Regionalism's

[AmyO]

Let's see: tonic, frappe, wicked pissa, barrel, bubbler, packie, jimmies, dungarees...
Oh and calling everything by some abbreviation that was thought of 200 years ago.

These words are dying out. Nobody I know has a Boston accent and none of my friends use these words. Once in awhile I slip one in to confuse my husband.

I tried in vain to make my kids call a Coke "tonic". I won't give up, though.

I have a "bad" Boston accent, but my kids don't. I agree that most of these things are getting lost.

Interesting show from WBUR's "Radio Boston" about the accents in eastern Mass....http://www.radioboston.org/index.php...-accent-2.html

[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

[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?

[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?

[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.

[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

[Eden]

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.

another Pittsburgher here - though I never had the "south side" accent....
a few more words that I remember as only in the Burgh
chipped ham (deli ham sliced so thin it tears aka chip chopped ham)
pop - instead of soda
and btw a hoagie is not only named differently, but *made* differently from a sub, grinder, po boy - what ever you call it in your area. Pittsburgh is probably the only place I've found one done properly. Forget Quizno's and Subway with all their "new" toasted subs.... a real hoagie is made in a pizza shop. The meat and cheese are put on the bun and both halves of it are put into a pizza oven until the cheese is melted and the bun is toasty. Then lettuce, tomato and italian dressing are put on it - the perperchinis are optional... definitely no mustard or mayo or other muck - only the stuff you'd find in a pizza shop. I was appalled, absolutely appalled the first time anyone gave me a Subway sub.... it was cold, pallid, had doughy soft bread and worst of all it had mayo on it...

[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.

[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?

[Eden]

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

sprinkles? I think I grew up hearing both sprinkles and jimmies in Pittsburgh.

[newfsmith]

I grew up in SW Wisconsin, and have spent the past year traveling back every 2-3 weeks to care for my Mom. As soon as you land in Milwaukee, you will hear "you betcha" instead of "you're welcome". This has not changed from my childhood, but some other phrases have disappeared or become less common, while others have become more generally used.
pop (soda)
down yonder & over yonder
rode Hank's mare = rode shank's pony (walked)
I had "ants" not "aunts"
crick = creek (no wonder I had trouble learning to spell)
"douse that glim" = turn out the light (that one facinated my husband,
who insisted it was a British thieves' expression)
My grandfather when badgered for a story would first always recite:
"I'll tell you a story about **** and Norrie, and now my story is begun.
I'll tell you another about Tom and his brother, and now my story is
done."

[NbyNW]

Eden and Ciao,

Another Pittsburgher here, and I'm surprised you didn't mention one of my favorites:

gumband - rubber band

I never thought I had an accent, b ut my New-England-native DH swears that when I say "it's cold out" that it sounds like "it's coowd aht"