NP, that was my map also. My mom was born and raised in the City, my brother and father both worked in Oakland. Try as I might, I can't escape.

My results were Newark/Paterson, Yonkers, and Jersey City, places I have no connection to at all, but maybe they split the difference between the places I've lived the longest, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

Tallahassee, Orlando, St. Pete.

Very accurate. Grew up in South Florida, college in Orlando. Been in Atlanta for almost 10 years.

Wow, spot on! Minneapolis/St. Paul.

I have no idea what that bug that rolls up is...

Seriously. This bug clearly has about 900 names, but the closest thing to what is described sound like a grub to me

The roly poly bug is kind of like a grub but it has a hard coated shell (in several parts to make it flexible). We called them either roly poly bugs or water bugs, but water bug wasn't a choice.

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Rotaries are circles in DC (Logan Circle, DuPont Circle), and I grew up knowing them as roundabouts (not sure of the region that represents). (Rotary is a civic organization!) And AGDee is absolutely right -- roly polies -- that's them!

I call those bugs potato bugs because my mom calls them that, and she originally grew up just outside of Cleveland. I think it's interesting when a word is only used in one specific area and you can pinpoint where it's been picked up from.

I don't know whether it was the roly-poly or the roundabout, but the test placed me in two cities in the Southeast that are not geographically proximate, but one of which is my hometown!! That's a little eerie!

Well, it wasn't the roly-poly because AGDee is from Michigan.

I have a question for any Coloradans reading this thread: How do you pronounce the city named "Pueblo"? (A neighbor, who is from southern Colorado, surprised me with her pronunciation. I'm curious whether it is the norm or not.)

It's a traffic circle here, not a roundabout. If you take the test again, you'll see that on the left hand side, it shows how your response to the previous question relates to geographic areas, based on just that response. Some things are definitely related to larger areas than others.

One I didn't see on there but that I know is different in different places is a shopping cart. We call them shopping carts but everybody I know in the South calls it a buggy.

What part of the South, AGDee? I truly don't know anyone who calls a shopping cart a buggy. You are still correct on roly-poly! (So it must be the roundabout that planted me in the Southeast.)

I took the test again and some different questions popped up. The resulting map was still the Southeast but a new hotspot. I then selected the least similar map, and up popped Providence/Worcester. Clemsongirl, that means our pronunciation of your university differs! : ). Of course, Clemson has three syllables! : )

I call it a buggy in Tennessee, FWIW.

Thanks, AIB! I really was scratching my head on that one.

I had some different questions pop up the second time, too.

That bug is a roly-poly. We don't really have very many of them, at all, but I think I've used traffic circle and roundabout interchangeably. Neither one sounds "weird" to me, but the other choices did.

I have a different question. Around here, we have something that is commonly called a "Michigan turn." I've always wondered about this name, because other places must have them, too. AGDee, have you heard this term? Instead of making a left turn, at busy intersections/boulevards, you often have to turn right, then come back around. I googled it, and found articles, images, etc.

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It would be nice for the terms to be identified by region. I agree that it is a roly-poly though I have heard of "doodle bug" (but never had any visual concept of what a doodle bug is.)

I've called it a buggy my whole life, and everyone around me calls it the same. I grew up in Texas and have lived in several other locales throughout the southeast. It's been part of the vernacular everywhere that I have lived.

Okay. Maybe not as popular a word in the Carolinas? My friends and I call them carts.

How would you pronounce Clemson? I call it CLEM-sun but I've also hear CLIM-sin, CLIM-sun and CLEMP-sun depending on the degree of Southern accent.

I can't figure out how one could get 3 syllables out of Clemson?

A rotary is definitely a traffic circle in New England. In most places, they're labeled as such.

Some of my PA friends call a shopping cart a buggy. I call it a carriage :)

I've never heard the term "Michigan turn," but we have a lot of these here in Houston, although, you're still permitted to take the left at the intersection. NJ virtually eliminates the ability to make a left turn at busy intersections and makes use of jughandles to turn in the desired direction. It takes some getting used to, but it's so smart and keeps traffic moving. Since moving to TX, I estimate that I spend at least twice as long sitting at traffic lights than I did in Jersey.


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LOL! Spot-on on the "p" in Clemson! What I generally hear is an elision creating three syllables: "Cle-em-sun" or Cle-emp-sun". (My pronunciation is the former though I hear the latter a lot!)

Sigmagirl, that's why I think Providence/Worcester/Boston was the bright blue inverse! : )

I think the test pegged me when I had tractor-trailers full of crayfish at a yard sale!

Hey, I would have said the same thing, and I'm from the Providence/Worcester/Boston area.

Although, we would have said "Tractah-trailahs fullah crayfish at a yahd sale!" :D

The eve before Halloween has me intrigued. I never knew it merited its own name. (You could make up any shenanigans about what happens, and I'd believe it).

