Regional Dialect Meme

About

Regional Dialect Meme (a.k.a “Regional Dialect Challenge”) is a YouTube video series in which English-speakers from various regions enunciate a list of 30 words and respond to a series of questions in their native dialects and accents.

Origin

Social media hubsite Tumblr and YouTube have been widely attributed as the origin of the “Regional Dialect” video series. The collaborative project may have been conceived as a tool of reference for actors who need accent training, though its originator remains unknown. The earliest known response video titled “Regional Dialect Meme” was posted by Tumblr user thefrogman^[1] on January 5th, 2011:

The Questionnaire

In terms of formatting, the questionnaire is structured quite similarly to a national dialect survey conducted and published by Harvard Professor Bert Vaux^[2] in 2002.

Say these words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

Now answer these questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

Spread

Tumblr blogger thefrogman’s video was positively received in the microblogging community, inspiring dozens of viewers to create and share their own Tumblr video posts using the same questionnaire. While the initial response videos were uploaded directly via Tumblr^[3], response video threads began to emerge independently on the video-sharing community YouTube as the number of variations continued to grow.

On YouTube^[4] alone, there is a multitude of regional dialect videos highlighting accents from all over the world, including “Bogan” (Australia), “Southern Georgian”, “New England” (U.S.A), “Southern Welsh”, “Scottish” and “Irish” dialects. Many variations also feature additional commentaries on the regional discrepancies of word choice and manners of speech.

Notable Examples

Worldwide Accent Project

Months prior to the introduction of “Regional Dialect Meme” on Tumblr, a similar “accent reading” video series was launched by The Worldwide Accent Project^[5] via YouTube in September 2010. Unlike the “Regional Dialect” videos, English-as-Second-Language YouTubers may also participate in the project; the series was launched as a collaborative project among YouTubers and follows a different instruction which requires the participant to recite the passage provided:

See above those clouds, near where the blue sky appears to fold? Some say it is the entrance to the floating isles where pirates still rule the air and dragons choose to live. Only the most skilled pilots can sail their craft close enough to even glimpse the light coming from within. You can’t find those who know the way; they find you. Rather, you four lazy tourists must learn from your books and be ready, so that you may not miss an opportunity to travel to that mysterious place. It would be an adventure that you would never forget. Now, I think that’s enough with this pleasurable story telling

Search Interest

External References

^[1] Tumblr – thefrogman’s video post

^[2] University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin – Regional Dialect Survey

^[3] Tumblr – Tagged Results for Regional Dialect Meme

^[4] YouTube – Search Results for Regional Dialect Meme

^[5] YouTube – Response Videos: The Worldwide Accent Project