There was a time when you might be able to guess where someone is from, based on their regional accent. (Now, the best we can do is hear “6! 7!”, and assume they’re from, well . . . high school.)
A new survey looked into the regional accents that seem to be disappearing, as people “move, work, travel, and simply try to fit in.”
Here are the Top 15 accents that people say they’re hearing less often:
1. Appalachian . . . like, “fixin’ to” (for “about to”)
2. Southern . . . like, “y’all”
3. Louisiana . . . like, “make a pass” (for “stop by”)
4. Pacific Northwest . . . as in, “like, literally”
5. Hudson Valley . . . like, “tag sale” (for “yard sale”)
6. Mid-Atlantic . . . like, “down the shore”
7. Boston Urban . . . like, “wicked” (for “very”)
8. Baltimore . . . like, “tawrney”
9. Rocky Mountain . . . like, “bear jam”
10. New Mexican English . . . like, “chiliheads”
11. Philadelphia English . . . like, “wudder ice”
12. New York City . . . like, “fuhgeddaboudit”
13. New England . . . like, “nor ‘easter”
14. Midwestern . . . like, “ope!” (for “excuse me”)
15. Chicago Urban . . . like, “jeet?” (for “did you eat?”)
The survey didn’t really do a deep-dive into WHY these accents may be disappearing. They just suggest that people are choosing to tone them down to be LESS tied to where they came from, social stigmas, generational shifts over time, and “demographic churn.”
(Here’s their full ranking of 26 different dialects.)
