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US dialect quiz can predict where you are from with surprising accuracy

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gutshot

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The New York Times has a quiz which asks various dialect related questions and then gives you a heat map showing the place you most likely are from.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0

Most of the questions used in this quiz are based on those in the Harvard Dialect Survey, a linguistics project begun in 2002 by Bert Vaux and Scott Golder. The original questions and results for that survey can be found on Dr. Vaux's current website.

The data for the quiz and maps shown here come from over 350,000 survey responses collected from August to October 2013 by Josh Katz, a graphics editor for the New York Times who developed this quiz. The colors on the large heat map correspond to the probability that a randomly selected person in that location would respond to a randomly selected survey question the same way that you did. The three smaller maps show which answer most contributed to those cities being named the most (or least) similar to you.
Click to expand...

Here was my result: http://nyti.ms/1jwuTrZ

I grew up in South Jersey, and it pretty much nailed it. The "hoagie" and "mischief night" answers were the two that most strongly identified me to that area.

I'm curious to know if it is as good at pin-pointing other areas of the country as well. Try it out and post your results!

EDIT: A lot of people are having trouble with the map not loading. Things to try:

1. Wait 30 seconds to 5 minutes for it to load.
2. Grab the share link and open it in a new tab or browser.
3. Turn off Ad Block.

If you still can't get it to load, post the link in here and someone may be able to load it and tell you the results.
 
Seth C said:
25 questions and no map at the end. So obnoxious.
Click to expand...

Same here (browser issue?). I could kind of see where it was heading, though, based off the maps shown after my answers. I think it would have guess it correctly.

Edit: Finally appeared, pretty close.
 
Charade said:
Same here (browser issue?). I could kind of see where it was heading, though, based off the maps shown after my answers. I think it would have guess it correctly.
Click to expand...

After posting the link in the thread and then clicking it, I could view my results. My current city was one of the results sooo.
 
I'm assuming adblock fucked up the map result or something. I couldn't see mine or any others. That sure felt like a waste of time.
 
I thought I'd take this out of curiosity even though I live in the UK so my answers are pretty much the opposite or nonsensical to Americans. I ended up getting New York, New Jersey and Yonkers (the fuck is Yonkers?) as my most similar areas. Some parts of California and Florida too...
 
Wow. I've lived all over the country and this actually pegged one of the cities I've lived in and a couple I lived in close proximity to. Bravo.
 
As a non USA native I gave it a go my least similar was Pittsburgh, the most similar was Grand Rapids. I assume it is due to migration patterns.
 
didn't see a map, clicked another tab, went back and it was there. strange.

3 most: amarillo, Okla City, Irving TX. I've lived in Houston for 7 or so years but spent formative years in two midwestern states and college in the south, so some of these answers I just guessed at as I've now used both terms interchangeably for years: Frontage road, service road, things like that, boulevard and median

most distinctive answer: blow off class. hmm alrighty then.
 
Tried in Firefox and IE. No map. Which sucks.

I'm pretty sure it's going to know I grew up in Chicago. The gaper's delay question gave it away.
 
Woah shit, the three cities they guessed for mine were Modesto, California, Spokane, Washington, and Salt Lake City. I was born in San Jose, but I grew up in Boise. Really crafty.
 
Tried in both Chrome and Firefox, got no map at the end. I don't use Adblock on Chrome.

NYTimes done fucked up.
 
I'm from Nova Scotia and the results said Boston, Worcester and Providence. close geographically at least.
 
It knew I was from Rhode Island which isn't surprising. It really only takes like two questions to figure that out.

"What do you call something you drink water from?" and "Do you pronounce Mary, merry, and marry differently?"

I think we're the only place that calls it a bubbler and thinks that all three of those words sound completely different.
 
Carbonox said:
I thought I'd take this out of curiosity even though I live in the UK so my answers are pretty much the opposite or nonsensical to Americans. I ended up getting New York, New Jersey and Yonkers (the fuck is Yonkers?) as my most similar areas. Some parts of California and Florida too...
Click to expand...

I live in Norway and have never been to the US and I got New York, Yonkers and Pembroke Pines in Florida
 
Yeah, no map. Tried sharing to get a link or something to view. Nope. The test was a little interesting though
 
Rei no Otaku said:
It knew I was from Rhode Island which isn't surprising. It really only takes like two questions to figure that out.

"What do you call something you drink water from?" and "Do you pronounce Mary, merry, and marry differently?"

I think we're the only place that calls it a bubbler and thinks that all three of those words sound completely different.
Click to expand...
As someone who pronounces all three the exact same (along with cot and caught) I don't even know how you'd get three different pronunciations out of that.
 
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