Which American Dialect is Closest to My Own? | AMERICAN DIALECT QUIZ

[@LostinthePond]

Take the American Dialect quiz yourself: www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html

[@Otokichi786]

That requires me to sign on with The New York Times. No thank you, I'm not that interested in seeing if I can be placed "outside the continental United States."

[@justKOZM]

Lost in the Pond I took the quiz and was expecting a mixed result as I grew up as a military brat and lived in CA, CO, FL, and OK. But to my surprise it was very accurate to where I live now. The 3 cities that fit me best we’re Wichita, OKC, and Springfield MO.

[@SandAngels73]

I paused your video to go and take the test. I am from Oklahoma, but most of my ancestors are from the deep south...mainly Alabama. My test showed Oklahoma City, Mobile Alabama, and Montgomery Alabama. I would say that test was a dead ringer.

[@mattflatt670]

I've always heard it called devil's night myself

[@mattflatt670]

All the names for the wild cat does infact describe the same cat

[@tobarstep]

I've heard from some linguistic historians that the general "southern" accent is the closest to the accent that the early English settlers had.

[@lionhartd138]

Yes, something about Celts (Scots, Irish, etc.) settling the Appalachias. I've heard this too.

[@hazonku]

I recently learned there's a similar situation with Texas German (which apparently is a thing). There's a whole community that speaks a more traditional version of German than what you'd find in most of Germany today because German settlers settled & the language was different enough from the established west Texan that they never really had much effect on one another. Somehow preserving an older form of German.

[@kbc163]

This also applies to Cajuns, aka Les Acadiens, who migrated from Canada down to Louisiana. Their version of French is very old, although I have been told by a native French speaker from Orleans that he could understand Cajun French quite well.

[@gojewla]

Vowels (and diphthongs) are often somewhat similar to at least some British accents. Also, the lack of r’s in the Boston accent 😂

[@tomeubank3625]

I've always heard that Appalachian was most similar to Elizabethan English.

[@prichardson623]

When I was in the Netherlands, people kept asking if I was British. They seemed surprised when I told them I was from Alabama. LOL

[@jesseberg3271]

Imagine their confusion if you'd said you were from Birmingham, just not 'that' one.

[@Blade4952]

Very few people k ow that the modern southern accent is a holdover from colonial era England. I tried to tell this to a British friend once and he refused to believe me lol.

[@jwb52z9]

I tell people that a lot and they don't get it either.

[@NunYaO]

@@Blade4952 that's funny; my British friend didn't believe me either. Until she found out common food items between us. For example: we both used malted vinegar as a condiment on batter-fried fish; as opposed to breaded or mealed fish - like catfish - on which we'd both use tartar or cocktail sauce (w/horseradish), that we both made potato-cakes, & several other distinctly British foods...then she was finally convinced.

[@chamllis]

Blade4952 the modern accent isn’t as strong as the accent 50 years ago. Back then they would have definitely believed you but at this point it’s evolved so much with a lot more communication between states

[@ebonyblack4563]

Actually all of those names do refer to the same big cat. The Puma/Cougar/Catamont/Mountian Lion holds the most regional names for the same animal on the continent. That makes it an excellent question for this type of quiz.

[@thnecromaniac]

It will always drive me nuts that peps on the gulf call them Panther, cause they ain't actualy panthers...

[@copo2835]

I feel like the "least similar" on that one may be wrong. I'm from upstate New York, and have lived in the Midwest for 20 years, amd almost exclusively hear "cougar". Occasionally I'll hear "mountain lion" or "puma", but not often. Amd the only time I've heard "catamount" is old books and westerns

[@ShiningSakura]

I live in Utah and we use mountain lion and cougar equally. Puma occationally.

[@TuhljinTampergauge]

@@ShiningSakuraKinda strange that the map indicated that cougar wasn't that common in Utah. I mean, BYU Cougars is a thing. C'mon!

[@ShiningSakura]

@@TuhljinTampergauge I thought the very same thing. I guess it comes down to you have to pick 1 option as well as who they polled for this to compare to.

[@MatthewMcCrady]

My mother grew up in rural West Virginia, and a few years ago, I took her to Edinburgh, Scotland. People there were endlessly fascinated by her accent. In Greyfriar's kirkyard, a tour group from the Netherlands stopped us and asked for directions to Greyfriar's Bobby, and when my mother answered, you'd have thought they were hearing some long lost language. They asked her questions about herself just to hear her speak.

[@margaretstutts4362]

This happened to me in NYC in the 80s and I’m from Mississippi. So, they’d ask me all kind of questions about anything. We were in line to get into Hard Rock. 🤣

[@mavahuth5044]

​@@margaretstutts4362 long time ago I was visiting my cousins in New York. They asking me to different words. They said I sounded really southern. Most in the south either can't figure out where I am from. Or they think I am from the North. Well I was born and raised in the south. 😊

[@picmajik]

That happened to me when I was 9 visiting friends who had moved from Georgia to New York. The other kids kept following me around just to hear me speak and my accent isn't that strong as other relatives. It definitely comes out when I least expect it to.

[@anndeecosita3586]

Not going to lie. I struggle to understand some people from West Virginia and I’m American.

[@lorih6514]

My mother grew up in the coal camps of Mingo County. I grew up in the Ohio River section of WV. I worked with a Scottish doctor for 15 years who laughed all the time at things I said that she swore were Scots slang.

[@Oldjohn52]

"what do you call a drive through liquor store?" A bad Idea.

[@themaggattack]

😆👍

[@davidroddini1512]

LOL. We actually have several of them in my area. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact AA started in my part of the U.S.?

[@mikedaniel1771]

Lol. Only place I've ever seen this is in Florida, where it's called Beverage Barn 😅

[@hayliedlr]

The only time I saw that was when I was in Mexico. 😑

[@a.k.v.3042]

Ha! My feeling exactly the first time I encountered one when I went to college (in Ohio).

[@wilklikesmilk5371]

I’ve always called them fireflies and lighting bugs interchangeably as well.

[@catherinerobilliard7662]

In Britain they're called glow Worms, and abundant where I live in Somerset, though I doubt they're prevalent in Grimsby.

[@riada4996]

I remember them being called both interchangeably in Indiana.

[@brianbuchmeier]

Chad Fisher Yeah, I was a little surprised about the map on that one. I used lightning bug more as a kid and firefly as an adult and I’ve always lived in Indiana.

[@ainekellan6295]

Same here

[@ivetterodriguez1994]

I would understand them interchangeably but I've never said "lightning bug" unless I was reading it from a book.

[@Joe_for_real]

When I took the quiz using only the words that I grew up using and not the ones that entered my vocabulary as an adult, it nailed my home city exactly.

[@linkly9272]

I just did the same thing, and yeah it completely nailed it. Really surprised me, haha.

[@SikenServent]

As a Pittsburgher hearing you say "yinz" puts a smile on my face 🤣

[@emminet]

Same!!

[@Hellheart]

Wow... You're a woman, in my state (Philly boy here), and most importantly, a Loyalist!? (I personally identify as a Space Wolf Adeptus Astartes 😂) You have given me so much hope... Lol Be safe, fellow citizen of the Imperium. For Russ! For the Allfather!

