How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk

bjorn2bwild said:
Yes, it appears there are different questions for each sample. Perhaps influenced by electronic address? that would better explain my results.
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Hey, that's a good point.

How can we be sure that they do not cheat by using IP address lookup, which locates the Web surfer to the city or at least the state easily?

Are the results more "accurate" if you are surfing from your hometown, vs somebody who surfs from out-of-state or out of country?

Hmm... Need to repeat the test through a proxy server.
 
The map pinpointed Santa Ana - only about 100 miles off.

Said DH was from Philly. No surprise there. I think hoagie was the key for him.

We've had intense discussions about whether Mary, Merry, and Marry are homonyms or not. I was taught they were, he pronounces them differently and says I mispronounce Merry and Marry.
 
Born & raised in western MA, college & grad school in eastern MA.

I moved to CA about 25 years ago, but ya wouldn't know it from this. :LOL:

(btw, re NW-Bound's comment, I took the quiz in CA)
 

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I ran it again, got mostly the same questions, maybe 2-3 different, same result (nailing very close to my life-long area). I tried to pay more attention to the maps, didn't catch anything that seemed that unique.

But 2 of my 3 'most distinctive' answers were 'Do you pronounce cot and caught the same?
My ANSWER: different'

According to the map, most of the country pronounces 'cot' (I slept on a cot) and 'caught' (I caught a ball) the same? Really?

But how do they pronounce it? Do some areas pronounce it the same as 'awe' or like second syllable in 'robot'? Or does the whole rest of the country use just one pronunciation and it is the same everywhere else?

hah-hah, I would call those little bugs rolly-pollys or pill-bugs, but when my son was little, he called them 'armadillo ants' - makes sense, they look like armadillos and are the size of ants. As far as I know, that is unique, so that answer could have nailed me down to a street address!

-ERD50
 
NW-Bound said:
Hey, that's a good point.

How can we be sure that they do not cheat by using IP address lookup, which locates the Web surfer to the city or at least the state easily?

Are the results more "accurate" if you are surfing from your hometown, vs somebody who surfs from out-of-state or out of country?

Hmm... Need to repeat the test through a proxy server.
Click to expand...

It did nail my childhood home 1500 miles from here. My results indicated an almost equal split between both areas I've lived. There was also a deep concentration around the counties I lived in. YMMV.
MRG
 
NW-Bound said:
Hey, that's a good point.

How can we be sure that they do not cheat by using IP address lookup, which locates the Web surfer to the city or at least the state easily?

Are the results more "accurate" if you are surfing from your hometown, vs somebody who surfs from out-of-state or out of country?

Hmm... Need to repeat the test through a proxy server.
Click to expand...

That would make sense only if you were posting from the area you grew up in. I grew up 1000 miles from where I live now and it nailed that hometown, without a nod to where I have lived for 40 plus years.
 
All right, my suspicion was wrong.

It's interesting that there are subtle dialect or vocabulary differences that can be so localized, particularly in this modern age where people travel and relocate throughout the country.
 
NW-Bound said:
All right, my suspicion was wrong.
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I still have my suspicions.
DW took the 'test' and got the same exact answer (wrong location) as me even though she saw a slightly different set of questions and gave 5 different answers than I did. She is three generations coastal southern California (same city), very different than my background.
The changeable mix of questions implies some dynamic influence, otherwise we would all be getting the same 'test'. Perhaps a few common questions, the answer of which, change the selection of the following questions + IP address etc..?
 
NW-Bound said:
All right, my suspicion was wrong.

It's interesting that there are subtle dialect or vocabulary differences that can be so localized, particularly in this modern age where people travel and relocate throughout the country.
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I am going to have my adult kids take it tomorrow, as they have grown up where we live now. Won't they enjoy that while waiting to open some presents.

I wonder if the results are less accurate for the gen Xers and gen Yers, who had more mass media influences from Sesame Street to Beverly Hills 90210 to 24 hour news to even standardized school curriculum than my generation, so may share more vocabulary across the board.
 
bjorn2bwild said:
I still have my suspicions.
DW took the 'test' and got the same exact answer (wrong location) as me even though she saw a slightly different set of questions and gave 5 different answers than I did. She is three generations coastal southern California (same city), very different than my background.
The changeable mix of questions implies some dynamic influence, otherwise we would all be getting the same 'test'. Perhaps a few common questions, the answer of which, change the selection of the following questions + IP address etc..?
Click to expand...

I'd bet it is partially random, but more likely that one answer leads to a different set of questions. After all, once they have built confidence to rule out some areas with a few hits, they'd want to focus on questions that maximize the differences between the remaining areas. This could be done with weighting on the areas, and comparing to remaining 'high hit' areas.

IP address makes no sense. As was mentioned, you might take the test away from where you grew up (visiting relatives, travelling, moved recently, etc).

