North American English Dialect Map

[dimondpark]

Great find by Not-Made-For-The-South@City Data
Aschmann.net/AmEng

[biscuit]

Poorly done, and not at all correct. Especially the divisions in the South. Oh, and there is no such place as "Central City, SC."

[Okstate]

I typed in Central City, SC on google maps & it instantly came up with the same geographic city on this map so apparently a very credible source agrees with this author.

http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

-I can't speak for everywhere obviously but for my home turf around Stillwater, Tulsa, & Oklahoma City it is quite correct that we are not in the "south" but most the rest of Oklahoma is in terms of dialect.

[sofresh808]

On, Don and Dawn don't all rhyme???

[Crawford]

I really don't get most of these divisions.

How does suburban NJ sound like Buffalo or Rochester?

Even stranger, are they really saying NJ sounds like MI?? That's insane.

And how does Westchester County, NY sound different from suburban Long Island? It's very similar demographics with similar origins. They sound the same, except that Westchester is a little WASPier and has more corporate relocatee types, so more flat American accents, but MOST people in either area sound about the same.

[Metro-One]

The Canadian side is far to basic, there is a noticeable difference from Coastal BC, to the Prairie Provinces, to the north, to Ontario, and especially to the Maritimes (and especially especially Newfoundland).

Same with the Western States, noticeable differences do exist between Seattle, to California, to Colorado, etc...

[min-chi-cbus]

This is interestin but diffficult to decipher! I love trying to figure out where people are from just from their accent, and I'd like to think that I have the Midwest down pretty pat. In fact, I met my wife because I noticed her accent was similar to Wisconsin/Minnesota, which is where I am from and the rest is history!

[sopas ej]

The upstate New York accents are interesting to me; I have a friend who's originally from the Schenectady/Albany area and to me she sounds "normal," she sounds like she could be from California; she does NOT sound like someone from NYC. But I met someone who was originally from Syracuse, and to me he sounded like he was from Chicago. And this map shows that that accent extends from that part of upstate NY into the Midwest. Very interesting.

[Strange Meat]

poorly designed map.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

The upstate New York accents are interesting to me; I have a friend who's originally from the Schenectady/Albany area and to me she sounds "normal," she sounds like she could be from California; she does NOT sound like someone from NYC. But I met someone who was originally from Syracuse, and to me he sounded like he was from Chicago. And this map shows that that accent extends from that part of upstate NY into the Midwest. Very interesting.

the albany area does have a pretty distinct accent; this coming from someone who was born and raised only 90 miles west of there in utica. the rest of upstate gets more nasally the further west you go like the much of the midwest. they even call soda "pop" as you get out towards rochester and buffalo.

[dave8721]

Originally Posted by sofresh808

On, Don and Dawn don't all rhyme???

Don and Dawn are pronounced the same as far as I've ever heard.

So Southern Florida and parts of the Upper Midwest are the only places that speak "General American"?

[Evergrey]

this map is impossible to read... it would fail cartography class

[urbanactivist]

I'm confused by the circle around New Orleans... is it south or is it just independent?

Many native New Orleanians sound like they could be from Brooklyn.

South Texas, El Paso, and anything on the Mexican Border should have a very specific division for Spanglish.

As a native Arkansan, I can also attest that the speakers they chose all miss the mark for the Central Area of the state. Bill Clinton is from Hope, which has a much stronger connection to East Texas speech as part of the Ark-La-Tex region. The white male student is indicative of Arkansas, but it's more of an Ozark twang than a Delta twang. The way you tell is by the arrangement of diphthongs (or lack thereof). A word like "store" which is one syllable in most recognized English is a two syllable word in Arkansan speech... "sto-wer". "On" becomes more like "own" the further north you go into the state, and in the Ozarks (depending on the age and general speech speed of the person) flirts with being a two-syllable word also... "ow-un".

Whereas long "i" vowels... "like" "bike" should be two syllables (laa-eek) are just one in Arkansan speech (laahk, baahk).

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by sofresh808

On, Don and Dawn don't all rhyme???

not the way that i say them. for me, on and don definitely rhyme, but the vowel sound in dawn is quite different.


agreed that the map is very confusing and difficult to read.

[Strange Meat]

i think it's frustrating at how poorly it is designed as well, because i find this subject incredibly interesting.

i'd also like to hear audio samples of the variances they use to separate the dialects as well.

[brickell]

Seems there's just too much mixing for these types of maps to be of much use anymore.

And there's also too many ethnic and country of origin variations within particular areas. In Miami there's even a distinct difference between early arriving cubans and new cubans. I have people from at least 10 different countries in my office with probably 20 different accents. How do you make sense of that?

[dave8721]

As far as I've ever seen "the west" and "southern florida" are pretty much the same (minus the valley girl or stoner/surfer accent in southern california). Both are "General American".

[VivaLFuego]

It's an impressive map, but it would be well served to be presented via an applet with selectable layers. Having every 'layer' on the same map, as noted, makes it very hard to decipher.

Given all the sourcing I wouldn't knock this guy's effort, though. I think this map is very cool and incredibly well-support with evidence, the only shortcoming is the final presentation in trying to cram too much on one map with no intermediate versions available. Even if not presented with selectable layers, a series of maps starting from a blank continental outline and gradually adding features and divisions would make it much easier to quickly understand how it is constructed.

[krudmonk]

Originally Posted by sofresh808

On, Don and Dawn don't all rhyme???

It's news to me.

[strongbad635]

Overall a good map, but of course people from anywhere are going to have "corrections" to make based on their observations of their local culture.

As for me, the Maryland map is 90% correct. The only changes I'd make are that the entire Eastern Shore of Maryland is coastal Southern accent, not just the lower half. And the extreme western parts of Maryland that are near West Virginia have an Upland Southern accent and not a General American accent.

Colorado has an awful lot of Midwestern influence. They call coke "pop" and pronounce "Colorado" with a short "a" sound instead of an "ah."