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

[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.

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 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. When I moved out here and nobody knew what I was talking about, I assumed it was because - for the most part - they don't have grass there, or they don't have sidewalks. Funny story: for years my mother assumed my (VERY Texan) father was saying "swell" with an accent, because that's kinda how strong his accent was. She didn't realize "swale" was a word until he asked me how to spell it one day and I rattled it off.

I think "garage sale" is my default, because even though I use the other terms occasionally, I generally say "Let's go garage sale-ing" when I refer to the activity.

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.

Icing and frosting are different things to me. Frosting refers to the fluffier kinds. However, I have NO IDEA where I picked this up.

Miss Bit has lived her whole life in Texas. It is fabulously amusing to see her with her Minnesota cousins. They each think the other is speaking a foreign language.
I should make my mother take this quiz. 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).

[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 should! I would be curious to see her results. My friend who has lived in Norway for the past twenty years wound up with some interesting results.

[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.