LOL! I guess I need help with the inverse maps. They showed the distinctive word for Providence/Worcester (my inverse) as being "tractor trailer", which I interpreted as not being the term used in P/W. Does it mean instead the word that we have in common?

I said tractor trailer and I'm from Springfield/ Worcester/ Boston.

My mom said "sneakers" and that placed her in Yonkers.... (I don't know what else to call them either, I just didn't get that question)

My aunt said "Mischief Night" for the halloween one and that placed her in Newark/ Patterson or something like that. There doesn't seem to be a "Hartford" location as everyone I know from CT got Springfield.

We have A and B off/on highways, but not busy streets. I've never seen type B. These jughandles are different than the Michigan turns, which are just on busy boulevard streets, not highways. When those are in place, turning right and coming back around is the only way to turn left. They are very common here.

I encountered a Type A jughandle on Route 29 north bypass in Lynchburg, VA. It was a bit disconcerting at first, but it did facilitate traffic flow (versus backed up left-turn lanes). Before today, I don't think I would have had a name for the configuration and before travelling 29, I would have ticked the box "Never heard of such a concept". : )

Growing up we called those shoes "tennis shoes" (regardless of why you wore them). I thought it was a bit anachronistic, but maybe it's regional useage. (I've even heard some people call them 'tennies"). I've heard "sneakers" used well outside of Yonkers.

I'm between Jackson MS and Montgomery AL...I've never lived in that area but have been in north Alabama most of my life. I think the older you are, the more your accent and word choice is reflected in your education and experiences.

I am a bit surprised that there wasn't a pancake/flapjack/johnnycake question.

In the Detroit area, we call them "Michigan lefts"- so when giving directions, we say "Make a Michigan left" which means they have to pass the intersection, go around the boulevard, come back the other way and actually turn RIGHT on the street they want to be on. I've seen a few jughandles, especially of type C, but never had a name for them. I like them MUCH better than traffic circles which I can never figure out. I'm always afraid I'm going to get stuck in the inner circle and keep going around and around, like in European Vacation. You have to drive very aggressively to get in the proper lane in a traffic circle around here.

The people I know who say "buggy" are in Kentucky and Georgia. My SIL also uses "buggy" and she grew up in Texas but has also lived in Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas so I don't know where she picked up the term.

Halloween Eve has been Devil's Night since I was a young child- before Detroit arsonists started setting massive fires on that night. Kids would write with soap on windows, knock on doors and run away, or TP (rolling- as used in some parts of the country) the yard as pranks that night. Once people started setting fires in Detroit, all of that other stuff stopped in the 'burbs. My kids never even asked to go out for Devil's Night. It was never a "thing" for them.

They are tennis shoes here. I rarely hear them called anything else.

Garage sales are more common than yard sales here- if it is a yard sale, it's because they don't have a garage. Rummage sale is sometimes used, but not that often. Those trucks are semis in this part of the world. You'll sometimes hear 18 wheeler, but it's usually a semi.

I answered crayfish, but in reality, I think we'd just call them crabs. I don't think that was an option though.

We've always called the strip between the sidewalk and the road the "boulevard" but that wasn't an option on the survery. The section of grass in the road a "median" but I sometimes hear it referred to as boulevard also.

Well, I'm stumped. Since it wasn't attending the yard sale of tractor trailers of crayfish while wearing tennis shoes, and since I don't use a buggy, I wonder how the test pegged me (other than the term "ya'll"). Maybe it was that the yard sale was held on a service road (with that grassy strip betwen the sidewalk and curb that is nameless?)

I did a Google search for "buggy linguistics" and encountered a great set of dialect maps. "Buggy" is definitely a Southern term. You find that "shopping cart", "grocery cart" and "buggy" are all used in much of the Carolinas. That helps explain why some people are familiar with "buggy" while others of us call them carts (and I confess to actually calling them grocery carts, but only in grocery stores).

My interpretation has always been that a divided street with a strip of grass in the middle is a boulevard. The main street in my home town is this kind of road and it's named "_________ Blvd." We do call the grass in the middle the median. I have no word for the strip between the sidewalk and the road.

As far as "buggy" goes, that's an old-fashioned British style pram...a "baby buggy." Or, it's one of those old-fashioned little carriages, like in the musical Oklahoma.

There are really words for the grass between sidewalk and road?

I thought that was just where dogs do their business. Who needs a word for this? Who talks about this grass?

Seconded! I had no idea there was a word for that. I didn't know there was a word for the grassy strip in between two highway roads either, but when I was in New Orleans I heard it called the neutral ground a lot.

When our city replaced our roads (dug out completely, new concrete), they replaced the grass in that section because the process completely destroyed it. That's the only time I've ever really discussed that section of the grass...lol. Here, it is technically city property and the trees on that section are city trees, so if those trees fall and hit a car, the city is responsible. It could be useful to know what to call it in that circumstance!

I have always called it....grass.

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