Regional dialect quiz

[TCJatko]

The closest of the three locations given to my answers is 100 miles away from me.

Interesting. It pegged my three most likely locations as Boston and Worchester, MA and Providence, RI. I've lived in New Hampshire for 40+ years, but am not a native New Englander. Pretty accurate, it seems.

 

[Carl_NH]

Interesting. It pegged my three most likely locations as Boston and Worchester, MA and Providence, RI. I've lived in New Hampshire for 40+ years, but am not a native New Englander. Pretty accurate, it seems.

Same here - first 20 years in PA and been in New England for 35 years and NH for 30, and Boston/Worcester was tagged and Chattanooga TN too.

 

[RobertN]

It nailed it; Sacramento. I was born and grew up in semi-rural outskirts of the Sacramento Ca area. Then have lived almost 30 years, about 30 miles east of where I was born.

 

[farmer2009]

It said Louisville and Lexington, KY and Little Rock, AR. I live about 2 hours from Louisville and 3 from Lexington. Although the western part of the state was a darker red than those two cities. I guess they only reference cities so large. Never been to Little Rock or Arkansas for that matter. Seems fairly accurate and was fun to take.

 

[jinman]

I found myself being torn between several answers, wanting to give more than one. For instance, I grew up wearing "tennis shoes" in the gym. In the US Navy, I learned to call them "athletic shoes" or "gym shoes". Later, as styles changed and prices soared, they became "sneakers." Today, they have become more brand specific rather than a generic term: Nikes, Reeboks, Adidas, Air Jordans. Also, where I grew up, there was no sidewalk and grass strip between. There was only grass and a gravel road. While stationed at the Phila Naval Base, I learned that houses had a stoop, pavement, and the street. There was no such thing as a sidewalk. The first time I heard that somebody drove up on the pavement and hit somebody, my first reaction was to ask why they were in the street in the first place? I quickly learned the difference between pavement and the street.

I had a niece who always gave me a hard time when I'd come home on leave from the US Navy. She always said I talked like a Yankee. Living up and down the east coast, west coast, and travelling around the world surely had an effect on my spoken language. Still, the test showed that I had probably grown up in the South and even showed my primary speech patterns matched North Texas.

 

[bp fick]

The quiz pegged me as living in a triangle of Wichita KS and Tulsa-OKC Oklahoma.
Lived too many places I guess.

 

[Dutch445]

has anyone taken the quiz with a private or incognito browser?
sort of an easy thing to do by identifying the ISP with our IP address....
just sayin...

 

[DT86]

I have to say it is spot on. I got Chattanooga TN, Knoxville TN and Greensboro NC but the darkest red area covered SW Virginia, which is where I've been my whole life, with a small bit over NE Tennessee and NW North Carolina.

 

[Chilly807]

According to this, I'm from New England.. pretty close actually.

Sean

 

[quicksandfarmer]

According to this, I'm from New England.. pretty close actually.

Sean

New England, New Scotland what's the difference -- unless you're English or Scottish!

 

[dragoneggs]

has anyone taken the quiz with a private or incognito browser?
sort of an easy thing to do by identifying the ISP with our IP address....
just sayin...

Sinister thought but yes I partook via private browsing and it nailed me. I think this was the result of someone's graduate program project that required quite a bit of research (aka standing on street corners throughout the US and documenting responses) and writing a computer program to 'match' responses.

 

[wngsprd]

has anyone taken the quiz with a private or incognito browser?
sort of an easy thing to do by identifying the ISP with our IP address....
just sayin...

Visitors from New Hampshire took it here on a Virginia computer and it pegged them correctly.

 

[Heywood Jannockitov]

Being a Canadian who grew up in the Niagara Region, I thought it would be interesting to see where it pegged me. I expected Buffalo since I grew up watching Buffalo TV. Nope, Detroit (no surprise there really I guess), Minneapolis or Seattle. In fact the whole state of Minnesota and parts of northern Michigan was dark red on the map.

 

[LD1]

It moved me to Michigan

Same here I think they need to update their northern ohio speak to get a better more accurate model BUT I have to say there were many questions could have had several answers too.


it actually asked me like a dozen extra questions (ok maybe 5 or 6 re-asks or new ones) but still had me from area 500 miles west or so...

BUT then again most Ohio folk have very little "accent" so people always ask where I'm from (when I was out west and down south.)
Mark

You guys should re-take it...Cause that just aint right.

I took it. Had me in Grand Rapids MI, Rockford IL, and Ft Wayne IN. Close, but I cant live with that MI on there. So I took it again, Getting closer, Toledo, Rockford, but still Grand Rapids...

3rd time's the charm....Toledo, Ohama, and Lincoln. That I can live with. It has a few different questions each time. It only asks 25 questions, but I think there is 35 or 40 questions it is pulling from.

