Utica, New York
The Utica Accent
Utica sits inside the Chicago dialect area, which covers Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, United States. The nearest other area is Boston, about 130km away.
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What people in Utica sound like
- Raised “trap” vowel — “cat” towards “kee-at”.
- Fronted “lot” vowel — “block” towards “black”.
- “Cot” and “caught” stay distinct.
- Chicago-specific vocabulary: “gym shoes”, “pop”, “the expressway”.
These are the markers of the Chicago accent as a whole. No survey claims every speaker in Utica has all of them — the full Chicago profile sets out where the region varies.
Utica against Boston
Utica is close enough to the Boston area that the two get confused. These are the questions where the survey expects a different answer on each side.
| Question | Utica | Boston |
|---|---|---|
| When you say “car” by itself, do you pronounce an R sound at the end? | the R at the end of “car” is pronounced | “car” ends in a vowel, with no R sound |
| How do “Mary”, “marry”, and “merry” compare in your natural accent? | “Mary”, “marry” and “merry” all sound the same | “Mary”, “marry” and “merry” all sound different, or two of “Mary”, “marry” and “merry” match and one differs |
How New York 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 New York’s answers, most common first.
| Question | Answers in New York |
|---|---|
| Soda, Pop or Coke? The Map of How America Orders a Fizzy Drink | soda 82% · pop 12% · coke 1% |
| Traffic Circle, Roundabout or Rotary? | traffic circle 57% · rotary 15% · roundabout 13% |
| Water Fountain, Drinking Fountain or Bubbler? | water fountain 79% · drinking fountain 19% · bubbler 1% |
| Crawfish, Crawdad or Crayfish? | crayfish 45% · crawfish 40% · crawdad 4% |
| You Guys, Y'all or You All? | you guys 48% · you all 9% · y'all 5% |
| Kitty-Corner or Catty-Corner? | kitty-corner 52% · catty-corner 22% |
| Garage Sale or Yard Sale? | garage sale 53% · yard sale 34% |
| Tennis Shoes or Sneakers? | sneakers 93% · tennis shoes 2% |
| Trash Can or Garbage Can? | garbage can 47% · trash can 16% |
| Frosting or Icing? | frosting 33% · icing 20% |
| Scratch Paper or Scrap Paper? | scrap paper 64% · scratch paper 11% |
| Frontage Road, Service Road or Access Road? | service road 57% · access road 14% · frontage road 9% |
| Does “Route” Rhyme With “Out” or “Hoot”? | rhymes with "hoot" 50% · rhymes with "out" 7% |
| Caramel: Two Syllables or Three? | with 3 syllables ("carra-mel") 55% · with 2 syllables ("car-ml") 24% |
| Mischievous or Mischievious? | mischievous (3 syllables) 63% · mischievious (4 syllables) 16% |
| Rubber Band, Hair Tie or Elastic? | rubber band 31% · hair tie 19% · (hair) elastic 13% |
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 Utica
Is your accent from Utica?
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 Chicago / Inland North English profile and every other profile in the survey, and shows you where people who answer the way you do actually live.