I'm from Massachusetts - - born here - - lived here all my life. And we definitely use some words here that people don't readily understand when we travel outside the state (or to other countries for that matter).
Here are some examples:
* Those sweet things you put on ice cream that most people refer to as SPRINKLES are called JIMMIES here. Try asking for Jimmies on your ice cream in other states and see what you get.
* What many people know as SODA or POP or SODA POP is widely referred to as TONIC in these parts. Most other states will give you medicine or hair oil if you ask for tonic.
* We have SUBMARINE SANDWICHES or SUBS, which in many other states are called HOAGIES or GRINDERS or even HERO SANDWICHES.
* We also have SPUKIES here. SPUKIE could be used in place of SUB (see above) when referring to a sandwich. "I'll have a roast beef and cheese SPUKIE." It could also be used to refer to the type of roll the sandwich is made with. "I'll have roast beef and cheese on a SPUKIE."
* We say WICKED to mean intensely good or bad. "We had a WICKED blast." (We had a very good time). "I had a WICKED sore throat." (I had a very painful sore throat). Or WICKED can be used as a stand-alone word. "How do you like my new car?" "WICKED!!!!!!"
What can you add? Maybe we could build an entire dictionary and come up with our own mixed vocabulary that no one but us could understand. (Hey, it might come in handy when we are wandering barren wastelands after the apocalypse . . . we'd be able to communicate secretly with one another and the hordes of renegade mutants wouldn't understand us).
It's hard to know what's weird that we (Canada) say because I've never really been to many other countries.
But in the states someone recognized where I'm from from my voice which is weird.
-Jimmybob
Quote from: jimmybob on May 25, 2010, 04:25:45 PM
It's hard to know what's weird that we (Canada) say because I've never really been to many other countries.
But in the states someone recognized where I'm from from my voice which is weird.
-Jimmybob
I can usually recognize Canadians when they speak. There's a girl in my office who grew up in Canada and her accent (although mild) is clearly Canadian. People can usually pick up my Boston accent when I travel (although, I try to disguise it whenever I can by pronouncing the letter "R" at the end of words, such as "car" instead of "cah.")
Quote from: The Burgomaster on May 25, 2010, 04:17:20 PM
I'
* We have SUBMARINE SANDWICHES or SUBS, which in many other states are called HOAGIES or GRINDERS or even HERO SANDWICHES.
* We also have SPUKIES here. SPUKIE could be used in place of SUB (see above) when referring to a sandwich. "I'll have a roast beef and cheese SPUKIE." It could also be used to refer to the type of roll the sandwich is made with. "I'll have roast beef and cheese on a SPUKIE."
we call em po boys.
anyways, we have crayfish which in Louisiana we call crawfish. we also use y'all instead of you guys.
Y'all is pretty universal usage in the South. here in East Texas, we also say that we are "fixin' to do something" or "fixin' to go somewhere." It means we will do it in the near future, but outsiders have a hard time with it. While in college, my wife told a classmate from Thailand "I'm fixin' to go to the library."
He looked at her rather strangely and asked "Is library BROKEN??"
A few years ago, exhausted from factory work, i let out a yawn.
A coworker asked, "What you yawnin' for? You hangin' out?"
I wasn't sure I heard him right over the din of the machinery, so he repeated, "You hangin' out?... Are - you - hangin' - out?"
Still unsure of what he meant, I looked down to see if he was implying my zipper was open. It wasn't. :question:
When I looked back up, I found that he'd left the line, apparently because he was laughing too hard.
That's when another amused coworker explained that he was asking if I was "hanging out at the bar, late at night." :cheers:
After well over a decade of seeing people with one pant leg rolled up, & the other one rolled down, I only recently learned that it means they're either looking to buy or sell marijuana, though I forget which leg means what.
Quote from: indianasmith on May 25, 2010, 09:02:11 PM
Y'all is pretty universal usage in the South. here in East Texas, we also say that we are "fixin' to do something" or "fixin' to go somewhere." It means we will do it in the near future, but outsiders have a hard time with it. While in college, my wife told a classmate from Thailand "I'm fixin' to go to the library."
He looked at her rather strangely and asked "Is library BROKEN??"
:bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle: :thumbup:
In South Africa, the word 'robot' is used for a traffic light.
We say "Howzit" ~ meaning "Hello, how are you?" in one.
If the answer to the above is "Kak" ~ that means that things are bad. :buggedout:
The word "Lekker" means great, it can also mean sweet.
