For my area, central Kentucky, the data appears
at least mostly accurate.
Before signing off on it, though, I'd have to drill down into it, to see what are exactly meant by certain questions and how exactly the data was gathered.
For example, in the question 'Can you call coleslaw "slaw"?', the answer is clearly
yes in my area, as indicated in the map. However, the caption for that picture says, "The South is also really into slaw. The North and West call it coleslaw." Well, that's not an accurate description of my area. According to the coloration, my area belongs with "The South". However, while, it's true, we can call it
slaw just fine, most of the time,
in the city, such as on restaurant menus, it's called
coleslaw or possibly actually two words, as
cole slaw. So, what's the actual point here? Sure, we
can call it slaw, but in my particular area, we're
not necessarily "into it". Probably whoever wrote the article (Walter Hickey) was just being cute, and the "can" in the question (as opposed to "do") just indicates an option, which would be fine. Like I said, though, it's a question I have, due to the presentation. I'd say that whether it's spoken of in a restaurant has a bearing on the frequency of usage.
Speaking of "the city", as I did above, that brings up another issue. When we say "the city", we sure as fuck don't mean New York City. "The" city is just the biggest city in the area, the one that dwarfs everything around it and that "all roads lead to", which around here would mean Lexington. Further out, "the city" could even be facetiously used to refer to some little town, the only sizable one around for dozens of miles. People drive "into the city" all the time, and they're not going to New York. It's very clear when you're in, and out of, the city; it's night and day: urban and rural. So, I really doubt that the map should be as pink as it is shown, around here. It's likely much bluer than that, meaning "other". But, again, how the question is actually asked to gather the data could have a bearing on that. For example, is this a multiple choice question that capitalizes City in the question and feeds you New York City as one of the choices? That would bias the results and not reflect how people really talk. Also, exactly where the data was gathered, and how it was extrapolated in between clusters to colorize the whole map, could also have a bearing on why it seems noticeably off on this point in my area. You can see evidence of what I'm talking about in south central Kentucky, in the blue patch there, but I think the blue is really much more widespread than that.
However, for the most part, at least, it seems pretty accurate. Very interesting.
Hella is one of those words that sounds stupid to outsiders, but once you integrate it into your vocabulary you wonder how you possibly formed coherent sentences without it. It just makes sense!