[@morguenmorguen6862]

Yinz is also used in Appalachia, and before today, I would have guessed that it's the only place in the US where it's said.

[@schmeckiez4540]

That's the whole reason I clicked on this :D

[@kathygolonka6944]

Im from New Castle Pa right between Pittsburgh and well Youngstown Ohio. Yinz is such a Western Pa word. But I do really cringe when people say "warsh" instead of "wash" . I know we got our language around here but that is awful on the ears.

[@randelbrooks]

I can tell you as A film historian and filmmaker myself, that British actors were chosen for the leading roles in gone with the wind because it was found that when they slowed down their speech they sounded more like southerners from the 19th century!

[@teresamanley7154]

Totally Agree with you on that.....British actors are very good with Southern accents.......

[@BOT-qg4lq]

I slowed down the video, and indeed, he turned to a southerner! in a bliiink

[@KRYMauL]

@@teresamanley7154 Except for Daniel Craig for some reason

[@theknightswhosay]

@@BOT-qg4lq he sounds like a drunk southerner

[@MostlyInteresting]

I do declare!

[@scot60]

In the south we used to say “you reckon”? Imagine my surprise when in the Harry Potter books and movies Ron often said “ What do you reckon”?

[@muscleslave9606]

Yeah, the Brits are really flailing in the darkness right now. Empire is a hell of a drug to quit.

[@carschmn]

Pretty much tracks with the fact that southern and east coast English is closer to British English

[@Author.Noelle.Alexandria]

I grew up saying "Ya reckon."

[@rhondaprice5202]

Yes I'm in NC. The word is a part of us..lol

[@rachaelbean1439]

I am a New Zealander we say reckon which surprised my Californian sister in law

[@alanr4447a]

10:30 I think you wanted the third option, "cray-awn".

[@Narrowgaugefilms]

Years ago I had a friend from East Anglia, with whom I e-mailed quite often. We exchanged recordings of our voices, and were both impressed by how "unaccented" we seemed. Years later I read a Bill Bryson book on American English and he wrote that many original settlers of what is now the Eastern US came from this region are are still an influence on our accent.

[@themathhatter5290]

13:28 "They don't, surely, describe the same type of cat though." Um, about that.

[@debigarland7313]

The Math Hatter yes, they do, don’t they?

[@cormyat07]

@@debigarland7313 Mountain lion is most common, in my experience, though you do hear cougar and puma on occasion. They're like jaguars without the spots.

[@Cadwaladr]

@@debigarland7313 Yes, Puma concolor, they live all through the Americas from the Yukon to the southern Andes.

[@iceynova]

In the south, where I went to school our mascot was the cougar, but once I moved to Colorado the schools used Mountain Lion. Personally I use Mountain Lion.

[@marshallscott4216]

“Painter” is a specifically Appalachian turn of “panther.” Growing up in Tennessee, we heard the word “panther” most often and sometimes pronounced as “painter” but always knowing it was the same cat as cougar and mountain lion.

[@theknave4415]

There is also a huge Scots-Irish influence in the Appalachians and the Southern U.S., as well as English.

[@jwb52z9]

That's exactly why Texans speak the way we do. It's a dialect from the Appalachians and British and Scots-Irish unless you're in some parts of the Panhandle and they sound like Yankees with a flat accent.

[@daffy8995]

Yeah, I kind of expected North Carolina

[@wb6wsn]

@@jwb52z9 I spent some time in Guymon, OK, in the Oklahoma panhandle right above the Texas panhandle, and they sure didn't sound like Yankees to me. Of course, I will admit that they didn't sound like Sanderson or Uvalde either.

[@OfficiallySanctionedKATG]

There are parts of the Appalachian mountain region where they still speak almost identically to their ancestors from the south west of england (cornish/bristolian) the accent is almost identical, the dialect/phrases etc line up very well too. You could put the two peoples together and it would be hard to tell the two apart.

[@gizmogoose.2486]

Ulster-Irish

[@sassygrammy1258]

Growing up in the south, we said dinner for the noon meal and supper for the evening meal. The dinner meal was the larger meal. I think TV has played a big part in changing how people relate to terms.

[@virginiaandsarah]

In our house dinner was the evening meal and lunch was at noon.

[@Aztec339]

My mom was from Montreal Canada so we said supper for the evening meal. As a grownup I always use dinner.

[@SixofQueens]

Yeah, for me growing up the larger, more formal meal was the evening meal and it was called dinner, lunch was a smaller, often less formal meal that was usually whatever you could make or reheat quickly in the microwave and didn't necessarily involve the entire family, even on weekends or during holidays. I can't comment on how much it might have been influenced by media, it was just always the case. For reference, my parents grew up in Ohio in the 60s through 70s.

[@CeeJayThe13th]

Grew up in the south. For my grandparents it went breakfast, dinner, supper. At my house, there was no lunch as that's something you'd eat at work or school since nobody would be home at that time and dinner /supper was used interchangeably.

[@MoogieB]

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper. We only had dinner on special days like Christmas, New Years, Easter & Thanksgiving. From South Louisiana.

[@MichaelScheele]

The "sub" in sub sandwich is short for submarine. Some breads used for them resemble the hull shape of a submarine. Plus, they were popular as a lunch item for workers at shipyards that built submarines during WW II.

[@hylianarcher4531]

And then a poboys (or poor boy, as some call it), is a distinct type of sandwich from down here in the South where it's made using french bread. The best type specifically uses New Orleans style french bread. Also, while poboys, like subs, have a roast beef option or even stuff like a hamburger or steak option sometimes, most meat options for poboys are seafood based rather than farm meat based, primarily: catfish, shrimp, crab, and fried oysters.

[@karnerbutterfly]

And breads with the same basic shape - only smaller - are called torpedo rolls.

[@KurtFitzy]

I’m from Groton CT which is one of the largest submarine manufacturers in the country (and world) and very ironically in our region we don’t call them submarine sandwiches. We actually call them “grinders” since that used to be slang for dockworkers who brought that kind of sandwich to work.

[@jgsmith4957]

You have all the charm of a true southern gentleman. Bless your heart.

[@brianburns7211]

My grandmother who recently passed was very interested in the history of the English language. I inherited a book on the subject. Amongst the reading, it noted that the eastern Massachusetts accent was an offshoot of the East Anglia accent. This was because most of the Puritan Migration consisted of families from East Anglia, who settled in Massachusetts. My family comes from the border of Essex and Suffolk, and moved to Boston in 1634. I’ve noticed that my grandparents and great grandparents used lots of what would now be considered the British term for something.

[@gavinparks5386]

I thought he missed the option , in the pronunciation of "crayon " with second syllable rhyming with "dawn "

[@cirrustate8674]

I agree, he did miss that.

[@bkane573]

@@cirrustate8674 agreed

[@trajectoryunown]

This drove me nuts from kindergarten. CRAY-ON! That's how it's spelled. It's not an effing CROWN! >:( I can look past variations for most words but this one still gets to me. ahn has the exact same pronunciation as awn. Both sound like on. Am I missing something?