Then I just started playing with it to see different answers would light up on the map. Pretty neat. But it is odd that NONE of the answers with "freeway" were recognized. There were blue almost everywhere. Heck, everyone I know uses freeway?? But that "highway" was recognized well here in my area according to the map, but when we refer to the highway, were are just talking about state routes. The ones that are actually paved and have lines:laughing:

Also "median" for the strip of grass in the middle of the freeway wasnt recognized??
And the "parallel road thing", we always call them access roads or service roads...but the map showed otherwise...

There was a few more. But thats about the gist of it. Neat quiz and I thank you for posting it and causing me to waste the last hour and a half playing with it:banghead:

 

[dmccarty]

Well, the test had me Tusla OK, Oklahoma City, OK or Springfield MO. I tain't been in any of those states much less lived in those towns! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Some of the questions were a bit iffy in that I had multiple answers. The test was also odd in that it showed me most strongly from parts of TX, OK, AR, and MO even though I have never lived in those states and only visited TX and AR. The test does show a high affinity to the part of NC I do live in but I think that was just luck on its part. Places where I have lived for many years are some of the least similar to me. :shocked: It also shows a high affinity of a big part of NY and even NYC! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

I suspect the test only works for people who have lived in one place for most of their life or maybe most of their childhood. I have lived in many southern states as a kid and I have Yankees in the family which might have affected my vocabulary. They Yankees in the family certainly did not affect my accent. When I moved to FLA, people said I had a real Southern Accent. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Having said that, I have never been to OK or MO much less lived there.

Later,
Dan

 

[Depmandog]

Dan, we would be proud to have you. In fact you are hereby bequeathed as an honorary member of Missouri!

 

[deerefan]

Quiz was spot on. Had me in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. I was born and raised in NO and live in a very rural area 50 miles north of BR.

 

[Jim Shooz]

Well that's interesting. Given that the answers the program is looking at only have a USA type answer it places me in New York, Yonkers or Jersey City. The culture here is very much British based, we have boots instead of trunks, bonnet instead of hood, parking brake instead of emergency brake, petrol instead of gas, just as a few examples. From what I understand about those 3 places (and I've never been within thousands of miles of them) I don't think I would feel at home in any of them.

PS we have a different sense of humour too. (that's why I took the test :thumbsup

 

[dmccarty]

Dan, we would be proud to have you. In fact you are hereby bequeathed as an honorary member of Missouri!

Woo HOO! Do I get a special license plate or something? :laughing::laughing::laughing:

I THINK I have a good ear for accents. I shared an office for quite a few years with a guy from Korea who was wicked smart. He had something like six bachelor and master degrees and if he took a few more classes, he could have a couple more masters degrees. :shocked: The dude loves going to school. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: He has degrees from Stanford, Harvard and NCSU. Really smart and great guy. His English is pretty bad though but I never had a problem understanding what he said unlike other people. He said I had a good ear.

There have been only two people over the years who I really had trouble understanding. One guy was a coworker from Liverpool England. He spoke English, I swear he did, but many times he might as well have been speaking Martian! :confused3::laughing::laughing::laughing: After a month or so, I could understand him but by then I was finished with the project and went back to the home office. I saw this guy a few months later and I had lost my ability to understand what he was saying! :confused3: Supposedly people in Liverpool speak English but I think it is highly debatable. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

On one of my first trips to NC, a friend called AAA to fix a flat tire. The guy who was fixing the tire was from central NC and I could not understand much of what he was saying! :shocked: THIS really shocked me since I have lived all over the south and never had a problem with accents before but this guy was something else. I can see not understanding someone from another country but not understanding a guy from NC? :confused3::laughing::laughing::laughing:

NC does have an interesting mix of accents. There are people on the Outer Banks whose accents are supposed to be close to 1600/1700 English accents. Then there are the people Down East who say ClOrox instead of Clorox. :laughing::laughing::laughing: There area at least a couple of accents in central NC and then the mountains have their own dialects. Course all of this is being lost due to TV, radio and migrations of people.

I saw a TV report of a farmer Down East who did not have children. Many years ago he hired a man from Mexico to work on his farm and this man turned into the farmers son. What was really interesting was that Mexican had completely lost his Mexican accent and he sounded just like the farmer.

Later,
Dan

 

[brin]

I took the test....I was born in Louisville, KY but only stayed there until I was 2 yrs. I was raised in Georgia and have lived here since...but yet the results said .....Louisville , Ky and Little Rock, Ark....go figure..

I traveled extensively for many years....so I have this theory about this test, I think for those who have remained in a specific area..the tests will be accurate but for those who have traveled extensively for long periods of time away from their home base the test will reflect a modified result...but what do I know...just a theory..