American Accents

It's a common misconception that since I'm from Illinois I must be from Chicago, or close enough.  Actually I'm about 400 miles south of Chicago.  I'm closer to Memphis, Nashville and Little Rock than to Chicago.  Illinois is this weird state sitting smack dab in the middle of the country, stretching from as far north as Lake Michigan all the way down to Kentucky and the Mississippi Delta.  Its southern section is farther south than 90% of Kentucky.  In the the town I grew up in we had to drive northeast to get to Kentucky.  It's just one of those odd geographic anomalies many people never realize.

People from Southern Illinois never really consider themselves from Illinois.  We always make a distinction so as not to be part of the north.  It's a fun exclusion kind of thing, in a competitive way of course.  About the only times we'll say we're from Illinois and not Southern Illinois is when we're talking about Lincoln or Michael Jordan.  Honestly, that's really about it.  The rest of the time we want nothing to do with the state.

Why I'm mentioning this is because I came across an interesting project that maps American dialects.  It's the first time I've seen something that actually shows just how culturally diverse the nation is.  The map also gives Illinois the distinction of having 4 national dialects, Inland North, Midland, Inland South and Lowland South.  I live right on the line of what appears to be Inland and Lowland South dialects.  Notice, too, the line runs east to west, dividing Southern Illinois even further.  That means both southern dialects are found in one small section of a very much northern state.