American regional dialects test

[calimac]

I took this twice. I noticed some of the vocabulary questions are ones to which my answers would differ depending on circumstances: when I answered them according to what I might say now (e.g. puma), I got assigned to a general west/northwest geography, which is where I've lived most of my life, but when I answered them according to what I learned as a child (e.g. mountain lion), I got pegged quite specifically to eastern Wisconsin and western Michigan, which is precisely the ambit of where my mother grew up.

There's nothing in the quiz to account for this, but a few of my usages are actually British, deriving from time I've spent there. I tend to say roundabout rather than, as most Americans do, traffic circle. (Technically they're different things: traffic circles, which are controlled by stoplights, are more common in the US, and roundabouts, which aren't, are more common in the UK.) And, if I didn't make out what you said and wish you to repeat it, instead of saying Excuse me? I'm more likely to say Sorry?

Comments

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I'm annoyed with that test; I took it all the way through and when it went to generate the map, it said "an error has occurred," so I don't know its results.

I've become familiar with one roundabout (no signals, and I didn't realize there was a distinction) in particular: the one in Fernley were US-50A, US-95A, and Farm District road meet at the east end of town. The warning signs approaching actually say "Roundabout Ahead." There's talk of building another one at the west end where there's a nasty intersection that needs serious rebuilding.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I'm interested and happy to see their data set of questions is larger than the questions I answered. I got the puma/mountain lion question, which I answered "cougar." But I didn't get traffic circle/roundabout (which to me is a rotary, learned in the UK in the late 1980s and reinforced in Boston) or the excuse me/sorry question, etiher.

I was thinking about taking it again for the same reasons you did.

I'm definitely a Michigander

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

... according to the test. Which is funny, since I was born in southern Ohio. Guess it's just living here more than half my life.

http://nyti.ms/1ct4OpY

[(Anonymous)]

Instead of "Excuse me?" or "Pardon me?" or "Sorry?", people from Cincinnati say just, "Please?", which is quite confusing the first time you encounter it.

-MTD/neb

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Having influences from more than one UK regional dialect I'm likely to say 'come again?' or 'do what?' :o)

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Though traffic circle/roundabout/etc is in the quiz, Excuse me/sorry is not. I just noted it as a particular usage of my own.