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[personal profile] avram
The Yankee or Dixie linguistic quiz has me at 46% Yankee. Which is fair — “Yankee” is a moving target.

Outside of the US, a Yankee is an American.
In the southern US, a Yankee is a northerner.
In the rest of the north, a Yankee is someone from New England. As a New Yorker, I’m therefore not a Yankee.
In the rest of New England, a Yankee is someone from Vermont.
In Vermont, a Yankee is someone who eats apple pie with cheddar cheese on it.

On the other hand, Wikipedia’s entry on the word suggests that it might have originated in a nickname the Dutch had for English settlers in New York’s early days: Jan Kees, or “John Cheese”.

I got the quiz from [livejournal.com profile] immlass, whose definition of “Yankee” will soon be shifting a slot down that list.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-02-20 03:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com
OK, it says I'm 57% Dixie. Considering I'm an honest-to-Ghawd Mayflower-descended Bostonian, I think there's something wrong with the test. (I've heard Yankee used particularly for WASPy New Englanders; don't know if that's typical, though.)

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