NYT Regional Dialect Quiz

[kphoger]

Old news.

And here's a related thread.

[STLmapboy]

Shit. Guess I'll just go on my merry (mary?) way then and post in the other one.

[kphoger]

Here's my map:



Places I've lived:
1981-1990 – Chicago suburbs
1990-1999 – Rural northwestern Kansas
1999-2006 – Chicago suburbs
2006-2008 – Southern Illinois
2008-2020 – Wichita, KS

So, even though I lived near Chicago for less than half my life total, I did live there during my formative years (early childhood), plus my early adulthood (HS graduation until marriage).

I might have skewed even just a bit more Chicago-ish, if some of my terminology hadn't been influenced by my wife and other non-geographical concerns.

[hotdogPi]

It would be interesting to create a quiz using only questions with a correct answer.

"Which city is the home stadium of the Jets (American football) in?"
(those who are very local will give the correct city in NJ instead of saying NYC)

"How were most victims at the Salem Witch Trials killed?"
(this one would be multiple choice to avoid having multiple ways of phrasing the correct answer in addition to the few that interpreted the question differently and said "most survived")

"Which state was the only one the Democrat won in the 1984 Republican landslide election?"
(can also be asked about 1972)

"Who has more Twitter followers: Obama or Trump?"
(this one doesn't bind you to a geographical region but instead most people will probably answer who they support more)

"What is the lowest-numbered Interstate?"
(an incorrect answer of 4 places you in the eastern third of the US, an incorrect answer of 5 places you on the West Coast, and an incorrect answer of 1 places you outside Texas and isn't even incorrect if you live in Hawaii)

"How many provinces does Canada have?"
(those closer to Canada will be more likely to answer correctly)

"What does "envios de dinero" mean in English?"
(multiple choice; corresponds to Hispanic communities)

"Which war took place in the US in the 1860s?"
(almost everyone will get it correct, but people have different names for it, which can identify the region)

"What was the average price of gas nationwide when it hit its high in 2008?"
(California residents will likely answer too high)

[ozarkman417]

.

SM-G965U

Looks pretty much spot on, given that they selected Springfield as one of the highlighted cities. I've lived here all my life, though my family has historically been based out of northern Illinois.

[1995hoo]

Those other threads make me think of how precise you have to try to be–and how difficult a task that can be!–when you're trying to construct a generic term for something that will not be perceived as suggesting your desired answer. I remember once some colleagues got into a discussion about restrooms and whether the term is a "stall" or a "booth." My reaction was, who cares, it's obvious what either term means in context, but one of them did a Google search and found an online discussion regarding "What is the term for the enclosed space for defecating in a public restroom?"

[jeffandnicole]

It would be interesting to create a quiz using only questions with a correct answer.

OK, but that's just a random quiz.  What's the point of it?  And if different questions were asked, would you know the answers even if it involved your own hometown or state?

[STLmapboy]

If mods could lock this one please, I'm going to go post my example in the other (identically named!) thread.

[STLmapboy]

My map

I have a mom who was born in North Dakota but grew up in San Diego and a dad who's lived in STL all his life. Don't have any relatives from Wisconsin or Michigan, though.

[hotdogPi]

If mods could lock this one please

I still want discussion of my previous post in this thread.

[webny99]

I got Rochester, NY (correct!), Grand Rapids, MI, and Madison, WI. The answer that most associated me with Madison was "kitty-corner", which was a hard one for me because it really depends on context whether I use that or just "diagonal".

It would be interesting to create a quiz using only questions with a correct answer.

I don't think there would be a super strong correlation between whether you know the answer(s) and where you live. It depends more on what your interests are. For example, I think most people who follow the NFL know that the Giants and Jets play in NJ. You'd have to ask a LOT of questions to narrow it down to a single town or city that you are likely to be from.

(And I sure hope everyone knows how many provinces Canada has. In that case, it would be more of a sign that you're from the Deep South if you don't know, rather than a sign that you live near the border if you do know.)

If mods could lock this one please, I'm going to go post my example in the other (identically named!) thread.

