30 October 2010 @ 04:36 pm
/lɪŋˈgwɪstɪks/ /ɪz/ /fʌn/  
So you may or may not know that I'm minoring in linguistics. A side-effect of this is that I find language variation really interesting and often wind up quizzing everyone I know when I discover a disagreement over the meaning of a word/phrase or its pronunciation etc.

The first two questions are just for demographics, you can skip them if they offend your sensibilities. A lot of the options are very binary and neither might be accurate for your accent, you can skip those as well. There is undoubtedly quite a North American/Canadian English slant in these questions, because that is the language I encounter daily, sorry if your accent/vernacular is not covered.

Poll #1638545 LINGUISTICS IS AWESOME
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 113

Where are you from?

How old are you?

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<15
1 (0.9%)
15-25
77 (68.8%)
26-35
23 (20.5%)
36-45
9 (8.0%)
46-55
0 (0.0%)
56-65
0 (0.0%)
65+
2 (1.8%)

The word "shone", as in "the light shone down through the clouds", sounds like

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"Shawn", as in "that man's name is Shawn"
20 (19.0%)
"Shown", as in "Have I shown you where I keep the bodies?"
85 (81.0%)

The phrases "rice ales" and "rye sales" sound the same.

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True
47 (42.7%)
False
63 (57.3%)

"Buzzed", as in, "I was buzzed at the party last night", means

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Intoxicated, specifically alcohol
57 (50.9%)
Intoxicated, specifically marijuana
7 (6.2%)
Intoxicated, non-specific
48 (42.9%)

The first part of "hoodlum" sounds like

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"Hood", as in "the hood of my jacket is full of BEES"
94 (83.9%)
"Who'd", as in "Who'd want to put bees in my jacket?"
18 (16.1%)

Freshman year of high school is...

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Grade 9
19 (17.3%)
9th Grade
75 (68.2%)
My schooling sytsem does not use the word "grade", F YOUR AMERICAN PRIVILEGE
16 (14.5%)

If you do something accidentally, you've done it

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On accident
26 (23.6%)
By accident
84 (76.4%)

The "i" sound in "rider" and "writer" are

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The same
80 (72.1%)
Different
31 (27.9%)

The 3-letter word for mother is

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"Mum", spelled M U M
28 (25.0%)
"Mom", spelled M O M
74 (66.1%)
"Mum", spelled M O M
10 (8.9%)

The "w" sound in "witch" and the w sound in "which" are

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The same
91 (81.2%)
Different
21 (18.8%)
 
 
( Read 82 commentsLeave a comment )
Kali: dw :: martharose :: oh she's good_thirty2flavors on November 1st, 2010 01:10 am (UTC)
Like your pronunciation changes in context? Or something else?
Sarah Catherine: hairelirrina on November 1st, 2010 03:17 am (UTC)
I think I say both forms of "hoodlum" depending on who knows what - I don't use the word that much. Also, I use both "grade 9" and "9th grade," both "on accident" and "by accident," and I usually say "Mom" but sometimes "Mum," both spelled "Mom," but I recognize "Mum" as acceptable spelling. And it's not on the list, but I have a hard time spelling "labor" and "harbor" instead of "labour" and "harbour," but I don't spell "color" "colour" for some reason. Crayola crayons, maybe?
Kali: dis :: omg omg omg omg_thirty2flavors on November 1st, 2010 03:27 am (UTC)
I use both Xth Grade and Grade X depending on who I'm talking to -- with Americans I tend to "correct" to their construction of Xth Grade but among Canadians I definitely say Grade X, and Grade X is what I consider to be the natural form for me. "On accident" sounds completely whacky to my lexicon, but I noticed sometime in high school that some of my American friends said it. I think it's interesting that your lexicon seem to be a mix of what I consider American English and Canadian English, though those are generalizing terms more than anything.

There's nothing on here about spelling because it isn't something I deal with much in linguistics, since it isn't a very good reflection of spoken language and is basically arbitrary. TBH, I don't even know what standard Canadian English spelling is for many words, since it's a hybrid and doesn't seem to follow any particular pattern as to whether or not it follows American or British standards. When in doubt I go with British spelling, though.

Wait, I wrote all that and then realized I did ask about the spelling of mom. In that instance I asked because I get the sense that here in Canada it's a bit whacky -- I have always assumed it was mom, pronounced as spelled, but Frances uses "mum", and I think my friends say "mum" when addressing their mother and "mom" when talking about a generic mom, but they would all spell it with an O, I think. So there might be some weird shift going on there, it's curious.