Monday Trivia #153 [David H Wins!]
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a cloud of smug.Report
An oil shale bed.Report
Biggest area in US for nursery plantsReport
People from this area have the most “neutral” accent–prized for national broadcasters in the United States. I think it’s called “General American” or something.Report
Well that was quick!Report
Haha, just worked out that way–I have an amateur’s interest in linguistics, and I’ve seen that exact map before. I don’t normally get the trivia posts! 🙂
The tidbit I like is about the other so-called “neutral” accent–I think it’s called Trans-Atlantic (or Mid-Atlantic), but it’s more interesting since it’s entirely artificial. Sort of a “shared” accent between America and England, you hear a lot of old radio stars and early actors talk that way. James Fallows had few interesting blog posts about it a year or so ago.Report
That makes me feel a little bit better. I was afraid that you’d seen the specific map before and I was chiding myself for being too lazy to produce my own. Sounds like, since this is something that interests you, you would have gotten it anyway.Report
New Iowa state motto: “Iowa, gateway to Illinois!”Report
What’s funny is that area on the map actually corresponds nicely to the country’s geographical “heart”, just “left” of upper midline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American#Regional_home_of_General_American
Also of note, that same accent also shows up in central/south Florida.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/09/dialect-map-of-the-us-region-aschmann_n_3245496.htmlReport
Yup – that’s where I’m from (lower left-hand corner of Iowa)Report
I’d honestly have guessed it would be in the Mountain West, which is just a polyglot for people from all over. I know that phone customer service agencies love the region in part for that reason (and because people are cheap).Report
My guess, by the way, would have been “World’s Largest Coffee Stain?”Report
God should be careful where He leaves His God-sized coffee cup.Report
The British version not only sounds more impressive (to my ear, having spent my high school and undergraduate years pretty much in the middle of the map’s region), but has a more impressive name — Received Pronunciation.Report
An illustration of the very least likely theory for the Proto-Indo-European urheimat.Report