silliness

[Roger Shuy]

on 4/18/05 2:46 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky at zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      silliness
>
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> the blogthings site has a silly american dialect test --
>
> http://www.blogthings.com/amenglishdialecttest/
>
> -- to go along with Who's Your Inner European? and How Normal Are You?
> and What Gender Is Your Brain? and similar quizzes.
>
> you get percentages for General American English, Yankee, Dixie, Upper
> Midwestern, and Midwestern.  i'm 35-35-20-10-0.
>
> who makes these things up?
>
> arnold
>
And I'm 35, 30, 15, 10, and 10. I've never lived in New England but I'm
allegedly 35% Yankee. I've never lived south of Washington DC, but I'm 35%
Dixie. I was born in Ohio and lived there all of my  formative years, but
I'm only 10% Midwestern. I lived in Michigan for three short years as an
adult but not enought to be even 10% Upper Midwest. It's a nutty test.

roger