Regionalism's

[Ciao]

This is fun..

What to you get when you mash English with Irish, Polish, German, Greek, and the other large immigrant populations that came right after the war? Pittsburghese from da 'Burgh obviously!

nebby (nosey)
yinz (plural of 'you')
yinzer (a blue collar worker with a heavy Pittsburgher accent)
hoagie (submarine sandwich)
redd-up (clean up)
babushka (headscarf)
n'at (and all that)
... far too many to list.

Moved to Northern CA after school, but there's not really a noticeable local dialect in the bay area or Marin. Too many transients.

Now in Florence, I'm learning the different Italian dialects. The locals swap their 'c' with an exaggerated 'h'. So coka-cola becomes hhoka-hhola; cassa (house) becomes hhaza. But they make fun of the other regional accents - especially the more southern ones... and Sicilia?! They're not considered Italian...

[wackyjacky1]

Here in San Antonio, a convenience store (i.e., 7-11) is called an ice house. And if you're getting ready to do something, you say you're fixin' to do it.

"I'm fixin' to run up to the ice house to get some more beer."

[yellow]

The most classic Utah line...

"Oh my heck!"

I'd never heard that before I lived here. I still giggle to myself every time someone says it.

[Aggie_Ama]

Austin is attracting many people from out of state and we are losing our regionalism. It is nice to have a booming job market but I miss the days of my youth when people understood and were not amused by:

y'all
coke (all sodas are cokes, if a native Texan says they want a coke you ask what kind.)
fixin'
darlin', sugar, sweetheart and baby- these are polite if an elder that is a stranger calls you this.
BBQ- like the post above this means slow cooked meat, often brisket. Hamburgers and hotdogs are reserved for grillin' or a cook-out.

These are the only ones I can think of but I know there are more. We have lost the regional naming of streets. People move here and call them by their proper name whereas we call them the old name or a nickname.

[Tuckervill]

We have all those Texas ones, too.

My ex-husband once said to me, "I'm going fishin' in the bar pits."

Okay, what's a bar pit?

"You know, it's where they borrowed dirt to make the road."

In the river bottoms (is that a regionalism?), a highway cut through would be built up above flood stage through the flood plain, and the "borrow pits" would fill up with water eventually. Fish get trapped there, and make for easy pickins (is that another regionalism?). Of course, he being from the woods, "borrow" was shortened to "bar", and thus the misunderstanding.

I moved to Arkansas from Chicago when I was 11. I couldn't understand all the kids in school who said, "I lacked to fall off the slide!"

Being a heavy reader as a child, I searched and searched my brain for why "lack" came to mean "almost". I never got used to it. I finally asked one of them to write it down for me. She wrote LIKED.

Now I'm still confused about how LIKE came to mean "almost" but being an adaptable kid, I learned to use it in context. It sounds funny coming out of a Chicago accent, though!

Karen, about to R U N N O F T

[Zen]

Karen, about to R U N N O F T

R-U-N-N-O-F-T

That has to be my favorite movie ever.

[sundial]

R-U-N-N-O-F-T

That has to be my favorite movie ever.

Well it seems I'm the only one who remains unaffiliated.

OK, here goes with our regionalisms:

you'ns
Coke--used for any soft drink
whichadidja
'muda gra--bermuda grass
paw biscuits
carnies--carnival workers

[Thorn]

Don't know how wide-spread this one is, but "tyme machine" for ATM.

Our first ATMs were TYME and that's all we had for years. So many still refer to an ATM as a TYME machine. While in Europe, my brother-in-law had a little cross-cultural discussion when he said, "I really have to find a TYME machine." Yes, don't we all....take me back a few years, please.

[wackyjacky1]

Don't know how wide-spread this one is, but "tyme machine" for ATM.

LOL, I haven't heard that before. Where are you from?

[Thorn]

I'm in Wisconsin. I think TYME was the only ATM in the Milwaukee area for nearly 20 years or so.


Oh, gee....even Wikipedia says Wisconsinites look for time machines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyme . I didn't know it was that local.

[equus2]

Moved here a few years ago - "Oh, my heck!" is the phrase, here. I thought it was SO funny/odd!

And you hear every variation: "Oh, my biggest, freakin' heck" is one that even made the commercials.

Another one - "any-who-how."

Question: is "My bad!" a regoinalism, or just an annoying type of apology that's been adopted everywhere?

[OakLeaf]

Question: is "My bad!" a regoinalism, or just an annoying type of apology that's been adopted everywhere?

I thought it was just a translation of "Mea culpa," one of the most ancient of apologies?

[Eden]

Question: is "My bad!" a regoinalism, or just an annoying type of apology that's been adopted everywhere?

I'll bet it started out as a regionalism, but mass media and the internet spreads popular culture so fast these days that it might be hard to pinpoint where it came from.

[DrBadger]

Don't know how wide-spread this one is, but "tyme machine" for ATM.

Ha, I know this one too! I grew up in southern Wisconsin, so said TYME machine for the ATM (it is actually a brand and stands for "Take Your Money Everywhere"

Also interesting that some of the words that are common in the Boston area area also common in the Milwaukee area (and no where else!) For example, Bubbler for drinking fountain and Jimmies for the sprinkles on a doughnut.

Huh, who knew that Bubbler was a trademarked name! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubbler

I moved to MN when I was in junior high, and found some other new terms... I was really confused the first time someone asked if they could borrow a "binder"... I figured they meant a 3-ring binder for papers, but in actuality they wanted a pony tail holder!

I now live in Houston, TX and am just getting used to some of the Texas and Southern words... still don't say y'all, but i am sure it is only a mater of time

[Thorn]

Also interesting that some of the words that are common in the Boston area area also common in the Milwaukee area (and no where else!) For example, Bubbler for drinking fountain and Jimmies for the sprinkles on a doughnut.

Huh, who knew that Bubbler was a trademarked name! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubbler

I was surprised to see bubbler appear from someone outside of Wisconsin. But, I guess it doesn't surprise me that, were it a trademark, that it would belong to Kohler since I've always associated it as a Wisconsin-ism.

But, what does one call a doughnut with jimmies if you don't use the term jimmies?