topic Re: regional slang in Among Friends

regional slang

151949 — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 16:12:12 GMT

Yesterday there was a post about chop suey - it turns out what the perspon was referring to was a NE regional meal. There are so many regional slang words and dialects in the USA.

I grew up in Pittsburgh and we absolutely have a rather famous dialect there. For instance - I commonly refer to tidying up the house as "redding up". I say "you guys" and when I refer to the downtown area of the city I say "dauntown". I call ham that is sliced so thin you can see through it ( a regional delicacy, warmed with bar b que sauce and piled on a bun)"chipped" and I call the Steelers "Stillers". You can't really be a fan unless you say it that way! When someone here in florida teases me about my Pittsburgh accent I always answer that I come by it honestly having lived there my entire life til I retired. What makes me laugh is - the person making fun of my accent also has their own accent from where ever they come from, but apparently doesn't realize it.

Re: regional slang

CareBears — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 17:00:22 GMT

@151949 I get this all of the time, born and raised in MN (and still live here) so many slang words I grew up with are now met with question marks when speaking to people throughout the country, I always say "Oofda" (sp), we have always referenced "front room" (elsewhere it is living room), we still say "Soda", others say Pop, I always say " You Betcha" and the list goes on!

I do not realize that I have a MN accent (not as pronounced as Fargo movie) until I speak to someone from another area, and they are quick to point it out

Re: regional slang

151949 — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 17:05:57 GMT

There is a large grocery chain in the Pittsburgh area called GIANT EAGLE - Pittsburgers pronounce it 'g an iggle " very hard for non burgh folks to understand at first. There is a restaurant chain called Eat n park and Pittsburgers do pronounce every word of it but run it all together - eatnpark as one word.

Re: regional slang

AuntG — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 17:54:20 GMT

When someone said they made goulash, I had no idea what it was.

Re: regional slang

Plaid Pants2 — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 18:54:13 GMT

I was born and raised in California, and have lived here my whole entire life.

I have always called a soft drink a "soda".

What I found interesting, was when I went to Ireland in 2002, I was staying at a small boutique hotel, that had its own restaurant, in a small town.

One morning, a family was having breakfast in the restaurant, like I was.

They asked me if I lived in the area.

I thought for sure that I had a "California accent", that would give me away as to not being from Ireland! *lol*

I love the Irish accent, btw!

Re: regional slang

Othereeeen — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 18:57:28 GMT

From NYC..."stoop" is the front steps....

"the Ell" is the elevated subway that runs on suspended tracks...(You take the Ell to......"

From NJ..."Down the shore"...means visiting the seashore....."We went down the shore for the summmah..."

Pittsburgh......they drop the words "to be"....as in "It needs cleaned up" ...or "The streets need plowed" ....

....and "youins" for (loosely) "you guys....

Re: regional slang

gmkb — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 19:06:07 GMT

@Othereeeen I no longer live in Pgh., but eliminating "to be" as you described always gives me away as a Pittsburgher.

Re: regional slang

151949 — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 19:12:45 GMT

@Othereeeen wrote:
From NYC..."stoop" is the front steps....

"the Ell" is the elevated subway that runs on suspended tracks...(You take the Ell to......"

From NJ..."Down the shore"...means visiting the seashore....."We went down the shore for the summmah..."

Pittsburgh......they drop the words "to be"....as in "It needs cleaned up" ...or "The streets need plowed" ....

....and "youins" for (loosely) "you guys....

I agree we do drop to be . I know many say Pittsburgers say youse and yinz - but honestly, I lived in Pittsburgh for 62 years and I don't know anyone who uses those words, & many others commonly claimed to be used by all Pittsburgers. There used to be a Pittsburgh slang that was common among the lower class laborers but that has pretty much gone by the wayside as people have become more educated. Now that I don't live in Pittsburgh all year I enjoy when I hear someone from home. We recently had a lady move in up the street and as soon as I heard her speaking to the movers I knew she was from SW Pa. We have since become fast friends!

Re: regional slang

151949 — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 19:17:47 GMT

@Plaid Pants2 My father was conceived in Ireland - County Donnegal - but born in the USA. My Grandmother had a brough and my Dad & his siblings did as well , though their's was not as pronounced as hers.My Dad was deaf from an explosion in WW11 and he reverted back to his brough more & more as the years past and he was only speaking from what he remembered - not what he heard daily.

Re: regional slang

ECBG — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 20:03:45 GMT

I'm southern, and we refer to soft drinks by the brand name. "I'll have a coke or a pepsi.".

When I taught, I loved to hear the adult library asst speak. She would say "of a night" for "the other night" or "every night". For example, "Of a night I make dinner.".

Re: regional slang

Annabellethecat66 — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 20:14:18 GMT

I live in Northern Va. Virginia is so divided most have no idea. You could almost take a pencil and run it through the division. The recent political climate would make it easy.

Further down south in Va we have lots of slang words. Some of the differences are some people say pan cakes, we say hot cakes.