[@paulwebbiweb]

He may have missed it, but it didn't match his pronunciation anyway - not in British terms. His O in CRAYON is the O sound in (British) DON, not the one in (British) DAWN.

[@gavinparks5386]

@@paulwebbiweb You've confused me now . I'm Scottish , and I say both don and dawn exactly the same.

[@vintagehockeygear6769]

my result was very accurate, mainly because the question about the night before Halloween is called "Devil's Night" and is specific to the Detroit/Michigan area, also we say "pop" instead of "soda" in Michigan.

[@JBG1968]

The Pittsbugh area always called it Devils night to , and we famously always called it pop .

[@Lorrainecats]

Michigan here. It's devil's night because bad people set fires, vandalize. And commit general mayhem. And we say pop. Soda is the white stuff that comes in a yellow box.

[@monicawitt9368]

​@@JBG1968 Pittsburgh and Detroit have some interesting dialect overlap.

[@RR-on4sk]

Rust belt -- we all use similar terms I'm thinking.

[@rneumeye]

I listened to an interview with the people who came up with the survey. There is a question like that for almost every city, where that one answer is like a bullseye, BAM, "you're from here cause they're the only ones who say that". 😅 They can figure out where you grew up with two or three random questions. It's really cool. 😅

[@moxiedawn4370]

I'm not surprised at all. It was my automatic guess. In a lot of quizzes about American/English word choices, many words I would routinely use as a southern person are common in England.

[@xnonsuchx]

I didn't go researching it, but I had heard from casually reading a few articles online over the years that the southern drawl is derived from British accents.

[@theyoshi202]

drawwwwwwl

[@mattkomar7622]

yeah, I've heard this too. Apparently if you slow down a British accent, it begins to sound more like a Southern accent.

[@johnalden5821]

Probably all of the American accents are derived from British accents -- just from different parts of Britain. Four hundred years ago, British accents were even more dissimilar than they are now. So if you had a preponderance of East Anglians going into New England, for example, that would influence the development of that accent, etc.

[@greyblob1101]

@Mike Girard I don't get that, Boomhauer talk really fast and still sound southern

[@beholder8467]

I grew up outside of Pittsburgh PA so when I saw "yinz" in the title, I just had to like automatically.

[@kamX-rz4uy]

If you answer that to question number one the quiz should just stop and pinpoint you at Pittsburgh.

[@conniecrawford5231]

kam2244 X Pittsburgh rocks !

[@twocosmic2982]

Being a pennsylvanian I've heard alot of times that we definitely have an accent. I never understood that, cause I no materfactly we talk same as y'all

[@billvill61]

@@kamX-rz4uy Exactly! I grew up there but haven't lived there for 35 years, but I can still pick out w SW PA accent a mile away. I mean, where else can yinz go Dahn tahn and have a jumbo sandwich at Isleys then worsh up afterwards?

[@AustinsMind]

I’m from Pittsburgh and I don’t really use yinz unless I’m back home, but the thing that gives me away is when I say pop instead of soda.

[@zoilacurtis7112]

As a retired English teacher from Georgia, I bet myself that your dialect would be close to that of the South. I have always been fascinated with the idea that the Southern dialect is derived from Elizabethan English.

[@Blondie42]

Irish has a huge influence on it

[@billnye7323]

@@Blondie42 No, the South has a relatively low irish, especially compared to the Northeast. If you mean "Scots-Irish" then perhaps, even though those people are actually Scottish and Northern English. Also, the English were the first to settle the south.

[@Blondie42]

@billnye7323 Yes. Why do you think that they can easily fake a southern accent? Had the great famine never happened, with 1.5 million fleeing to NA, we likely wouldn't have that dialect nor two holidays

[@billnye7323]

@@Blondie42 What dialect are you referring to, and what state is NA?

[@sststr]

You can't be a southerner unless you say "y'all!" Even more importantly, you must understand the proper usage of "all y'all".

[@Scott65J]

truth!

[@StaveEntertainment]

Bless those little hearts of those that cant understand all y,all but they try

[@iloveyourunclebob]

I wish you guys and y'all interchangeably was an option.

[@uhohhotdog]

Jaded Wonderland that’s me

[@GZQ9]

strave victourous all y’all is just the plural of y’all

[@spookyblush-speedruns]

"neutral ground" makes it sound like you go into the middle of the road grassy strip to discuss parlay.

[@gregcrabb3497]

Neutral ground makes me think of New Orleans, Louisiana.

[@mattelder1971]

@@gregcrabb3497 Yeah, New Orleans is one of the main places that uses that term.

[@sferg9582]

If you're an electrician, these words are NOT interchangeable.

[@billvill61]

...or the DMZ

[@donvineyard8654]

In rural Texas it was all about the size. Sunday dinner was at noon and the largest meal of the day. Supper was the evening meal, but dinner was also used if it was going to be the big meal of the day. Lunch was usually the noon meal unless it was the big Sunday meal, then dinner. But I encountered varied uses so I adapt to go with about anything and just listen to the context more than the word itself.

[@BengtBagels]

Raised n Stayed in TX 1 I heard the term Supper only once outside of a religious setting from a girl from Memphis. Lol never heard it again. We always had Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. Otherwise it was a snack. We never use Brunch or Linner use Supper, at all. Tho we might eat a traditional dinner for breakfast and breakfast for an evening meal. So we never really swung hard and true at any specifications for that thing on a plate that we are all consuming at this hour. Tho... I never heard anyone else call things meals. We might say... "Hey, I gotta head back home to wash up before our evening meal" that used to bother people lol idky. It was gonna be our last meal of the day. Also what is considered evening means very different things to me and my family and other locals. We would say: The Wee Hrs 12³⁰a - 2a Early Morning 3a - 5a Morning 6a-11a Noon 12p Afternoon 1p - 5p Evening 6p - 8p Night 8:³⁰p - 5a Midnight 12a So when ppl would day can we meet up in thr afternoon that is legit anywhere in that specified 5 hour period of 1p to right before 6p

[@BengtBagels]

The above is a bit of a long comment Proceed at own risk 🫠

[@LoriPeace]

My parents were from Oklahoma and Arkansas, and I was born in Texas, so dinner was almost always just Sunday at noon when we got home from church (as you said), and rarely ever any other day of the week. Except of course for Christmas dinner and Thanksgiving dinner, which are big meals in the middle of the afternoon, where you have a light breakfast and no lunch to make sure you have plenty of space! LOL

[@LoriPeace]

@@BengtBagels I don't know that I ever thought about it that specifically, but when I read your time descriptions, that lined up very closely with what I understand those terms to mean. (Born in Texas, raised all over the place.)

[@TennesseeMelanie]

I wasn't surprised at all that you came out "Southern!" We are happy to have you amongst our linguistic midst.

