Regionalism's

[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".

[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.

[Eden]

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

Ayup.

so lets see here
we are both from Pittsburgh, married to Mainers and moved to Seattle - cue the twilight zone music.... (not to mention we are both rather petite)

[NbyNW]

so lets see here
we are both from Pittsburgh, married to Mainers and moved to Seattle - cue the twilight zone music.... (not to mention we are both rather petite)

well . . . Pittsburgh and Maine both export people (DH thinks that's part of what we have in common: industrial/extraction economy that went into decline) . . . and Seattle (still) has jobs . . . can't really explain the petite thing, though

[Eden]

well . . . Pittsburgh and Maine both export people (DH thinks that's part of what we have in common: industrial/extraction economy that went into decline) . . . and Seattle (still) has jobs . . . can't really explain the petite thing, though

I met my husband in college. Neither of us would have had a job had we moved back to his small Maine town (he's a programmer, I'm a medical photographer - neither conducive to employment in lumber or in the paper mill) and though we probably could have lived in Pittsburgh, most of my family was gone from there already and heck, I grew up there, why not experience somewhere else.

[bmccasland]

In Cajun country your grandparents most likely would be called Mawmaw and Pawpaw.
I'm not sure how all this works with the ethnographers, but my family is from north Louisiana, and I remember calling one of my greatgrandfathers Pawpaw. He was originally from Mississippi, but I can't quite remember where. Mawmaw had passed before I was born. They weren't Cajun (Acadian), but were Scotch-Irish.

Which sort of brings me to the euphamisims we use for when someone dies. We NEVER say so-and-so died. They "passed."

One of the things I've noticed is the way people pronounce the "ou" or "oa" combination, as in the word "house" or "coast". I'm not quite sure how do describe it, but the "ou" sounds more like the vowel in "ouch". And in coast, the o is more a round "oh" sound.

[Aggie_Ama]

In Cajun country your grandparents most likely would be called Mawmaw and Pawpaw.

I have a Mammaw, but it is because my big brother couldn't get out Grandma.

Both of my grandpas were Pawpaw. My husband called his Grandpa Poo-paw.

My Dad's mom is Nanny. She wanted to be called Nan because she thought she was too young to be a grandma but my brother thought she would be Nanny.

In the Hill Country there is a large German influence so there are Opas and Omas. Opa is really fun for kids to say it seems by watching my nieces.

[Tuckervill]

Having grown up in Chicago, but finished off in Arkansas, the only thing I ever wanted to be called as a grandmother was Gramma. You have to say it like you're from Chicago, though. Emphasis on the first syllable and a short A clipped off at the end.

NOT gram-maw, with equal emphasis on both syllables!

It's what I called my Chicago grandmother until we were teens, and then we called her Gram. My mother became Gram right away, because my Gram was gone by that time. So that left Gramma for me.

My poor Arkansas born-n-bred DIL could not understand it at all. Having never heard anyone but me say it like that, she didn't quite get it. But my son, I can tell, worked hard to get it right for their son to emulate.

Except it came out of grandson's mouth as AMA. Short A on both sides. It's really close to Oma. As I've said, it just melts me.

Karen