Do Arizonans have an accent?

There are a lot of factors that account for how we sound – where we grew up, for example. But what about Arizona – is there an accent associated with the state?

ASU linguistics professor Karen Adams says actually, there are many.

"It depends where people grew up, what their family background is, what their particular occupation might be or their socioeconomic status [is]," Adams says. "It's not just the way people pronounce words, but it's also the lexical items they use. It's also the ways in which they structure their conversation and their beliefs about how to be polite to other people."

Adams added that there are lots of distinctive terms in Arizona that have to do with plant names, among other things.