[@GregInHouston2]

I'll put in an interesting story. My daughter is in her 30s and was born and raised in Texas. Her mother was born and raised in Taiwan [chinese]. She went on a business trip to Wisconsin. When she was returning, she found someone sitting in her seat. The person was obviously part of a couple that wanted to sit together. She was okay with changing seats so she asked the one sitting in her seat where she should sit. They just stared at her. She had to repeat the question twice before she got an answer. She later figured out that the couple was staring at her when a little Chinese girl came up and asked them a question with a Texas accent.

[@patricialavery8270]

There were two lovely Asian ladies with drawls and big hair running a Chinese restaurant in Kentucky.lol

[@rosehawke2577]

One of the strangest experiences I ever had was being checked out from a Mexican restaurant by an East Asian cashier who had a stroooooong Southern accent.

[@bubbaclemson5566]

Here in the Southeast Apalachian / Blue Ridge mountains and the foothills, we tend to have more Irish/Scott/Welsh linguistic similarities.. but that is evident by the early settlers to the region

[@jagdpanther1944]

The south western accents of England sound similar, the drawl in Devon/Somerset is the same today as Virginia, where they first settled (but disappearing fast unfortunately, as everyone speaks a monotone trans-Atlantic voice now)

[@bubbaclemson5566]

@@jagdpanther1944 went to broadcast journalism school, first thing they did was get rid of our accents, wanted a neutral Midwest sound.

[@madmanmapper]

I'm pretty sure the 'boot sale' answer is a plant to find British spies.

[@ChrisHolman]

🤣😂🤣😂

[@johnalden5821]

Unless you are actually trying to sell a bunch of boots. Could indicate some place up north?

[@hayliedlr]

@@johnalden5821 I'm in the Midwest and we call a trunk sale when people sell things from the trunk of their car. Kind of like second had things, handmade things or even at a craft fair

[@aaronjackson1875]

We don’t need to spy on you.

[@ohyeahgamer3736]

Aaron Jackson are you sure about that?

[@janet91973gm]

Took several different quizzes, including the one you did. Yours said Salt Lake, Phionex & Tucson. I've lived in Denver Colorado since 1962. My parents are from eastern Kansas. I thought I'd have a Midwest or southern dialect. The closest any quiz came said "Your accent is actually an amalgamation of a lot of different regional dialects, so no one can ever really pinpoint where you come from" I'm happy with that!

[@taynet64]

as a southerner, I've heard my entire life "the devil's beatin' his wife"

[@davidpatterson4646]

from middle tennessee this is what was always said am close to 60 yrs old

[@MegaCakeFan]

Being a southerner as well (Louisiana, never heard of the place yats he mentioned. ), I VAGUELY remember/know the term but for me it's just a "sun shower". Like for crawfish, Know/heard of the term mudbug, but it's never really called that here unless in a joking manner with/between kids. Mainly since its a fairly big export from our state, would be foolish to call em that lol

[@aengusdedanann181]

i live in east Tennessee and am raised by someone from Indiana so I have a mix. Crawdad, sun shower, mountain lion, pop. My brother is asked a lot if he is from New York weirdly enough.

[@nancyjanzen5676]

Living on the coast of Texas we tend to call that the seabreeze. Usually happens in the early afternoon.

[@rekietabeatslc9980]

I'm gonna have to use that one. In Ireland, so I'll get some miles out of it lol

[@sydneykendall7125]

Took the test. It placed me in Dayton, Ohio, one hour away from Cincinnati, where I was born, raised, and lived most of my life. Excellent!

[@suem6004]

Indeed. Those southern English immigrants and the mountains which encapsulated their dialects. If you look at internal migration patterns westward, North Carolina to Tennessee. Virginians to Kentucky and southern Indiana. You may be curious about this topic.

[@ChrisHolman]

Indeed, Indiana and Kentucky have similar roots. Just pointing out that culturally Southern Indiana is very different from Northern Indiana. Some counties in Southern Indiana are more like Kentucky linguistically than Indiana. I grew up a stones throw from the Ohio river in Indiana, from the top of our grain bin we could see Kentucky. I took the quiz and it placed me in Louisville Kentucky. Most people here are of German or French decent.

[@Bozeema]

That was definitely an interesting quiz; I'm a kiwi living in Australia. It put me firmly in the New England area (Top 3 cities were New York, New Jersey and Yonkers), with a few splashes of orange in Miami, San Francisco. Los Angeles and Hawaii.

[@keltzy]

This test is hard, just 'cuz I've spent so much time adapting words from other dialects into my own. I used both cougar and mountain lion (and sometimes puma). I've definitely heard crawfish, crayfish, and crawdad, but I'm not sure if I've ever had cause to say the word myself. Water fountain and drinking fountain both. I pronounce both crayon and caramel in different ways at random. Incidentally, my three cities were all quite spaced out, though one of them was quite close to my hometown, so that was kinda cool.

[@rinatail7248]

I know what you mean...

[@johnpeace971]

I'm so stuck in my pronunciation I always assumed a cranberry was spelled crayonberry

[@jordanwilliams9300]

What's most fascinating to me is how we all KNOW of these alternative regional words for these items, but we still don't use them.

[@joecerone]

Its our country dude, it'd be weird if we didn't pick these sorts of things up, no?

[@willkittwk]

@@joecerone true and there's no rhyme or reason what kind of phraseology we'll use in California. Southern Cal you can hear sort of a surfer sound and lingo and in the Central Cal it's a hick dialect when you get out of the cities. One of the guys I worked with was from Arkansas and he told the boss man he liked to work with me cause I'm country. I said I know whatcha mean. He'd say stuff like that dadgum this or that or the other and I'd just throw them country phrases back at him. We could talk proper when we talked to customers. But when we talked among ourselves it was a lot of country clownin. Never taking life seriously. That guy could sell a deep freezer to an Eskimo. We actually sold Eskimo outposts sometimes cause the government gives them money they don't know what to do with. He'd promise them he'd throw a case of vodka in the shipment cause they're not allowed to by liquor. Never did😹😂🤣

[@HannahHannya]

The incredulity with which you said “monkey's wedding” was very funny.

[@claradaniels1472]

i did this quiz and the three cities they gave me were all within 50 miles of where i grew up. scarily accurate!

[@fadnama]

I’ve always called easy school courses, “bullish!t courses”.

[@cannedyams9977]

Oh wow, the first thing to came to my mind was a crap class. Not sure if your joking or not but it’s eerily similar

[@talemaster4431]

We called them "pud" classes.

[@amywright2243]

I called them bunny classes.

[@thesnowmonkeyhaslanded3513]

Suburban Chicago from the 70s and 80s we called them blow-offs. Blowoff classes, not courses. Class is used frequently when meaning course. And you could skip a blowoff class, or a hard class, by "blowoff", as in "let's blowoff Calculus today and go to Taco Bell."

[@Mobliz]

I called them Electives.

[@mokuseinoosa]

In Japan, when rain falls while the sun is shining, we call it "kitsune no yome-iri (狐の嫁入り)", which literally means "fox's wedding" too.

[@elijahtomaquin3160]

In the philippines if that event happens, we link it to a tikbalang's (half human half horse creature) wedding.

