9 Maps That Show How Americans Speak In Different Regions

Click for sound.

American English dialects and pronunciation have been a point of interest from coast to coast among linguists for years.

In 1999, the Harvard Dialect Survey, a research project conducted by Professor Bert Vaux, used a series of questions, to collect information about what terms, word pairs and sounds are used in different parts of North America. Some of the words highlighted in the survey inspired the "Regional Dialect Meme" videos, where people from around the country taped their pronunciation versions of words and sayings.

The data from the Harvard study was eventually brought to life by PhD student, Joshua Katz, through a series of interactive dialect maps, which went viral.

In this 90-second clip, we explore how some of the most contentious words and phrases are pronounced in the different parts of the country.

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