Dialect Quiz That Pinpoints Where You're From (Houston, Dallas: live, education)

[hellpaso]

I'm Jackson, MS, Birmingham, AL, & Montgomery, AL. Lol--never lived in any of those places! (Well--I did go to high school & college in Mississippi. But that was over 30 years ago!

[War Beagle]

I took it twice and was asked a couple of different questions each time. The few different questions resulted in one of my tests placing my dialect in the KCMO/Springfield, MO area and the other in Phoenix or Albuquerque. I'm not surprised that it can't pin down my exact location since my dad is from Chicago, my mom is from Philly and I have lived in different parts of the South for the majority of my life.

I guess a use a variety of terms from around the entire country.

[wxf848]

I'm from the DFW area and my closest matches are Jackson, MS, New York, and Yonkers. My red zone is the Deep South, Mid-Atlantic, and up to New York. That's an interesting combination.

I most match Jackson with "frontage road." I say that because the road provides frontage to properties adjacent to a freeway. I don't like hearing "service road" like everyone around here says. I most match New York and Yonkers by saying "cot" differently than "caught," though it's a very subtle difference.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by L210

This quiz is based on a Harvard survey, and it was exceptionally accurate for me. My top 3 cities were San Antonio, Irving, and Arlington. I am from San Antonio raised here since I was a baby. The state that was colored darkest red was Texas.

Link to the quiz.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...-quiz-map.html

My top cities were Irving and Arlington; I was born and raised in Dallas.

[Jack Lance]

My top cities the first time were Houston, Shreveport ,and Jackson. I took it a second time (I think there were a couple different questions the second time), it came up Houston, Shreveport, and New Orleans. Most dissimilar were cities in Mass. and RI.

It seems using the term Feeder Road nailed it down for Houston lol

P.S. I was born and raised in the Houston area....

[Debsi]

I got San Jose, CA, although I was born in San Diego and raised by Midwesterners.

[tebor79]

Apparently only Houstonians call a feeder road a feeder road.

[hiero2]

Originally Posted by Bobloblawslawblog

I'm calling b.s. on this one. According to my results, I'm most similar with Washington D.C., Atlanta, and Columbus, GA. I've never lived even remotely close to any of these places.

However, it also says I'm least similar with Pittsburgh, Worcester, and Springfield, MA. And I did spend part of my childhood living just outside of Springfield, MA.

A lot of folk are getting similar results. Now me, for instance - I grew up in a pretty mobile family. So "y'all" did not happen until I was 10+, but it quickly became integrated and indispensable. "Ain't", ditto, although it is reserved for much less frequent, and more specialized, usage. Some of the phrases that got labeled as "middle America" - I find odd. My branch of our family has had no one living in the geographic areas of similarity for more than 4 generations. Nor has my direct family located in those geographic areas during my lifetime.

I think mobility has ephed up some of the dialectic measurements!

[Komeht]

got me

[An0nym0us88]

I think the results are very accurate. I'm wondering for the people who say otherwise, don't you think education was part of the reason?