How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk

fh2000 said:
... I think the most unique word from the list that I use is 'freeway'. According to the graph, this word is only used in southern California, and part of Arizona. Quite amazing!
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Yes, in IL we have 'highways', 'expressways' and 'toll ways'. It seems to me only Californians called them 'freeways'.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
Yes, in IL we have 'highways', 'expressways' and 'toll ways'. It seems to me only Californians called them 'freeways'.

-ERD50
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Here, they only call it "The Interstate". I get resoundingly corrected if/when I call it the freeway. I lived for six years in Northern California, and six years in Southern California, so I guess I picked up "freeway" there.
 
W2R said:
Here, they only call it "The Interstate". I get resoundingly corrected if/when I call it the freeway. I lived for six years in Northern California, and six years in Southern California, so I guess I picked up "freeway" there.
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Ah, we have 'Interstates' here also, just nothing that we call 'freeways'.

And that age-old question - Why do they have "Interstate Highways" in Hawaii?

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
Yes, in IL we have 'highways', 'expressways' and 'toll ways'. It seems to me only Californians called them 'freeways'. -ERD50
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Yep - and in Illinois, we call interstate 55 as "55" or "I 55". But in Phoenix it's "the 17" or "the 101". Arizonans say "the" before route number.
 
ERD50 said:
It seems to me only Californians called them 'freeways'.
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Texans, too, but I wasn't asked that question. Did the map show some red over our way?

The most geographically specific answer I saw was for the road parallel to a highway. If you call it a feeder road, you're from Houston.
 
They nailed the city I grew up in, and I haven't lived in that area for 45 years. Pretty sure the word "rotary" was the clincher.
 
Htown Harry said:
Texans, too, but I wasn't asked that question. Did the map show some red over our way?

The most geographically specific answer I saw was for the road parallel to a highway. If you call it a feeder road, you're from Houston.
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That one was interesting - all the terms seemed familiar to me, but 'frontage road' just seems the most common term here.

And to Ronstar - yes, 55, 57 , 80, or I -57, I-55, I 80.

Quirky fun stuff.

-ERD50
 
tfudtuckerpucker said:
I filled it out 3 times, in Chrome and IE. Never got a map. Argh.
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I filled it out twice and never got the final map (IE9). Strange, but when I took it the second time, I saw some questions I did not see the first time, so I am not sure I saw all 25 questions either time. Still can't view the final map.
 
I'm running the Chromium version of Chrome browser on Xubuntu/Linux, which puts me in a small minority, and it worked fine for me.

-ERD50
 
The map took quite a while to load for me in Firefox, maybe more than a minute. Be patient.
 
Htown Harry said:
The map took quite a while to load for me in Firefox, maybe more than a minute. Be patient.
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Patient? It has been more than 20 minutes and it still hangs. This map thing doesn't work.
 
Mine didn't do well. I suppose I spend too much time networking with individuals from distant areas, so my speech is inconsistent with any single area. My map said I'm not from New England, the deep South or the middle north of the country. Any place else was fair game. It said I was more likely from northern California or North Western Nevada than where I actually originated and have lived my entire life (Southwest Ohio).
 
I've taken the test 5 times, and gotten the map twice. The first time it nailed the city I lived in for the past 30 years and DW is native of (Arlington VA), as well as Durham and Winston-Salem NC, which is pretty close to the NC and southern VA areas I grew up in. The second time I got a map I had answered with some second choices (tennis shoes vs. sneakers, potato bug vs roly poly, crawdad vs crayfish, etc). That time it put me in Lubbock and Amarillo and Shreveport. I've never been anywhere near any of those places. Interesting.
 
Used FireFox and had no trouble. It was very good. I'm Canadian and grew up in Southern Ontario. It had my language usage closest to that in northern Michigan, Detroit and Buffalo, NY. I was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario - across from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, spent summers within TV reception range of Detroit and had a paternal grandmother from Port Huron, Michigan and spent my formative years in the Niagara region across the river from Buffalo, NY. Quite good.
 
The map finally loaded and it nailed me perfectly - New York City metro area. The "sneakers" answer was the big giveaway, indicating NYC, Yonkers (just north of NYC), and Jersey City NJ (just west of NYC). Everything west of the Appalachians had various shades of blue, while everything ease of those mountains but outside of the NYC metro area had various shades of yellow. Least similar cities were Spokane, Detroit, and Grand Rapids.
 
Placed me between Springfield, Mass. and Newark, NJ. How good? I was raised in Connecticut and lived there for over 30 years. Wow!
 
Mine were Detroit, Spokane, and Salt Lake. I lived in Spokane a couple years, visited Salt Lake, and have never even been to Detroit. I don't think it worked very well for me. I've spent the huge majority of my life in Puget Sound, and I call Freeways freeways, and I think most other locals here do also. I came to California from New England and at that time in the Northeast we had only expressways and turnpikes and toll roads. I came north on the freeway-I 5 to be exact, and I have pretty much been here ever since.

Ha
 
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Fun to do. They nailed it for me, too. "Kitty-corner" especially gave me away, and the three cities they highlighted--Chicago, Madison WI, St. Paul/Mpls.--are spot on.
 
Apparently results are um, all over the map. I grew up just outside Washington, DC, close enough that when I was 15 some friends and I could ride our bikes to the Washington Monument, walk up and down the stairs, and ride back home.

But it showed me coming from the south. I've driven through there but didn't stop on the way to FL once.
 

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Pretty good. Chicago was among the results but I also got strong hits on Detroit and Buffalo probably because I picked up words I recognize from those places like "Devil's Night." I noticed "Access Road" was associated with lower Louisiana - that I never would have guessed.
 
Walt34 said:
Apparently results are um, all over the map. I grew up just outside Washington, DC, close enough that when I was 15 some friends and I could ride our bikes to the Washington Monument, walk up and down the stairs, and ride back home.

But it showed me coming from the south. I've driven through there but didn't stop on the way to FL once.
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Interesting. DW is an Arlington VA native, grew up probably within 10 miles of you. She got placed in Mobile, Birmingham, and Winston-Salem. I think the DC area has a microcosm accent that fools the test into the deeper south. I've told her a number of times that DC natives have a more redneck southern accent than they had in Richmond and Norfolk where I grew up.

No insult there, by the way. Some of my best friends/relatives are rednecks.
 
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