Lexington, Kentucky
The Lexington Accent
Lexington 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 112km away.
Take the quiz and see how close your accent is →
What people in Lexington 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 Lexington has all of them — the full Midland profile sets out where the region varies.
Lexington against Southern Appalachian
Lexington 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 | Lexington | 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 |
Dialect areas near Lexington
Is your accent from Lexington?
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.