[@Koutouhara]

Yep! and Japanese Americans (like myself) say that too! Though I was also raised in the south so I've heard 'devil beating his wife'. If I'm trying to hid my accent or blend in at least, I just go with sunshower since it's the most neutral.

[@ranjanbiswas3233]

IT'S SAME IN SOUTH ASIA TOO WTF.

[@meridien52681]

@@elijahtomaquin3160 I grew up in the Midwest but parent were from the South. It was "devil's beating his wife," here too. Boy wasn't he mean af!

[@MICHST1978]

Oct 30 in Michigan, particularly in Detroit, is Devil's Night

[@JanetSilversides]

MICHST1978 Hi. I’m from Detroit.

[@jeffshannon3627]

Confirmed

[@ashesuponashes6090]

We call it Devil's Eve in Lansing

[@timothytruman123]

Shi that's my birthday lol

[@Mark-zv7jl]

Most definitely

[@susanpeterson9947]

Thanks for sharing the link to the quiz. I’m a fourth generation Floridian and it shows in my vocabulary. My cities are Tampa (I grew up just north of there), Tallahassee (I went to college there), and Jackson, Mississippi (apparently my penalty for using the term frontage road). My Mom’s people were English and my Dad’s were Scottish.

[@debigarland7313]

Mine was right on, too - I grew up in Kelso, WA and Salem, OR, and my three cities were Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland. All three of these were because of a roly poly that I call a potato bug. I’m really enjoying your channel, thanks so much.

[@quinnreverance611]

Debi Garland whoot whoot Pacific Northwest Gang!

[@priceandpride]

A potato bug is different than a rollie polliie tho

[@user-lt2rw5nr9s]

4:44 In Michigan's southern lower peninsula, I've always called it devil's night.

[@IndustrialParrot2816]

i allways stick eve on it intersted

[@lindaelliott184]

I too grew up in Michigan. Devil’s Night.

[@mandylcox]

SAME!

[@xaiyab6892]

Has always been Devil's night to me. (Mid Michigan)

[@kilngoddess424]

I don't call it that persay but i've heard it called that but there are a lot of snowbirds from michigan down here usually.

[@AnnaKateTheGreat91]

frosting and icing are different things.

[@bcatypical]

Please describe both.

[@AnnaKateTheGreat91]

@@bcatypical Frosting is thick and fluffy; icing is thin and sometimes glossy.

[@dirtroadie5747]

Agree with Anna. Frosting would be like on a birthday cake and icing would be like on a cinnamon roll.

[@SangosEvilTwin]

and icing is marginally thicker than a glaze

[@AnnaKateTheGreat91]

@@SangosEvilTwin Right, exactly. Although you could almost use those two interchangeably. Never frosting, though.

[@msjazzmeblues]

I've noticed your choices and mine are fairly alike. I am from Birmingham. (Alabama)

[@Llepidoptra]

As a Canadian expat living in the US, I took this quiz and one of the three cities is the one I've been living in for most of the ~8 years I've been here (Madison WI). The other one is one of the closest cities to where I lived in Canada (Rochester NY, I lived on the northern side of Lake Ontario near Toronto). Good quiz.

[@luigivincenz3843]

same here. I'm from Sask now in CA, and sometimes FL.

[@gabriels287]

I like the way you say “three”, the way the “r” gets slightly rolled after the “th”.

[@tamrabananarama3354]

The first and only time I've heard "Yinz" was in Pittsburgh, Pa. They have quite a few words that I had never heard of.

[@patriciayohn6136]

In Pittsburghese I believe that it is Warshinton as well as warter

[@Barb5001]

It is not well known but most all major media stars etc etc speech is based on a mid western dialect . The mid western dialect has become the American standard on American TV etc and known world wide. Since you live in the mid west, you are acquiring the standard American dialect

[@robertpayne2717]

In the early 70s my sister was on an international flight and engaged in a conversation with a 60ish man they went through the usual pleasantries and asked her share she was from she and my BIL. were living in Lincoln Nebraska and he told her yes but you weren't raised there and she said no I wasnt. He asked her if she'd ever heard of a town called Tyronza Ark. She said yes it was about 5miles from where she went to school. He said he thought so because during the war he'd made a friends with an American Servicemen and in the 1960s he'd traveled to Tyronza to visit, come to find out he was a linguist Professor from the UK and his knowledge of Dialects was so precise he was able to determine a where a young woman had been raised within just a few miles of a place he had visited probably 10 years prior.

[@c0ronariu5]

Robert Payne real life Henry Higgins

[@MsTwister57]

That's very impressive. I wish I could have met this man. I love linguistics

[@robinchesterfield42]

Huh! That's like the time my mom and two other members of our Star Trek club, which at the time included an English professor and an English as a second language teacher who spoke seven languages, quizzed my mom on "How do you say (blank)?" all the way to a convention in Denver. Because she's lived all over the country so they were trying to trace what was from where. :P

[@brownjatt21]

That's Amazing

[@DomingoDeSantaClara]

This reminds me of a Polish woman I met in London,after chatting for a few minutes she asked "are you from New Zealand"? I said yes then she asked,"are you from Dunedin"? It floored me that she'd picked up on my accent and was able to pinpoint where I grew up. She told me she'd travelled around NZ and that was how she knew.

[@morgainnetaar]

I've always heard that the south is close to many of the British accents. I'm twenty minutes from Birmingham. Y'all come!

[@osuasheuatl]

which one??

[@morgainnetaar]

@@osuasheuatl lol Birmingham, Alabama. The one that his results showed.

[@pm5206]

Hence the name Birmingham.

[@nunliski]

@Kathleen Henson No, you really don't. The US and the UK each have a single Birmingham that everyone other than you immediately understands is the one being talked about unless further clarified.

[@billstokes6740]

I'm from Arkansas. It's all Scotch-Irish English and German.

[@mandapanda1701]

I thought for a second you said “drive-through knickers store”. I was wondering where in the US would someone need some pants so desperately!

[@fogweaver5633]

Knickers are pants, often leather, that buckle below the knee, commonly seen in 18th century illustrations. Pants are the midground between jeans and trousers. I believe what you are referring to is what we, properly, call underpants. After all, they are worn under your trousers, pants, or jeans.

[@zhubajie6940]

The plural you you’uns, yinz, yunz of western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio has its origins in Scotland or more specifically the Ulster-Scots (Scotch-Irish) settlers in that region arriving in the 18th and early 19th century. See "From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English" by Michael Montgomery.

[@tiredallthetime1636]

Ok where in the us are fireflies called peenie wallie’s

[@AsaTJ522]

It's one tiny island off the coast of the Carolinas that uses an African-influenced pidgin English called Gullah! Very interesting, and I had never heard of it before taking this quiz.

[@jamesonrosen1773]

@@AsaTJ522 i heard about the origin of this. Very cool. Truly the american spirit shinning through with ingenuity. The conditions in which this was made necessary are a blight on american history, yet if they were ignored it would be a disgrace(at the very least) Having time between these events allows us to appreciate these cultural differences but why they came about is still uncool.

[@mysticmama_3692]

Mostly in the Gullah island areas off the coast of South Carolina.

