Much like the various countries all squished together in Europe, US states are compacted but often seem like vastly different worlds when you travel around. The main difference you might notice right off of the bat is how the locals talk. Accents, jargon and slang will all drastically change when you drive from New York City to Boston, which on a map doesn't seem that far away — but those are two very different cultures and peoples.

Preply compiled data from onlyinyourstate.com and enjoytravel.com, then surveyed thousands of US residents to determine which states have the hardest-to-understand slang. Unique regional influences, history and cultural diversity all factor into ranking the 50 states, and the results are quite surprising (at least, according to Digg staffers).

Key Findings:

• Maine is the state with the hardest-to-understand slang, and Arkansas has the easiest. The difference between those two states was 81 percent of people either getting or not getting locals' terms.

• Only one percent of Americans can correctly identify what a "tavern" is in South Dakota. If you don't know what that is, turns out it's a sloppy joe sandwich. Other fun phrases we greatly enjoy include Floridians using "jiffy feet" for dirty feet, and New Yorkers using "grill" to stare rudely at people.

Via Preply.