Danville, Illinois
The Danville Accent
Danville sits inside the Midland dialect area, which covers Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and the US Midland, United States. The nearest other area is Chicago, about 139km away.
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What people in Danville 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 Danville has all of them — the full Midland profile sets out where the region varies.
Danville against Chicago
Danville is close enough to the Chicago area that the two get confused. These are the questions where the survey expects a different answer on each side.
| Question | Danville | Chicago |
|---|---|---|
| Do “cot” and “caught” rhyme in your natural accent? | “cot” and “caught” rhyme | “cot” and “caught” stay distinct |
How Illinois 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 Illinois’s answers, most common first.
| Question | Answers in Illinois |
|---|---|
| Soda, Pop or Coke? The Map of How America Orders a Fizzy Drink | pop 51% · soda 35% · coke 6% |
| Traffic Circle, Roundabout or Rotary? | traffic circle 35% · roundabout 26% · rotary 7% |
| Water Fountain, Drinking Fountain or Bubbler? | water fountain 54% · drinking fountain 43% · bubbler 1% |
| Lightning Bug or Firefly? | lightning bug 51% · firefly 8% |
| Crawfish, Crawdad or Crayfish? | crawfish 45% · crayfish 27% · crawdad 19% |
| Roly Poly or Potato Bug? | roly poly 41% · potato bug 7% |
| You Guys, Y'all or You All? | you guys 51% · you all 12% · y'all 6% |
| Kitty-Corner or Catty-Corner? | kitty-corner 71% · catty-corner 19% |
| Garage Sale or Yard Sale? | garage sale 70% · yard sale 21% |
| Trash Can or Garbage Can? | garbage can 44% · trash can 22% |
| Frosting or Icing? | frosting 42% · icing 11% |
| Scratch Paper or Scrap Paper? | scratch paper 47% · scrap paper 13% |
| Frontage Road, Service Road or Access Road? | frontage road 64% · service road 10% · access road 9% |
| Does “Route” Rhyme With “Out” or “Hoot”? | rhymes with "out" 35% · rhymes with "hoot" 16% |
| Caramel: Two Syllables or Three? | with 2 syllables ("car-ml") 60% · with 3 syllables ("carra-mel") 19% |
| Mischievous or Mischievious? | mischievous (3 syllables) 43% · mischievious (4 syllables) 32% |
| Rubber Band, Hair Tie or Elastic? | rubber band 41% · hair tie 17% · (hair) elastic 7% |
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 Danville
Is your accent from Danville?
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.