This is supposed to determine what part of the U.S. you're from. Of course, if you're not from the U.S., there isn't much of a point in bothering with it. In general, I found it accurate. It was off several hundred miles for me. But for most of the people around me who took it, it seemed fairly accurate. This included someone who has lived half her life in the Southwest and the latter half in the Northwest. It accurately determined that her original dialect was from Texas. You'd certainly never know if from listening to her speak, though. Yet, this is all based on the written language and terms various regions of the U.S. use which may be unique, etc. If you want to take it, you'll see what I mean. Response times may be slow due to so many people taking this right now. If you want to, you can take it several times. Because there are several versions of it. By doing this, it ended up correctly determining that I displayed some Louisiana dialect characteristics. I'm not from there, but did live there a number of years.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0
When I took it, it placed me around Rockford, IL and Madison, WI. Growing up in the NW suburbs of Chicago, it was pretty close. One word that I think locks me into the region is crayfish. Rather than crawfish or crawdads, crayfish seems to be used in a very narrow region of the country.
Put me in Newark, NJ - right where I grew up.
It has determined I'm from another Planet :sad:
Interesting, it says I`m from 6 places I have never lived, I took it twice and got Alaska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 2 California and Utah. I have been in Colorado all my life. I have visited California a couple times but that is it.
Quote from: pilgrim9 on December 25, 2013, 01:16:45 PM
Interesting, it says I`m from 3 places I have never been near
I took it several times, like I said. It always places me hundreds of miles south of where I am. There are variations on each quiz. Still, it wasn't too far off. Also, it did seem accurate for the other friends and relatives who took it.
My three cities were Jackson, Birmingham and Newark/Patterson. Huh? I did live in the Jackson area briefly and did have family from Mississippi and Alabama, maybe that explains some of it, but I've never even been to New Jersey.
In my (very local) dialect......
P = Bodily function
J = 1970's term for marijuana ciggy
Fender = Part of Subaru
The quiz actually put me in a triangle between Reno,NV., Salt Lake City, UT. and Tempe,AZ. ???
I visited SLC once in 1983.
I live in Austin and it shows Ft. Worth, OK City and Tulsa.
Quote from: Dave W on December 25, 2013, 01:58:28 PM
My three cities were Jackson, Birmingham and Newark/Patterson. Huh? I did live in the Jackson area briefly and did have family from Mississippi and Alabama, maybe that explains some of it, but I've never even been to New Jersey.
I've read about 40 responses to this, including one from another board that I've just found. Your results were very unusual. You must be one of those people who speaks some kind of blend of American English. I've encountered a few people like that before. It's often people, of course, who have traveled a lot (although not always.)
Pegged me for Cincinnati, Louisville or Lexington...
I'd say it's fairly accurate with regard to me.
"Sneakers" put me in NYC, Yonkers or Newark. I left Brooklyn when I was 5, Long Island at 10.
Took it twice. First time was Houston, Jackson Mississippi and Shreevport, La. The second time has me with Houston, Dallas and Shreevport. Pretty dang close as I grew up in Houston.
Oddly enough the word "Coke" for all carbonated beverages moved me way west when I know for a fact that this very much a Texas/South thing.
"Feeder" road for the service road of a freeway nails me to Houston. Oddly enough other words I picked up moved me around the map - I call traffic circles rotaries because I first saw one in New England, where I spent many, many weeks working over several years. Of course in Boston it was pronounce "RAWtries" ;D
Spokane, Boise and Salt Lake city....right on target for the Pacific NW.
Quote from: ack1961 on December 25, 2013, 10:37:53 AM
Put me in Newark, NJ - right where I grew up.
Same here. I think the ones that pegged me were "Mischief Nite" & "sneakers".
Quote from: FrankieTbird on December 25, 2013, 08:21:10 PM
Same here. I think the ones that pegged me were "Mischief Nite" & "sneakers".
yup...dead give-aways.
Here's one thing I've learned in my many years: if you say "crawdad" or "pop", you ain't from anywhere near Newark.
It says I am from Baton Rouge, New Orleans or NY. You know where I am from, but in these cities there is a lot of Italian and French.
Quote from: tore00 on December 26, 2013, 01:37:36 AM
It says I am from Baton Rouge, New Orleans or NY. You know where I am from, but in these cities there is a lot of Italian and French.
New Orleans was the number 2 destination for Italian immigrants after NYC in the early 20th Century.
Quote from: tore00 on December 26, 2013, 01:37:36 AM
It says I am from Baton Rouge, New Orleans or NY. You know where I am from, but in these cities there is a lot of Italian and French.
It's an approximation. I think they only have hard data from select cities. In my case, it shows my cities as Birmingham, Jackson, and Baton Rouge. Although I'm not from any of them, I'm close enough and have lived in or near all of them.
Quote from: dadagoboi on December 26, 2013, 04:50:54 AM
New Orleans was the number 2 destination for Italian immigrants after NYC in the early 20th Century.
