The Dialect Survey Project has been the subject of a lot of conversation among my friends recently.

In a nutshell, you fill out a multiple-choice survey, asking how you pronounce certain words (coupon: 'coo-pahn' or 'cue-pahn'?), or which word you use (shopping cart vs basket vs buggy) and then you can see the results mapped visually across the United States.

There are a few very cool terms there I never knew (what do you call rain during sunshine?) and it's a great diversion. You're sure to find something new.

In the weeks since I first came across this site, I've been coming up with other regional lexical idiosyncrasies. for example, most of the country's kids say 'do-over' but growing up in Los Angeles, people at my schools called it a 'take-over' (not the hostile kind).

The survey is really long, but it lets you take it a little at a time, save and finish later.