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

[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.