Midwest

[Donald M Lance]

on 2/22/02 7:40 PM, Steve Hicks at Hixmaddog at AOL.COM wrote:

> I recall a survey done (among college-
> students) by geographers a few years
> ago, asking "where is the center of the
> Midwest ?"  Kansas and Missouri came
> in as the #1 and #2 answers, I believe:
> except in North Dakota, where "North
> Dakota" was by far the #1 answer.
>
>
> Steve Hicks
> Hicks Information
>
Depends on where the students are.  In my study asking where people sound
alike, Missourians said MO IA KS was the center of Midwestern dialect.
Ohioans said IL IA.  South Dakotans said IA NE. Alabamans said NE.
Georgians said IN IL IA. Pennsylvanians said IL IA. Massachusites (?) said
KS NE SD WY.  Some New Yorkers said WY and others said IA MN NE SD ND  Some
Washingtonians said IL IN OH and others said IA NE SD ND.  They drew lines
around areas with state lines but no state names given.  If they had had
access to state names, the picture might have been different, but then they
would have thought Iowa was out where Idaho is and Missouri and
Massachusetts are near neighbors.  One student drew a circle around Wyoming
and called it "Tree Hugger State."  When I tabulated all the responses
together, the "combined wisdom" of the students from a dozen different
universities was surprisingly close to Carver's map and the map on the back
of the ADS t-shirt.   To see what I'm talking about, you'll have to read
Dennis Preston's Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology, Volume I, because I'm
not gonna give away any more secrets here.

BTW, I didn't have responses from as many areas as I wanted -- notably, none
from TX CA OR NM CO.  So, if any of you has access to a class to whom you
could administer my little survey, I'd appreciate it -- but before you have
told them about perceptual dialectology -- send me an e-mail off line.  You
would need to have a group that would include at least 20 who are native to
the state where your university is.  I may want to revisit my old data and
add to it.

DMLance