In today’s video, I’m going to take an American dialect quiz to see if it can identify where I’m from! I come from a unique linguistic background, so we’ll talk about that first. Then, I’ll walk you through all the questions in the quiz, explaining my answers and giving interesting context for the different kinds of slang and vocabulary we use in different parts of the U.S.
After watching, take the quiz yourself and let me know about your results in the comments!
Welcome to The Fluency Habit – English for Real Life.
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The U.S. Dialect Quiz:
Are Southern accents disappearing? Linguists say yes:
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 – Intro
1:19 – My linguistic background and context
6:09 – About the quiz
7:41 – Y’all, you guys, youse guys, etc.
9:42 – American cultural regions
11:00 – Road beside highway
11:43 – Firefly vs. Lightning bug
12:37 – Rubbernecking (people who slow down traffic to look at an accident)
13:51 – Crayon pronunciation
14:52 – Been pronunciation
15:30 – Roundabout, traffic circle, etc.
15:54 – Drive thru liquor store
16:39 – Median (area of grass in the middle of some streets)
17:17 – Night before Halloween
17:57 – Pajamas pronunciation
18:37 – Mountain lion, cougar, puma, etc.
19:59 – Dinner vs. Supper
20:37 – Tractor-trailer, semi-truck, etc.
21:37 – Water fountain, drinking fountain
21:59 – Mary, merry, marry pronunciation
22:56 – Crypt course ???
23:24 – The Devil is beating his wife
25:05 – Lawyer pronunciation
25:24 – Sub sandwich
25:55 – Roly poly bug
26:48 – Caramel pronunciation
28:01 – Aunt pronunciation
30:54 – Cot vs. Caught pronunciation
31:28 – Tennis shoes vs. sneakers
32:44 – My reaction to my results
32:50 – My results
34:55 – Let me know your results if you take the quiz!
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There is a beautiful state in the southern coast of India called Kerala which is widely recognised as the birthplace of Yoga and Ayurveda.
Here we call it when rain falls while the sun is shining as Fox's wedding 😂
I enjoy all your videos. I somewhat disagree about the accent thing. I think everyone who has an accent has something special that speaks about their soul. Those who look down at them are the ones who are wrong.
I paused about 7 minutes in to go and do the test. I always thought my dialect was too generic to place, but I live in one of the top three most similar cities it scored, in Washington State. One thing I noticed was that some words had changed from when I was young. I grew up saying "pop" for carbonated beverages, but everyone around here says "soda" now, and I have adapted that word as well. Also no one calls rubber sandals "thongs" anymore LOL. That kind of underwear and swimwear didn't exist until I was in my twenties, which is when I remember the shoes starting to be called "flip-flops".
Great!
Thank you so much for this content! 👍🏼
Thank you so much for this and all your class-videos, in this case I was very satisfied and understood 99% of what you said, it is good for my english level. I'm from Vzla and studied in an place called CVA where the accent can be mostly from northeast or New York, but I like all about your lenguage and the way you explain that. Because I watch your videos, there's a lot of others that you tube suggest, but I preffer yours 😊, thank you again and I'll continue learning whit it.
I use the word aunt, in the context of age.
Aunt(ant) younger
Aunt-older
Auntie-elder
I’m also from Georgia 🇬🇪
14:09 My wife is a native-born American and for her “crayon” rhymes with “man” 🙂 I used to pronounce it the way you said it here but I adopted the local pronunciation (Southwest Michigan) after I moved here to settle down.
😚
I used to watch movies and series with people from Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia. I love the way they sound. I grew up avoiding my original accent (Brazilian northeast) cause I thought foreigner people would struggle to understand me.
I love the way you speak, besides that, your voice is incredibly beautiful.
Hello, Meredith. Amazing video! I'm so into that kind of video that talks about pronunciations and dialetcs. I'd like a feedback of yours regarding the ing pronunciation be it in stressed syllables or suffixes; do you commonly realize ing as being eeng or even een or like ihng which is the standard pronunciation? I've seen that in the West and maybe some parts of the Midwest, they tend to perceive it as eeng or een. Does that apply to you or your regional accent too?I'm a bit curious. 🙂
Regards from Brazil.
Yeah, I think supper is an evening meal; dinner is the main meal.
Thanks
In love with that gaze and sustained smile. Amazing content Meredith, I enjoy it it so much!!!
I’m loving this content! I think you’re definitely becoming one of my favorite YouTubers. I live in Miami, but I’m Cuban, and I’ve always been really into American culture. Like you explained in this video, though, it’s crazy how different things can be between the North and the South.
I’d honestly love to see you talk more about Southern culture, places you’d recommend visiting, food, traditions, or just things you think someone like me should know. I’m really curious about American culture in general, and I’d love to learn more from someone who’s actually from here and has lived here their whole life. ❤️
You are great. Big Hug From Brazil 🇧🇷
4:32 I understand you. It happened to me too, because here in Brazil there's a kind of bias regarding people from the northeast (not only the accent), where I'm from. So I grew avoiding my natural accent
Hi Meredith ! Thanks for the video; excellent analysis of the South American accent, and it’s great to know where you’re from. Haha, that was one of the questions I had! I learned many words from this video. Have a great weekend!😃
Very interesting information. I enjoyed it a lot!
Apart from your beautiful voice, you are so pretty 😍