Covington, Kentucky
The Covington Accent
Covington sits inside the Midland dialect area, which covers Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and the US Midland, United States. The nearest other area is Southern Appalachian, about 230km away.
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What people in Covington sound like
- “The car needs washed” — “to be” is dropped.
- “Cot” and “caught” sound the same.
- “Pin” and “pen” stay distinct, unlike Texas and the South.
- Plural “you” is “you guys”, not “y’all”.
These are the markers of the Midland accent as a whole. No survey claims every speaker in Covington has all of them — the full Midland profile sets out where the region varies.
Covington against Southern Appalachian
Covington is close enough to the Southern Appalachian area that the two get confused. These are the questions where the survey expects a different answer on each side.
| Question | Covington | Southern Appalachian |
|---|---|---|
| Do “cot” and “caught” rhyme in your natural accent? | “cot” and “caught” rhyme | “cot” and “caught” stay distinct |
| Do “pin” and “pen” sound the same in your natural accent? | “pin” and “pen” stay distinct | “pin” and “pen” sound the same |
How Kentucky answered the Harvard Dialect Survey
The Harvard Dialect Survey, collected by Bert Vaux and Scott Golder in 2002–2003, recorded how respondents in every US state answered the same questions. These are Kentucky’s answers, most common first.
| Question | Answers in Kentucky |
|---|---|
| Soda, Pop or Coke? The Map of How America Orders a Fizzy Drink | coke 44% · pop 16% · soda 16% |
| Traffic Circle, Roundabout or Rotary? | roundabout 38% · traffic circle 27% · rotary 6% |
| Water Fountain, Drinking Fountain or Bubbler? | water fountain 93% · drinking fountain 6% · bubbler 0% |
| Lightning Bug or Firefly? | lightning bug 70% · firefly 2% |
| Crawfish, Crawdad or Crayfish? | crawdad 59% · crawfish 32% · crayfish 4% |
| Roly Poly or Potato Bug? | roly poly 54% · potato bug 5% |
| You Guys, Y'all or You All? | you all 40% · y'all 39% · you guys 14% |
| Kitty-Corner or Catty-Corner? | catty-corner 63% · kitty-corner 18% |
| Garage Sale or Yard Sale? | yard sale 74% · garage sale 22% |
| Tennis Shoes or Sneakers? | tennis shoes 73% · sneakers 17% |
| Trash Can or Garbage Can? | trash can 40% · garbage can 32% |
| Frosting or Icing? | icing 43% · frosting 14% |
| Scratch Paper or Scrap Paper? | scrap paper 37% · scratch paper 24% |
| Frontage Road, Service Road or Access Road? | access road 36% · service road 24% · frontage road 15% |
| Does “Route” Rhyme With “Out” or “Hoot”? | rhymes with "out" 35% · rhymes with "hoot" 18% |
| Caramel: Two Syllables or Three? | with 3 syllables ("carra-mel") 45% · with 2 syllables ("car-ml") 33% |
| Mischievous or Mischievious? | mischievious (4 syllables) 41% · mischievous (3 syllables) 30% |
| Rubber Band, Hair Tie or Elastic? | rubber band 40% · hair tie 13% · (hair) elastic 6% |
Data from the Harvard Dialect Survey (Bert Vaux and Scott Golder, 2002–2003), used under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 licence. A self-selected sample from two decades ago: how people spoke then, not a census.
Dialect areas near Covington
Is your accent from Covington?
There is no way to answer that from a description. The test asks 29 questions about the words you use and how you say them, scores your answers against the Midland American English profile and every other profile in the survey, and shows you where people who answer the way you do actually live.