Topic: Your personal (American) dialect similarity map. (Read 22787 times)

SirPeebles · « **on:** August 31, 2013, 04:27:01 pm »

You can take this survey from North Carolina State University and see your dialect similarity map. It is designed for speakers of American English, but it could be fun for any English speakers to see what region of the States they are most similar to.

Here is my map:

Most Similar Cities:
Worcester MA, Falmouth MA, Lowell MA, New Bedford MA, Plymouth MA

Least Similar Cities:
Duluth MN, Little Rock AR, Jackson MS, Shreveport LA, Huntsville AL

Davio · « **Reply #1 on:** August 31, 2013, 04:34:57 pm »

Server overloaded, is everyone doing this right now?

SirPeebles · « **Reply #2 on:** August 31, 2013, 04:38:08 pm »

Quote from: Davio on August 31, 2013, 04:34:57 pm

Server overloaded, is everyone doing this right now?

I was having that issue earlier when I tried to take it. I think this went viral on social media recently. Just try again later I suppose.

Davio · « **Reply #3 on:** August 31, 2013, 04:49:46 pm »

Trying to do it now, I'm curious how, as a Dutchman, my mixture of tv-English, high school English and internet English will do...

Kirian · « **Reply #4 on:** August 31, 2013, 06:12:13 pm »

Quote from: SirPeebles on August 31, 2013, 04:27:01 pm

You can take this survey from North Carolina State University and see your dialect similarity map. It is designed for speakers of American English, but it could be fun for any English speakers to see what region of the States they are most similar to.

Here is my map:

Most Similar Cities:
Worcester MA, Falmouth MA, Lowell MA, New Bedford MA, Plymouth MA

Least Similar Cities:
Duluth MN, Little Rock AR, Jackson MS, Shreveport LA, Huntsville AL

So out of interest, are you in Boston?

SirPeebles · « **Reply #5 on:** August 31, 2013, 06:38:00 pm »

No, but I was born there.

Kirian · « **Reply #6 on:** August 31, 2013, 06:54:35 pm »

Heh, I like this guy, his Twitter handle is @katz_stats

WalrusMcFishSr · « **Reply #7 on:** August 31, 2013, 09:49:16 pm »

That was fun! Kind of.

    Most Similar Cities
1    Albany NY    56.2
2    Danbury CT    56.1
3    Bridgeport CT    56.0
4    Stamford CT    55.9
5    New Haven CT    55.6

    Least Similar Cities
1    Little Rock AR    46.9
2    Memphis TN    46.9
3    Huntsville AL    46.9
4    Springfield MO    47.1
5    Murfreesboro TN    47.2

Pretty incredibly accurate actually, considering I grew up in a suburb of Albany and went to college in New Haven. It's like a computerized Henry Higgins!

Kirian · « **Reply #8 on:** August 31, 2013, 10:17:26 pm »

Most Similar Cities
1    Saint Louis MO    57.5
2    Albany NY    57.4
3    O'Fallon MO    57.3
4    Columbia MD    57.1
5    Evanston IL    57.0
   Least Similar Cities
1    Duluth MN    49.6
2    Colorado Springs CO    51.9
3    Pueblo CO    52.0
4    Sioux Falls SD    52.7
5    Olathe KS    52.8

Weirdness. I grew up (and live in) Toledo, Ohio. I have family from the South and therefore a predilection for saying y'all, but I wouldn't have predicted St. Louis or Albany.

Interestingly, St. Louis, Toledo, and Albany do all fall into the Inland North dialect according to This impressively detailed site.

Twistedarcher · « **Reply #9 on:** August 31, 2013, 10:25:37 pm »

I haven't been able to get this to work all day :/

AJD · « **Reply #10 on:** August 31, 2013, 11:52:26 pm »

Quote from: SirPeebles on August 31, 2013, 04:27:01 pm

You can take this survey from North Carolina State University

The survey is not from NC State but from Harvard; it was written and first conducted 11 years ago, by a professor who is now at Cambridge (uh... the other Cambridge, the one in England). The analysis that compares your results to the 2002 data and maps it is from NC State.

