# Describe your idiolect **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 26, 2026, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792 "2026-03-26T18:39:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/61 "2026-03-27T16:24:26Z")
Thank you! It got me broadly as Inland North all right, but flubbed the specifics. It compared me to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Grand Rapids, and Buffalo. I’ve never been to any of those locations. I tried to answer the way I remember everybody around me speaking when I was growing up in Cleveland. I’ve made some changes since then. Crayon now with 2 syllables and caramel now with 3. Where I grew up, each was missing a syllable. I’ve skewed my native dialect a lot by reading too many dictionaries, too many books in general. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/62 "2026-03-27T16:26:54Z")
The quiz nailed me solid - Long Beach/Irvine, CA. Apparently, “frontage road” is a tell for Southern California. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/63 "2026-03-27T16:48:50Z")
The test put me in the South, somewhere between Memphis and Birmingham. I’ve never lived anywhere near that region; I spent my first ten years in Texas, and five years of my adulthood in western Kentucky, but the majority of my life in St. Louis. My friends tell me I have an accent, but it’s unplaceable. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/64 "2026-03-27T16:53:04Z")
The quiz was mostly right for me. I grew up in the Midwest, including several years in Chicago, and now live in Maryland. It got all of those. It missed by putting me in Upstate New York, where I have never spent much time. A few features of my speech: - I do not have the whine/wine merger. I pronounce a sort of '‘h’ sound along with the ‘w’ in “what” or “wheat”. My kids think this is weird - I also don’t have the cot/caught merger. Not that I say either word very often, but they are definitely different - I have brought the short o vowel backwards a bit and rounded it, so ‘dog’ is more like ‘dawg’ ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/65 "2026-03-27T17:36:57Z")
The quiz suggested Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Overland Park (in Kansas). The first two were pretty close. I grew up in Kokomo, Indiana, which is about midway between Indy and Fort Wayne. Overland Park is the puzzling outlier. On the other hand, I sometimes think that my use of language may be distorted somewhat by the fact that I read a lot, and have been known to adopt terms that I learn in books. For example, I chose “frontage road” for the question about a small road next to the highway. But I only know that term because I read it somewhere. I never heard anyone use it growing up, and as far as I know people around here don’t have a particular term for that concept. I have the full Mary-merry-marry merger–can’t hear a bit of difference between any of the three. On the other hand, I do not have the caught-cot merger. I also don’t say “warsh” for “wash,” although my mother did. I have consciously adopted a few terms that I’ve heard on British TV shows. I’ll talk about the “bin men” instead of the “garbage men,” for example, or use “bloody” as a mild oath. But those are affectations, and not part of my natural dialect. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/66 "2026-03-27T17:39:28Z")
Meh. The closest the quiz could get to my hometown was a whole half hour away. Trash. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/67 "2026-03-27T17:40:34Z")
Generally a fairly standard Midwestern/Great Lakes. Spending six years in a fairly cosmopolitan college town (Madison, WI), and then moving to the Chicago area, largely got rid of most of my Green Bay accent and speech patterns, though it still comes back a bit when I spend time back up there. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/68 "2026-03-27T18:12:07Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > There are a couple of distinctive features of the Philly accent that I want to mention, mostly concerned with the letter a. Not the a of fate, nor of father, but the ones in fatter and banter. The former is called lax and the latter called tense. It is very roughly approximated by ay. There’s a lot of this going on in my own idiolect (SE Louisiana, near New Orleans). What grade-school teachers called “short a” comes in two forms in my dialect/idiolect: 1. /æ/ or **Hari\_Seldon** ’s lax “a” 2. /eə/ or **Hari\_Seldon** ’s tense “a”. Note that this is a diphthong – specifically, a centering diphthong. The vague similarity to “ay” (so-called “long a” or IPA /ej/) comes from the sharing the first element, /e/. So for me, almost all words ending in stressed “-ass(e)”, “-ast”, and “-ash” (either monosyllables or words stressed on the last syllable) use /eə/: _pass, grass, impasse, fast, blast, cash, mash_, etc. My idiolect drops this rule on two words: _mass_ (all senses) and Scottish _lass_ both use /æ/. Along the same lines, _mad_ (/meəd/) and _mat_ (/mæt/) don’t use the same vowel for me. Similar for _cab/cap_, _bag/back_, and many other words. A voiced final stop takes /eə/, an unvoiced final stop takes /æ/. The upshot of the /æ/-/eə/ thing is that my vowels in the pairs _hair/had_, _pair/pad_, _air/ad_, etc. are very similar to one another. Also, for me _hair/hate_, _lair/late_, _care/cake_, etc. have decidedly different vowel sounds though my grade-school teachers would have called both “long a” – _hair_ is close to /heər/ while _hate_ is /hejt/. Also in my idiolect: _Nine_ (/najn/ for most Americans) commonly comes out “non” (/nan/) in conversational-speed speech. There are a small number of other words that do this, too – _five_ for sure. The first-person singular pronoun _I_ commonly reduces to /a/ for me. _My_ to /ma/, yep. But /aj/-\>/a/ is not a broad covering rule in my speech – I don’t say /ras/ for _rice_ or /tat/ for _tight_. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/69 "2026-03-27T18:23:09Z")
