Outside the Beltway

Dialect Quiz: Yankee or Dixie?

James Joyner
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Yankee or Dixie?

Check on your dialect and see if you might have crossed over to the “other side”! Simply click on the correct answer. As you go, the quiz will automatically interpret each answer to show you what your answer implies about you. When you are done, press Compute My Score. Your score will be calculated as a percentage: 0% is pure Yankee and 100% is pure Dixie.

My result is more Southern than I’d have guessed, in that I’ve moved around so much:

84% (Dixie). Did you have any Confederate ancestors?

Feel free to report your results below. It’s a very short quiz, consisting of 20 multiple choice questions.

(via e-mail from a former grad school colleague at the Capstone)

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20 responses to “Dialect Quiz: Yankee or Dixie?”

  1. sortapundit Avatar
    sortapundit

    47% (Yankee). Barely into the Yankee category.

    I suppose that means I’m fairly neutral. Interesting, as I’m British.

  2. Rodney Dill Avatar
    Rodney Dill

    39% Yankee, but then I grew up in Wisconsin and now live in Micihgan. Good quiz, ainahey.

  3. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    I am 39% Yankee, even though I have lived in the south the last 14 years. It must be true, greater Atlanta is not the south.

    T

  4. Bithead Avatar
    Bithead

    42% (Yankee). Barely into the Yankee category.

    Hmmm.
    Possibly because of being in the Northeast, but hundreds of miles fro the NEC, and being a heavy traveler.

    Being a radio type helped, too.

  5. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    at 92% Dixie I just gotta say… Y’all must talk real funny.

  6. Boyd Avatar
    Boyd

    78% (Dixie). That is a pretty strong Southern score!

    I was glad to see that the authors recognized Texas as being distinct from the South.

    Answering question 16 reminded me of one time, as a kid, when we were in a restaurant and the waitress asked me what I wanted to drink. I told her I wanted a Coke, and she left before I had a chance to tell her that the kind of Coke I wanted was an orange (soda)!

  7. Scott Dillard Avatar
    Scott Dillard

    59% Dixie for me. Raised in CA but spent most summers in Texas. Sure does stick.

  8. Kent Avatar
    Kent

    44% (barely Yankee)

    Curious. Most of my answere were identified with the Great Lakes region or Midwest, but most of my family were immigrants to Utah in the late 19th century. I grew up in New Mexico.

  9. Dave Schuler Avatar
    Dave Schuler

    69% Dixie. I’m surprised it’s not higher. My long-time residence in Chicago must have corrupted me.

  10. Pete Avatar
    Pete

    88% Dixie. If I didn’t live 5 teenage years in New York, I am sure it would have been much higher for Dixie! Y’all have a Merry Christmas!

  11. bryan Avatar
    bryan

    Geez, James. You live in Va, and spent considerable time in Ala. How could you NOT be dixie?

  12. bryan Avatar
    bryan

    63% (Dixie). A definitive Southern score!
    I was surprised at how many words I picked were “Midwestern/Generic American” words. But the use of “coke” to denote a carbonated beverage gave away my Texas roots.

    Merry Christmas, y’all!

  13. Attila Girl Avatar
    Attila Girl

    Hm. I thought my answers were trending Northern, and more Great Lakes states than my family’s true Midwestern roots (which are in Nebraska).

    But I came out 51% Dixie, and I’ve lived in California almost my entire life.

  14. austin mls Avatar
    austin mls

    I’ve never gotten this thing. I usually get around a 50%…and yet all of my answers are consistent with a Southern score (so each question tells me).

    It can’t be very accurate. For example, I’m from Houston, where it’s a feeder along the interstate. However, this makes me less Southern, because if I switch it to my second choice (access road) I become 7% more Southern! And sometimes I’d call it a crawdad, but more likely a crawfish.

  15. Clint Avatar
    Clint

    Funny. I grew up in the rural south and only scored a 72 % but my wife who grew up in the city scored 92%. The meter is a little faulty.

  16. Cassandra Avatar
    Cassandra

    I think if you’re well-read it’s going to skew the results. Several responses I gave (that were mid-Western – and I’ve NEVER lived there, being from a Navy family) came from well-loved books that influenced me as a child or young adult. Lots of things – including TV, periodicals, and books – influence our vocabulary.

    I came out 80% Dixie.

    Attila Girl, coming out 51% Dixie despite being a native Californian is obviously a sign of superior intelligence 🙂 I knew there was a reason I liked you…

    (Just kidding – I love California – I’ve lived there five times and just moved back East in July. Boy am I missing it about now.)

  17. John Thacker Avatar
    John Thacker

    That test is wrong on at least one thing. Pronouncing “cot” and “caught” differently is also common in the South, anywhere that people have the Southern Shift, as well as in the Great Lakes region where people have the Northern Cities Vowel shift.

    Yet saying that one pronounces “cot” and “caught” differently decreases one’s Dixie score. Scandalous!

  18. LJD Avatar
    LJD

    42% yankee, barely there.
    Live in NH; educated in CA; Mom was from MI.
    Everywhere I have lived, people thought I was from down south. Go figure. I only picked that up after 4 months at Ft. Knox!

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