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
I'd bet it is partially random, but more likely that one answer leads to a different set of questions. After all, once they have built confidence to rule out some areas with a few hits, they'd want to focus on questions that maximize the differences between the remaining areas. This could be done with weighting on the areas, and comparing to remaining 'high hit' areas.

IP address makes no sense. As was mentioned, you might take the test away from where you grew up (visiting relatives, travelling, moved recently, etc).

-ERD50
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Ah yes,
It may be that the gradient of different dialects in the eastern part of the country is more precise than for us westerners.
 
bjorn2bwild said:
Ah yes,
It may be that the gradient of different dialects in the eastern part of the country is more precise than for us westerners.
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A good observation.

At a place I worked, we once asked around to see who was born in AZ to see who was really native. We got 1 out of about 20 or more. The rest were all transplants, and in fact I have lived here longer than most (close to 40 years).

I suspect people in other places have deeper roots than people in Western states who have more mobility.
 
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ERD50 said:
I'd bet it is partially random, but more likely that one answer leads to a different set of questions. After all, once they have built confidence to rule out some areas with a few hits, they'd want to focus on questions that maximize the differences between the remaining areas. This could be done with weighting on the areas, and comparing to remaining 'high hit' areas.

IP address makes no sense. As was mentioned, you might take the test away from where you grew up (visiting relatives, travelling, moved recently, etc).

-ERD50
Click to expand...

That makes a lot of sense. Kinda matches my experience too. Once I answered one question that I knew was a regional expression(youans), it followed with others that got closer to home. Of course this is still a subjective observation on my part.

MRG
 
Wow!...
It wasn't working when I first tried it... so a little late...
BUT!!!!
Absolutely amazing... the two places that show up (and I haven't lived there in 60+ years)... Providence Rhode Island and Worcester Ma... about 20 miles apart... I lived in Pawtucket... right in the middle, between them...

You are what you speak.

How'd dey do dat?
 
Bestwifeever said:
I am going to have my adult kids take it tomorrow, as they have grown up where we live now. Won't they enjoy that while waiting to open some presents.

I wonder if the results are less accurate for the gen Xers and gen Yers, who had more mass media influences from Sesame Street to Beverly Hills 90210 to 24 hour news to even standardized school curriculum than my generation, so may share more vocabulary across the board.
Click to expand...
I'm one of the older members here, and it was completely wrong on my background.

Ha
 
Hmmm - ballpark Washington, Utah, Iowa, New Orleans. Actually lived in Washington, Colorado, New Orleans, Missouri. Sorta close handgrenade wise. Also showed some strong color Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan - my parents stomping grounds.

Interestingly my Father trained himself (according to him) out of any Boston, Brooklynese of his youth. Although he could lay it on thick when he waxed poetic about dem Bums (Dodgers) of olden day.

heh heh heh - I spent a year at the Space Flight Center in the 70's and could pick out Tenn., North and South Alabama and westerners aka left coasters like me.

heh heh heh - I still like neutral ground vs median. :D
 
haha said:
I'm one of the older members here, and it was completely wrong on my background.

Ha
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Ha: I answered all the questions from the mindset of if I were 18 years old. After 30+ years away, many things from my new homes have crept in, so for fun, I made it a point to remember back to my old days.

For example: in Chicago 90% of the time you'll see "Garage Sale", even if it is in the yard. In NC, 90% of the time you'll see "Yard Sale", even if it is in the garage. So, I've come to call it "Yard", but answered "Garage".

Then again maybe you are from nowhere :) or had a lot of relocations through your life.

By the way, in both NC and Chicago, if you call it a "Tag" sale, you've just smoked yourself out as a true Yankee. Some "Tag" sales are creeping in around here as we continue to suffer another Yankee invasion. :)
 
Pretty slick! We had fun with this on this Christmas morning.

It put me from either Seattle, Salt Lake City or Grand Rapids, MI. Parents grew up in Grand Rapids, but I never spent time there. Passed through SLC on business only, twice. Grew up many places +/- 300 miles of Seattle. I recognized a number of the odd expressions and have used them in other parts of the country, but the Oregon Vortex brought me back to the Left Coast.

DD got Spokane, Milwaukee and Grand Rapids.

DS got Tacoma, Spokane and Boise.

No trace of Houston, where they were born.

Have to get DW to try!
 
It correctly picked my state and designated my city as Springfield MO. Ironically, I did live there for a brief period of time.
 
Philadelphia, Newark/Patterson, Providence for me.....and that's about right. I've been in Texas for 24 years...going to try it again and will pick "feeder" versus "frontage" and "freeway" instead of "parkway" The 2nd try gave me New York, Jersey City, Yonkers.....the distinctive word was "sneakers"
 
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Mulligan said:
It correctly picked my state and designated my city as Springfield MO. Ironically, I did live there for a brief period of time.
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Got any Springfield Cashew Chicken saved/cached?
MRG
 
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