The New York Times created a dialect quiz intended to help people pinpoint where they learned the pronunciation of words. The quiz asks questions about what words are used for certain concepts or how different regions pronounce different words. After each question is answered, a map pops up on the left side of the screen highlighted in different colors. Depending on the answer, the map is highlighted with red for the region that pronounces a word the same way, and it is highlighted in blue for the region that differs the most in pronunciation.

The quiz is twenty five questions long, with questions ranging from pronunciation to certain words. Some questions include how to pronounce the words lawyer, caramel, and pajamas. Other questions are what word is used for a road with a high speed limit or a bug that flashes light during the night. After every question is complete, the quiz provides a map with three cities to show where the influence of your words came from. The cities are surprisingly accurate. When I took it, one of my cities pinpointed was Overland Park, Kan. A guy in my class also took it, and it told him that his influence came from Raleigh, North Carolina, which was where his mother lived before she moved here.

If you are interested in taking the quiz, it can be located at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0.