The phrase "Jou ma se ouma-grootjie se tottie se punt" is NOT a term of endearment. It means your mom's great grandmother was actually a man, with specific reference to the tip of the male organ. :buggedout: :buggedout:
As the World Cup approaches, it scares me that there are two soccer players coming here, one called Francisco Totti (Italy) and the other Ricardo "Kaka" Leite from Brazil. :buggedout: :buggedout:
Quote from: Bull on May 25, 2010, 05:47:10 PM
we call em po boys.
anyways, we have crayfish which in Louisiana we call crawfish. we also use y'all instead of you guys.
I love shrimp po boys, but I can only get them in the south. Love crawfish too, but that's another thing that's pretty rare in Boston (although you can definitely get it here if you search enough).
Here in my part of the South all soda's, cola's, fizzy drinks are called "COKE'S" regardless of the brand or type ... if you ask for a Coke, you'll get "What kind?" in reply. About the only exception is Root Beer which is called oddly enough Root Beer.
I live one state over from Burgo in RI so we have similar talk out here. I use the term "wicked" as an adjective all the time. It doesn't seem as popular out here as it is out in the Bean Town area. Along with the term "grinder" which I use at Subway to receive odd stares from the younger folks working there.
I grew up in Western MA so I'm I will always be a "MASS-hole" according to everyone around here. Not really a vocab thing but when I first came out here I heard the term "coffe-milk" and had no clue what it was. Its pretty much the way it sounds though a drink consisting of half coffee and the other half milk.
I've also noticed in the South is you ask for tea you generally get iced tea. All the waitress will ask you is if you want it sweet (aka with sugar) or not. They never seem to assume you want a cup of hot tea.
HI
I live in the north west of england and the diffrent choices i would choose to what perhaps dogget would choose is ,always a source of amusement
eg: me=what da doin?
dogget=what are you doing?
me=art aw rite?
dogget=are you alright?
me=wert gooin
dogget=where are you going?
me=is that thi maud?
dogget=is that your wife?
many many more to mention but i shall allow dogget to choose what he thinks are the best ones.
macabre
Like others have said.. y'all and fixin..I reckon is another one. Its a southern thing. I also catch myself saying nair instead of there.. like "go on over nair" not sure why it just comes out like that.
"Bless his/her heart!" when injected into a conversation about a third party gives you permission to say the most terrible things about that person.
EXAMPLE: Trevor, bless his heart, had got the stinkiest underpants in creation.
"Bless your heart", on the other hand, is a phrase meaning deep sympathy and understanding.
TREVOR: I've got the stinkiest underpants in creation.
ME: Why, bless your heart, you poor thing!
NOTE: The examples used in this post are in no way meant to realistically reflect the actual aroma of Trevor's underpants, which I'm sure is quite refreshing . . . bless his heart.
I can't think of a whole lot of slang that's unique to Western Canada (Eastern Canada's like a completely different country: different culture, slang, accent, etc). We've got a bit, though.
Chesterfield = Sofa
Bunny hug (specific to Saskatchewan) = hoodie
Spitting rain (well, more specific to my family, but whatevs) = the sort of rain when it's just a few pathetic little drops here and there, like the sky is just spitting.
Then, of course, there are several different words of snow since we get so much. I mean, there's light, fluffy snow, snow that melts when it hits the ground, snow that's so warm it's almost rain, snow that comes down in big clumps of snowflakes, etc.
And lastly, "sorry." It's rarely used as an apology; in some cases, it actually means "f*ck you." Once you've figured out what the different inflections mean for that one word we Canadians suddenly aren't so polite. Well, at least in Western Canada.
And Burgomaster, "wicked" is used the same way up here. I'm pretty sure that one came up here from the US sometime in the 80's or 90's, though.
One thing we joke about in the South is that you can say anything you want about a person, as long as you follow it up with "Bless his heart."
"Uncle Myron is so dumb that he thinks 'going green' means you ate too much lettuce, bless his heart!"
I have family in North Carolina. They find "Why, bless your heart!" to be a very useful expression. :wink:
I also have family in North Dakota. Some very interesting things get said there too - but that's not my area.
Canada has its regional differences as well: I grew up in the Ottawa Valley. The farming community in the valley could be amost incomprehensible - particularly the oldsters! The one expression that really stands out from there is "G'day". It has multitudinous variations, most relying on emphasis though sometimes appending the suffix 'eh', and can mean 'hello' 'great to see you!' 'see you later' 'good bye' 'did you ever see the like!' 'what do you think of that!' and several ruder and generally dismissive comments. Generally, the more it sounds like the full words "good day" the more emotional import it carries: most often anger or (less often) awe. The deciding factor is tone. (Whoever said English is not a tonal language never spoke with someone from the valley! :wink: ) If you are happy, you say it clipped/quickly, loudly and double up on it.
