Regionalism's

[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

[Tuckervill]

"How's yo mama n'them?"

My daddy use to call his mother's biscuits "cathead biscuits", because they were as big as a cat's head.

One difference I noticed between Chicago and Arkansas was the way we referred to our parents. In Arkansas, kids always said, "Mama said I can't go." I was so confused by that. In Chicago we always said, "My mom said I can't go." We only left out the possessive pronoun when we were talking to our actual siblings!

Karen

[sundial]

momnem--my mother and her peers

Karen, I noticed how so many say mama around here. Another southern thing wouldn't you say?

[crazycanuck]

Some of this is going wayyy over my head..

What's a shell?

The meal at every wedding you've ever attended was chicken, shells and frenchfries

paw biscuits?
bermuda grass?

[Mr. Bloom]

Some of this is going wayyy over my head..

What's a shell?
paw biscuits?
bermuda grass?

I's jus' a hunchin' that :
shell = pasta?
bermuda grass is a type of grass that grows on runners rather than blades - popular in the south, but goes dormant in the winter
paw biscuit = ????

You Might Be From Vodilun (say it aloud) if........

I'd say Vodilum and 'bama have a lot in common!

"How's yo mama n'them?"

In the rural south, family isn't family...they're "your people" as in "what parts is yur people from?"

[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.