If you say "pa-JAM-uzz" instead of "pa-JAHM-zz" or "yooz guys" instead of "ya'll," chances are, you're a Yankee. If you call a bag a sack or pronounce route as "rout" instead of "root," you're probably a rebel.
You can figure out just how much of Southerner you are by taking an online quiz called "Are you a Yankee or a Rebel?" It asks questions about how you pronounce certain words and phrases and then calculates the amount of Dixie in your speech.
The test was co-developed by Robert Beard. He has a Ph.D. in linguistics and is president of AlphaDictionary.com.
For example, if you pronounce the word "aunt" like "ain't," the quiz determines you're from the "deep, deep South; you should come up for air."
Beard says pronunciations are "nothing but regional dialects. It doesn't reflect intelligence or anything like that -- simply the area in which you grew up in."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
