LOL, that was fun!

I fit all the maps perfectly. DH says, "Coke" and I say, "Soda" but that area was a tie-dye of red & blue so I guess we're both right.

I grew up in a "pop" area but I haven't lived there for so long I use "soda" though a lot of people here use "coke."

I guess "yous guys" is too narrowly used to make the cut at all (7/23).

Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Dictionary

This post was edited by jamies on Thu, Jun 6, 13 at 23:04

He didn't ask about chests of "draws" or trousers.

And everybody knows the stuff in the corner of your eyes is called sleepy dust. The silliness of some scientists!

Yes, that WAS fun!

And I hadn't realized that so many of you mispronounce so many words. ;)

I'm in the PNW - Canadian side and my pronunciation aligns with Washington except for #17 and #18. Shoes worn in a gym are called runners or running shoes. We don't say tennis shoes - unless you have specific shoes for tennis, nor do we use the term sneakers. And for #18, unlike Washington, we usually say highway and not freeway.

Now this is for the west coast - who knows what the east coast says.

Fourteen of my answers are equally divided between the north and south. This makes sense because I was born in the mid-west but have lived in Florida for thirty five years. The rest of my answers are scattered across the U.S. while some are N/a. This makes sense because the areas in Florida I have lived are populated by people originally from many different places and my husband is from another country. As unusual I fall in no category.

It does line up with my Southern, upstate SC background quite well. I like being authentic to my roots even if Southerners are mocked all the time.
Interesting!

Most of the Texas ones were correct, with the exceptions of:

Drive-thru liquor store ... we call them "Beer Barns".

Pronunciation of "Pecan" ... I was raised to pronounce it, "Pa-KAHN."

My late husband was from Iowa, and my now-fiancé is from Long Island, so we've always had a good mixture of terms and pronunciations in our household!

My husband teases me about how I pronounce a few words. We are both born and raised in MI so I'm not sure where I picked up a few of the things I say. A big one that he teases me about is "sneakers". I never say tennis shoes.

DH and I were discussing this topic last night and the conversation went to accents.

We live in Central Texas and I said I don't think we have much of an accent while East & West Texans have very thick accents. He said Central Texans are just the only Texans that THINK they don't have accents. So true, we are the snobs of Texas!

But after I thought about it, yeah, every time I go anywhere out of state, people always ask me if I'm from Texas. It was real funny (not) when a shop owner in Northern New Jersey made fun of my accent.

My accent (or non-accent) is similar to the PNW as I live in western Canada in what might be called the Pacific South-West. However I've lived across Canada from coast to coast as well as in Europe so, while I don't think my accent has changed, I have adopted words from many places. I have also picked up words from the internet so occasionally use the term y'all and a few hick phrases from where I now live 'in the back of beyond'. Guess I'm now a 'hybrid' when it comes to speaking!

This was fun and interesting, thanks for posting. I grew up in Vermont and we say "carmel" for caramel, our subs are called "grinders" and we put "jimmies", not sprinkles, on our ice cream.

sandyponder

Interesting. It was about 80% accurate for me, and I have lived in a rather small area all my life.

I was thinking the other day that my dad, who grew up in the same basic area as I, pronounced words differently.

For example, he pronounced toilet as ta-let instead of toil-et.

We put chocolate shots on our ice cream...when I was in Boston for the first time ordering a sundae and the gal asked me if I wanted jimmies, I said, "No, I want my own sundae, not someone elses!"

Anyone else say sherbert instead of sherbet?

Scarlet tananger instead of tanager?

Tumeric instead of turmeric?

Alblum instead of album?

Foilage instead of foliage?

Prespiration instead of perspiration?

My Dad always said fil-em instead of film and el-em instead of elm...but I think that's a hangover from his eastern european up bringing.

Annie I say sherbert too lol. I also say rut beer instead of root beer. Where the heck does that come from? I havenâÂÂt lived in the mid-west for so long, is that a mid-west thing?

I am always told that I sound like a Californian (my first language-LOL).

I've only ever heard one person call a lawyer a 'law-yer' rather than loy-er. And I tend pronounce it pah-jah-mas rather than pah-jamas. I also have it on good authority that it is, indeed, craw-DADS-since that is what the biologists call them when they're not refering to them in the scientific name.

Fun!!! Despite my having lived in New Mexico for over 25 years, my Michigan roots showed up with almost every pronunciation (LOL). I still recall moving down to Florida in my mid-twenties and being surprised that a "soda" in Florida did not come with added ice cream, as it did in Michigan. Most of my friends there had no idea what a "pop" was.

I've always referred to my tennis-type shoes as "Tennies (TEN-ees).

Growing up in Michigan, flip-flops or sandals were called "zorries" (ZOR-ees). I have no idea where that one came from!

I have a New Mexican pronunciation for you: instead of "Sandwich" many locals (although not all by any means) refer to it as a "Sang-wich". Even my DD's high school English Lit teacher called it that. Thankfully, this is a term we've managed not to pick up.

Thanks for such a fun and interesting thread!
Lynn

How funny that one of the examples actually references the town in which I grew up! The third example references Bowie, as in Bowie knife, and is the name of my hometown in MD. If you look at the map, only in MD and parts of TX is the word pronounced the same (correctly, haha)....Boo-wie.

Interestingly, dh grew out outside of San Francisco and I grew up in MD. Our "accents" are virtually the same. I don't think most people could distinguish where exactly we grew up, though there are definitely some regional accents here in MD (specifically Baltimore). My parents, however, both grew up in places with strong distinguishable accents, Cleveland and Boston, so the local regional accents were not present in my home growing up. Instead, I got to hear my mom calling for Mahhhhhk (mark) lol

I don't think it's regional but I'm hearing this one frequently mispronounced on TV news (and again just this morning).

Hyperbole pronounced as hyperbowl !!! arrrggghhhh