AJD · « **Reply #11 on:** August 31, 2013, 11:54:47 pm »

Quote from: Kirian on August 31, 2013, 10:17:26 pm

Interestingly, St. Louis, Toledo, and Albany do all fall into the Inland North dialect according to This impressively detailed site.

Albany isn't in the Inland North dialect region (and if you look closely at the map on that site you can see it falls just outside). St. Louis kind of is: the Inland North dialect features have spread to it relatively recently; it's not historically part of the region.

(Canton, NY also isn't in the Inland North dialect region, though the map there says it is.)

ashersky · « **Reply #12 on:** September 05, 2013, 11:30:57 pm »

The quiz is currently taken down due to server capacity issues.

Voltaire · « **Reply #13 on:** September 06, 2013, 01:10:15 am »

Quote from: ashersky on September 05, 2013, 11:30:57 pm

The quiz is currently taken down due to server capacity issues.

Sad face.

Polk5440 · « **Reply #14 on:** September 07, 2013, 02:53:00 pm »

I really wanted to take this survey, but I guess the server is still down.

The map Kirian linked to is really cool, though. The legends give a sense on the distinctions which is interesting. Funny how so many dialects are so elongated east-west. Really reflects migration patterns, I guess.

The links on the map to representative Youtube clips is really nice.

jonts26 · « **Reply #15 on:** September 07, 2013, 04:22:39 pm »

The short version of the quiz seems to not be overloaded. http://spark.rstudio.com/jkatz/DialectQuiz/

My results seem pretty spot on, though I should mention my accent is a very neutral version of Long Island, despite my dialect being more upstate/central NY.

Wait how did you guys embed your figures? Did you upload to someplace first? I guess mine will just have to be an attachment for now.

Awaclus · « **Reply #16 on:** September 07, 2013, 04:31:43 pm »

I hate the website, it's almost as bad as Goko. Refreshing made me start over.

But this was still pretty interesting.

jonts26 · « **Reply #17 on:** September 07, 2013, 04:41:03 pm »

Oh, also. Drive through liquor stores? Those are a thing?!

DG · « **Reply #18 on:** September 07, 2013, 06:20:08 pm »

The survey seemed to tell me that English is not similar to American. And I do not have word for that.

Kirian · « **Reply #19 on:** September 07, 2013, 06:43:23 pm »

Quote from: DG on September 07, 2013, 06:20:08 pm

The survey seemed to tell me that English is not similar to American. And I do not have word for that.

British English is certainly less similar to any American dialect than those dialects are to each other.

Polk5440 · « **Reply #20 on:** September 07, 2013, 10:04:03 pm »

Quote from: Kirian on September 07, 2013, 06:43:23 pm

Quote from: DG on September 07, 2013, 06:20:08 pm
The survey seemed to tell me that English is not similar to American. And I do not have word for that.

British English is certainly less similar to any American dialect than those dialects are to each other.

What do you say you are doing when you are cleaning carpet with suction?
-- Hoovering
-- Vacuuming
-- other

I finally took the short survey. Northern Ohio and other midwest areas were top for me. Which makes sense since I grew up in Northern and Central Ohio.

Jack Rudd · « **Reply #21 on:** September 08, 2013, 07:19:12 am »

No great match with any US city, but the best is with New York. That seems about right.

heron · « **Reply #22 on:** September 08, 2013, 08:52:37 am »

Put me with Baltimore, which is the closest big city to my house.

SirPeebles · « **Reply #23 on:** September 08, 2013, 08:58:16 am »

Come on, post your maps. It is no fun otherwise.

rrenaud · « **Reply #24 on:** September 08, 2013, 09:40:34 am »

mine (I grew up 15 miles from Tom's River).

    Most Similar Cities
1    Toms River NJ    57.6
2    Newark NJ    57.5
3    Philadelphia PA    56.9
4    Elizabeth NJ    56.2
5    Allentown PA    55.0

    Least Similar Cities
1    Billings MT    38.8
2    Provo UT    38.9
3    Wichita Falls TX    39.0
4    West Jordan UT    39.3
5    Salt Lake City UT    39.4

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Author Topic: Your personal (American) dialect similarity map. (Read 22787 times)