Last Saturday, after a heated debate over whether drinking water out of a bottle without touching it to your lips is called “waterfalling” or an “air sip” (the correct answer is “waterfalling,” in my opinion), my friends and I decided to take The New York Times U.S. Dialect Test. Our group is scattered across the country — from Wisconsin in the Midwest, to New Jersey on the East Coast, to me in Texas in the South. While I don’t have a prominent Southern accent besides occasionally saying “y’all,” I was confident the test wouldn’t be able to guess I was from the South.
The first question the test asked was, “How would you address a group of two or more people?” This question made me laugh, as my friends in Michigan often tease me for saying “y’all,” claiming that I pronounce it with an inherently Southern drawl. I argue that people all over the United States use “y’all,” and that a test cannot determine my location based solely on that phrase.
Other questions included: “What do you call the rubber-soled shoes worn in gym class or for athletic activities?” (Tennis shoes), “How do you pronounce aunt?” (To sound like ant) and “What do you call the small freshwater lobster often found in lakes and streams?” (Crawfish). Interestingly, that last question pinpointed me to the Dallas area and parts of South Louisiana…