Regionalism's

[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?

[Tuckervill]

Mama is definitely a southern thang, but you'll hear it all over.

eta: I just remembered something. My daddy (that's a Southern thing, too--in Chicago I would have said dad) called his mother Maw (we all did), but whenever he referred to her in the 3rd person, he'd say mama, as if it were a title. "We're going down to see Mama."

Karen

[coyote]

I'm not sure which is the regionalism:
in AZ its an arroyo - CO its a wash - from wikipedia, dry creek bed.

[sundial]

I'
in AZ its an arroyo - CO its a wash - from wikipedia, dry creek bed.

In Texas, it's known as a "crick".

[Crankin]

We called it a wash in AZ, too, but I know what arroyo means. My parents got their car "stuck in a wash," when they tried to cross it after a flash flood...

Red Rhodie, your list made me laugh. I think about three fourths of those apply to eastern MA also, with a few that are very specific to RI. I think that most of those expressions you find in blue collar towns in eastern MA, especially where people don't move away and there's generations of families living in close proximity. When I was a kid, everyone used those expressions, but I doubt I'd hear one in Concord, today! Even my students in Hudson don't have any accents or use a lot of regional words (except maybe bubbler), but quite a few of their parents do. Again, this is a community where people stay put and often live down the street from their parents, aunts, uncles.

[SlowButSteady]

In South Carolina, it's a gulley

[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?"

[NbyNW]

my husband (also a New Englander - Maine specifically) used to make fun of me for the way I said o's as in stone and thinks my mom says wush instead of wash.

No. Way. My DH is from Maine, too. They got some nerve, making fun of the way we talk.

Ayup.

[Flur]

I went to college in NJ, and we had quite a mix of people from different parts of the US. I learned that in some parts of the country, jimmies are the same as sprinkles, but in other parts jimmies are condoms! It made quite a mess when a bunch of us would go out for ice cream....

When I lived in NY and NJ people referred to New York City as "the city" as if it was the only one. Everything else was a town. This drove my family nuts. Now I'm in Minneapolis and it's "the cities", again as if they're the only ones. LOL!

The biggest regionalism from my childhood in MI was "pop". When I moved out east people would either laugh (at me, not with me) or they just wouldn't understand - "pot?", "popcorn?" I picked up "soda" pretty quickly. I've been in MN now for almost 4 years and still say soda, and no one seems to mind, even though here it's "pop".

[sundial]

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

paw biscuit= biscuit that fits in your hand

I thought the saying was,"Where are ya'll from? Yur not from around here, are ya? Yur from off."

[divingbiker]

In the small rural midwestern town where I grew up, we ate breakfast, dinner, and supper. When I went to college (same state, population was 40,000 vs. 3,000) we ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I was made to feel like a bumpkin many times when I'd talk about having dinner at lunchtime.

[sundial]

OK, that reminds me......is supper the evening meal or is dinner the evening meal? We have breakfast, dinner, and supper here.

When I used to live a little more north, we had breakfast, lunch and supper.

[Kimmyt]

When I lived in NY and NJ people referred to New York City as "the city" as if it was the only one. Everything else was a town. This drove my family nuts. Now I'm in Minneapolis and it's "the cities", again as if they're the only ones. LOL!

I think it's habit for a lot of folks that live in the direct area of a large city to call that city by a generic term instead of it's proper name. Maybe it's a more casual way of referring to it, or a way of establishing ones familiarity with it.

I grew up my entire life around Philadelphia and therefore almost always call it 'The City'. 'Hey let's go into the city for dinner' or 'do you want to see a show in the city?'

A friend of mine (who lives in the city, but isn't from there originally) made fun of me once for saying that and it kinda pissed me off.

To me, if you were referring to any city, it was Philly, because that was the closest one, being only 10-15 drive away. If you were going to NY you said New York. But, The City, was Philly.

I would imagine it'd be the same for folks living in the suburban areas of any large city.

I guess I'm saying that most people when they say 'The City' don't mean 'This is the only City, everything else is just a town'... it's just a quick and casual way of referring to 'their' city.