Re: Re: "Yankee" and "D ixie" dialects

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 12:03 PM 3/4/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>In a message dated 3/3/04 11:50:41 AM, laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:
>
>
> > At 7:56 AM -0500 3/3/04, Orin Hargraves wrote:
> > >Here's a link to a quiz that purports to tell you where yours belongs,
> > based
> > >on the "Harvard Computer Society Dialect Survey." Pretty good fun, even if
> > not
> > >totally scientific:
> > >
> > >http://www.chuckchamblee.com/dom/fun/yankee_dixie_quiz.htm
> > >
> > >Orin Hargraves
> > >(49% yankee)
> >
> > I'm skeptical.
> > Larry Horn
> > ("54% dixie"--
> > grew up in NYC, lived on Long Island and in California, Wisconsin,
> > and New England)
> >
>
>I think they are totally wrong about SACK and BAG. I grew up in Iowa as a
>SACK guy, and was surprised that in North Carolina the folks were all BAG
>people.

They (whoever they are) are obviously not taking into account migration
from North to South (or Sunbelt).  So today there may indeed be lots of
'bag' people in NC, even though older residents would have used
'sack'.  And Iowa is split, as I recall, but 'sack' usage would hardly
qualify Iowans as Dixie-ites (note that I avoided Dixiecrats).  Even in
bag-dominant Minnesota we brought 'sack lunches' to school.  Who answered
the original Harvard survey anyway--mobile university types like us?