#dialect map

[linguisticillustrations]

Map of the different forms of the negator ('not') in Norwegian.

From: Mæhlum & Røyneland 2012. Det norske dialektlandskapet. Cappelen Damm Akademisk.

Map 22, by John Arne Eidsmo.

[nashvillehotchicken]

i have never been to any of these places

[mapsontheweb]

Map of American English accents

by u/oncxre

[linguisticdiscovery]

Map of British English dialects

by Ryan Starkey (Starkey Comics)

Author Ryan Starkey accompanies the map with a great article:

I’ve spent the last few years pooling together every study, survey, map, and database I can find, and then subjecting my image to several rounds of peer feedback. […] The end result is an image which is, to my knowledge, the most detailed map of British dialects ever made.

He also discusses “Why this map is wrong, and always will be”, and just how difficult it is to create a precise map of dialect regions.

Why is there so much dialect diversity in the U.K.? Because the longer a language is in a region, the more it tends to diversify. This is partly why, for example, there is a much larger variety of dialects spoken in the Eastern U.S. than the Western U.S.

Further Reading

The stories of English (David Crystal)

This is the perfect book to read if you want to know more about the history of dialect diversity in English, because the entire focus of the book is to show that English is not just one unified language (hence the plural “stories” in the title). It’s one of my favorite popular language books.

[sprinklecipher]

Hi there! I’m interested in how the meaning of "potato bug" varies by region, so I'm running a very short (~1 minute), anonymous survey to find out!

---SURVEY LINK---

You can complete the survey even if you've never heard of "potato bugs" before (but please indicate as much when prompted). Also, please be aware that the survey includes several photos of insects, so I'd advise against taking it if you're squeamish about bugs

Thanks and have a great day! :)

[noosphe-re]

An isogloss, also called a heterogloss, is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Isoglosses are a subject of study in dialectology, in which they demarcate the differences between regional dialects of a language; in areal linguistics, in which they represent the extent of borrowing of features between languages in contact with one another; and in the wave model of historical linguistics, in which they indicate the similarities and differences between members of a language family.

Wikipedia

[victusinveritas]

British English Dialects

[aphel1on]

really all i should need to do to get professionally dx'd with autism is show them my warrior cats conlang from senior year of high school

[beautiful-basque-country]

Map of languages and dialects in the Spanish state. Richness! [x]

[somepunaboutspace]

Revisited my old khan redesign because this fella will forever be in a desperate need of an overhaul. Most of my old thoughts written out in that (almost two years old holy shit) post hold up so I'm not gonna go into much detail

The first one he usually wears around the sanctuary, simple but convenient cloths and such. The incognito look is the one that the outside world (aside from the other overseers) knows him as.

"Overseer khan is a bit of a mystery for most people, a kind but reserved fellow usually strolling around the jungle tourist shop and Ignitia, buying cigarettes or running odd errands with his Torrex. No one really knows where he lives and the overseer is more than happy to keep that a secret. Some say he works close with the infamous witch of the Citadel but alas... nothing verifiable"

Individual under the cut

[aeniith]

A map of dialects and language variety differences of North America.

Key point: everyone has an accent. And that’s okay.

[consideratesea]

writing fanfic is near impossible. do you guys really say things like “cheeky sod”

[mapsontheweb]

Languages and Dialects of Spain

by Gnomeland24

[zeebreezin]

Major in Linguistics, they said! It’ll be fun, they said………

[sprinklecipher]

What does "potato bug" mean? (Survey results)

The results are in for my survey looking at possible regional differences in how the term “potato bug” is used, and, as I hoped, there were some interesting regional patterns!

In total there were 420 responses, and major results are summarized below the cut (note: there are also a bunch of photos of bugs, just be aware). I’ll also add more specific/minor results in a reblog (linked here) ~

A “potato bug” according to Americans* and Canadians (*except Californians):

A majority of Canadian respondents (14/19, or ~74%)  as well as a plurality of American respondents (128/362, or ~35%) indicated that “potato bugs” are the tiny isopods that curl into a ball (also known as “roly polies,” “pill bugs,” and many, many other regional names)

Notably, the usage of “potato bug” to refer to the roly poly appears to be geographically widespread within the United States, with the roly poly being selected by at least 20% of respondents from all US subregions except for the South Central parts of the country (around Texas).

Curiously, Wikipedia lists the UK as being a region where “potato bug” can refer to these kinds of woodlice, but not a single UK respondent selected the roly poly, and only a small minority—2/15—indicated that they had ever even heard the term at all.

A “potato bug” according to Californians:

Californians were unusual among Americans in that a majority of Californian respondents, 29/46 (63%), indicated that the term “potato bug” refers to the cricket-like members of the tribe Stenopelmatini, more commonly known as the “Jerusalem cricket” (although, as I have explored here before, these critters also have many delightful alternative names). This usage is notably uncommon elsewhere in the country, with only 25/316—8%—of non-Californian US respondents selecting the Jerusalem cricket as the “potato bug.”

A “potato bug” according to Europeans** (**kinda…sorta…):

A majority of non-North American respondents indicated that they had never heard of a “potato bug” before, 23/39 (59%). However, among the subset of Europeans who had heard of potato bugs, an overwhelming majority selected the Colorado potato beetle as the “potato bug,” 12/14 (86%).  Notably, although these bugs are endemic to the central US, they have spread to Europe as an agricultural pest, which may partially explain this pattern (although as a caveat, the sample size for non-North American respondents was quite small and so this result should be taken with a big grain of salt!).

American respondents occasionally selected this bug, too, although it was not an especially common choice, with 49/362 (14%) of Americans selecting the Colorado potato beetle and no US subregions showing even a 1/3 selection rate for it.

Other potato bugs?

25 respondents indicated that the term potato bug referred to a type of bug that wasn’t included in the survey, with the comments suggesting other potential “potato bugs” might include potato weevils, June bugs, spined soldier bugs, boxelder bugs, and ladybugs. There were also a couple of general descriptions of bugs that I couldn’t quite match to anything specific.

Most of these other potential “potato bug”-types were only mentioned once, although the most common among them—the June bug—was described by 5 different respondents.

Overall Numbers

Overall, 289/420 (~69%) of respondents had heard of “potato bugs” before, with the term appearing to be predominantly a North American expression: 273/381 (72%) of North American respondents were familiar with the term, compared to 16/40 (40%) of non-North American respondents.

Here’s the response totals for how often each “potato bug” type was selected:

~

Alright, that’s all for now—maps/data tables coming in a reblog available here. :)

[pupuseriazag]

Making my own region for a dnd out of spite for lack of mesoamerican (in the case of this region, Nahua) cultures and cities as well as also inserting the names of cities from my country because of their meanings (like for example Nahuizalco means "Four places of obsidian" god thats so cool)