Louis, Overland Park, Kansas City
Bottom cities:  Worcester, Boston, Springfield MA

[Donerail]

Taking it three times for accuracy.

First run-through, I got Tallahassee, OK City, and Augusta-Richmond, because I use y'all and pronoun the first syllable of lawyer to rhyme with flaw. Least similar were Providence, Detroit, and Worcester, because I pronounce aunt like ant and say cot like caught.

Second, I got Jackson, Tallahassee, and Jacksonville, for frontage roads, medians, and sunshowers, respectively. Least similar were the same, except Philly instead of Detroit (because I say sub).

Third, Tallahassee, Orlando, and Jacksonville, for medians and sunshowers. Least similar were Detroit, Providence, and New Orleans.

[ilikeverin]

Yep!  People talk like their peers, not like their parents; just look at the children of immigrants, or, in all probability, every single person who responds here (e.g., I look like a Minnesotan and not like a Michigander).

This is not actually true of everybody...

Well, I suppose a better way to say it is that people talk like who they would like to be their peers.  And, of course, sometimes one's peers sound like one's parents, and so one comes to talk like one's parents through one's peers.  That better?

[Talleyrand]

Most Similar

(I actually live in Houston, so maybe this test is fairly accurate). Baton Rouge and Brownsville aren't too far away either.

Distinctive answers-
1) Houston- feeder road
2) Baton Rouge- 18-wheeler
3) Brownsville- 18-wheeler



Least Similar

1) Springfield
2) Providence
3) Worcester

Distinctive answers-
All 3- I pronounce aunt like "ant", not "ahnt" as is more common in these areas, I suppose.

[Alcon]

Nailed it

Top 3:

1. Seattle, WA
2. Spokane, WA
3. Tacoma, WA

Bottom 3:

1. Philadelphia, PA
2. Providence, RI
3. Jersey City, NJ

[rejectamenta]

Most similar:

1. Philadelphia
2. Newark/Patterson
3. Yonkers

Least similar:

1. Lubbock
2. Amarillo
3. Minneapolis

Seems like Duluth is the darkest shade of blue, but I guess that city isn't included for the most/least similar lists.

[Aliens]

Most similar:
Aurora, IL
Rockford, IL
Chicago, IL

Least similar:
Providence, RI
Boston, MA
Worcester, MA

[Pessimistic Antineutrino]

I found this quiz and thought this might make a fun topic, especially with maps. Take it.

My results:
nyti.ms/1jvVuWn


Top Cities: Fresno, Phoenix, Mesa/Tempe
Bottom Cities: Jersey City, Newark/Paterson, Philadelphia

Despite living within an hour of all of the bottom cities, this exact result. Probably the opposite of what I expected, honestly.

[ilikeverin]

I found this quiz and thought this might make a fun topic, especially with maps. Take it.

My results:
nyti.ms/1jvVuWn


Top Cities: Fresno, Phoenix, Mesa/Tempe
Bottom Cities: Jersey City, Newark/Paterson, Philadelphia

Despite living within an hour of all of the bottom cities, this exact result. Probably the opposite of what I expected, honestly.

You probably didn't refresh the link so that you could get a different result.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Most similar:

Springfield, MA
Boston, MA
Worcester, MA

('Rotary' was my most distinctive answer for all three.)

My red area was basically just New England and the northeastern half or so of upstate New York--the Taconics, the Capital Region, Central New York, the North Country, that general area--with an especially dark splotch in Western Massachusetts bleeding into Southern Vermont and north-central Connecticut, which is entirely accurate. There was orange in the rest of Northeast, which also makes sense because I spent part of my later childhood in South Jersey (although South Jersey is actually a lighter yellow than North Jersey and most of Pennsylvania for some reason), and some in Florida and Minnesota, in the latter case bleeding into North Dakota. The Far West, including Alaska and Hawaii, was varying concentrations of yellow and light orange with some pale blues, as was the Upper Midwest (including the Dakotas) west of Lake Michigan but not east of it. The Lower Peninsula of Michigan, the Lower Midwest, the southern part of the Great Plains, and most of the South were blue, with the very darkest blue in Louisiana.

Least similar:

New Orleans, LA
Baton Rouge, LA
Detroit, MI

I took it a few times and Springfield is always the number one most similar but the places of Boston and Worcester switch around. New Orleans is always among the least similar. Jackson and Shreveport have also been among the least similar.

EDIT: Figured out how to link to my map:

http://nyti.ms/1l8jKJp

[H. Ross Peron]

Top three:
1. Fresno
2. Long Beach
3. Glendale

Bottom three:
1. Toledo
2. Fort Wayne
3. Rockford

http://nyti.ms/1l8idmO

[muon2]

Most Similar:
Minneapolis/St Paul (lived there from age 10-21)
Des Moines (lived there from age 8-10)
Rockford, IL (I work less than an hour away)

[bgwah]

Top 3:
Spokane
Boise
Seattle

Bottom 3:
New Orleans
Philadelphia
Newark / Paterson

[Ban my account ffs!]

Most similar:

1. Philadelphia
2. Newark/Patterson
3. Yonkers

Least similar:

1. Lubbock
2. Amarillo
3. Minneapolis

Seems like Duluth is the darkest shade of blue, but I guess that city isn't included for the most/least similar lists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1X729HPZhI

Duluth accent