I wouldn't worry. Re-starting it is probably better than a six-year bump. Linking to old threads is just what we do here. 

[STLmapboy]

I wouldn't worry. Re-starting it is probably better than a six-year bump. Linking to old threads is just what we do here. 

Unfortunately, it's probably too late; three people already posted in that thread.

[kphoger]

As to the previous conversation about accent vs pronunciation...

Accent also includes how fast or slowly you speak.  For example, if you take a typical Midwestern accent, slow it down, and accentuate certain phonemes, then you'll end up with a pretty decent western drawl.  Same pronunciation but different accent.

[kphoger]

If mods could lock this one please

I still want discussion of my previous post in this thread.

A merge would be better than a lock.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I got Salt Lake, Seattle, and Spokane (though my correct area was also deep brown). I expect that's due to the similar backgrounds of WA's settlers and ours.

[STLmapboy]

If mods could lock this one please

I still want discussion of my previous post in this thread.

A merge would be better than a lock.

Yeah, we've only got 11 (now 12) replies here anyway.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Nice to see this thread back. At one point in the meantime I did one similar test for Spanish (my native language), which nailed I'm from Aragon, Spain.

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

At the time I was using I-35 MN as my avatar. Later on I used I-76 OH, also quite against my result at the time which also listed Cleveland, OH among the least similar. When I noticed they had added my current avatar (I-41, featuring my favorite number which had become so shortly before doing the test) I switched to that one, which is not as bad as before.

ETA: I did again the test, and I had my most similar cities spread across the country:
- New York City
- Jackson, MS
- And perhaps most surprisingly, given it was the least similar the first time I did this, Minneapolis/St. Paul.

[Ned Weasel]

Here's mine:



It's kind of funny, because people in my home metro area (Kansas City area) frequently ask me where I'm from because of my accent.

[Rothman]

Mine was way off:

Results:

1) Oklahoma City, OK
2) Amarillo, TX
3) Aurora, CO

I have been through each of them.  But, my time spent in each of those places is less than a few hours combined.

I found the questions to pigeonhole me into answers I wasn't completely satisfied with (e.g., those related to transportation infrastructure) as well, which I think helped cause the poor results.  I mean, a circle with a lot of roads coming into it?  That could be a rotary, roundabout or traffic circle depending on where you are and its configuration...

But, the fact that my father's from NJ, my mother's from KY (I spent a lot of vacation time with my relatives down there), I was born in IN, grew up in MA and have lived for a decent amount of time in various states since then (MD, VA, WI, NY, CA, ID...) has probably messed with my pronunciation and jargon.  I also wonder how much I just picked up from watching a lot of TV.

So, me 1, NYT, 0.

[Scott5114]

Mine was way off:

Results:

1) Oklahoma City, OK
2) Amarillo, TX
3) Aurora, CO

I have been through each of them.  But, my time spent in each of those places is less than a few hours combined.

It's cause I've been posting too much and you've been picking it up from me. Sorry about that.

[webny99]

There's definitely words and expressions that I've picked up from this forum. Not pronunciations, though. 

[kphoger]

There's definitely words and expressions that I've picked up from this forum. Not pronunciations, though. 

I learned the term 'SPUI' on this forum.  When I first read it, I pronounced it as spew-ee.  Since then, however, I've heard an engineer pronounce it as spoo-ee, and I've taken that as my pronunciation.

It's not hard to imagine that someone's pronunciation of such a roadgeeky term might be changed in the other direction:  they used to pronounce it one way, then learned on this forum that it's actually pronounced a different way.

[thspfc]

I got Milwaukee for one, which is pretty accurate. My other two were somehow Phoenix area cities - Glendale and Chandler/Gilbert. 

[kphoger]

I got Milwaukee for one, which is pretty accurate. My other two were somehow Phoenix area cities - Glendale and Chandler/Gilbert. 

↓   could be . . .   ↓

An arizona accent is probably the closest thing to a generic american accent ...

[webny99]

Well, it makes sense. Plenty of Arizonans were born elsewhere, so "generic American accent" is probably what you get.