22 Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From Each Other

business insider ^

[SMGFan]

Everyone knows that Americans don't exactly agree on pronunciations. Regional accents are a major part of what makes American English so interesting as a dialect. Joshua Katz, a Ph. D student in statistics at North Carolina State University, just published a group of awesome visualizations of Professor Bert Voux's linguistic survey that looked at how Americans pronounce words. (via) detsl on /r/Linguistics His results were first published on Abstract, the N.C. State research blog.

[no-s]

my Seattle cousins used to come for a visit

Oh, they from Warshatun?

[boop]

"Ever talk to a true Cockney? I have. I usually understood about every third word."

So true! They speak this weird slang where they rhyme words and it means something else.

Like "dog and bone" means telephone.

Now how the hell would a non-cockney ever understand that?

I was on a cruise once and a Cockney couple was assigned to our table. The guy LOVED to talk, but all I got was: blah blah blah, coach, blah blah blah sloe, etc.

I eventually realized that they took a bus (coach) to the airport. And that one of his hobbies was growing "sloes" as in the berries that flavor gin.

I wonder if he found MY accent hard to understand.

[octex]

...almost everywhere I go people recognize that I’m from Texas.
**********************
Joined Naval Air Reserves at 17, in HS. Went active duty at 18. First stop Charleston and then assigned to ship at Brooklyn Navy Ship Yard. After leaving ship yard, the home port was Mayport FL.

I experienced the same as you, in that everywhere I went people would almost immediately identify me as being a Texan! I couldn’t understand how they did that, until they said it was because of my Texas drawl. (Hard to believe how fast the civilians in NYC talked and also hard to understand their words...this was in 1960-62)

[Mad Dawgg]

I’m from Southern Ohio (which is pronounced “Oh-hi-Ya”)

Around here we go swimming in the “crick” (creek) and we hang our clothes on the “booshes” (bushes) to dry when we get out of the water.

[upsdriver]

When my Seattle cousins used to come for a visit and said they wanted “pop,” I thought they were just homesick. :)

Here in ND, we always called it "pop". I recently watched an old episode of The Andy Griffith Show and they also called it pop.

[Sherman Logan]

I had thought like you until I ran into the other pronunciation in the upper valley, around Buena Vista.

According to Wiki:

Name pronunciation varies by region. Many people in midwestern states, including Kansas and Colorado, pronounce it /ɑrˈkænzəs/ ar-kan-zəs,[8] while many other people in Colorado and Arkansas typically pronounce it /ˈɑrkənsɔː/ ar-kən-saw according to a state law passed in 1881.[9]

[Sherman Logan]

My best friend in high school in KC was born there, but his family was from the Ozarks. When laundering clothes, they would take clothes (close) out (ought) of the washer (warsher) and put them in the drier (drahr).

[rhoda_penmark]

“They had just come from afar.”
And they traveled a fur piece to get there, too. (in NC)

;-)

[pax_et_bonum]

And they traveled a fur piece to get there, too. (in NC)

;-)
__________

Because they came from way over yonder!

:-)

[momto6]

I grew up and lived in Wasilla until we moved to ND in 2008. It drove me crazy that she said feel instead of fill, until I realized I said it the exact same way.
After we were here about a year I was talking to my mom in AK and I said that every once in a while I could hear myself talk like a North Dakotan. My mom said “oh honey it’s not every once in a while trust me.”

[Crusher138]

Born in Jersey, raised in South Florida, live in New Mexico.

Mary and marry are the same. Merry has an “er” sound.

[SoothingDave]

In Western PA “towel” and “tile” are said the same.

[a fool in paradise]

"TOTALLY!!!"

[ArrogantBustard]

Bawlmuh to the natives.

Baltimordor, Baltimurder, etc. to the rest of us.

[x]

We always used to call it "soda pop" or even "sody pop" when we were kids.

I think we got it from older relatives, who didn't have young children and who regarded carbonated drinks as some big treat (which it sort of was for us, because we didn't have it all the time at home).

The flavor didn't much matter and I think they liked buying grape or cherry or orange some other unusual flavor, more than ginger ale or cola.

I haven't really heard "soda pop" since then, but I suspect when I get older I'll probably start calling it that for grandchildren or nieces and nephews.

[PUGACHEV]

"What’s the name of that big city in Merlin?"

In some parts of Merlin it's Ballmer, but some people from Ballmer might say they were from Balteemoor, like they might say Uhmm gonna warsh da baby in da zink.

[exit82]

In Cape Cod, 1974, I wanted a milkshake.

I was told to order a frappe.

[PUGACHEV]

"Then again, when I lived in England, perfect strangers would immediately guess that I was from California. I never even knew we Californians had an accent.

Oh yes there is a definite Cali accent. I was once in Mexico City and ran into native Mexican speaking English with a strong Valley accent. He had never been to the U.S. but picked up the language, and his accent, listening to tapes called "Let's Speak English!"

One the other side of the spectrum, there used to be a wizened old Chinese man who would stand on a street corner off of Canal Street in NYC and sing old standards like "She's Commin Round the Mountain" at volume with a perfect, I mean perfect, Appalachian accent.

[PUGACHEV]

"I still maintain that the most beautiful American accent of all is the old-time, now extinct, New England Yankee accent"

For my money, it's a classic Richmond accent, the way Shelby Foote spoke it in Ken Burn's "The Civil War".

[boop]

Yes, in Merlin, you put ‘murrican cheese on your san-wich.