American Dialect Quiz

[zitronenhai]

A little bit ago, this American dialect quiz was floating around on Facebook. People who have lived in a lot of different regions of the US, or have lived abroad, got some less predictable results. My results pinned me dead-on.

Comments

[daphnep]

They didn't have a choice for just "drive through liquor store", either, for those of us who don't need a euphemism.
I think you make a good point about changing pronunciation as we grow--I got really weird answers for that quiz, because so many of the questions just confused me. Like the yard/garage sale one. Absolutely, the various terms mean different and non-interchangeable things. And in cities with no yards or garages, they are by necessity stoop sales or porch sales. How silly would it be to throw a "garage sale" in my present (urban) neighborhood?

So I appreciate your distinctions and clarifications...as well as your justification for lawyer. Loy-er never makes sense to me, so to avoid being mocked as an adult I just say "attorney".

[zitronenhai]

I guess I don't see "party barn" as a euphemism. It doesn't seem like a bland, innocuous alternative to the term "drive-through liquor store."

Then, of course, we must consider that some of these structures look like barns. Others appear to be repurposed car washes. The ones I have visited have looked... like barns. So that might explain something about that.

[daphnep]

That makes sense! The ones I know are from Arizona, and they're definitely not shaped like barns.

[chezmax]

Coming from a province which is highly puritanical about liquor sales, the idea of a drive-through liquor store is horrifying to me. :)

[m_danson]

My east coast Canadian accent matches like this: http://nyti.ms/1jU0GU3

[zitronenhai]

Ooh, that's interesting! Thank you for sharing!

[m_danson]

It doesn't surprise me. Many of my words come from Newfoundland and the maritimes. I know, from my grandmother, that there was a surprisingly large amount of movement between New England area and Newfoundland. Also, the Maritimes used to have much tighter ties south than west or north.

[zitronenhai]

That makes perfect sense.

[anomali]

Because of this quiz, after 20 years of knowing me, James just learned that I don't say pa"jam"as to be silly. ;)

For me, crawdads are the critters and crawfish is the food, rather like pig/pork, I suppose. I guess I wanted to distinguish between the critters I knew from irrigation ditches and, dare I say cricks, and something I would consider eating.

[zitronenhai]

I guess I wanted to distinguish between the critters I knew from irrigation ditches and, dare I say cricks, and something I would consider eating.

Ha! Ha ha ha ha! :) I love this.

[nalidoll]

I actually have this quiz open in a tab. I was going to take it before, but it was having issues, and I hadn't yet gotten back to try again

[zitronenhai]

I say "cattywampus" to mean "off kilter". Like, when James hangs something on the wall and it is not up to my standards of precise level-ness.

I use it that way, too! Thanks for writing a much better sentence about that word.

I always called the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the road a "swale". Turns out this is a South Florida thing, because ours actually are little dips of land used to help facilitate drainage.

We kind of have those in North Lawrence, where I live. North Lawrence would be a swamp if not for the levee. Don't break, levee!

I always thought I said "marry/Mary" and "merry" differently. Turns out, the difference is only in my head. What everyone else hears is exactly the same.

Ha ha ha ha ha! :D That's like me and the pen/pin thing, which is why when I try to hard to say "pen," I hear "pan."

She grew up in MN, lived in South Florida for over twenty years (while married to a Texan), and now lived with her British husband in both the UK and Turkey (where she hangs out with a bunch of Scottish ex-pats).You

[chezmax]

I don't think I have a word for what you call a 'swale'. I think the (city) government sometimes calls them boulevards, but I tend to reserve that word for a divided street, or the strip of grass in the divided street.

[low_delta]

I always thought I said "marry/Mary" and "merry" differently. Turns out, the difference is only in my head. What everyone else hears is exactly the same.

Me too! I learned the hard way (though friends making fun of me) that the differences are so subtle, for many words, that it really makes no difference to the listener.

[low_delta]

I tend toward the accurate pronunciation of words as spelled. I may have said "cran" when I was very young, but it wasn't long before "cray-on" became the norm. Or "cray'n," at least. That seems to make me an anomaly for the upper midwest. Pen, cawt, law-yer. I say "ant" but it seems wrong.

I also tend toward the practical. They call them "bubblers" around here, but "drinking fountain" assures everyone knows what you mean. Rummage sale doesn't seem to imply a certain location for said sale (though I don't know what "rummage" means, so I could be wrong). Garage sale is an acceptable default, because around here, most of them are in garages. I used to say "tenni-shoes" but nowdays shoes are so specialized, that doesn't really work. I would say "drive-though liquor store."

"Kittycorner" is an inaccurate spelling of "catacorner." Pill bugs and sow bugs are very similar, but are actually two different kinds of bugs.

I had never heard any of the other terms for sunshowers before now.

[zitronenhai]

I used to say "tenni-shoes"

Yeah, that is a much more accurate representation of how I always said and continue to say that.

I also tend toward the practical. They call them "bubblers" around here, but "drinking fountain" assures everyone knows what you mean.

I think I have just referred to them as "fountains" in recent times, now that I pause to contemplate it. *shrug*