NYT Regional Dialect Quiz

[agentsteel53]

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

here I thought everyone kept their own accents.  it's not like the average whitey migrant is reproducing...

[Molandfreak]

Most similar: Minneapolis/St. Paul (Kitty corner), Milwaukee (Bubbler), Salt Lake City (Potato bug).

Least similar: Yonkers (Tennis shoes), Jersey City (Tennis shoes), New York (I pronounce Mary, merry and marry the same).

What's surprising is I had a couple of answers where the whole country was basically blue (pronouncing been like bean).

[DTComposer]

I took the test twice a couple of weeks apart, definitely had different questions each time.

First time: San Francisco, Oakland, Salt Lake City (?)
Second Time: San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Rosa

My family is fifth-generation Bay Area, so it makes sense (although I grew up closer to San Jose, my parents grew up in Oakland and San Mateo, other relatives scattered throughout). I am glad to see that the SoCal affectations haven't gotten to me yet.

[corco]

Each individual accent could be quite different, but the aggregate Phoenix accent would be a pretty average accent.

[Molandfreak]

There is no such thing as an "average accent." Never has been. National news station reporters use a central Iowan accent because that's close to the U.S. center of population.

[briantroutman]

"Sneakers" is such an odd term for them, IMHO.

I agree it's odd (and I've always hated the term), but it's what I grew up with–and so pervasive that I virtually never heard anyone call athletic shoes by any other generic name. Tennis shoes, running shoes, etc. are specific types of athletic shoes–for playing the sport in question.

It's like saying "y'all"...

800% agreed on that one.

..."pop" make more sense to me.

"Pop" has always grated on me. Makes me picture Harold from the Red Green Show.

[corco]

The average of all American accents would by definition be the average accent- doesnt mean a majority of people or even anybody speaks it, but it does exist if only in theory. Since Arizona has a lot of migrants from all over the country, the theoretical average of all Arizonans would probably be closer to the average of all Americans than the rest of the country.

[cu2010]

Most similar:

New York, NY
Newark/Paterson, NJ
Rochester, NY

...yep, sounds about right to me.

Least similar:
New Orleans, LA
Little Rock, AR
Pittsburgh, PA

[TCN7JM]

An arizona accent is probably the closest thing to a generic american accent because of all the migrants from around the country.

Not quite, although I've never noticed a huge difference between my accent and that of my Iowan family.

To be completely honest, when I think of an American accent, the first thing that pops into my head is the Great Plains as well, but maybe that's just because I live here.

[english si]

My map

most similar: New York, Jackson, Honolulu
least similar: Detroit, Dayton, Pittsburgh

In reality a posher form of estuary English

Certainly a trend I've seen in UK English speakers is that the rust belt is rather blue, and Hawaii, west, south and NYC area all are in the more reddy colours. There are differences person-to-person and place-to-place (can't remember the specific trends, wrt dialect, as did it before Christmas). If CGNL had an British English teacher then his places make rather a lot of sense (bad rust belt, strong south).

I should point out that many questions make little sense to a UK English speaker, so a couple of identical answers would turn an area orange. My most similar cities might have 5 or 6 phrases in common.

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

Most similar:
New Orleans
Baton Rouge
Jackson MS

Least similar:
Detroit
Grand Rapids
Worcester MA (a city I have visited, of all places)

The fact that New Orleanians have locally unique words for various things (banquette, neutral ground, po' boy) produces a distinct vernacular.

One that even the folks in BR don't know: folks from New Orleans refer to automobile inspection stickers (the small ones on the windshield) as "brake tags." 

[Molandfreak]

Where the major speech divisions collide (general southern accents, general northeast, and general west--I do realize there are some significant differences in California and the NOLA area, too) is at about Cairo. So I'd say folks in southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and southeast Missouri have approximately the average American accent.

[corco]

I guess I should have been using the word mean instead of average and generic- I'm talking the statistical mean, where you'd quantify linguistic traits, add them up, and average them sort of average, which may not sound much like anybody actually talks, but that area is intuitively Phoenix because it has a substantially higher migrant population than anywhere else and no strong embedded culture (find somebody "from" Phoenix. They don't really exist), which explains why a bunch of people not from AZ are getting AZ numbers.

But, okay, I see what you're getting at- folks from Cairo might speak in the statistically average accent- which is probably the accent in which everybody in the rest of the country says "you talk with an accent"

[hbelkins]

This isn't about accents (how you sound when you talk). It's about dialect (the words you use when you talk).

I took the test twice and had several different questions, along with a few questions that were common to both tests.

The first time it put me in the Midwest (one of my cities was Wichita) and the second time it put me down South. I would have expected Lexington and Louisville.

My brother sent me the link. He got Lexington, Columbus GA and Little Rock. His wife got Lexington, Louisville and Columbus GA.

