Decatur, Illinois
The Decatur Accent
Decatur sits inside the Midland dialect area, which covers Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and the US Midland, United States. The nearest other area is Chicago, about 194km away.
Take the quiz and see how close your accent is →
What people in Decatur 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 Decatur has all of them — the full Midland profile sets out where the region varies.
Decatur against Chicago
Decatur 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 | Decatur | Chicago |
|---|---|---|
| Do “cot” and “caught” rhyme in your natural accent? | “cot” and “caught” rhyme | “cot” and “caught” stay distinct |
Dialect areas near Decatur
Is your accent from Decatur?
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.