Do people from Indiana have a dialect?

Question

If so what does it sound like compared to a person from N.Y.

Answer 1

Yes, they do. And Indiana doesn't border Lake Superior, it's Lake Michigan.

Answer 2

Indiana is disected by three variants of American English from what I've read.

First of all, there is a Southern Midlands in Southern Indiana which sounds much like what you hear in western Virginia and Kentucky.Surprisingly, even though Indiana is considered a northern state, the Ku Klux Klan was active in this part of the state at one time - until about 1950). Alabama governor, George Wallace, also did well there when he was running for U.S. president in 1972.
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Secondly, in the middle of the state, is General American (sometimes called "Network English") which sounds like most of the western United States including California.

In the far north near Lake Superior, people speak a variant very similar to what you hear in Chicago. Here, words like 'block' 'body' and 'godfather' tend to sound like "blaek," "baeddy" and "gaedfather" for instance. Some linguists call it "Inland Northern." It even extends into western New York (see Wikipedia article below). Inland Northern and General American sound to me much more alike than either does to the Southern Midlands accent that you hear in the southern part of the state.

For more information on Inland Northern (I'd call it a "variant "or "variation" of English rather than a dialect) please see the web link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Northern_American_English

Answer 3

Everyone has a accent, not so much a dialect, perhaps not by individual States but by locality. I was told a few years ago that I had a midwestern accent A dialect is a change of words, an accent is the manner of speaking.

Answer 4

People from every region have dialects or an accent so to speak.That's why people from other regions sound funny to ppl outside the region