Dialect tests

The four of us took the NY Times dialect test to see what geographic breadcrumbs are lurking in our language choices. Here were our visual results.

This is Dawn’s, EASY isolation to the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor! The most specific of any of the results. The dead giveaway answers were “pop”, “you guys”, and “gym shoes”.

This one was confusing! This is Steve’s. Apparently he is most similar to the entire western two thirds of the country, which is weird. The Detroit item was flagged from his answer to “What do you call the night before Halloween”, which we remember from our time in Detroit was called “Devil’s Night” (though I don’t remember STEVE actually ever calling it that.) May have thrown off the results a bit?

Montana’s came through pretty accurately! She is half midwest/central plains and half south - pretty much her life story!

And finally, we have Southern boy Elijah’s map. Pretty accurate! Giveaway answers included “y’all”, “Coke” as any carbonated cold beverage, “catty-corner” for diagonal.

This was a pretty fun exercise, you guys!!!!