[@rhondaprice5202]

I'm in NC and never heard of it.

[@redboy09100]

@@rhondaprice5202 I’m from NC and Gullah used to be here too. I’m surprised you never heard of them. They’re pretty well known here

[@hunterrichie2764]

Here in Alabama, my grandfather still says dinner in the middle of the day. So that may have been more common years ago and fell out of use over the years.

[@JeantheSecond]

My dad said that. He was born in the 30s.

[@Fakeaugie]

He could also be an old man who eats his dinner earlier than most

[@billstokes6740]

In Arkansas ,dinner is lunch time .Supper is evening meal. In Michigan it is the opposite.

[@teresamanley7154]

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner....morning, noon, and night.

[@hymanocohann2698]

In the old days dinner was eaten mid day, supper was the evening meal, lighter, usually leftovers

[@marygebbie6611]

Arguably, your pronunciation of crayon fit the choice "two syllables, the second rhyming with dawn," although since you pronounce dawn differently, you may have not registered that was the fitting one. XD Also, 16:00 you chose water fountain for the drinking apparatus, which is common down south. Drinking fountain would have been the northern one. EDIT: Everyone commenting is missing the point! The comment is about Lawrence saying he clicked drinking fountain but he actually clicked water fountain. This expression is extremely prevalent in South, which is why the map shows it's super dooper red, but that doesn't mean that people elsewhere don't say it. That's why the algorithm placed him down south for picking water fountain --not drinking fountain as he accidentally said.

[@ManoloGal]

I'm from the north and also live out west. Anywhere I've lived people always called it a water fountain never a drinking fountain.

[@fafnyrslair]

I'm from the northwest and everyone I know calls it a drinking fountain

[@marygebbie6611]

If you look at the map, it does show that in the northwest there are some that say water fountain. Is your area part of the red area on the map?

[@lone6718]

Mary Gebbie Northwest would be Montana over. I’m from Idaho and you will hear water fountain and drinking fountain.

[@zinho9169]

Im in CT and I've always said water fountain. The map even shows all of New England pretty much says water fountain.

[@geeksdo1tbetter]

Woah! Your delivery has changed drastically since this video! Please take the quiz again!!

[@TheAsmodeus2012]

On some rare occasions growing up in Utah, I would hear the term 'Gate Night' to describe the night before Halloween, so I know that one is sometimes used. Kitty-corner I use as a descriptor for something on a diagonal line relative to another object, person or building. I grew up with kitty-wampus, though not used as a spatial coordinate, but to describe a situation that has gone 'sideways' or FUBAR. I only rarely use boulevard and the only reason for that was because I spent a few years in Florida as a young child. Otherwise I would have no particular descriptive word for it. Likewise for 'sunshower'. 'Frontage road' I picked up after that in Utah. Same with Cougar/Mountain Cat/Screamer, or sometimes Mountain Wraith or Canyon Ghost. And yes, it's all the same animal. They are legendary apex predators to the people in the areas where they live. I've come face to face with one at 2am on the way back from the latrine as it stood in the trail between me and camp. At about 10 yards away. Which was utterly terrifying because of two things: The first is that if you see a Cougar, it's because it *wants* you to see it. It wants you to know that you are intruding into it's territory and that you are being watched. It had deliberately isolated me from the others before walking into the trail and allowing me to see it. The second reason was of more immediate concern, because I happen to know that they can leap up to 20 yards from a stopped, standing position. No warning as they run at you. They just fly across the intervening distance in the form of an angry, organic buzz-saw. And yes. They scream. I froze, we both looked at each other for a few long seconds, assessing. Then it calmly continued it's path across the trail and into the brush on the other side. Which I would have to pass getting back to a camp full of sleeping people who had no idea about what was lurking 20 yards beyond our circle of tents. That was one of the most intense 30-yard walks of my life, followed by a long, sleepless night close to the fire with a hatchet in my hand and my head on a swivel.

[@robinchesterfield42]

YIKES. And here I thought it was bad that somebody had filmed one calmly walking down Center Street in Provo, Utah, last summer...Although in that case, I thought more that it was bad for the CAT. They don't come into population centers like that unless they _need_ to. 2019 summer in Utah was INSANELY dry. I bet all the food was dying off/moving away... Poor kitty. Poor gigantic, scary, I'll respect it from a very safe distance away, THANK you, kitty... But seriously that summer was AWFUL. The higher-up mountains were on fire and it didn't rain for entire months at a time. Where were we all of a sudden, Arizona?

[@vintagehockeygear6769]

kitty-wampus makes me think of something that got bent like a car fender, at least that is where I have heard that term used

[@libbytaylor2358]

I had always heard that our Southern drawl came from England!

[@charlesgallagher1376]

I’m from Buffalo but I picked up saying “ Y’all “ and dropping “youse guys” without a second thought.

[@dale3404]

It makes sense, right

[@marcwheeler4406]

Also from ny area I say you all but I also say "a" because were so closely aligned near Canada I've picked up a few of their sayings also....shout out to my Canada neighbors who I miss so much ....

[@shondadiggins21]

We have a lot of drive thru liquor/convenient stores in Ohio. I was surprised a lot of places didn’t have them once I started traveling.

[@cmillivol98]

Welcome to the South! Grab a glass of tea while you’re here. Not that hot stuff, though.

[@diddiaskew3084]

Never mind them, I'll drink hot tea ☕ with you. It will be Peach but...

[@cmillivol98]

Adrianne Merideth Georgian, I’m guessing?

[@dellajoycebairdmoses7890]

I love hot tea with half n half and sugar, especially in the cold months. Ice tea in the warmer climates. Family is from N.E.Tennessee.

[@baerlauchstal]

Limey here. Tea is a hot drink, even in the tropics. (Though my equally Limey daughter would disagree.)

[@bdoglance]

some of use take our tea hot here in the winter months in North Florida as well. :)

[@honeybunnythemusical]

My mom was from England and I always remember how she could tell where a English person was from based on their accent. Who knew? Growing up I never thought she had a accent...but when I got older when I imitated her people said I spoke with a English accent. My spouse's mom was from Germany and he didn't think she had a accent...which I can verify she did..a heavy one.

[@johntheherbalistg8756]

"Mountain screamer?! Are you sure that's the name of a cat?!" Says the guy who has (obviously) never heard one calling out in the night 😱

[@toddrickman]

Big Hug from Rienzi Mississippi, you'd fit in just fine down here with us. 🤣

[@JohnStark72]

Had heard in my youth that many English claimed the South was most aligned with the general British dialect, so your results don't surprise me.

[@ChuckyJesus666]

I tried two of these quizzes and they left out what I grew up calling "sodas." They were always called "cold drinks" in north Texas. I know I'm not imagining that, because you can google images for vintage signs which say "cold drinks," and you'll find a large selection for your viewing pleasure. I was once visiting my sister in Southern California in the late 80's, when I went to a local grocery store to buy some "soda." I walked all over the store, not finding where they kept them; finally I asked a guy who was stocking shelves where they kept the "cold drinks." He told me they didn't have any, but I could find them at the 7-11. Puzzled, I left and just went to a nearby convenience store. My sister informed me that that if you say, "cold drinks," the locals there will think you literally mean refrigerated drinks.

