I sometimes feel obsessed with words and pronunciation, especially as it relates to what region someone comes from, or most closely associates with. I am from Connecticut, where, if we are
guilty of anything it is dropping t's at times, otherwise we lean new york or boston, but generally have "Radio Standard English"- My wife, on other hand, is from rhode island, where they are allergic to the letter R- unless they need to stick it where it doesn't belong, at the end of words, like "idear." As i posted to another thread I wrote the word "horrible"- which is pronounced "whore-ibble"- but my friends from Jersey used to pronounce "Harrr-ible" interesting.
One way to tell someone who is not from Connecticut originally is to hear their pronunciation of the city of "New Haven"(where Yale and Pepi's Pizza are located). The incorrect pronunciation puts the stress on the "New"- the correct pronunciation is found in the Door's song Peace Frog- blood on the streets in the town of New 'Haven...
I know this is an older link, but it is interesting, at least for stateside people to take this quiz and have it pinpoint your location of where you most associate with language and syntax.
If you so choose, take the quiz and let us know if it was correct in placing your closest regional association.
I got the west coast as bright red in my heat map, seeing as how I was born and raised in Oregon and Washington States, and have now lived in California for 13 years I'd say the test got it right.
The op said he knew it was an older link but thought it might be interesting anyway. I took it to mean he knew it had been posted here at DPC previously, but maybe he just meant he knew the online test had been around a long time. Anyway, I found it interesting.
For me 75% or better of the map was orange or red - and it was the areas I've lived: raised in the Southwest, moved around a lot but always in the Midwest or West, live in the Midwest (Nebraska). I felt kind of poverty stricken lexicon wise while taking it, though - lots of "don't have a word for this" or "don't even know what this is or that it existed" :)
My cities were Milwaukee, Madison, and Rockford. I'm from Neenah, WI so the quiz was pretty good. I knew that bubbler and pop were probably going to put me in WI...
