> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://linguisticdiscovery.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Speaking American: How y'all, youse, and you guys talk - URL: https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/speaking-american-2e/ - Published: 2021-01-06T13:41:00.000Z - Updated: 2025-02-16T01:45:11.000Z - Description: A beautiful and engaging coffee table book of 122 dialect maps showing how different regions of the U.S. say different things. A wonderful illustration of dialect diversity in the United States, this book is sure to spark great conversations. A must-have for any language lover. - Author: Daniel W. Hieber, Ph.D. - Tags: Newsletter, Reviews, English, Spanish, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, dialects, American English ## Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ## Summary A beautiful and engaging coffee table book of 122 dialect maps showing how different regions of the U.S. say different things. A wonderful illustration of dialect diversity in the United States, this book is sure to spark great conversations. A must-have for any language lover. *Prefer to watch or listen to this article instead? Here’s a video version.* ## Review Ever notice that people from different areas of the United States have other ways of saying certain things? They might say *pop* where you say *soda*, or pronounce the word *caramel* as /ˈkɑɹ.məl/ with two syllables where you say /ˈkɛɹ.ə.mɛl/ with three syllables. [Speaking American: How y’all, youse, and you guys talk: A visual guide](https://amzn.to/3C9utYo?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) is about exactly these kinds of differences. The book is a collection of 122 beautiful heat maps of dialect features across the United States, with a number of other fun features as well. It’s the perfect coffee table book, guaranteed to spur all sorts of discussion about dialect and pronunciation. Here’s the map for words used for fizzy drinks: ![Map of the words that American English speakers use for fizzy drinks. On either coast they use "soda", in the Midwest they use "pop", and in the South they use "coke".](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/2024/08/image.png) And here's the map of how people pronounce *caramel*: ![Map of how American English speakers pronounce "caramel". In the Northeast and South they pronounce it with 3 syllables, and everywhere else they pronounce it with 2 (with some exceptions around urban centers in California).](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/2025/02/image-1-1.png) Some other fun but controversial words you’ll find include *pecan*, the 2nd person plural pronoun (*you guys*, *y’all*, *you*, *yins*, *youse*), *kitty-corner* vs. *catty-korner*, *aunt*, and whether you pronounce *cot* and *caught* with different vowels (25% of American English speakers pronounce them with different vowels, /kɔt/ vs. /kɑt/, while 75% pronounce them the same way). There are two reasons in particular I love this book: 1. First, it's a beautiful demonstration of the fact that there's no single "correct" way to speak American English. The United States has a wonderfully diverse linguistic landscape, and this book showcases it. Everybody speaks with an accent, no matter where they're from. Some dialects are given more social prestige than others, it's true; but linguistically speaking, all dialects are equal. Vocabulary and pronunciation rules vary from one region to another, but these are merely *differences*, not deficiencies. 2. Second, this book is a wonderful illustration of the linguistic diversity of American English! There's even a heat map showing the percentage of the percentage of people who speak Spanish at home. It's hard not appreciate the remarkable diversity of language when you encounter all the different ways of saying things in this book, many of which you'll have never encountered before. ## Sign up for the Linguistic Discovery newsletter! A weekly newsletter showcasing the diversity of the world's languages. Topics include: ⚙️ how language works and changes 🌍 surveys of the diverse ways that languages do things 🗣️ language profiles ℹ️ explainers of terms and concepts in linguistics ⭐ reviews of books and other media. 🆕 a weekly digest of the latest language-related news Some posts are for paid subscribers only, but most are free. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. **You can also subscribe on* [**Patreon*](https://www.patreon.com/linguisticdiscovery?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) *or* [**Substack*](https://linguisticdiscovery.substack.com/) *if you prefer to use those platforms instead. You'll get all the same content and extras.* One of my favorite things to do with house guests is pull out this book and get their take on the various terms it covers. Do you say *highway*, *freeway*, *expressway*, or *thruway*? Do you call them *fireflies* or *lightning bugs*? I was astonished to find that even my younger sibling and I—only 3.5 years apart—differed on about a third of the items even though we were raised in the same household, simply because my family moved states just after they were born. [Speaking American](https://amzn.to/3C9utYo?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) makes for the perfect coffee table book for this reason! Another fun feature of this book is the “How to pretend you’re from…” sections sprinkled throughout. If you lace up your *gym shoes* to ride the *L* or drive on the *expressway*, for example, chances are overwhelmingly good that you’re from Chicago. Katz even disaggregates the data at some points to give a more detailed perspective by word or region. Below is the map for the word *crayons*, but in the following map you can see that these hotspots are really more a matter of statistical tendency rather than absolute differences. In some cases Katz even shows how usage varies from one New York City borough to another! ![Map of the United States showing how American English speakers pronounce the word "crayons". Around the Great Lakes they say it with one syllable, in the South they say it "krey-ahns", and everywhere else they say "krey-awns".](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/2025/02/image-2-1.png) ![Four maps of the United States showing what percentage of people in different regions pronounce the word "crayons" as "krey-awns", "krey-ahns", "krans", and "krowns".](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/2025/02/crayons-breakdown.webp) As a linguist, I also really appreciate the diachronic (historical) perspective in several maps. For example, more and more Americans have started to pronounce *cot* and *caught* the same way over time, as this set of maps shows: ![Lefthand page: Graph showing that the percentage of people who distinguish "cot" and "caught" has decreased from approximately 65% in 1950 to 25% today, while those who pronounce them the same way has increased accordingly.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/2025/02/cot-caught-diachronic.webp) My only criticism of the book is that the pronunciations are written in pronunciation respellings like *pih‑kahn* instead of the [International Phonetic Alphabet](https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/International%5FPhonetic%5FAlphabet?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) (IPA) like /pɪ.ˈkɑn/. Since Josh Katz is a statistician and trying to make the book maximally accessible to a general audience, this is an understandable tradeoff, though frustrating. The more that the general public is exposed to the IPA, the more familiar and recognizable it’ll become. Overall, [Speaking American](https://amzn.to/3C9utYo?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) is one of my favorite coffee table books—a must-have for any language lover. If you’d like to buy a copy and support Linguistic Discovery for no extra cost in the process, you can do so [here](https://amzn.to/3C9utYo?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)! Thank you for your support! [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/2025/01/image.png)](https://amzn.to/3C9utYo?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3C9utYo?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) | [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/110785/9780358359937?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) ## Sign up for the Linguistic Discovery newsletter! A weekly newsletter showcasing the diversity of the world's languages. Topics include: ⚙️ how language works and changes 🌍 surveys of the diverse ways that languages do things 🗣️ language profiles ℹ️ explainers of terms and concepts in linguistics ⭐ reviews of books and other media. 🆕 a weekly digest of the latest language-related news Some posts are for paid subscribers only, but most are free. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. **You can also subscribe on* [**Patreon*](https://www.patreon.com/linguisticdiscovery?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) *or* [**Substack*](https://linguisticdiscovery.substack.com/) *if you prefer to use those platforms instead. You'll get all the same content and extras.* 💡 The Amazon links on this site are affiliate links, which means that I earn a small commission from Amazon for purchases made through them (at no extra cost to you). If you'd like to support Linguistic Discovery, purchasing through these links is a great way to do so! I greatly appreciate your support! 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