I recorded my results from my second test and got this:

1.) Y'all
2.) Rubbernecking is the activity but I have no word for the traffic jam
3.) Yard sale
4.) We have them but I have no special term
5.) Sub
6.) No distinction between the two
7.) Different
8.) 18-wheeler (although I do use some of the other terms)
9.) Freeway (the roadgeek in me wanted to choose the last answer that has the definitions)
10.) Tennis shoes
11.) Other (I had no word for this and had not seen this question on prior versions of the test)
12.) Two syllables
13.) Both
14.) I have no term
15.) Mary and merry pronounced the same (had not seen this before either)
16.) Pop
17.) No word for this
18.) I don't know what creature this is (had not seen this before either)
19.) Roundabout
20.) Palm (this question was new to me, too)
21.) Median
22.) Sit (this question was new as well)
23.) Flaw
24.) Water fountain
25.) Firefly and lightning bug interchangeably

Results: Columbus, Ga., Jackson, Miss. and Little Rock

[corco]

This isn't about accents (how you sound when you talk). It's about dialect (the words you use when you talk).

Isn't a combination of the two though? I thought about half the questions were how you pronounce certain words

[Molandfreak]

This isn't about accents (how you sound when you talk). It's about dialect (the words you use when you talk).

Isn't a combination of the two though? I thought about half the questions were how you pronounce certain words

There are different questions each time you play, but yes the test seems to be about both dialect and accents.

[Eth]

I remember taking this test a few weeks ago. The three cities I got, if memory serves, were Columbus, GA; Augusta, GA; and Jacksonville, FL. Interesting that it would gravitate toward south Georgia with me having grown up in the outer Atlanta suburbs.

[Brandon]

Quite the contrast there, HB.

1) You guys
2) Kitty-corner
3) Aunt = ant
4) Garage sale
5) Pop
6) Pill bug
7) Icing
8) Tennis shoes
9) Devil's Night
10) Freeway
11) Party barn (if a store selling liquor is a party store, then "party barn" is the closest I can find)
12) Crawfish
13) Sub
14) Jam for pajamas
15) Area of grass between the curb and sidewalk - Other.  I've heard it called a "parkway"
16) Drinking fountain
17) Blow-off (course at college or high school)
18) Lightning bug
19) Cray-ahn
20) Carra-mel
21) Cot and caught are Different
22) Lawyer's first syllable rhymes with Boy
23) I don't use the word supper
24) Mountain Lion
25) Gapers' Delay

Results: Detroit, Toledo, Grand Rapids
Least Like: Boston, Worcester, Springfield (MA)
http://nyti.ms/1bXhuj6

[Takumi]

Results: Richmond, Newport News, Greensboro. Dead on.
Least similar: Worcester, Pittsburgh, Des Moines

[Duke87]

Well, they placed me pretty accurately: http://nyti.ms/1a4RmWM

Yonkers and New York because "sneakers" (I had no idea that term wasn't universal), and Newark/Paterson because "mischief night" (despite me having learned this term growing up in Connecticut)

Second taking of the test: http://nyti.ms/1bXlwI5

Yonkers and Newark/Patterson because "sunshower" (again, I had no idea that term wasn't universal) and New York becuase I pronounce Mary, merry, and marry all differently.


The drive through liquor store question also threw me for a loop. I'd call it a "drive through liquor store", and I'd never heard any of the slang terms they suggested. Of course, there is no such thing around where I'm from, so naturally I wouldn't have a term for it.


As a personal anecdotal assessment I'd say my accent is some hybrid of old-school Bronx (based on how my parents, grandparents, etc. talk) and southwestern Connecticut (based on how other kids around me when I was young talked).

Then there's the way being a roadgeek messes with your vocabulary. I answered "roundabout", but everyone around here calls it a "circle" or "traffic circle" and thinks of "roundabout" as being a Britishism. And while I did answer the high speed road question as "highway", which is how I learned it growing up and still often say it, I am the only person I know around here (except for other roadgeeks) who will ever be heard using the term "freeway".

[Scott5114]

I got placed pretty accurately: Wichita, Overland Park, and Springfield, MO. My family is from the Kansas City area, and I lived in Springfield for a year, and I'm guessing Wichita came up because that's what you get when you aggregate those two cities with Oklahoma.

[Doctor Whom]

1. Oakland (never been)
2. Honolulu (never been)
3. San Francisco (been only once on a business trip)

All because of "firefly."

[Dr Frankenstein]

I expected to get some place in New England or upstate New York.

I got Seattle.

[sammi]

I expected to get some place in New England or upstate New York.

I got Seattle.

I would think that's because they don't have data for Canada.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

For all those who asked me who I had as teacher: The English dialect that is taught here is British English, so that would explain why I got the Deep South as similar to me. And of course, things can shake up with only changing one answer: english si got Minnesota mostly yellow to orange, while I got it strongly blue.