Since hundreds of you guys got in on the fun with this American accent quiz, we couldn’t help but share the latest in online linguistic diagnostics – especially since this one seems to be pretty darn accurate. Which you’d hope, considering this quiz comes from the New York Times (and is adapted from some data from Harvard).
Like the last one, it asks how you pronounce certain words…
…but it also asks about what terms you use (firefly or lightning bug? semi-truck or tractor trailer? yard sale or garage sale?) to help pin down what area of the country your dialect is from.
It generates a dialect “heat map” of the United States, and pinpoints the 3 cities your dialect is most similar (and least similar to). It was pretty much spot on for both me and Sherry. For instance, I was born and raised right outside of Washington DC (and near Arlington, VA).
And Sherry grew up in northern New Jersey, right where her map is red hot.
We also thought it was interesting how much “warmer” my map was than Sherry’s – which is a way of saying that my dialect is more generic, while Sherry’s is pretty specific to the NYC/NJ area.
So here’s the link to the quiz if you want to take it for a spin yourself. It may ask some different questions each time, so results may vary if you take it more than once. One time my results even included Richmond!
Bonnie K (BornInaZoo) says
My roomie from college asked that I didn’t post this quiz. She’s from Chicago & says sex, socks, six all the same. It has given us decades of laughs.
Jessie Marie says
Wow! This is definitely spot on for me. It picked Santa Rosa (a smallish city in Northern CA) as my main city, which is the exact city I was born and raised in! I’m definitely a California girl haha!
Brittany says
Just took this and I got Raleigh, Greensboro, and Durham NC LOL. I have been to two out of the three but never lived in any of them. With that said my map is lit up all over VA and MD is also lit up too bright red. BWAHAHA YEAH MAN MARYLAND BABY RIGHT HEREEEEE. Southern MD lol! Last time I took something like that it said I was from Pittsburgh……no. Not even close. Clearly the other quiz needs to listen to me talk ;).
Megan Van Leeuwen says
I’m Sherry’s exact opposite! My accent is from Salt Lake, Spokane, and Boise and the cities with accents least like mine are Newark, Jersey City, and Philadelphia! We’re like…the antithesis of twins!
Young House Life says
So funny!
xo
s
Roxanne M says
It said I am most similar to Minneapolis, which is where I live! :) I could also live in Arizona it seems. My aunt and uncle do live there :)
Liz says
Once again, hit the nail on the head.
Dani says
Im in Melbourne (Australia) but did this just for fun. Man, my map was blue! It put me down as New York/Yonkers/Jersey City but the other quiz you had put me down as being from the midwest.
Right now I’m mostly amused that there’s a place called “Yonkers”… :p
JustDaveyB says
I’m from Australia (Brisbane) as well and mine was New York/Yonkers/Jersey City also – my key pinpointing questions were sun shower, Mary, merry and marry as different and cot/caught as different. I knew most of the various terms thought – I must have watched too many US TV shows over the years :)
Kim S says
Ha! I’ve lived in Florida my whole life but both parents are from NJ where my map was red hot! Apparently calling them “sneakers” makes me sound like a New Jerseyan, haha! Definitely my parents influence there. :o)
Kathryn says
Man, I’ve not even visited the States in 11 years, and it picked my home town! I think it was a lot less to do with accent for me, more to do with terminology. When I speak, I sound a bit hard to pin down. But use a phrase like ‘the devil’s beating his wife? – you’re going to get rumbled. Great fun.
Emily says
Mine was way off! But I think that’s probably because my family is from Michigan, I spent most of my childhood in the south, and now I live in the Midwest. How do you peg that?? The map put me in Irving, TX, Albuqurque (which I can’t even spell) and Kansas.
Ray Ray says
Southern to the core ;)
Sally says
Fun! I came up as Richmond, VA; Winston-Salem, NC; and Augusta, GA. I’ve never lived in either of those cities but it seems like I’m some weird composite southerner.
My parents are mid-westerners, but I grew up in Maryland, went to college in Georgia, and now live in North Carolina. Interesting to see that where I live now has a bigger impact than where I grew up. I think it’s the “y’all”, which is so much better than “you guys”.
Karen says
Sherry – didn’t know where else to ask this, so doing here: How are you feeling?? Has the “morning” sickness abated yet?
Happy New Year!!
Young House Life says
Aw thanks Karen! I’m still sick in the mornings (and some afternoons/evenings) but I’m feeling lots of movement now, which is exciting. We’re just so grateful that the docs say the bun looks really healthy in there, and after so many months of being sick I’m actually starting to get used to it, so it’s not that bad. Haha!
xo
s
Mamaw says
This quiz was much more accurate than the first one. Don’t remember the area the first one thought I was from, but it was way off. This one pinpointed the exact city I was born in. Very interesting.
Samantha P says
Ha. Apparently the most Australian sounding parts of America are around New York/Jersey.
