Maps of the US showing pronunciation of 22 different words by location.

I thought it was interesting to see how wrong some of you guys pronouce various words. I was also surprised to see that in many cases the country is split east to west rather than north to south.

22 Maps That Show The Deepest Linguistic Conflicts In America - Business Insider

 

i got to pecan and stopped looking.
pretty interesting list.

 

Was I the only one saying every word out loud to determine which was the least odd-sounding?

 

There is nothing "right" about languages, they are dynamic and evolving.
Wonder how the "center" of smart design match the most common pronunciation outlier (i.e.they are evolving in some direction, without a smart design)

I'm not surprised at all to fit a mix of Michigan (genes), Hollywood (entertainment) and NorthEast (business partners).

 

As someone with color blindness, I would like to say f you to whomever decided to make the key so damn small.

 

I did the same thing on several of them.

Apparently I'm more redneck than I realized. I lol'd at the "sun shining when it's raining" one. I've said, "the devil's beating his wife" a few times and gotten a "WTF is wrong with you?" look, so I kinda backed off on that expression, lol.

 

Yinz are all crazy....

 

I think most of those words I've pronounced many of the ways shown. Then again I have lived everywhere.

 

Ugh, I do not like the word "ya'll" at all. I use "you guys" or "you all"....that's the yankee in me. I remember when I moved to GA from SO. FL and was baffled by this. I'm definitely one for "sunshower", but have heard (mostly as a child) the devil expression.

 

Pop....

 

Soda...dammit.

 

The freeway/highway thing drives me crazy out here. Being from L.A./San Diego there is a difference in them. Here anything with two lanes, or more, is a highway. Getting directions is infuriating. Plus you get stuff like go down to the "old mill", but it is not a mill anymore, then turn left and follow it a bit (how far is a bit?), when you see the highway follow it north. The older people here seriously use land marks that don't exist anymore to give directions to people who have explicitly said I'm new here can you tell me how to get to xxx place.

 

Being from Connecticut and now living in Oregon, I am apparently very split in some of those things. I found the sub map very funny. Apparently it's a sub.

Also, I was very sad they didn't have an Aunt vs. Ant map. I've always said Aunt, because an Ant is a bug.

 

They are PEE-cans and I will no longer be embarrassed to say that in the presence of uppity types who insist on referring to them as puh-KAHNS. My granddaddy has acres of PEE-can orchards where I played as a child. We would pick them up off the ground when they fell and use one to crack open another. Most of the trees were planted in 1914, the year of my grandfather's birth, by my great-great-grandfather. They were always my grandfather's trees to me, and he called them PEE-cans.

 

The blue states have got it right.

Size is irrelevant. In some areas, even parts of the Eisenhower Expressway System (the US Interstate freeway network) neck down to only one lane in either direction.

The difference is all about access control. Freeways are a special class of highway which do not have intersections or stops, feature dedicated on and off ramps (sliproads), have a minimum speed requirement, are not open to pedestrian or bicycle traffic, etc. They are intended for the continuous flow of traffic.



Hehe. I grew up in rural Florida, and now live in SD, so I know exactly what you mean. Out here, nobody would dream of saying "... and then turn left where the old Smith farm used to be."

On the other hand, we (Californians) do have an interesting habit of referring to all numbered highways as "The," and using non-obvious acronyms for the named highways. So you might be heading north on The 5, get off on The 78, and head west to PCH.

That would be Interstate 5, CA Highway 78, and the Pacific Coast Highway (which is actually US Highway 101, but nobody calls it that south of LA), respectively.


Of course, our radio traffic reports also list "wait times," which may be confusing to outsiders. Eg: "Wait time 40 minutes at Otay Mesa, an hour and fifteen at San Ysidro."

(Wait time is the length of the line at the various US / Mexico border crossings.)


And then we always have the surf report as well, right along with traffic and weather. Seriously, we actually have a Surf Forecaster here on the local radio stations.

THURSDAY - Solid SW groundswell is on the rise through the day, peaking late, as minor NW windswell blends in. Better breaks are running waist-chest high in the morning, with sets overhead+ at standouts in the far north county. By later in the day standout exposures are going well overhead.

And yes, he actually delivers that report with a stereotypical surfer-dude drawl.

 

Until you get as far north as San Luis Obispo and the "The" is dropped. Take 101 south to 280 S until it becomes 680 N and cut over to the Nimitz, hop on the bay bridge and it'll take you to 101.

Virginia is lame with road names. highways are pretty much any road given a number and it may not remain the same road (turns left at random intersections..) and may be re-numbered or share itself with another number for some time and called route, pike, highway, byway, parkway, assway, etc. Plus every road has some form of "Lee" in it.

 

A freeway is a toll free highway.
A tollway is a highway with tolls.

 

Spoken like a true Zonie...

 

Tollway?

You mean, you have to pay a toll to drive on a road?

Probably why every road outside of michigan is nice. We don't have that garbage here, we just have super high gas tax...

 

Yes. Tolls. It sucks. And somehow, the roads still suck.