I lived there for years and the Italian influence is all over the place, much more than I was expecting.
Also in my case I can say that it is correct!
New York, Jersey or Yonkers... I guess that's one of the closest places to London... ;)
Had me right on the money in Michigan.
Right
Quote from: CAR-54 on December 26, 2013, 05:55:58 AM
New York, Jersey or Yonkers... I guess that's one of the closest places to London... ;)
Obviously, a person from outside the U.S. is likely to identify with that form of American English most prominent in movies, television, the media, etc. A Dutch friend scored as being from California. That's no surprise since she told me long ago that her English was mostly acquired from a deliberate attempt to imitate American movies and TV. Essentially, she knows Hollywood English (although that's not a real term and I'm just making it up right now.) However, her American accent is so authentic that almost everyone she encounters in the U.S. thinks she is American and many people in Ireland also thought that when she lived there. She has even corrected me a few times when I lapse into a regional tendency to sometimes accent words on the first syllable when it should be on the second one. For instance, "umbrella," "insurance," etc.
Another feature of this quiz is that is also tells a person the type of American English which is the most different from his. Massachusetts English is the most unlike what I speak.
If I was American, my choises would be Portland/Vancouver, Boston or Providence. OTOH if I was an American things would be different, like I would know what the heck is a drive-through liquor store...
Quote from: exiledarchangel on December 26, 2013, 08:05:29 AM
If I was American, my choises would be Portland/Vancouver, Boston or Providence. OTOH if I was an American things would be different, like I would know what the heck is a drive-through liquor store...
Like drive thru fast food only drunker. I doubt you'd find them in the places you mention. Louisiana and parts of Florida, yes.
I would like to emphasize that this can be a fun quiz, but it's really basic. I like it and have probably wasted time on it taking the different versions, though. One thing I just tried out of curiosity is to put a secondary response on purpose. In other words, I put drinking fountain instead of water fountain, tractor-trailer instead of 18 wheeler, access road instead of service road. These secondary responses are words I might say sometimes, but not always. So, they would be authentic. However, when I did it this way, my results came out as New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and New York. I've never even been to New York, although many people do comment on the fact that the New Orleans accent sounds similar to the New York one.
Kitty-Corner apparently located me correctly in the Minneapolis/St Paul area............ Pop put me fairly close.
Quote from: Grog on December 26, 2013, 08:51:06 AM
Kitty-Corner apparently located me correctly in the Minneapolis/St Paul area............ Pop put me fairly close.
I grew up in Houston, and we said kitty-corner. But pop is a northern thing. We called it soda water -- that may not still be true, but it was when I was growing up. Calling all soft drinks coke was a deep south thing.
This doesn't account for all sorts of regionalisms. Eau Claire is just 90 miles away, but people there have thrift sales. Not garage sales. Back when I first moved here, a lot of people called rubber bands "rubber binders" -- not so much anymore. Go to Milwaukee and you can drink out of a bubbler, not a water fountain. And so it goes.
Mine was just how I speak and what I know from here, not from what I may have picked up, as in ignoring drive thru booze... that must be the NYLon thing...
Quote from: CAR-54 on December 26, 2013, 02:35:42 PM
Mine was just how I speak and what I know from here, not from what I may have picked up, as in ignoring drive thru booze... that must be the NYLon thing...
There is also the conscious effort going on among some people to use British terms in American English. These articles get into some of the specifics.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19670686
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19929249
Quote from: gweimer on December 25, 2013, 10:30:43 AM
When I took it, it placed me around Rockford, IL and Madison, WI. Growing up in the NW suburbs of Chicago, it was pretty close. One word that I think locks me into the region is crayfish. Rather than crawfish or crawdads, crayfish seems to be used in a very narrow region of the country.
I put me in Rockford, Madison, and Aurora. Born in Chicago, but I did spend a lot of time in Aurora. But having lived in Ohio for quite some time I refer to a drive-through liquor (beer and wine) store as drive-through.
And it was crayfish in the creek.
A little more info about the dialect quiz which I just happened to find.
http://boingboing.net/2013/12/24/what-we-can-learn-from-dialect.html
Edit:
By the way, among other things, this addresses the issue of how someone might test as being from a city he might not have ever even been to.
Quote from: Dave W on December 26, 2013, 11:53:14 AM
I grew up in Houston, and we said kitty-corner. But pop is a northern thing. We called it soda water -- that may not still be true, but it was when I was growing up. Calling all soft drinks coke was a deep south thing.
"Pop" is pretty specific , even in the north. Only a handful of places, including Michigan where I'm from, use that term. As the world becomes a smaller place, these regional things are becoming less and less. I find myself using the term "soda" more often these days.
Rick
I grew up saying "pop" but since I was born in Iowa I'm not surprised to hear that it may belong to the upper midwest.
They nailed me... I was raised on Long Island (NY) by ex-Californians
What do you mean not everybody says "sneakers"??
I remember being baffled as a kid that every time we left the state nobody knew what a "hero" was.