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Comment by tfmatt | Hacker News Reader

I didn't find this test to be particularly accurate. This one on the other hand blew me away https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz...

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Some of the choices seem poorly selected. For example, on the question about what term I would use for roads meeting in a circle, both "roundabout" and "rotary" were choices, but I was only allowed to select just one. I use both terms, but it depends on the exact road configuration, and to some degree, the context of who I am speaking to. Other questions had similar issues.

I tend to code-switch when speaking if I can. If I'm talking to a New Yorker I'll say "truck" and "apartment", but to a Londoner I'd be more likely to say "lorry" and "flat".

> I use both terms, but it depends on the exact road configuration

What’s the difference for you?

Size and number of lanes, for me. I think roundabouts are the multi-lane ones, rotaries are much smaller and slower usually. At least this is what I realized on moving from Massachusetts where rotaries were common, to New Jersey where there were many "roundabouts" which required lane changes and no reduction of speed.

In general...

rotary: tangential entry/exit, large diameter, high-speed, multi-lane

roundabout: deflected entry/exit, small diameter, low-speed, sometimes single-lane

At least a solid third of the questions I wanted to check multiple boxes and a lot of it is context dependent or some terms are more specific than other terms but both work.

Rotary/roundabout

Yard sale/tag sale/garage sale

semi/semi truck/semi trailer/tractor trailer

sneakers/gym shoes

I suspect they didn't have a large enough sample size to allow multiple selections while still having the desired accuracy so they force you to pick something.

That quiz is magnificent! I highly recommend it even if (like me) you are not American - the results will be meaningless, but the questions are themselves absolutely fascinating.

It was accurate but a bit overgeneralized for me:

"You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for."

Chicago suburban for me. I'm actually southwest of the city, but the NY Times quiz heat map puts me in the Buffalo/Cleveland/Detroit/Chicago zone, quite rightly, but different than the city proper. Before a certain Saturday Night Live sketch, I never said "Da Bears," ever, so I don't have the South Side accent which that parodies.

Of course, even in that range there are differences. Most Chicagoans wouldn't know what a "weck" was if it jumped up and bit them (which would be a neat trick, since it's a roast beef sandwich served in the Buffalo area).

The NYT quiz has some judgement calls for me, though, since I use a variety of different terms sometimes (highways being a good example).

This little bit on the Michigan accent (2002) is spot-on: http://michigannative.com/ma_home.shtml

Same here, I'm from the Chicago burbs and was identified by both quizzes as such.

But the NYT one had some that I wanted to select multiple for. Such as "service road" & "frontage road". I selected "service road" but I know that in Chicago where I'm from the term "frontage road" is used but I don't think I personally would use it in a sentence since it isn't intuitive to me.

There were other examples where I wanted to select multiple.

Also never been to Buffalo and don't know what a "weck" is.

That was scarily accurate. Tells me I've picked up stuff from my parents as well as one of the locations where I've lived.

Not sure, it said I speak like I'm from somewhere further north, but I'm in Florida. I've probably picked up my accent from movies and the internet since it is my second language.

This was sort of accurate for me. I grew up in Denver, moved to the plains as a teenager, then to Seattle after high school. It showed me as Reno/Santa Rosa/Stockton.

There were a few questions were after reading the other answers, I realized that I would have said it differently 20 years ago, but I now say it like the locals.

I recall one similar to this that ended early with a correct assessment of my region after I answered a question about the term "bubbler".

This one was pretty close, got it down to 3 cities, two of which are in the correct region.

It said I had a neutral accent...

I grew up in the deep south and make Andy Griffith sound like a northerner.

Interesting. I also grew up in the Deep South, but people are always surprised to hear it, claim I "don't have an accent", etc. And yet, the quiz positively identified me as having a Southern accent.

I assume it's because this quiz is only asking about how we pronounce words, and doesn't measure any other speech metrics like tempo/cadence. I guess I don't have the drawl, but still pronounce words with a Southern accent. Maybe this is why it confuses me so much when my wife pronounces Don and Dawn the same, which was question #2 on the quiz. ("Wait, which person are you talking about?!")

Maybe you have the drawl but not the Southern pronunciation?

I'm a European (Spaniard) who's never set foot in the states, but I've been in a relationship for a while with a girl from Boston.

I expected my result to be near the Mass area due to her influence, but somehow I ended up near Kentucky/Tenessee. I wonder why?

Because you're a European (Spaniard) who's never set foot in the states?

But yet, he's also from Kentucky?

If you don’t have an American accent, then why do you expect that a test of which American accent you have is going to produce a sensible result?

Presumably they wanted to see if they had picked up any accent from their American girlfriend.

I don't expect a sensible result, I just imagined that I would get somewhere either close to the origin of the Americans I know personally, or close to the source of the media I consume (since those are my main connections with the English language), so I'm wondering why my pronunciation is closer to that area in particular instead.

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