Regional American Dialects

[+ Rickee]

Nailed it.

As a child it was the "bubbler" (= Milwaukee); now it's the "drinking fountain."

[N13]

Raised in California but been in New York for my adult life. It pegged me for New York with no California anywhere in sight.

[whipped guy]

Damn!!! It placed me exactly whre I was born and live most of the time! CT! Indeed, a while back a video was posted on this site that had me speaking. I got an email message from an acquaintance who saw it. He now lives in CA but was originally from the east coast. His first remark was that my "accent" (who woulda thunk that I had an accent!) reminded him of his former days in the northeast!!! That was the first time that I was told that my pattern of speech was distinctive of a particular region!!!! As I said who woulda thunk!

 

Finally a seemingly silly test that was accurate!

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

It put me in Tempe, Mesa, or Glendale, AZ.

 

I was born in WV, lived in MI before starting school, lived 30 years in IN and the last 16 in OH.

[AndreFuture]

http://www.epicderp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/funny-guys-country-Yinz-map.jpg

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6YTV3k9LQW8/UrdYnLG29dI/AAAAAAAAJBM/upl_vEAbdng/s1600/Accents+of+America.JPG

 

Valley accent example?

 

 

Canadian/Minnesotan/Idahoan accent?

 

 

That's not a valley accent I've heard anywhere in this Continent.

[Zman]

I went through it all but got an error when it was trying to display the map at the end .

 

But I did get the maps for each question and it seemed to match (more or less).

[sincitymix]

Mine was 400 miles off.....I do not live at Ft Benning....

It was probably the uniform in your picture that threw off the test

[Kuriousity]

Technically, it showed Jackson, MS...Birmingham, AL....and Columbus, GA.

[+ Gar1eth]

It errored out and wants me to check back...

 

Unsurprisingly, it couldn't work me out either!

 

I took it twice, got errored out both times.

 

My mom was from chicago, dad was from plains montana, I grew in ABQ, went to college in PDX for 4 years,

and have been in the (SF) Bay Area since 1972.

 

So I'm not surprised that my use of the language sent the poor automaton into a tizzy!

 

I grew up in the midwest and have lived on the east coast, the west coast, and in the middle.

 

It placed me in Denver/Aurora? Not quite! (Although I do have relatives in the area and, mother did retire there, and my sister lives there today. Perhaps more rubbed off than I thought.)

 

Mine was 400 miles off.....I do not live at Ft Benning....

 

It put me in Tempe, Mesa, or Glendale, AZ.

 

I was born in WV, lived in MI before starting school, lived 30 years in IN and the last 16 in OH.

 

Well I was going to suggest that y'all should try taking the original Harvard Test to see if it pegged y'all better. But I don't think it's online anymore.

 

Bert Vaux the head of the project (he's a Texan:rolleyes:) has moved to Cambridge (England not Massachusetts). I haven't taken this yet. But I think this new survey is for worldwide English Dialects. You might try it.

 

http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/cambridge_survey/

 

 

As for my three results on the NYT mini version

 

Two of the cities listed, Ft. Worth and Arlington, are respectively 42 and 29 miles from Dallas where I was born-basically all in the same metro region.

 

The third city listed was Lubbock where I spent the years from 6 to 23. So I'd say it was pretty durn accurate for me.

 

Gman

[seaboy4hire]

The quiz pegged me right from my hometown of Tacoma, Wa. Eak! I guess you can take the boy outta the trashy blue collar shit hole but you cant take the trashy blue collar shit hole outta the boy Imma need to try a lil bit harder

 

Hugs,

Greg

[+ Gar1eth]

The quiz pegged me right from my hometown of Tacoma, Wa. Eak! I guess you can take the boy outta the trashy blue collar shit hole but you cant take the trashy blue collar shit hole outta the boy Imma need to try a lil bit harder

 

Hugs,

Greg

 

Hey, be careful now!!!Thats where I live (near UPS). And I'm only semi-blue collar and not a poo hole in sight in my neighborhood!!

 

Gman

[seaboy4hire]

Hey, be careful now!!!Thats where I live (near UPS). And I'm only semi-blue collar and not a poo hole in sight in my neighborhood!!

 

Gman

 

Lived in that area. Wait till you are there for about 25 years.

 

Hugs,

Greg

[+ Gar1eth]

The quiz pegged me right from my hometown of Tacoma, Wa. Eak! I guess you can take the boy outta the trashy blue collar shit hole but you cant take the trashy blue collar shit hole outta the boy Imma need to try a lil bit harder

 

Hugs,

Greg

 

Hey, be careful now!!!Thats where I live (near UPS). And I'm only semi-blue collar and not a poo hole in sight in my neighborhood!!

 

Gman

 

Lived in that area. Wait till you are there for about 25 years.

 

Hugs,

Greg

 

Now, now between Stadium Drive and N. Proctor where I live is quite nice.

 

Gman

[seaboy4hire]

Now, now between Stadium Drive and N. Proctor where I live is quite nice.

 

Gman

 

It's the mentality. Visually it is ok at best.

 

Hugs,

Greg

[bobchitown]

Mine is way off, but I've lived all over the country and picked up pieces of various dialects along the way.

 

For those into such things, there's a comprehensive Dictionary of American Regional English:

 

http://dare.wisc.edu/

[nycguy]

I guess you can take the boy outta the trashy blue collar shit hole but you cant take the trashy blue collar shit hole outta the boy Imma need to try a lil bit harder

 

Hugs,

Greg

 

Nothing better than a trashy boy so don't go taking that out of you. Blue collar, white collar, no collar - who cares? - unless you are talking about a trashy boy who is COLLARED.

[SFViking]

I fooled it completely. My results were Salt Lake City, Rochester NY and Washington DC. I was born and raised in Minnesota and spent the last 40 years in San Francisco. I've never been to Salt Lake City or Rochester NY. I've visited Washington DC only twice for a few days each time.

[curiousnomore]

The survey "Kind of" pegged me.

[LADoug1]

It errored out and wants me to check back...

Me too. Two different times.