You say potato and I say potahto, you say tomato and I say tomahto.
There are students from all over the globe at Ball State University, yet 89.5 percent of students are from the state of Indiana. Even so, a variety of dialects have been brought to Ball State's campus.
"Up until the day I came to Ball State, I didn't think I had an accent. I thought I talked like everyone else. But as soon as I got to campus, people started making fun of my 'stupid hick' accent, and that's when I realized I sounded different than other people," sophomore Kyle Thomas said.
"Students and faculty from all over Indiana bring dialects that are not necessarily found in Muncie, which causes a non-native dialect pocket within Muncie," Assistant Professor Mai Kuha said.
Ever since Thomas realized that he has what he considers a "southern drawl," he tries to speak a bit clearer so people can understand him better.
"I tend to lose my accent when I am in Muncie, but when I go back home I pick it back up again," Thomas said.
Thomas is from Henryville, about twenty minutes north of Louisville in an area known as "Kentuckiana."
"Southern Indiana isn't that far away from Muncie, yet I sound so different," Thomas said. "I think a lot of it has to do with the influence of how my family speaks and where they originated. My mom's side of the family is from the hills of Kentucky."
According to Kuha, studies have shown that the most common stereotype of a southern dialect is that the speakers seem slower and less intelligent, yet polite, friendly, and more approachable.
"If a person's accent sticks out in some way and where the person is from can be pinpointed, there is almost always going to be a negative stereotype associated with that accent," Kuha said.
Sophomore Alex Bujaki is from the opposite end of the state. She is from Highland, sometimes known as "the region," which is thirty minutes outside Chicago's Loop.
"The area is called 'the region' because I feel like we know more about Illinois than we do about Indiana; I connect more with Chicago than I do with Indianapolis," Bujaki said.
Bujaki believes that the most common stereotype for people with Chicago accents is that the speakers live more fast-paced lives, and some may consider the speakers rude because they tend to talk faster.
"Talking fast may give me a negative image at times because people might assume that I do not think before I speak, or they might not understand me as clearly. I'm proud of my accent, though, because being around Chicago has given me a different outlook on life," Bujaki said.
Indiana may not be the biggest state, but it is diversified with many different dialects within its borders. The same holds true on Ball State's campus. When hearing different dialects on campus, Kuha says it's important to stay open-minded.
"Second-guess your instinct to label people when you hear their variation of the language," Kuha said. "Make your judgments based on your answer to this question: 'Even though this person may be speaking with a certain accent, do they really fit the stereotype?'"
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