What do you call the small freshwater lobster found in lakes and streams?
Previous Findings:
In the Harvard Dialect Survey, 50.12% of Massachusetts respondents reported that they use the term ‘crayfish’ and 30.54% reported using ‘crawfish’.
Our Findings:
We found that 84.62% of our respondents call a freshwater lobster a ‘crawfish’ and 7.69% call it a ‘crayfish’. Our sample does not show geographic distribution differences. There appears to be no ethnicity difference in our sample as 90.62% of African Americans call it ‘crawfish’ while 86.36% of Caribbean American speakers use ‘crawfish’. Our findings show that Black Boston area natives predominantly use ‘crawfish’. These results in contrast to the Harvard Dialect Survey may be indicative of a language change in the greater Boston area.
References:
- (Harvard Dialect Survey, 2003: Massachusetts Dialect Survey Results).
