Friday, May 23, 2008

Just Barely a Yankee

Doug Mataconis posted a link to a dialect test that purports to determine whether the test-taker is a "Yankee" or a "Dixie."

I scored "49% (Yankee). Barely into the Yankee category."

For his part, Doug scored 35 percent, a "definitive Yankee."

New Jersey native D.J. McGuire is surprised to find out he's "barely into the Dixie category" at 55 percent.

What surprises me about my score is that so many of the explanatory notes attached to the questions point, correctly, to my roots in Wisconsin. (I still think of a water fountain as a "bubbler," for instance.) But I guess my use of "y'all" trumps that -- and I have, after all, spent the greater part of my life in the Mid-Atlantic region, rather than in the upper Midwest of my birth.

As Doug suggests, try out the quiz for yourself. Feel free to report your score in the comments area, below.

(This quiz started circulating through Vivian Paige, who is shocked to learn she "only scored 57% - barely Dixie. How the heck is that possible?")
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7 comments:

  1. J.R.Hoeft5:53 PM, May 23, 2008

    70% Dixie, y'all.

    Would've never guessed it. I've been living here too long, or the Michigan dialect has more southern in it than I thought.

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  2. Conservativa6:16 PM, May 23, 2008

    Hey Ya'll,
    69% Dixie, but I have my quibbles with some of the questions. For example, #1 - I chose "caught" but what if the person taking the quiz is from Brooklyn? She might pronounce "caught" as "coe-awt." Then again, if you're from Brooklyn, you aren't wondering if you might be "Dixie."

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  3. Rick Sincere6:45 PM, May 23, 2008

    My quibble was with the last question. I had never heard of that kind of insect, so I randomly picked the third option.

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  4. Unknown11:19 PM, May 23, 2008

    66% Dixie. Test was obviously written by a Yankee.

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  5. Steven Latimer12:08 PM, May 24, 2008

    44% Yankee (presumably implying 56% Dixie). I've lived in VA all my life.

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  6. Cargosquid12:45 PM, May 24, 2008

    Having come from New Orleans, Louisiana, a large sandwich should be called a "po-boy" which is not a choice. And Crawfish is the correct southern term, not crawdad. We are the experts....

    That said, I got 100%. Which is strange, because New Orleans does not speak "southern." Or at least I thought.

    Now having been in Virginia, its that northern part that makes Virgina be only 56% Dixie.

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  7. Anonymous8:58 PM, May 25, 2008

    77% (Dixie). That is a pretty strong Southern score!

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