what does the way you speak say about where you are from?

i've mentioned before that i have a theatre and communication arts background.  i grew up doing lots of theatre.  i studied theatre and communication arts in college, and now i teach theatre and speech to undergraduate and graduate students.

one of the things that we focus on in theatre and communication arts is losing our dialect.  after years of theatre training, i'm considered to be non-dialectical.  i've been trained to talk without a dialect or an accent, and i find that most people can't necessarily tell where i'm from based on the way i talk.  i'm sort of in a "neutral zone."

so, i was really intrigued when i saw that the new york times recently published a dialect quiz.  based on your answers to the questions, a map is generated with three cities to predict where in the country you are from.

i took the quiz four times, and i noticed that the questions were similar but did change slightly each time.  all four times, the quiz predicted that i was from either pennsylvania, new york, or new jersey.  indeed, i was born, raised, and still live in the northeastern section of pennsylvania which borders new york and new jersey.  i have to say that i was really surprised that the quiz was able to pinpoint me to that exact area.

the quiz is pretty fun, and i really got a kick out of some of the questions and answer options.  although, being a communication arts teacher, i have to say that the quiz focuses more on regional sayings and colloquialisms as opposed to actual dialect, but it's still pretty neat nonetheless.  try it for yourself and let me know your results!  you can take the quiz here

love, laurie