> [@Chad\_Sudan](#): > > Here’s a direct link to the “US Dialect Quiz” cited by @Whack-a-Mole > > [The U.S. Dialect Quiz: How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WVA.mf0W.hD314PdM5MR2&smid=url-share) Just did this – as a Canadian. The result I got was that my dialect is closest to that of the US cities of Seattle, Washington, Portland / Vancouver on the Oregon / Washington border, and Honolulu, Hawaii. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/70 "2026-03-27T18:30:11Z")
“Frontage road” as in a road that runs alongside a highway? That’s what we use here in Chicago, too. Or is there another meaning? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/71 "2026-03-27T18:32:43Z")
No, that’s what it means. NYT seems to think that usage is most prevalent in the Southwest. That and “freeway.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/72 "2026-03-27T18:37:19Z")
“Freeway” definitely. But frontage roads are the basic term for those types of roads and I don’t know what other ones could be used? Service road? From my googling, it appears to be most common in Texas, the SW, California, and parts of the Midwest. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/73 "2026-03-27T18:39:36Z")
Both “service road” and “frontage road” are used in the New Orleans area, but “service road” is much more common. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/74 "2026-03-27T18:46:12Z")
Hmmm. Signals are a form of communication. My wife and I usually use chess clocks while playing. But if one is not available, fingers set on the table mean we are thinking. A slap on the table means the move is done. We generally slap our ring finger down to make a sharp note that the move is done. Two slaps means check mate. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/75 "2026-03-27T19:13:09Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > But frontage roads are the basic term for those types of roads and I don’t know what other ones could be used? Service road? Service road is all I’ve ever heard it called. Don’t think I have ever heard “frontage” road before. The question in that survey that surprises me the most is that sneakers is just specific to the Northeast and tip of Florida (which is probably all NY retirees.) I thought that was such a common and standard word. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/76 "2026-03-27T19:19:06Z")
In my experience, a frontage road is public and runs alongside a major highway. A service road is usually for “official vehicles” and might be located anywhere. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/77 "2026-03-27T19:41:02Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > The question in that survey that surprises me the most is that sneakers is just specific to the Northeast and tip of Florida (which is probably all NY retirees.) I thought that was such a common and standard word. “Sneakers” is familiar all over the US thanks to nationwide media. It’s just not _said_ all over. Thinking about it, the local use of “tennis shoes” to mean “pretty much any athletic shoes that aren’t cleats” is kind of weird. I think this usage is fading gradually around here, though. ---
**Author:** ![ThisOneGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@ThisOneGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisOneGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/78 "2026-03-27T20:50:03Z")
I lack the technical vocabulary to describe how I talk. Dad was in the army, so we moved around a bunch growing up (8 different states by the time I was 16). Then my mother married a man from Alabama, so picked up some of that as well. After that lived in north/central Utah for 30 years. To my ears I sound mostly southern California, then generally western. On top of that I affect a “faux redneck” vibe, when I remember or am in the mood. Some “roundness” to vowels has caused some people to suspect (incorrecttly) I am from Minnesota. That NYT quiz correctly showed Utah as the highest on the heat map, but suggested Boise or Milwaukee as also likely. Northern California is also a good match. I have lived in Boise, but not the others. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/79 "2026-03-27T21:00:29Z")
That’s a common signal (between 2 persons) I believe “idiolect” means , How you talk. Or speak. Personally. (Just looked, written language as well). Don’t think slapping a table counts, any more than my ASL signs. IMO ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792/80 "2026-03-27T21:09:23Z")
Urban neutral. I could be from Chicago, LA, Houston, or Charlotte, really anywhere. But if you catch me off guard or under stress then you’ll hear some southernisms leak in. I’m a lifelong southerner but went to high school in this sort of suburban colony of transplants from all over. They were the wealthy higher-status people, so if you didn’t want to sit at the country-folks table, you lost the accent real quick. I probably speak in too much of an academic/intellectual register for this reason. Losing the accent has mostly served me well in life. It’s really amazing how quickly people will get condescending and supercilious if any of the Southern leaks out at all. I mean, stereotypes about southerners exist for good reasons of course, and my own identity is very conflicted, but northerners are way too comfortable showing all their prejudice and insecurity when circumstances favor it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-idiolect/1028792.md?page=5)