February 22, 2004

Yankee or Dixie...Dialect-wise, that is?
posted by pyrrthon1 20 years ago
  • My results: 51% (Dixie). Barely into the Dixie category.
  • 42% (Yankee). Barely into the Yankee category. (I was born in England, but live in Texas. Ironic that I'm actually not Yankee at all.)
  • Not being an American, Some of these questions I can't even answer, in that not one of the choices is true. (I didn't answer questions 1, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17 or 20). I mean, just the first question: I pronounce Aunt to rhyme with aren't, which doesn't rhyme with want, ant or caught. Does no-one in America say it like that? (Obviously, if you also pronounce aren't in a different fashion to me, so that it rhymes with Aunt the way you'd say it, you'll be saying yes when actually you mean no. If that makes any sense.) I still got an 80% Dixie score. Somehow, I don't think I'd pass as a Texan.
  • 57% (Dixie). Barely into the Dixie category. Hmm...born Montanan, raised in Spokane (and now in Seattle). Figured I'd score differently. What they really need on this test is "roof", "lawyer" and "nuclear" [ugh!]
  • interesting...I am 47% Yankee (barely yankee) despite having been born in nyc & raised in new jersey. then again I have always been told I speak like a midwestern newscaster (!) grizadams: I presume a test on those who pronounce nuclear correctly & those who pronounce it incorrectly?? much like our fearless leader...
  • Looks like a dumbed down Harvard dialect survey
  • Author's Southern slip is showing -- "Be aware that television entertainment has a lot of northern dialect in it." Like dng, I couldn't answer a number of them [7, 8, 11, 13, 17, 18, 19]. Not enough "none of the above" or "use all these" options.
  • 47% (Yankee). Barely into the Yankee category. Not all that surprising. I grew up in New England but Russian is my native lanugage. Makes for all sorts of funny mixing.
  • I was 48% Yankee, but had the same problems as the other non-Americans (although I had my Cali lingo to fall back on).
  • Yeah, exactly Medusa.
  • 38% (Yankee). A definite Yankee. (I was born in Minnesota and still live there.)
  • Changing my answer to the plural you question from "Yinze" to "You all" raised my score from 36% to 44%. I was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania, though I've never said "Yinze" in anything other than an ironic throwback to my roots. Sometimes "crick" squirts out, though.
  • Is the "e" pronounced in "yinze"? I've never heard that word before.
  • 78% Dixie. The accent only comes out when I'm under stress.
  • "50% (Yankee). Barely into the Yankee category." - that is good to hear - I never wanted to start talking like you southern Yankees anyways! :) ("Yankee" in Canadian means any American, though especially the north-east ones) Yes, it isn't the most reliable - I don't even have a word for roads that go beside highways. They don't really have them in the middle of cities. Isn't television almost entirely northern or Californian? Or Canadian - many American actors and news-readers were born in Canada - our regular accents sounds like the American educated accent.
  • 72% Dixie. WTF??!! Raised in Connecticut, educated in the Midwest and split my adult professional life between NYC and Seattle. I don't think I have spent more than 5 days south of the Mason-Dixon line in my whole life. I don't git it.
  • No, the "e" is not pronounced in "yinze".
  • Funny, I took this before it was posted. I'm 65% dixie. New Jersey and Florida are where I have spent most of my life.
  • 53% Dixie. Born and raised in seattle with californian parents, then spent six years in southern california. I think the test is aptly named, because the farthest west these seem to go is chicago, with a few references to the southwest. I was interested in seeing how this one panned out because I have moved around through different areas and picked up terms here and there, so I talk a bit differently than some of my friends, and people talk differently up and down the west coast, and quite a bit differently than east coasters. But i am definitely not a southerner.
  • 42% Yankee. Born and raised in Atlanta to parents from Nashville and Boston. I have bits of New England and West Tennessee idiom alongside a generic Urban American accent. And I didn't say "y'all" until I came to college in Chicago. My parents both do. My mother has no interest in clinging to her Yankee heritage, although some (very strange, to my ears) things remain. (In my formative years I fell asleep to many many books-on-tape read by British English speakers. Talk about brainwashing.)
  • 46% Yankee. Born and raised in Ohio then moved to N. Carolina and now back in Southern Ohio. I think southern Ohio is more "southern" than N. Carolina. My first comment BTW.
  • 45% (Yankee). Barely into the Yankee category. I've lived in Nevada all my life. I think the biggest influence on our language here is probably California. This is my first comment too. Hi!
  • 83% (Dixie). Did you have any Confederate ancestors? Hmm. Although I've spent my whole life in the south, being raised by midwestern parents probably kept me from getting 100%.
  • 36% (Yankee). A definitive Yankee. born and raised in jersey.