[@JaimeMesChiens]

I live in Connecticut and we call it soda. My best friend lives in Nebraska and she says pop.

[@JaimeMesChiens]

and yes, cold drinks mean you buy them from the refrigerator. ❤

[@tejaswoman]

I find that interesting, because I grew up in north Texas as well, and everyone I knew I always said Coke no matter what brand of soda was being discussed. A good friend went to the Interlochen music camp in the upper Midwest our sophomore year of high school and they were inordinately amused by this habit. Around there people called it pop, and if she were the one fetching everyone a drink from a vending machine, when they ask her to bring them a Coke, she would follow up with "sure, what kind [i.e., brand] do you want?" at which point they would look at her, baffled, and reiterate with emphasis, " _Coke_ !"

The NYT quiz does actually include it, but it only gives you a random subset of the questions when you take it, rather than all of them. I wish it let you answer every question.

[@melanie62954]

@@tejaswoman Same. I'm from North Texas and all carbonated drinks were cokes. As an adult though, I call them sodas just because I don't like Coke and don't want to accidentally get one!

[@silverysparkles]

The quiz was very accurate. My top two cities are the two major cities that I've lived between most of my life.

[@feralbluee]

i am definitely a New Yorker ( which includes NYC, Westchester County and closely surrounding counties. although, i have begun using the idiom y’all cause it seems to fit better in some uses. i would like to begin saying ‘you lot’. i love that idiom. i do say car park now. i watch and listen to a lot of British audio and video shows :) 😋

[@buckturgidson1448]

Don’t know if this is relevant or not but I believe most southerners would tell you that British actors do a southern accent ten times better than American yankee actors.

[@hayliedlr]

You mean a Northerner? Or a Midwesterner?

[@buckturgidson1448]

JoJo Bean Non-southerner.

[@TheSuzberry]

As a Southerner, I strongly disagree. Most “southern” accents whether from US or British actors are generic and grating. Just as if an American used a “generic” British accent other than RP.

[@michaelanthony4750]

I say I say I resemble that remark!

[@traj07]

The thing is there is not really a 'Southern accent'. Alabama sounds different than Louisiana which sounds different than Texas. Most actors use a mix of all of them which just sounds weird to us.

[@EspressoLaine]

One southern parent and one yankee parent; spent half my life in each region. I got Midwest - and now live in the Midwest. I’m nothing if not adaptable apparently.

[@kaluahmon]

I've spent my entire life in the deep south but it put me in Boise or Grand Rapids. I think that I confused it because my family is from Florida.

[@pretzelbomb6105]

Born in Massachusetts, moved to Cali at 2, moved to Georgia at 6, lived here ever since. My mom never got me to call them bubblers and even she stopped calling them rotaries, but it will always be a Lookie Lou when idiots stop traffic to gawk.

[@danajohnson4757]

Both my parents were "Yankees". They were born and raised in Illinois. However, my brothers and I were born and raised in Texas. Best of both worlds for me!! 💕

[@IndustrialParrot2816]

weird my dad is from the southwest and my mom is the canadian midwest but it corectly geussed i am from the Pacific northwest

[@morgantherat]

Clicked just to hear him say "y'all" That was an interesting quiz! Mine was the reddest in Colorado and New Mexico, with the darkest in the vicinity of my hometown where we had supper at six and "dinner" was something fancy, and we literally lived off of a "frontage road," across the "median" to the "highway." No fireflies though, never saw those until I lived down south, and it took all of five minutes for "y'all" to be firmly embedded within my vocabulary. That was also when I got used to people ordering a "coke" when they meant "soda," and had to ask what kind because we served Pepsi products and I knew they didn't mean Coca-Cola 🤪

[@becb7936]

Morgan The Rat Thank you!!! I just had this conversation with someone who commented on a video on a different channel and they tried to argue me down about the use of the word Coke in the South. I'm so glad to see someone validate exactly what I was saying!

[@mordeys]

where did you find the quiz..the one i found looks like this but has different questions...nytimes link?

[@claddagh143]

@@mordeys did you check out the top/pinned comment on the video?

[@Ycekhold]

Coca-Cola's global HQ is in Atlanta, so of course people in the South use "coke" to refer to any carbonated soft drink--their marketing definitely worked.

[@vibaj16]

mordeys the quiz gives you random questions

[@jennifercarriger6168]

When I worked at the Great Escape which was in Lake George NY, USA, I regularly hung out with some people from Poland who where taught English in England and were hired in. Apparently one person encountered someone at the airport with a deep southern drawl. He literally thought the guy was not speaking English, but an entirely different language and he asked him what country he was from. 😂

[@rinatail7248]

I've met a foreigner who couldn't understand a southern accent, too!

[@SelfPropelledDestiny]

They are ALL the same species of cat!

[@horsenuts1831]

I'm British, where we don't have any dangerous animals, and if I saw one I would probably call it, "Oh shit"

[@kamX-rz4uy]

Panthers are related to Jaguars and Leopards but in America the misnamed Florida panther is really a cougar that can also play hockey.

[@sledjenkins5]

@@horsenuts1831 and I was under the impression that they were literally all different species

[@hbgplayer7203]

Living in California, I use Mountain lion, cougar, and puma interchangeably, but a panther is not a cougar. A panther as I've always heard it is another word for, or perhaps a subspecies of, Jaguar.

[@SelfPropelledDestiny]

I Got That PMA I’d love to hear how you figured that out when all sources I can find say it is the same cat, by many names.

[@lancep2002]

Anybody else use y'all'd've? As a contraction of you all would have

[@llamasugar5478]

Dangerous_stranger That and “ommunna “ as in “Ommunna finish this up then go wash my hands.” (I’m gonna)

[@deborahdanhauer8525]

Yes...but I say it more like "y'all da" as in... Y'all da finished that if you'd a tried.😊

[@troyroberts9076]

Or y’all’er. as in in y’all’er gonna y’all’s ass kicked

[@markscruggs8346]

I did once and everybody started looking at me

[@christancoding4424]

@@llamasugar5478 I use imma, never heard of ommonna

[@jesseberg3271]

It makes a certain amount of sense: being a Southerner here is a bit like being a Northerner back there. The old "Southern Courtesy" and "Northern Efficiency" cliche works in reverse in England. (Although they wouldn't phrase it that way)

[@brandonharper7171]

Crawdads (crawfish) are found all over the US. At least in the mainland 48 states and Hawaii

[@kyliecrown533]

He used yinz on the thumbnail and yet it’s such an isolated part of US dialect in Pittsburgh

[@johnleeson6946]

I'm from Youngstown and heard "yinz" a lot. I don't say that because it's from Pittsburgh. I'm a Browns fan, sooooo that's not gonna happen!

[@sophierobinson2738]

Bylie Brown evolved from "you ones"

[@danmorrison8194]

Yeah, as a native yinzer that really surprised me. I thought KZbin’s algorithm was getting really specific.

