regionalisms survey and quiz

What do you call….

1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks: Creek (pronounced “crick”)
2. What the thing you push around the grocery store is called: cart
3. A metal container to carry a meal in: Lunchbox
4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in: sauté pan (used to call it a frying pan, but first semester of cooking school has corrected the error of my ways :-P)
5. The piece of furniture that seats three people: use Couch or sofa interchangeably
6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof: Gutters
7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening: Porch
8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages: Soda
9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup: Pancakes
10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself: hoagie
11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach: swim trunks
12. Shoes worn for sports: sneakers
13. Putting a room in order: straightening up
14. A flying insect that glows in the dark: Lightning bug
15. The little insect that curls up into a ball: Pill bug or roly-poly
16. The children’s playground equipment where one kid sits on one side and goes up while the other sits on the other side and goes down: Teeter totter or see saw
17. What’s it called when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff? yard sale.
18. What’s the evening meal? Dinner
19. The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are? Basement
20. What word(s) do you use to address a group of two or more people? all y’all (y’all is only ONE person :-P)
21. Would you say “Are you coming with?” as a full sentence, to mean “Are you coming with us?” yes
22. Would you say “where are you at?” to mean “where are you?” yes, don’t you?
23. Modals are words like “can,” “could,” “might,” “ought to,” and so on. Can you use more than one modal at a time? (e.g., “I might could do that” to mean “I might be able to do that”; or “I used to could do that” to mean “I used to be able to do that”): yea, i’ve been known to say “i should oughta do that”
24. What do you call the area of grass between the sidewalk and the road? there’s grass between the sidewalk and the road? lol
25. What do you call the area of grass that occurs in the middle of some streets? Island
26. What do you call the long narrow place in the middle of a divided highway? Median
27. What do you call the drink made with milk and ice cream? Milkshake
28. What do you call the miniature lobster that one finds in lakes and streams for example (a crustacean of the family Astacidae)? Crawfish, crayfish, or crawdad
29. What do you call the kind of spider (or spider-like creature) that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs? Daddy long legger
30. What nicknames do/did you use for your maternal grandmother? mom-mom
31. What about your paternal grandmother (is there a distinction?) no distinction, she was mom-mom too
32. What do/did you call your maternal grandfather? Pop-pop
33. Paternal grandfather? also pop-pop
34. What do you call the big clumps of dust that gather under furniture and in corners? Dust bunnies
35. What term do you use to refer to something that is across both streets from you at an intersection (or diagonally across from you in general)? catacornered
36. What do you call the activity of driving around in circles in a car? doughnuts?
37. What do you call paper that has already been used for something or is otherwise imperfect? scratch paper?
38. What is your *general* term for a big road that you drive relatively fast on? highway or freeway
39. What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining? Sunshower!
40. When you are cold, and little points of skin begin to come on your arms and legs, you have: Goosebumps
41. What do you call the gooey or dry matter that collects in the corners of your eyes, especially while you are sleeping? Sleep or crusties
42. What do you call an easy course? bird (because you fly through it)
43. What do you call a traffic situation in which several roads meet in a circle and you have to get off at a certain point? circle
44. What is the thing that women use to tie their hair? hair tie
45. Do you use the word cruller? only for things that actually are crullers
46. Do you use the term “bear claw” for a kind of pastry? no… what is a bear claw anyway?
47. What do you call someone who is the opposite of pigeon-toed (i.e. when they walk their feet point outwards)? knock-kneed?
48. Can you call coleslaw “slaw”? on occasion, for shortness’ sake
49. What do you call the box you bury a dead person in? Casket
50. Do you say “vinegar and oil” or “oil and vinegar” for the type of salad dressing? Oil and vinegar
51. What do you call it when a driver changes over one or more lanes way too quickly? weaving?
52. When you stand outside with a long line of people waiting to get in somewhere, are you standing “in line” or “on line” (as in, “I stood ___ in the cold for two hours before they opened the doors”)? in line
53. Do you say “frosting” or “icing” for the sweet spread one puts on a cake? frosting
54. What is “the City”? Philly or NYC
55. What is the distinction between dinner and supper? None
56. Do you cut or mow the lawn or grass? Mow the lawn
57. Do you pass in homework or hand in homework? Turn in
58. What do you call the insect that looks like a large thin spider and skitters along the top of water? Water skeeter
59. What do you call the thing from which you might drink water in a school? fountain
60. What do you call a public railway system (normally underground)? Subway, or just “the train”
61. What do you call a traffic jam caused by drivers slowing down to look at an accident or other diversion on the side of the road? Rubbernecking
62. What vowel do you use in bag? a?
63. What do you call the paper container in which you might bring home items you bought at the store? umm… bag?
64. What do you call the night before Halloween? Mischief night
65. What do you call the end of a loaf of bread? End
66. What do you call a point that is purely academic, or that cannot be settled and isn’t worth discussing further? Moot
67. How do you pronounce the -sp- sequence in “thespian” (the wor

d meaning “actor”)? so it rhymes with “lesbian”

What do you call a drive-through liquor store? a figment of your imagination–there is no such thing 😛

What do you call food that you buy at a restaurant but then eat at home? take out

What do you say when you want to lay claim to the front seat of a car? Shotgun

What word do you use for gawking at someone in a lustful way? Checking out

Do you say “expecially”, or “especially”? Especially

What do you call the act of covering a house or area in front of a house with toilet paper? TP’ing

Your Linguistic Profile:

45% General American English

30% Yankee

15% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Project 365