How about y'all? Supper? Actin' ugly (means acting bad), barkin' up the wrong tree, what cha' doin'? Well, bless your little heart darlin'.

And on and on. Yet if you go a few miles up toward DC (real Northern Va) they would look at you like you were from Mars. Mainly because there are so many people in the area (up there (as we say)) that comes from other places. They vote differently from us too.

People down here like to call themselves 'country people'.

Re: regional slang

abbeythe 8th — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 20:35:15 GMT

@151949 wrote:
@Plaid Pants2 My father was conceived in Ireland - County Donnegal - but born in the USA. My Grandmother had a brough and my Dad & his siblings did as well , though their's was not as pronounced as hers.My Dad was deaf from an explosion in WW11 and he reverted back to his brough more & more as the years past and he was only speaking from what he remembered - not what he heard daily.
@151949
What is a brough? Re-reading, did you mean brogue?

I've lived in suburban Philadelphia almost all my life. As a child I remember my cousins talking about their kellering books. It was awhile before I realized they were referring to coloring books. I never picked up an accent but I do remember we had a house "down the shore."

I went to college in Indiana and lived in Wisconsin for 3 years. Soda meant an ice cream soda and pop meant what I referred to as soda.

Re: regional slang

snappyfrappy — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 20:26:10 GMT

I'm in my j80s, was born and raised right here in SoCal. We always referred to soft drinks by the brand name. I'll have a Coke....or Pepsi. My favorite thing to do as a teen was go to the soda fountain, where you could buy milk shakes, and get a cherry coke. They didn't come from bottles, but from a machine that filled the glass after the syrup was added.

We eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, not supper.

snappy

Re: regional slang

blackhole99 — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 20:54:44 GMT

I grew up in central Pa. and we always said we were going down the shore, and a soft drink was soda, and that beef and noodle dish was goulash. We must have a distinct way of expressing ourselves because when I moved down south, people would ask me if I was from central Pa.

Re: regional slang

Mary Bailey — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 21:04:43 GMT

I'm 35 sw of Chicago.

We say: soda, you guys, front room, where you at?

DH sounds like the old SNL skits of "da coach" Mike Dikta he says: dees, dems, and doez

Re: regional slang

sabatini — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 22:03:30 GMT

I'm originally from New England where the word "wicked" means very or really, as in 'They have wicked good pizza there!'

Many years ago, my SIL from CA called me up to chat about what kind of slippers she was gonna buy for her DH for Christmas. She said that in the LL Bean catalogue, it described a certain pair of slippers as "wicked good". She pronounced "wicked" like a candle 'wick'. She thought it meant that water wicked away from the fabric. LOL! I clued her in.

Also, when I was a young wife we moved to Alabama for awhile. I had a friend there who'd say "hogged down", as in 'I really hogged down on that BBQ last night!'

In New England, we'd have said "pigged out".

Haha!

Re: regional slang

Carmie — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 22:31:33 GMT

@blackhole99 wrote:
I grew up in central Pa. and we always said we were going down the shore, and a soft drink was soda, and that beef and noodle dish was goulash. We must have a distinct way of expressing ourselves because when I moved down south, people would ask me if I was from central Pa.

I am from south central PA and many of the things that people think is regional is farther reaching then you think,

Goulash is a stew that originated in Hungry. It is not an American dish that is regional.

Redding up is a PA Dutch term and many people who have German origins use this term. It is quite common in Amish and other plain communities. My mother always said this and I have heard it in Lancaster Co, PA and Ohio.

Yous is not spoken where I live, but I have heard it in York, PA and other parts of the US YInz is another PA Dutch (German) term. I hear it a lot. My DH uses it, I do not, but my mother did. I have never heard it spoken outside of PA.

We also say something is "all" instead of all gone. Many words are dropped from a sentence and because of TV and social media, some expressions are moving across the country.

I graduated College last June is popular. You should say I graduated FROM college last June. I see this incorrect English used by the media too.

Our language is always evolving and was formed by the many immigrants who came to this country. Everyone added a little spice to make our language so sweet.

Re: regional slang

Zita — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 22:38:21 GMT

@CareBears: I, too, am a native Minnesotan, but I NEVER say "Oof da" (think that's a Scandinavian expression), we have always called items like Coke "Pop" not Soda, always reference the main room as a "living room", and NEVER say "you betcha."

I'm from the Twin Cities -- maybe you are rural?

Re: regional slang

CareBears — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 23:53:32 GMT

@Zita I was raised in Cottage Grove, and then moved to Apple Valley, so not "real" rural but my parents & friends always said the phrases I mentioned, so I was always around them, I don't know maybe we are unique, we are of Scandanavian decent though!

Re: regional slang

handygal2 — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 23:21:55 GMT

When someone says, "I'm from Jersey," l get a kick out of that-- it's regional slang. People don't say "l'm from York," or "l'm from Hampshire."