Although English is the majority language in the United States, that doesn’t mean all Americans speak alike. American dialects, including how words are pronounced and what words people use to talk about the same things, vary throughout the country.

Today I thought we would look at some of the different ways Americans say the same things depending on where they live. To do this we are going to look at a wonderful Dialect Study that was recently completed looking at over 100 words and phrases that Americans use differently around the United States. You can check out the whole study at this website: http://spark-1590165977.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com/jkatz/SurveyMaps/. (To see more just scroll down the drop-down menu under the word “Questions:” to see the various dialect questions that were asked. The answers to the questions are displayed on the map of the United States of America to the right.)

I have select four of the more interesting and important dialect differences I wanted to go over with you below, but there is much more to explore on this website if you have the time.

Second person plural pronouns: There are a number of ways to express the second person plural pronoun in English (including just using the second person singular) and all of them have the second person singular pronoun (you) at their root.  The second person plural is used when a speaker is talking to a group of people, and not including him/herself in the group. Here are the various ways people express this in American English: you (with the plural being understood), you guys, you all, y’ll.

Here is the map of where these different pronouns are used.

“I want to go for a run. I just need to put on my ______________.” What do you call those shoes you put on your feet when you want to exercise? That depends. There are three common words for these shoes: sneakers, tennis shoes, gymshoes, but other words for these shoes include: running shoes, sneaks, tennies, kicks.

If you are looking for a big sandwich for lunch you should know what to call this. Of course you can just call this a sandwich, but there is a special name for a big sandwich (with lunch meat, and vegetables on a long piece of bread), like the kind sold at Subway or Quiznos. This type of sandwich is called: a sub, hoagie, or hero depending on where you live in the United States.

How about a cold, sweet, bubbly, fizzy drink to go with that sandwich? What is that called? That depends on where you live. The most generic name for this drink is soda. This is used to ask for drinks like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, 7-Up, Fanta, etc. The other words people use to ask for a drink like this are: pop, coke, or soft drink.

I hope learning about this diversity in dialects around the United States doesn’t discourage you, but intrigues you about the differences that exist even in standard American English.