[@steveonmareisland5268]

My wife is from Pittsburgh (PA) and from the way she pronounces it (though she never uses it), I would spell it "yunz," or even "yuhnz," the latter so that no one would think the "u" was pronounced as "oo" in "moon." I'm from California but went to college in Maryland, so I have happily acquired the habit of saying "y'all."

[@Egilhelmson]

Sophie Robinson Evolved from yunz or you’enz, which supposedly the Germany weak plural added on to “you”, then the English weak plural ‘s’ added at the end.

[@kikicamacho6761]

I’m in Philly- we say You’s. But a few hours away they say yinz in Pittsburgh

[@z0phi3l]

When I lived in PA had a landlady who was from Pittsburgh, first person I heard say Yins, I'd head You's but in the Carlisle area it was you'ns

[@qploper]

the irish tend to say yous, as do some parts of england, scottish say yous but more like yuz and said shorter. north east england some say yiz. some parts of Ireland and britain say you'uns or youns. yinz i bet is from you'uns. it doesn't sound so strange when its like that

[@kikicamacho6761]

Smoked Bear I’m from philly. We say Yous and Y’all but I’m in Harrisburg area now and they say Yinz here. I was like.... scuse me?! Lol

[@catmadden9191]

@@z0phi3l / yep, always you'ns.

[@jennifergardner3155]

I have a lot of the same choices as you, although I was raised in Houston, Tx and lived in central Louisiana since my teen years. I took the test and it came up “error has occurred”, so I suppose I broke it.

[@davidh.4944]

Having lived outside the US for close to half of my life, and around other expats from all over the English-speaking world, the language I used has become quite hybridized. So interestingly, my first run-through put me square in the Bay Area of California, a place I've never been to, outside of the SF airport. But when I re-took it, thinking more carefully about how I _used_ to say things, it came back almost spot-on. It centered me in eastern Oklahoma, just north of my native Dallas (but with most of my teen years spent in Colorado). Very impressive.

[@johnalden5821]

I took the quiz. It literally triangulated me to within 15 miles of where I actually live. And I live only about 20 miles from where I grew up. Impressive.

[@veronicahernandez5266]

I was impressed too... It actually called out San Francisco and San Jose, CA and I grew up in San Jose.

[@antivaushistscheaktion1148]

same for me, the marry mary merry split plus other for a long sandwich pinned it down

[@akelajoconnell7369]

John Alden I took the quiz twice. I am from Iowa/Illinois originally, but have lived in Georgia for 34 years. I answered the questions first with the words I used while living in the MW, then again with the words I have used since moving to the South. The first quiz put me in Des Moines, Iowa, the second in Atlanta. Very accurate!

[@doguecreek]

My family background (parents and relatives) is Southern US (Appalachian), with Scottish, Welsh, and English ancestry. I took this quiz and recognized several options that they might have said ("y'all" or "you all") but I answered with my own (in this example, "you guys"), which in some cases differ since I've grown up outside the South, in Northern Virginia. Regardless, the final analysis was that I most closely matched North Carolina and Alabama.

[@Tempirance1]

My family is from the Southern Appalachian and are also Scot-Irish-Welsh ancestry. Interesting.

[@deniseajddhjjjdjd3066]

​@@Tempirance1 Me, too! We're probably related. My maiden name is Flanary.

[@amya8316]

We have drive through liquor stores in Arizona but they’re just called that. Also we have lots of sun showers during the monsoon season

[@bribartman8578]

Drive thru liquor stores. I think they are called, "you've had enough" and "you're under arrest."

[@christopherpearson5887]

That makes sense. It's believed that the deep South's accent is very similar to the original British accent.

[@erictaylor5462]

I've heard "mountain screamer" it comes from the sound they make, which can sound like a human scream. Very eerie.

[@billstokes6740]

My Southern Grandmother, born in 1894", called them Painters.

[@lizzalkula376]

The cougar one should have had an "I use all these" option. Plus they missed one name : Florida panther.

[@BleachBasket108]

Florida Panthers are a different species though. Edit: correction, same species but are a distinct population with limited range that doesn't mingle with other mountain lion populations. Given enough time, they'd become their own separate subspecies

[@lizzalkula376]

@BleachBasket108 - No. It's a subspecies, yes, but they still use the other terms interchangeably.

[@cptjeff1]

@@BleachBasket108 They're the racist hicks of mountain lions.

[@naseerahvj]

As someone from Central Illinois, but who's family is very English, I find this very interesting

[@musicwarrior3755]

As someone from southeast Michigan, the day before Halloween was historically called Devil's Night. Although I remember there was a push by a mayor in the 90s to make things safer during Halloween with neighborhood watches and even tried to coin the term Angel's Night. Also, for what I call something diagonal from me at an intersection, I say kitty-corner.

[@Lorrainecats]

Yes, here in Michigan

[@lon3don]

I've never heard any term in Southern England. Time to adopt Kitty Corner.

[@sarahmekeel967]

For question 22 about the large wild native cat, I have heard most of those names( mountain lion, cougar, puma, mountain cat, and panther) and they all refer to the same animal. I live on the panhandle of Florida and we call them panthers. 🙂

[@compulsivecommenter990]

Aren't panthers black?

[@padraig5335]

@@compulsivecommenter990 that's what I thought too

[@cathylarkins9949]

Yes! Panthers!

[@cathylarkins9949]

@@compulsivecommenter990 some are but Florida has native panthers which are light brown

[@armaliteman2619]

It’s a mountain lion

[@Superdm64]

As a born and raised Southerner I welcome you to the fold

[@thesnowmonkeyhaslanded3513]

Not to be provocative, but I always thought the titles in the Klan were kinda English, what with Knights and Wizards and such. I've also had a theory that the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was actually intentionally set by Southern malcontents as a form of sabotage and terrorism or payback for severe mistreatment of Confederate POWs in Chicago during the Civil War.

[@jimthecactus7425]

@@thesnowmonkeyhaslanded3513 okay?

[@aliceleishman5596]

I’m a yank married to a scotsguy here in the US. You want to know what accent he has? Mostly mine, now.

[@Aintbovvered]

What fun. That quiz is almost spot on. It put me almost exactly where I grew up and pulled in a little bit of where my parents grew up. Very cool and congrats on being an “official” American. Lol 🎉

[@skilledbros]

Everyone in my area of New Jersey calls the night before Halloween "mischief night" or "mischief eve". I was surprised to learn we were the only state to call it that! I took the test and it was very accurate as I got Newark, New Jersey as my closest dialect! Very interesting.

[@craigistheman101]

rum ham I’m in Clifton/Passaic and they called it goosy night

[@zinho9169]

CT is mischief night also

[@heathermorrison1674]

I am very aware of the deep problems my native country has, and it can be depressing. Watching your videos reminds me of the good things we can boast of. Also love your sense of humor.

[@tmalone2530]

I'm a born and bred New Yorker who's been to Europe only once (Italy). My aunt lives there by way of the military and I went to her wedding back in 2009. The locals knew we were "American" but were also interested in our "accent" which of course I didn't think I had lol.