Brett McKay (@brettmckay): "NYT has a U.S. dialect quiz you can take and it will show you where your dialect is most similar to. It pegged me perfectly. OKC/Tulsa: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html?r=8220284k04001120001200400840000j0j0j01002002220000"
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NYT has a U.S. dialect quiz you can take and it will show you where your dialect is most similar to. It pegged me perfectly. OKC/Tulsa:
[nytimes.com\ \ How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk (Published 2024)\ \ What does the way you speak say about where you’re from? Answer all the questions below to see your personal dialect map.\ \
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The most definitive way that I can tell if someone’s family is from the north or south was to ask them what is a toboggan.
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I think “bobsled” when I read toboggan
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The dividing line must be somewhere below Tulsa then! Maybe it’s when snowfall ceases to be a thing that toboggan starts to mean beanie cap.
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Mary, merry, and marry are supposed to be pronounced differently?
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Ask a Midwesterner. I had to pronounce all three in front of a linguistics class at the University of Texas. My professor had guessed correctly that I could distinguish and I could.
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Here is what it looks like when taken by a Canadian!
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Yep.
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Uncannily accurate— it identified the small city a few miles from where I grew up.
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One of the three suggested cities was correct. The other two were near where my parents were born. Interesting!
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It was the same for me!
This was so fun! The top 3 cities it gave me were dead wrong. I’ve never even been to California. But the heat map is quite interesting as I’m from Cleveland, Ohio.
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That was very interesting. Apparently my English/Australian turns of phrase are most similar to those of Florida which is amusing because I never thought of that area as having regional terminology and now I know why.
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That’s also what I got! As a fellow Australian I was confused but very interesting!
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The most definitive way that I can tell if someone’s family is from the north or south was to ask them what is a toboggan.
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I think “bobsled” when I read toboggan
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The dividing line must be somewhere below Tulsa then! Maybe it’s when snowfall ceases to be a thing that toboggan starts to mean beanie cap.
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Mary, merry, and marry are supposed to be pronounced differently?
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Here is what it looks like when taken by a Canadian!
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Yep.
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Uncannily accurate— it identified the small city a few miles from where I grew up.
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One of the three suggested cities was correct. The other two were near where my parents were born. Interesting!
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It was the same for me!
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That’s also what I got! As a fellow Australian I was confused but very interesting!
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I grew up in Eastern Washington state. The dialect map shows that.
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I always love taking this one (I’m from queens). My accent has flattened over the years, that bit used to be RED.
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It got me perfectly: Salt Lake City.
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Damn near showed what street I grew up on
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i got kirked it named me by hometown
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What do you call the area of grass between the sidewalk and the road?
berm
parking
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Parking?! For realsies???
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That’s crazy! Even though I’ve moved across the country and thereby changed a few of my words (like soda instead of coke), it labeled me spot-on as Fort Worth.
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I took this thing years ago and it couldn't pin me and I took it today and it couldn't pin me.
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It nailed me exactly as from Detroit! I thought I might have confused it since I haven’t lived there in 20 years and my parents were from New England. Pretty cool!
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This was super cool! I got Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, and Overland Park. I was born and mostly raised in Denver. Go figure.
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Fifty years ago I moved two thousand miles away from home, but it still knew where I came from!
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Nailed mine as well … Boston
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Oh this is great! I remember this from years ago. Such fun!
I’m an accent coach, so it’s my thing.
Thanks for sharing.
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This was fun. Way off, which I kinda knew it would be. I was born in CT, graduated high school there but lived in the South for many years. Have lived in Los Angeles for the last 20. Most similar result: Yonkers / NYC 😆
What was cool was seeing on a lot of questions, I’d heard of or knew half or more of the terms or pronunciation they were referring to. I used the first answer that came to mind but saw a lot of places I could’ve pulled strings to skew the results.
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I’m from CT as well, Long Island sound and I got Yonkers/Newark. Close enough.
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Rockford, Aurora, Grand Rapids
That tracks. I grew up in Northwest Indiana, work in Chicago and have spent enough time in Michigan that I consider myself a Michigander at hearty. I’m going to get myself a pop to toast this quiz!
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Filling the survey in as a Brit was interesting… apparently I sound most like a New Yorker.
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Brother, you were right. Spot on for me too!
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I’m a 71 year old Chicagoan (raised in the south suburbs, college in the north suburbs, most of my adult life spent in the north part of the city except 7 years in LA and 9 months in NYC) and what did the test show? I sound like someone from Madison, WI! I’m rather honored. Great university there and on an isthmus!
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My parents are from the Northeast and I grew up in Kentucky and Florida, so I think I just stumped it
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I got a 50-50 split between Seattle and Minneapolis, which as a Canadian feels somewhat valid.
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I LOVE this. My wife still makes fun of me because I insist that Mary, marry, and merry are all pronounced differently.
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Arkansas but I reckon it’s that Deep South dialect.
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Born in St Louis; pegged me for St Louis
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I would say that this is way off, but I don’t really sound like I was born and raised in Arkansas. Interestingly, my dad is from the reddest area shown.
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I also got where my parents grew up (Salt Lake City), not where I grew up and live now (Wisconsin).
They got me for real. This was fun. some of these words I was like “what on earth?” 😂
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ha! not beating the NY allegations today I see
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I got Yonkers, Patterson, New York. (Live in Michigan about 70 years but first 3 were in that area)
Dead on.
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Well at least it placed me on the west coast but in northern Cal and I was So Cal until I moved to PNW. There was also a ref to SLC, UT. That one makes no sense at all.
