Surveys/Polls/Quizzes

1/29/25

How Y'all, Youse and You Guys Talk - New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html?searchResultPosition=1



The survey I took was related to how different regions in the US have different dialects/use different words to communicate commonly understood terms. Terms such as rotary vs roundabout, lightning bug vs firefly, and many other typical phrases are formatted in a 25-question questionnaire. 

Shown above are my results, which were fairly accurate in identifying me as someone native to the west coast. (although it did guess California, where I am actually from Oregon). 

To compare my results to a larger body of work, I asked my 2 roommates, as well as my 3 family members to all take the survey. I felt this was a great source of data, as between the 5 people I surveyed, only 1 came from the same region (which was my sister, who grew up with me in Oregon). The most accurate of the survey results was my roommate from Boston, as his results (the red area shown) were almost exclusive to New England. My parents also were fairly accurate, as both of them were raised in the south, meaning words like, 'Y'all' were easily identifiable for them. My roommate from Chicago was the least accurate, as his results identified him from the Dallas-Missouri region. While the Chicago area was still highlighted red, it was far from where the survey guessed he was from. 

I found this survey incredibly fascinating, as it goes to demonstrate how someone's dialect can come from both their regional location and their upbringing, as well as how their parents may have influenced how they speak. Unique regional dialect in the US is becoming less and less common, as more of the broader US population is now connected through social media and technology, making it increasingly difficult for natural regional dialect to form and evolve. However, as this survey shows, there is still certain phrases/words that can easily help identify where someone may have been raised!


Comments

  1. WRT 205February 4, 2025 at 8:16 AM

    This is an interesting survey; I've never taken such a survey before. I tried the survey, and it was pretty accurate for me, it showed that I was from the Rochester area in NY, and my hometown is Syracuse. However, I think that you made a great point of how social media affects our language nowadays, and dialect might not be as distinct in the future.
    - Shahina

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 13, 2025 at 6:59 AM

    What a super cool survey! Social adaptations of dialogue are very interesting to me, so this was very entertaining to read. Additionally, I loved that in order to test the survey's accuracy, you had people from all over the country take it to truly test the lengths the survey could go. Well done!!
    - Sam Canto

    ReplyDelete

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