Presentation Topic: Dialect Survey Maps (A visualization)
These dialect maps were made by Joshua Katz based on data from the Harvard Dialect Survey and were conducted by Bert Vaux and Scott Golder.
They examined regional dialect variation in the United States. Each observation can be thought of as a realization of a categorical random variable with a particular parameter vector that is a function of location—their goal was to interpolate among these points in order to estimate these parameter vectors at a given location, making use of a combination of kernel density estimation and non-parametric smoothing techniques. Results in a smooth field of parameter estimates over the prediction region. Using these results, a method for mapping aggregate dialect distance was developed.
Video of people taking the survey
What does the way you speak say about where you’re from? See your personal dialect map here