Lauren says
According to mine, I speak a mixture of everywhere which is funny because I am from Canada :P
Though, in previous tests, it came up like that too! Hawaii was quite red though which is interesting because I have never even been there
Aussie Deb says
Just to be silly I gave this a go. I’m from Western Australia and I came up as having a New York , Yonkers or Newark accent. So did my partner. Good for a giggle on holidays.
Ali Burtt says
I wondered about an east coast bias to the accuracy of this test and this pretty much confirms it for me. I’m from California and the markers that would have pegged me clearly as north or south just weren’t there. As a consequence, the entire western half of the map was red for me and they suggested that I might be from Salt Lake City. Yeah…no. Oh well!
Kristin says
I took this the other day and was shocked at the accuracy! I retook it and though there were some different questions, I got the same results. I was born and lived half of my childhood years in St. Petersburg, FL, which has an awful lot of transplants from the Northeast and Midwest, including both sides of my family being from Connecticut and Maine. I figure there is a mix of dialects there, including some southern. I spent the other half of my childhood in Jacksonville, FL. It also pegged me as Tallahassee (home of FSU), which is somewhat offensive since I graduated from UF (in Gainesville), but still so spot on. I now live in Atlanta and have for 9 years, but it obviously hasn’t affected my dialect much! ;)
Beverley says
This was pretty darn accurate – the cities most similar for me were Laredo, San Antonio, and Austin. I grew up in Alice (a few hours from Laredo) but have lived in San Antonio for the past 15 years. Thanks for sharing the link!
Karen J says
Mine said Denver, Co (born and lived there 30 years), Omaha and Aurora … never even been to either of those places!
Lydia K says
I’ve done this several times and I keep getting Richmond in the mix, which I’ve only visited one time. Weird. It does have the two largest cities near my hometown though (Greensboro and Winston Salem, NC). Spooky!
jen says
Mine was dead on. It put me in the Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi range. I grew up in Alabama and Georgia and have lived my adult life in central Florida which is about the same.
Liz O says
From Philly and I got the same map as Sherry… It’s an accent I will never lose. I’m ok with that!
MC says
Everyone is having such accurate results with this quiz! However, I have lived in NOVA my whole life and both times I took it, my most similar cities were Lincoln, Kansas City and Overland Park. I guess I talk like a mid westener without ever having lived there.
Ashlee says
I got San Jose/Freemont, CA and Reno, NV as the most similar, I was born in San Diego, and lived in CA again when I was 6-8 years old and haven’t lived on the west coast since…
Michelle (aka mybelle101) says
Hee hee…Sherry, it says my “least similar” cities are Newark/Paterson, Jersey City, and Springfield (Mass) ;) I was curious where I’d fall, since I was born in NC, lived in IN, and grew up in CA, though I have all of my family “back east” in MO, IN, MD, and DE. (One of my most similar cities was one about 2 hours east of us, so that makes sense) Fun quiz!
Young House Life says
So funny!
xo
s
lola says
This was entertaining. Took this test as a non-native speaker who has never lived in the US and it pointed me to Raleigh and two other places in North Carolina. I think I speak somewhat artificial textbook English with a weird twist. :) But obviously there must have been some North Carolina in my media influence somewhere along the way.
Kim says
It actually stated my home town of Fort Wayne, IN. How weird is that????!??? All because I say drinking fountain!
Young House Life says
So funny!
xo
s
Brenda says
I am very saddened by this test. I was born and raised in Baltimore, MD, with a mom from the Midwest and a dad from Boston. I’ve lived in NYC for 5 years, and it shows my map as being entirely from Yonkers and NYC area.
I need to move.
Alicia says
Haha! Well I’m from Ontario Canada, specifically closer to Toronto, so I really expected to sound more like somebody from Maine area or directly below us…
My result was on the entire left side of the US! Santa Rosa, Reno and Fremont… none of which I’m much familiar with, but basically the entire left side of the map is red, the middle if yellow (plus the Florida shoe) and everything else is pretty much blue escept a drop of red directly below Ontario.
I wonder if they have these for the entire North America continent.. or even just Canada.
Christy Niebaum says
Ha! That thing pin pointed me right to Wichita, Kansas! Ya got me, linguistics quiz! I also had Lincoln and Omaha as other similar cities. The defining answer for those city selections? I call sweet, carbonated beverages “pop”, haha.
Suzanne says
Haha wow! That was definitely accurate! Houston was one of my three!
Midsommarflicka says
This is quite funny to take, when English isn’t your mother tongue! Apparently I listened and/or read most from Hawaii or Alaska – what the heck?! And then follows the whole west coast, because I said firefly.
It’s definitely interesting, especially because in school we’re mostly taught British English ;)
Love, Midsommarflicka
Angie H says
Wow!! It nailed that I’m from Detroit and it also highlighted the Chicago area, where I lived for a few years. Plus, a few of the individual answers were specific to the southwest, where I lived for 4 years. Crazy!!
Cait says
Must be a Jersey thing ;) my map looked exactly the same with a super hotspot on NJ.
Baillie says
Out of interest (and possibly mischief) I did the quiz. I am a New Zealander, and, if you want to know what my accent sounds like, apparently, go to Miami, FL. :)