I question the results

[shaolin_warrio]

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English
15% Dixie
10% Upper Midwestern
5% Yankee
0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?
Have you noticed that nobody has scored high in the Midwestern dialect??? My mother is from the Midwest. I went to college in the midwest. I spent a year in the midwest after college. I've

Comments

[outotoro]

See, midwestern is standard american english when it comes to word choice as the news media went with the Chicago word choice over either of the coasts (this doesn't even acknowledge a west coast dialect).

[bluetoro]

Damn live journal! I typed a long response which was eaten by an LJ troll.

The gist: I don't like this test because it doesn't ask enough questions to give you a feel for your dialect, and because the questions were asked in a way that made it hard to give a good answer. Out of context, I'm not sure if I use "drinking fountain" or "water fountain" more often -- I'm sure I probably use one more often, but both sound OK to me.

Also, I think dialect and accent aren't exactly the same thing. Dialect is like a "sub language" that refers to differences in grammar and vocabulary. Accent refers more to pronunciation. There is typically some overlap though, since I'd say somebody with (for instance) a New York accent also has specific vocabulary and grammar features specific to New York.