Labels such as “gangster -yo! Homie” and “lots of “ghetto” slang + gang talk” were compiled into a category called gangster. As shown in the map, those areas labeled as gangster are largely urban areas but also south eastern WA. Gangster was a category attributed to urban areas in the Bucholtz et al (2007) study of perceptions dialectology in CA. Gordon (2010) also found ghetto attributed to St. Louis in his survey of perceptions of English in Missouri. The gangster category may reflect an urban/rural divide which seems to be more salient to respondents who are surveyed about variation within their own state rather than varation across the country.
