NYT Regional Dialect Quiz

[Grzrd]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0

It includes several road-related questions.

My probability ranking was:

1. Jackson, MS
2. Birmingham, AL
3. My home of Atlanta, GA

[bandit957]

I took this quiz, and it said the closest dialect to me was up around Wisconsin and Iowa.

[Zeffy]

1. Newark / Paterson NJ
2. Boston MA
3. Springfield MA

Giving that I've been living in Jersey for 15 years now... I'd say it's correct.

[Brandon]

I got, in the following order:

1. Detroit (Devil's Night)
2. Grand Rapids (pop)
3. Buffalo (pop)

The Mitten of Michigan is about as red as it gets on my map.

I am least similar to:

1. Knoxville (pronunciation of lawyer)
2. Chattanooga (pronunciation of lawyer)
3. Jackson, MS (you guys)

I did it via Facebook as well and got:

1. Detroit
2. Grand Rapids
3. Toledo

Makes perfect sense as I am the child of two Detroiters even though I grew up in NE Illinois, but have spent enough time going back and forth between here and SE Michigan.

[agentsteel53]

I got Boston as my #1 (correct) and my #2 and #3 were ... Phoenix and Tucson    two desert shitstains I'd love to see firebombed, especially the latter! 

I suppose my accent moved only 5/6 of the way out to California with me?

my not knowing what a drive-through liquor store is called doomed me.  I really don't remember having those in Boston growing up, but I didn't drive much during college and I didn't drink at all before then, so I didn't have much of a need to seek such a thing out.

also, I didn't know what a "frontage road" was because, again, didn't drive much until after college.  I'm sure there's a Boston term for it, but I don't know what it is.

(ps. if you refer to a liquor store as a "packy", you are definitely from New England.)

[sammi]

Okay, this is weird. I apparently speak a dialect of a place I've never been to before.

Most similar:

• Honolulu
• San Jose
• Fremont

all for firefly. Least similar:

• Philadelphia (sub)
• Louisville (garage sale)
• Jackson (you guys)

We need one with more phonetic stuff. And perhaps data from Canada.

[briantroutman]

I'm going to call B.S. on this survey. It's too easily swayed by a few red herrings.

Being a native of Pennsylvania, I answered the "what do you call a long sandwich..." question as "hoagie" (which I grew up with and may or may not use today depending on the situation and the context), and sure enough, the entire state of Pennsylvania (except Pittsburgh) is ultra red. On the other hand, I don't say "wudder", "kellers", "pitchers", or "Scran'in".

But the real joke is the survey's conclusion that my speech is closest to Phoenix, Glendale, and Tuscon because:

- I don't have a word in my vocabulary for drive-through liquor store
- I would call a road paralleling a highway a "frontage road"

If that's the evidence that I talk like Arizonans...

[Brandon]

I got Boston as my #1 (correct) and my #2 and #3 were ... Phoenix and Tucson    two desert shitstains I'd love to see firebombed, especially the latter! 

I suppose my accent moved only 5/6 of the way out to California with me?

my not knowing what a drive-through liquor store is called doomed me.  I really don't remember having those in Boston growing up, but I didn't drive much during college and I didn't drink at all before then, so I didn't have much of a need to seek such a thing out.

also, I didn't know what a "frontage road" was because, again, didn't drive much until after college.  I'm sure there's a Boston term for it, but I don't know what it is.

(ps. if you refer to a liquor store as a "packy", you are definitely from New England.)

See, I would think there are two different terms for the road paralleling a freeway.
Frontage Road: Two-way road that has no access to the freeway.
Service Drive: One-way road that the freeway ramps connect to.

A store selling liquor is a "party store".  I chose "party barn" for the drive-in variety even though I've never encountered one.  It sounds similar enough.

[sammi]

See, I would think there are two different terms for the road paralleling a freeway.
Frontage Road: Two-way road that has no access to the freeway.
Service Drive: One-way road that the freeway ramps connect to.

I use service road for both. Roads paralleling Philippine expressways are officially named e.g. South Service Road.

[agentsteel53]

I really only picked up on the concept of a "frontage road" in 2003 when I first drove in Texas.  that's what they call them there, so that's what I got stuck with.

[1995hoo]

The three it gave me are New York (for "sneakers"), Yonkers (ditto), and Durham, NC (for "yard sale"). Seems fair enough: While I've never lived in New York, my parents (and all my relatives on my side of the family) grew up in Brooklyn, so that makes sense. Durham also makes sense because I lived there three years while attending Duke Law.

Three least similar: Des Moines (for "soda"), Akron (because I have no word for the grassy area between the sidewalk and the road), and Pittsburgh (because I have no word for the night before Halloween).

I've seen a similar version of this quiz elsewhere in which it actually ranks the cities for which you are most and least similar. This version doesn't do that. I wondered whether it would be confounded because despite many of my answers not jibing with the South I do say "y'all," although it didn't quite reflect my usage because "y'all" can be used to address one person and "all y'all" to address a group. (On the other hand, you wait on line for something, say if you're waiting to purchase beer at a sporting event or if you're a cash user waiting to pay a toll.)

I have never seen a drive-through liquor store.

