OT: Dialect quiz

[moqui]

the Harvard Dialect Survey collected answers from over 350,000 US residents to create a map of the various dialects within our nation. This 25 question quiz based on the original Survey was posted on the NY Times website over the weekend and it did a very good job of pegging my roots in upstate NY, despite the fact that I moved away over 20 years ago.

Here's my map:

 

[jordoo]

Mine was dead on as well. Had me pegged as Rochester/Buffalo which are my exact roots as I have one parent who grew up in each. I grew up in Oswego and apparently the use of "sneakers" was the biggest tell in pin pointing me.

 

[Trueblue25]

I've taken it 3 straight times and have gotten places in Arizona each time.

 

[cto]

Wow. Mine said Yonkers, NY -- which is about 20 miles from where I grew up in Armonk. Very interesting that it did not say NYC... which is just on the other side of Yonkers from Armonk.

 

[RF2044]

Rochester, Buffalo, and Yonkers.

 

[PoppyHart]

Put me right in Newark, which is pretty close. It's all about the sneakers.

 

[sutomcat]

Rochester/Buffalo.

What a rip! I don't talk at all like those pop drinking garbage platers.

 

[CusefanATL]

i got rochester/madison/aurora...

funny i got a little sliver around atlanta.

i think if i checked you's instead of you guys i would have gotten cuse. which is odd because i checked soda as opposed to pop.

 

[CorduroyG]

i got newark, jersey city, and new york. im from queens so it was spot on.

 

[CuseCrew08]

Got me on the button, northern New England.

 

[bnoro]

Worcester, Providence, Boston.

Spot on. I'm right between the first two.

 

[ClamOtto]

Put both me and my wife where we went to grad school rather than where we grew up. I guess we were late bloomers. linguistically.

 

[PoppyHart]

Put both me and my wife where we went to grad school rather than where we grew up. I guess we were late bloomers. linguistically.

But I bet she'll say you're a very cunning linquist.

 

[realorange]

Worcester, Boston and heavy to Maine. Amazing. The crazy outlier was Honolulu!

 

[SWFLCUSE]

I have no idea how I got my dialect, but apparently I sound like I'm from NC. Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh to be exact. I was born and lived the first 10 years of my life in Colorado before moving to Florida for the last 10, and both my parents are out of New York.

I took it a second time and this time I ended up with Saint Pete, Orlando, and Reno which makes a little more sense.

 

[tptcuse]

I got Rochester. Originally from Syracuse, but have lived all over. (Texas, Hudson Valley, Hartford, London, DC area, NYC). That is a well- developed quiz.

 

[Marsh01]

Syracuse/Rochester. Spot on.

 

[orangeinjersey]

I got Newark/Jersey City/Yonkers

Have worked most of my undergrad career in Newark and Jersey City. Got a traffic ticket in Yonkers once.

 

[tptcuse]

My wife got Springfield, Illinois. She grew up in Quincy, which is an hour and a half from Springfield. I love this type of quiz when it is this well researched.

 

[shermstheman]

Had me from Boston. As a NJ lad now in Ct and rooting for NY teams this has me very angry!

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

Very interesting. I remember as a kid seeing a linguistics expert on one of the talk shows who did this verbally with the guests. He asked them to pronounce a series of about 10 words, then he identified very closely where each of them were from. When later asked where the most accent-free English was spoken, he said the Syracuse/Rochester area, but you had to be the type that pronounced "fire" more like one syllable with an "i" that sounded like "eye", not as two syllables that sound almost like "foyer".

My map:

 

[orange79]

Took this the other day. It nailed me - Rochester, Buffalo, NJ. Pretty fascinating.

 

[rosconey]

wow dr who was right- the dialects are taking over the world-

 

[stuckinbig11]

I took it twice (some questions differed). The first time placed me across a span from western NY to WI. I know that I changed my word usage as I grew up and became more professional, so the second time I changed a couple answers, including a switch to "pop." That time, it placed me in Buffalo and Rochester. Given that I grew up about 60 miles south of Buffalo and now live about 20 miles west of Rochester, I guess it is reasonably close, but only when I revert back to some of my chilhood terms.

 

[Crusty]

That was interesting. My three cities were Rochester, Buffalo (grew up in Utica) and Winston-Salem (have been in NC for 14 years). Quite remarkable.