How Do You Say 'Pecan'? Survey Shows Dialect Variations

"Coke" or "soda"? "You guys" or "y'all"?

Those words and phrases were just some of the linguistical oddities uncovered during a dialect survey by Bert Vaux. North Carolina State graduate student Joshua Katz recently mined this data for an end-of-year statistics project and created a series of maps showing the various dialect differences.

Also, how do you describe the meteorological occurrence during which rain falls while the sun is shining? If you're from Alabama or Mississippi, chances are you describe the situation as "the devil beating his wife".

Other distinct regional variations involved the pronunciation of the words caramel, lawyer and pecan.

Katz's project includes a fascinating map page which allows users to pull up 122 different maps showing regional differences for various words and phrases.

Editor's note: Thank you to Joshua Katz for allowing Patch to use his map with this article.

-- Do you say "pee-can," "coke" ... Tell us what you think about this dialect map and its revelations in the comments below.

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