Home » Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

Discussion Forum (Archived)

Please consider registering
Guest
Forum Scope


Match



Forum Options



Min search length: 3 characters / Max search length: 84 characters
The forums are currently locked and only available for read only access
sp_TopicIcon
Discussion of Accents
Guest
1
2010/10/27 - 6:07pm

According to this test, I am "26% Dixie. [I am] a dandy Yankee Doodle."
According to this test, done by the same people, I am "48% Dixie. Barely in Yankeedom."

I guess that means I am 37% Dixie.

How about you?

Guest
2
2010/12/02 - 1:44am

Interesting result indeed. Having done the tests in the same order that you did, I scored 15% ("Duke of Yankeedom") and 40% (Barely in Yankeedom). There were several cases in which I chose an answer that I felt was acceptably close to my pronunciation, a couple that I didn't answer because none was even close, and one or two that were not part of my experience: I've never lived anywhere near a drive-through liquor store, so I have no particular name for it. I have to say that the 15% is a more accurate reflection of reality than the 40%, the first thirty-or-so years spent in Upstate New York, the next in Alaska; but it's interesting to see that I consciously changed a couple of words I got from my parents that would have given me higher Dixie rating, even though they were both born and raised less than a hundred miles from where I spent my youth: they gave me crick, which I changed to creek in junior high school, and I traded in pop for soda probably in high school. The tests were fun, in any case; I wish they had been more interactive.

Peter

Guest
3
2010/12/02 - 9:28am

4%, then 35%

EmmettRedd
859 Posts
(Offline)
4
2010/12/02 - 10:20am

68% and 62% probably betrays my southwest Missouri/Ozarks 52 out of 55 years (3 years in Delaware). And the highway beside the Interstate is the "outer road".

Emmett

Guest
5
2010/12/02 - 10:55am

"8% Dixie. Need help digging out of the snow?"

Second one, 25% Dixie. Sorry, but anyone who picks "bubbler" should automatically be labeled 100% Northerner.

Guest
6
2010/12/02 - 11:05am

11% Dixie on the first, 29% Dixie on the second. No surprises there. I've always been a Yankee and was only a Damn Yankee for less than a year.

Guest
7
2010/12/02 - 12:39pm

57% on the first one, 60% on the second.

About half my answers were coming out as Midwest or western Great Lakes (which computes with my south-east Minnesota bringup), and the other half were Southern (which computes with rural Missouri where I live now).

Guest
8
2010/12/03 - 7:17am

My scores came up the same on both tests--30% Dixie. At least I'm consistent.

Guest
9
2010/12/07 - 10:36pm

CheddarMelt said:

Second one, 25% Dixie. Sorry, but anyone who picks "bubbler" should automatically be labeled 100% Northerner.


Yeah, but they should be incredibly aware of every answer on these quizzes, particularly for the questions for which there isn't a good answer for the Sconites, Northern Minnesotans, and Uppers (also if one said "Pop" for soda, though that's less region-specific). I grew up in the military and have moved to every corner of this country since, so I couldn't help be aware of regional differences as I answered. I also deliberately choose some regionalisms for personal affect in my personal speech, because I'm an ass, and they have become part of my normal speech; so I pronounce words such as naked as NEK-id, just to be . . . hmmm, odd, I guess? From all that, I now have the deeply introspective questions of why I chose to answer everything with the Northern answer rather than the Southern (the region in which I've spent most of my life). Damn---thanks, Twisted Logic, for making me think about myself, and why I do what I do.

And I got 11% and 58% Dixie, so who the hell knows where I'm from?

Forum Timezone: UTC -7
Show Stats
Administrators:
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Moderators:
Grant Barrett
Top Posters:
Newest Members:
A Conversation with Dr Astein Osei
Forum Stats:
Groups: 1
Forums: 1
Topics: 3647
Posts: 18912

 

Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 618
Members: 1268
Moderators: 1
Admins: 2
Most Users Ever Online: 1147
Currently Online:
Guest(s) 97
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)

Recent posts