Upper Arlington, Ohio
The Upper Arlington Accent
Upper Arlington sits inside the Midland dialect area, which covers Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and the US Midland, United States. The nearest other area is Chicago, about 135km away.
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What people in Upper Arlington 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 Upper Arlington has all of them — the full Midland profile sets out where the region varies.
Upper Arlington against Chicago
Upper Arlington 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 | Upper Arlington | Chicago |
|---|---|---|
| Do “cot” and “caught” rhyme in your natural accent? | “cot” and “caught” rhyme | “cot” and “caught” stay distinct |
How Ohio 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 Ohio’s answers, most common first.
| Question | Answers in Ohio |
|---|---|
| Soda, Pop or Coke? The Map of How America Orders a Fizzy Drink | pop 70% · soda 19% · coke 4% |
| Traffic Circle, Roundabout or Rotary? | traffic circle 40% · roundabout 18% · rotary 7% |
| Water Fountain, Drinking Fountain or Bubbler? | drinking fountain 53% · water fountain 44% · bubbler 0% |
| Lightning Bug or Firefly? | lightning bug 63% · firefly 4% |
| Crawfish, Crawdad or Crayfish? | crawfish 33% · crayfish 31% · crawdad 29% |
| Roly Poly or Potato Bug? | potato bug 26% · roly poly 23% |
| You Guys, Y'all or You All? | you guys 54% · you all 11% · y'all 7% |
| Kitty-Corner or Catty-Corner? | catty-corner 50% · kitty-corner 31% |
| Garage Sale or Yard Sale? | garage sale 59% · yard sale 34% |
| Tennis Shoes or Sneakers? | tennis shoes 61% · sneakers 19% |
| Trash Can or Garbage Can? | trash can 40% · garbage can 26% |
| Scratch Paper or Scrap Paper? | scrap paper 47% · scratch paper 20% |
| Frontage Road, Service Road or Access Road? | service road 31% · access road 26% · frontage road 14% |
| Does “Route” Rhyme With “Out” or “Hoot”? | rhymes with "out" 35% · rhymes with "hoot" 20% |
| Caramel: Two Syllables or Three? | with 2 syllables ("car-ml") 57% · with 3 syllables ("carra-mel") 20% |
| Mischievous or Mischievious? | mischievous (3 syllables) 41% · mischievious (4 syllables) 32% |
| Rubber Band, Hair Tie or Elastic? | rubber band 36% · hair tie 22% · (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 Upper Arlington
Is your accent from Upper Arlington?
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.