It did not ask me about a road paralleling a highway (I grew up referring to it as a "side street" because around here we don't generally have Texas-style frontage roads along the Interstate or similar roads) nor about the pronunciation of "lawyer" (which I would have answered, but I prefer the word "attorney"). Maybe the questions vary each time?

[briantroutman]

Maybe the questions vary each time?

Must be. I didn't get any questions about sneakers or fireflies.

The three it gave me are New York (for "sneakers"), Yonkers (ditto)...

Sneakers...as a generic term for athletic shoes? What else is there?

[1995hoo]

The three it gave me are New York (for "sneakers"), Yonkers (ditto)...

Sneakers...as a generic term for athletic shoes? What else is there?

When I was a kid, some of my teachers called sneakers "tennis shoes."

[Big John]

Milwaukee, Spokane, Salt Lake City

[corco]

St Louis, Toledo, Akron. I was born in Ohio to buckeye parents and learned to talk in Chicago before moving all over the west, so I guess that makes sense.

[Brandon]

Maybe the questions vary each time?

Must be. I didn't get any questions about sneakers or fireflies.

The three it gave me are New York (for "sneakers"), Yonkers (ditto)...

Sneakers...as a generic term for athletic shoes? What else is there?

"Tennis shoes", "gym shoes", "tennies".  "Sneakers" is such an odd term for them, IMHO.  It's like saying "y'all" or "soda".  "You guys" and "pop" make more sense to me.

[vdeane]

It was spot on with me (Rochester, NY).  The road related stuff might trip up many people here, though.  When I did it, I typically answered what I would use if I were not a roadgeek who knows better.

[sammi]

"Tennis shoes", "gym shoes", "tennies".  "Sneakers" is such an odd term for them, IMHO.

I call them rubber shoes. I only ever have two pairs of shoes, leather shoes (i.e. dress shoes that I used to use for my shitty uniform) and rubber shoes (I'm wearing them right now).

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Even though I don't have English as native language (that honor falls to Spanish), I did the test a while ago and I got the following:
Most similar cities:
Montgomery AL
Chattanooga TN
Birmingham AL

Least similar:
Minneapolis/St. Paul MN
Buffalo NY
Cleveland OH

I was surprised at the Twin Cities as differing from me, especially looking at my avatar...

[1995hoo]

Maybe the questions vary each time?

Must be. I didn't get any questions about sneakers or fireflies.

The three it gave me are New York (for "sneakers"), Yonkers (ditto)...

Sneakers...as a generic term for athletic shoes? What else is there?

"Tennis shoes", "gym shoes", "tennies".  "Sneakers" is such an odd term for them, IMHO.  It's like saying "y'all" or "soda".  "You guys" and "pop" make more sense to me.

The first time I heard the word "pop" was when I was in the fifth grade. I remember it very clearly because we were given assignments for what to bring to school for some sort of class party and I was told to bring "two bottles of red pop." I had no idea what that meant, but I went home and told my mom and she didn't know what they wanted either, so I asked the teacher the next day and she got mad and told me I was being a smart-aleck. (To say that teacher was a bitch would be unfair to bitches everywhere. A more accurate term would be "c-u-n-t," but I'm not sure that's strong enough either.)


BTW, I tried the quiz again and it gave me different questions from the first time.

[Brandon]

^^ Interesting, for English as a second (or more?) language.  I would've thought "General American", more Midlands or Northern Inland North American would've been there instead of a Southern accent for ESL.  Out of curiosity, did you have a southerner as an English teacher, CNGL?

[TCN7JM]

Most similar:
Des Moines (pop)
Omaha (pop)
...Tacoma? (kitty-corner)

Least similar:
Philadelphia (sub)
New Orleans (sub)
New York (Mary, merry, and marry are pronounced the same way)

I seem to have lost my eastern Pennsylvania roots.

I do generally refer to a group of people I'm talking to as "y'all", though.

[sammi]

Least similar:
Minneapolis/St. Paul MN

The irony.

I'm from the Philippines so my native language is Filipino, but my first language is English. My parents taught me English with some sort of American accent, which for some reason Filipinos call slang. Partly lost it over the years. I don't remember how it sounds though, so I can't put it on the map just like I did here.

Apparently I sound like a hybrid of Fremont and Toronto. (I was never asked about the prevalence of eh in my speech.)

[formulanone]

Parents from NJ/NY zone, lived in NJ, eventually moved to Florida, so I'm not exactly shocked...they're essentially linguistic equals on the map.

I guess "sneakers", "highway", "water fountain", and "soda" give me away. "Katty-corner" is out of my territory, it refers to a concept I never knew there was a word for, until I was 25 or so...a loan-word, perhaps. I will occasionally lapse and say y'all and you guys interchangeably and automatically in any part of the country; usually in a quiet, slurred way.

But the real joke is the survey's conclusion that my speech is closest to Phoenix, Glendale, and Tuscon because:

- I don't have a word in my vocabulary for drive-through liquor store
- I would call a road paralleling a highway a "frontage road"

Same answers for me, but maybe a lot of transplants to Arizona answered similarly to you.

[corco]

An arizona accent is probably the closest thing to a generic american accent because of all the migrants from around the country. Of course, in Tucson at least its not uncommon to interject certain spanish terms in conversation, but whitey in Arizona pretty much has no accent