Spin off: regional dialect quiz accurate?

[nene0182]

Mine is kind of all over the place. But the darkest is the Midwest. I actually live in North Dakota and have been here since I was 4.

 

[NannyBeBe]

The test put me exactly where I live.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Said, Houston, Shreveport, or Jackson Mississippi. i am from Houston and still live in a suburb of Houston.

Said Jackson MS, North Carolina, and Montgomery, Al. I’m from far northeast corner of Alabama. Surprising to many, all Southern accents are not the same.

It appears that Jackson, MS is coming up frequently. Was the keyword for both of you frontage? That was supposedly the reason it came up first for me, but I've never lived near there.

 

[RangerPooh]

Nope. I’ve taken this before with similar answers and they’re always wrong. Put me in Colorado. I’m originally from Ca. Never spent time in Co.

 

[bethbuchall]

My top three cities were Buffalo, Rochester, Cleveland. It was very accurate for me.

 

[bcla]

It was pretty accurate for me. However, some of the questions didn't have enough blended choices. For instance, we'll use the term roundabout and traffic circle interchangeably. Part of what we learn in my area comes from a lot of people who are transplants who bring their own regional preferences.

 

[#1hoosierfan]

It said Louisville. I live 10 minutes from there.

 

[gwynne]

It was accurate. It chose the city (exactly) where I lived through 8th grade.

 

[bcla]

It said Louisville. I live 10 minutes from there.

I live in Northern California. It was attributing me to a whole swath of the West Coast, plus strangely enough parts of New England. I guess we're known for having a fairly neutral dialect. Doesn't make sense, since I never thought of New England as being terribly neutral.

 

[disney212]

It gave me Greensboro NC and Richmond VA. I live in the greater Cincinnati area.

 

[BrianL]

It pegged me in the South East even though I have some less-Southern vocabulary because of family form New England. I'd say it's spot on.

 

[summerlyangel]

Close but not exactly. It gave me Jackson, MS, Birmingham and Montgomery, AL. I was born and raised in Eastern South Carolina and still live in central, upstate SC just outside of Charlotte. I wonder what it exactly it was that pegged those locations for me? I have no ties to the states it pegged me for and have only passed though them once in my life on my way to Graceland with the family back in my teens, lol.

 

[Praying Colonel]

It's very accurate, but I could have predicted that: the linchpin question was the sandwich description. As a general rule, no one outside of a 150 mile circle around New Orleans calls it a po-boy, but that's one of the few truly Louisianian expressions I've never been able to shake (mostly because they are just so darned GOOD there. It's the bread.) If I hadn't had that very unique answer on my list, I think it would have had a lot less accuracy.

The trick for me was "do I answer it with what I'd prefer to say, or with what I would need to say to make myself understood where I live?" I kind of split the difference, because I've been here 30 years now.

Yes--it is the bread! An oyster po boy anywhere else doesn't taste nearly as good, because of that New Orleans bread. There's a seafood place on the Gulf coast we visit that's very close to that NOLA bread, but it's not quite the same.

BTW, DW, who has Louisiana family and lived there until she was 8 or so says the question was off because a po boy describes a seafood-type sandwich and not what they asked (lunchmeat).

As for the quiz: it had me about 2 hours from where I grew up and about an hour from where I live now, so for me it was very accurate.

 

[Minnesota!]

I get it. We hear things differently based on what we’re used to. It’s really hard to explain in writing. Problem is, the words I use for comparison may still sound different to you. So I can tell you marry rhymes with Harry, but to you, maybe that’s the same as hairy. (As a reference, listen to Brits say Prince Harry or Harry Potter. It’s how I say it and it’s different from hairy.)

To me, they are three distinct vowel sounds:
Mary = long A, as in air
marry = short A, as in axe or apple
merry = short E, as in egg

Or, to use similar words:
long A, as in bait
short A, as in bat
short E, as in bet
Do you pronounce bait, bat, and bet all the same? If so, then I can’t help you, sorry.

Harry and hairy ARE pronounced the same

The way you say the 3 M's hurts my brain. Trying to recall how my grandparents said them...they were born and raised in NYC. I THINK my grandma said them separately, but not my grandpa.

I love learning about regional dialect!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

It had me pegged



Some of the questions were honestly weird. Like, the term I've heard for a road parallel to a highway is a "frontage road", but we don't have those around here, so the answer I gave was "we don't have those" My parents used to tell me that there was a difference between dinner and supper, but I forget what that was, and while I technically don't use the word "supper", to me the two mean the same thing.

I also use sub and hoagie interchangeably, but that wasn't an answer, so I went with hoagie.

 

[design_mom]

It had me pegged

View attachment 539928

Some of the questions were honestly weird. Like, the term I've heard for a road parrallel to a highway is a "frontage road", but we don't have those around here, so that's the answer I gave. My parents used to tell me that there was a difference between dinner and supper, but I forget what that was, and while I technically don't use the word "supper", to me the two mean the same thing.

I also use sub and hoagie interchangeably, but that wasn't an answer, so I went with hoagie.

I call that road a "service road" but I've also heard it referred to as an "access road." I've never heard frontage road.

I didn't get the dinner/supper question on my quiz. My mother always said that lunch was the midday meal and supper was the evening meal. Dinner referred to the main meal of the day, which could be either lunch or supper. So "thanksgiving dinner" or "sunday dinner" could be eaten at lunchtime. My mother still uses supper often, but I usually say dinner (but it's usually both the evening meal and main meal.)

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I call that road a "service road"

Oh, I heard that too, but I thought those roads were specifically for like department of transportation or state police traffic.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Oh, I heard that too, but I thought those roads were specifically for like department of transportation or state police traffic.

We have a lot of roads that are parallel to the highway in my area. There's only one that comes immediately to mind that is actually called Frontage Road as in that's the name of the road. Nearly every other time it's given an actual name. Sometimes there isn't a name but the GPS will identify it as access road. Service road I've also heard but seldom actually use myself. Outer road is also something I've heard used to describe it in my area.

Our roads next to the highways are most often are for access to businesses or neighborhoods. Sometimes though I don't actually need access to the businesses or neighborhoods but rather I'm escaping the traffic on the highway.

 

[Moliphino]

It's bang on for me. Sneakers, grinders, and rotary give me away.

 

[AppleDumpling]

Harry and hairy ARE pronounced the same

The way you say the 3 M's hurts my brain. Trying to recall how my grandparents said them...they were born and raised in NYC. I THINK my grandma said them separately, but not my grandpa.

I live learning about regional dialect!

Hey, I gave it a shot!