Hmmmm...I got the 48% Dixie, which would geographically make sense since I've mostly lived in the border state of Maryland (currently living about 15 miles due south of the Mason-Dixon line). But it doesn't account for growing up in a family of umpteenth generation New Yorkers where my speech patterns were established, and living in Massachusetts and NYC myself. The "advanced" test got me more right at 16% Dixie.
The true Southern vernacular does appeal to me, but more so when it's a refined and soft Virginia/North Carolina lilt, rather than the Deep South drawl, which I think sometimes gets exaggerated for affect (just as many other accents and dialects do). And I absolutely adore Southern manners where everyone, no matter the station in life, says "yes ma'am." It just doesn't happen in the Northeast like that, and much as I appreciate it, it would sound as odd and forced coming from me as saying "y'all come back now, he-ah."
I've travelled a whole lot in the Eastern half of the US and regionalism seems dying to me, what with everything being mall-ified, and especially with younger people. (Dang, I'm only 44, and feel like I'm 25, but I sure do talk like an "old person" sometimes!). In the early 90's, I took a meandering road trip on the back of a motorcylcle from Baltimore to New Orleans. I was expecting to encounter kids wearing overalls with hayseeds in their mouths in the small towns of Mississippi. But no, kids then were wearing Day-glo and singing MC Hammer songs just like they were in New York. I realized then that the differences between North and South would be much subtler and deeper than meets the eye.
I deserve a good 90%, though.