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This born and bred OKC boy was told he talks like people from Louisville and Winston-Salem. Go figure!
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Yeah pretty much nailed it 😂
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Boston and Arlington for me, which makes sense: I grew up in New England but then lived in VA for 15 years. (Although I lived in southern VA…I’m not sure how/if that differs much from Arlington/DC.)
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Impressed. It figured out exactly which part of Texas I was raised in.
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Figured me out.
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Professor Higgins rides again (Ta-Da-a-ah)!
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Apparently I’m from Yonkers - I live in New Zealand.
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“Neutral ground” and “poor boy” pegged me in New Orleans. I was kinda disappointed my home state didn't even make it on my list of top three places lol.
One subset not mentioned was people who use “y’all” as a plural possessive. “Y’all must be proud of y’all new car.” I've encountered that in St. Bernard Parish in particular.
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This is one of the few cases where quizzes like this tend to be accurate. Speech patterns are, mostly, picked up unconsciously, data on dialects is comprehensive, and no one has any real incentive to lie. There’ll be the odd-ball exception but most people will find their speech gives them away.
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That was really fun. Thanks for sharing!
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The 3 cities it pegged as most similar for me are a near geometric triangle around where I grew up, lol. This is cool.
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Interesting, I was born in NYC and moved to Michigan when I was 3, in 1958. My test came back New York/New Jersey.
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Yeah it works
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Sure
Despite what this said about my dialect, I must admit, at the age of 61 - I. Have. Never. Been. To. Texas.
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Jackson, Columbus, Lexington. I was born in Los Angeles, went to high school and college in Mississippi and now I live in Alabama. I can’t believe the quiz didn’t ask about the word “pecans”. It’s PEE-khans by the way. Also, if you are from the South where this culinary delight was born, you cook and eat BBQ. BBQ is not a verb. Surprised they didn’t ask that too. Cool quiz though.
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They should add a question about how you pronounce Zion, dead giveaway for someone who grew up in Deseret territory.
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Similar, but my use of “crawdad” defined my Missouri heritage. I had Tulsa, Wichita and Kansas City.
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I’m surprised it doesn’t compare wash and worsh.
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I am from the Tulsa area (Claremore/Ramona) and this was spot on for me also lol
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The quiz was spot on for me. Madison, WI
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I got Modesto. On account of saying “crawdad.” I grew up hunting them in creeks in Marin County, CA. “Drinking fountain” got me Salt Lake City. No, sir. Not close.
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Very accurate! I am a native (lifelong) Western New York State resident.
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Spokane, Rockford and Grand Rapids here, even though I live in the Netherlands. The latter is fair since a lot of Dutch folks migrated to Michigan. Don’t know about Spokane though.
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Love taking this as a Brit!
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I am from Bristol RI but spent lots of my youth in Fall River Mass. Adult life was very close to Providence. The results were spot on!
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Interesting. Lived in Ohio my whole life with parents and grandparents from NY/NJ, yet this has me solidly from California (LA specifically and then San Jose).
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That’s funny. SoCal 100% had me as Salt Lake City-go figure.
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This quiz got my childhood home which was a small section of north eastern Queens and I haven’t lived there since the mid 90s. Wild.
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I wanna see Christopher Walken take this test.
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It pegged me perfectly - Pacific NW!
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It knows me too well.
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West of the Rockies it all blends together, I'm from the pnw but the entire west coast lights up as red
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It pegged me to my home town and my mom’s hometown. Crazy accurate.
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Detroit, Toledo, Grand Rapids…. Accurate (Detroiter).
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On target.
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Jackson, Birmingham, and Baton Rouge. Pretty close.
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I had like one answer that made me most similar to three cities in Florida, but the next darkest place is Colorado which would be more right.
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It didn’t peg me right, but I’ve lived in 4 very distinctive areas of the US for over 10 years each. It put me right in the middle of the country.
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OKC and it nailed it.
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Mine was so off, Pacific Northwest when I was born in Ohio, now live in Texas
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Finished it and got Milwaukee. Spot on. Our use of “bubbler” instead of “drinking fountain” cemented it.
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Gotta put my sneakers on before we get a hoagie. We can take the highway.
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Very accurate! I am a native (lifelong) Western New York State resident.
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Took the test, was 308 miles off, due south, but accurate enough east to west.
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Usually these things get me wrong but it pegged me in Richmond, Virginia where I live. The second city was in NC where my wife is from.
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That's scary- it got me to the city I was born (and haven't lived in for 40 years)
Bullseye! That’s a little scary.
Spot on for me. Lifelong California girl. Born and raised in the upper Central Valley, lived for about a decade in my 20s on the peninsula in the Bay Area.
I am Canadian and got Vancouver, Portland, Seattle!
Bubbler is a complete ringer. The rest of the questions might as well not even exist.
Me too! Albuquerque.
Mine was spot on with Arlington/Irving. I grew up closer to Fort Worth but my grandparents and parents are from Arlington!
Pegged my origins exactly ie Boston area and the lighter colors on map showed the shadows of immigration to West Coast, Florida, and Mid West. Would have liked to see a question like “what do you call the trim where floor meets wall?” (mop-board, baseboard, etc.)
lmao i’m from california but this map said i was from upstate new york or wisconsin. the midwest tracks because both sets of grandparents are from there. but there’s some things about the california dialect it didn’t pick up on - like the fact that we drop t’s after an “n.” like Toronto becomes “Torono”
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I’m finally reading Dune. This quote, which is in the first few pages, hits hard:
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”
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