# Dialect Surveys **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 12, 2006, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110 "2006-02-12T14:46:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110/1 "2006-02-12T14:46:21Z")
[This site](http://cfprod.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/maps.html) is one of quite a few to show up in a Yahoo! search for “dialect Survey” that I was using to try to find the one referred to a while back when somebody wanted to know if there was another name for a “roly poly” bug. From time to time discussions (nay, arguments and debates) arise over the “correct” way to pronounce something or the “proper” word to use for something. To my own way of seeing such things, regional differences are usually at play. True, there are some things that submit to a “correctness” valuation, but so many are just “the way it’s done in this area.” The maps at this website demonstrate that point fairly well, and the localized choices are fairly evident. Do you know of other websites that support this notion even more substantially? Some that may help to refute my basic belief on the issue? What’s your own basic position on the issue? One correct way or a regional preference type of thing? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110/2 "2006-02-12T15:03:43Z")
[I \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ her lifeless body from the pool](http://cfprod.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_49.html) :eek: Must’ve been a slow day over at the linguistics lab. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110/3 "2006-02-12T15:14:00Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#): > > [I \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ her lifeless body from the pool](http://cfprod.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_49.html) > > :eek: Must’ve been a slow day over at the linguistics lab. Without seeing the choices, I would probably have said either “towed” or “winched.” After some thought, maybe “backhoed.” How 'bout you? ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110/4 "2006-02-12T15:19:29Z")
I would’ve said pulled,\* unless she had been marinating in a warm pool for a very long time. Then maybe scooped out with a soup ladle? \*Born in the US, lived 20 years in several other countries speaking several other languages & have lived in Colorado, California & Michigan. My dialect probably would not be easy to categorize. People often guess I’m Canadian. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110/5 "2006-02-12T18:04:12Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > From time to time discussions (nay, arguments and debates) arise over the “correct” way to pronounce something or the “proper” word to use for something. To my own way of seeing such things, regional differences are usually at play. > > What’s your own basic position on the issue? One correct way or a regional preference type of thing? I agree. There is (loosely) one prestige dialect per country, e.g. Standard American English, and as long as your regional variations aren’t too far away, there is usually little argument. More divergent dialects get reviled. Then there are hypercorrections, which are just wrong. No genuine dialect ever said “between you and I.” That’s a product of bad teaching. Some dialects say “me” where Standard American English says “I.” (Child: “Me and Sally eat worms.” Teacher: “No, no, ‘Sally and I eat worms.’” “You too?”) Speakers of these dialects often just learn to replace “me” with “I” indiscriminately. My students use “whom” in bizarre ways for the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110/6 "2006-02-12T18:30:23Z")
Duh, obviously I _drug_ her out. Is this the survey that asked what you call a drive-through liquor store? Because I answered with the essay option “holy shit, it’s a drive-through liquor store!” I live in South Carolina, Land of the Blue Laws. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110/7 "2006-02-12T18:35:56Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Duh, obviously I _drug_ her out. > > Is this the survey that asked what you call a drive-through liquor store? Because I answered with the essay option “holy shit, it’s a drive-through liquor store!” I live in South Carolina, Land of the Blue Laws. [Good memory](http://cfprod.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_118.html), **Zsofia**. I never heard of such a thing either. Closest I could come up with was a bootlegger. We always had to get out and go inside if it was a store. But it did give me a picture in my mind of one of those things where the car crashes through the wall like in _Blues Brothers_ and proceeds to “drive through.” ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110/8 "2006-02-12T19:43:28Z")
Things that are shocking to you stick in your memory. 🙂 As I recall, some of the options were “party barn” and “brew-thru”, hee hee. There was also one on turning circles in an icy parking lot, something also unknown to me - there were three normal-sounding names and then “whipping shitties”. The hilarious thing is that right after I saw that survey, I went down to my parents’ house in Florida and saw _three_ "holy shit, it’s a drive-through liquor store!"s on one intersection! I could have died. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110/9 "2006-02-12T20:10:09Z")
That is one nifty website! Bubbler, bubbler, bubbler. I love saying bubbler. [http://cfprod.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q\_103.html](http://cfprod.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_103.html) ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110/10 "2006-02-13T13:45:11Z")
I’ve noticed several threads popping up with pronunciation and word choice issues that are dealt with in this Dialect Survey linked to in the OP. I’m curious if similar surveys done by other institutions or agencies arrive at similar results. I’m even more curious how Dopers react to the notion that there can be multiple “right answers” to such things. Gauging from some of the responses to the other threads’ issues, one might conclude that “if you ain’t from around here, what you say is **wrong**.” That seems a little narrow-minded to me. What say you? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110/11 "2006-02-13T14:07:21Z")
\ Yew ain’t from around here, are yew baw? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-surveys/344110/12 "2006-02-13T14:08:34Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#): > > \ > Yew ain’t from around here, are yew baw? :dubious: Waal nauw I does got a Stuffy Back Bedroom if’n thass whutchy mean.