So you say to a good friend who just arrived for a surprise visit: "G'Day g'day!! Come set a spell in the dooryard!"
A bit of colour went out of daily life when I moved to Toronto, but the city has colours of its own. Most of the sayings I know from there are shorthand for places/institutions or borrowed from other languages.
I know we have at least one member from The Rock (Newfoundland); I hope he chimes in here too.
A couple of related tell-tale Southern are "and 'em" and "and
that bunch".
"And 'em" refers to a group of people, usually family, whom you actually like.
"And
that bunch" refers to a group of people, again usually family, you don't like. Both are always preceded by the name of the perceived head of the group.
EXAMPLES:
"Andrew and 'em are comin' over for dinner! They always bring such delicious desserts!"
"Andrew and
that bunch are comin' over for dinner. They always eat up all the delicious desserts."
QuoteAnd lastly, "sorry."
In the US south, 'sorry' means a person of a low, usually lazy, character.
EXAMPLE: Did you see that sorry thing Bertha married?
If I were to speak in my area's primary dialect, very few here would likely understand a word I said...anyways here's some examples:
ahm goin' warsh me clodes (I'm going to wash my clothes)
how's she gorn today meboy? (How are you feeling today?)
well i'm hedded for a cup o tee (I'm going home for a meal)
I just cuts it with me fark (I use my fork to cut my food)
ahm heading in oer de road (I'm going for a trip)
Arn? (Any fish?)
Narn! (No, none)
Can't think of many, really, although:
Water Ice- apparently most places know it as Snow Cones or Italian Ice's. We call it Water Ice.
Hoagie- Other places call it a Submarine Sandwich, 'Po Boy, Grinders. Also, Shorti Hoagie- a sandwich, hoagie actually, available exclusively at the local Philly Exclusive WaWa Convenience Store. Although, Wawa isn't just a "Philly" thing, but it's located primarily in the region of Philly, New Jersey and Delaware.
Mostly, it's our pronounciation of words that differs us, as well as our slight accents. For example:
Water- if we're having a conversation, we pronounce water as "Wooder." Wood with an er at the end, not Wat-er.
Window- we don't say it win-dow, or win-dough as most people. We say it in a way that it sounds like "Winda", rhymes with Linda.
Acme- the supermarket. There's a bunch of people around here that say "Ac-a-me" for some reason I can't figure out. :question:
You people are all speaking jibberish to me...
Quote from: Raffine on May 26, 2010, 02:47:45 PM
"Bless his/her heart!" when injected into a conversation about a third party gives you permission to say the most terrible things about that person.
EXAMPLE: Trevor, bless his heart, had got the stinkiest underpants in creation.
"Bless your heart", on the other hand, is a phrase meaning deep sympathy and understanding.
TREVOR: I've got the stinkiest underpants in creation.
ME: Why, bless your heart, you poor thing!
NOTE: The examples used in this post are in no way meant to realistically reflect the actual aroma of Trevor's underpants, which I'm sure is quite refreshing . . . bless his heart.
:teddyr: :teddyr: :bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle: :thumbup:
Burning tires and other aromas are nothing compared to my undie aroma. :buggedout: :twirl:
Quote from: Newt on May 26, 2010, 06:26:26 PM
A bit of colour went out of daily life when I moved to Toronto, but the city has colours of its own. Most of the sayings I know from there are shorthand for places/institutions or borrowed from other languages.
Where do you live in Toronto?
I live east of there and go downtown often. :thumbup:
-Jimmybob
Quote from: jimmybob on May 27, 2010, 08:11:37 PM
Quote from: Newt on May 26, 2010, 06:26:26 PM
A bit of colour went out of daily life when I moved to Toronto, but the city has colours of its own. Most of the sayings I know from there are shorthand for places/institutions or borrowed from other languages.
Where do you live in Toronto?
I live east of there and go downtown often. :thumbup:
-Jimmybob
Hey Jimmybob!
My parents were both from T.O.; we moved near Ottawa when I was small and I went back to T.O. for university. I lived downtown, then moved a bit north and eventually ended up in Willowdale. Stayed there until 1992 when we bought our hobby farm south of Grimsby. My son is now at the U of T and we have relatives all over the city (Etobicoke, Rosedale, The Beaches, Islington) so that gives me an excuse to go back downtown as often as I can - love that city! Where else can one find places like the Silver Snail and Bakka?
My folks moved to ND in 1979. My youngest brother had a prof at UND (I think) who accurately identified
all his linguistic background - the Toronto, Ottawa Valley and ND influences. :buggedout: That's a pretty impressive ear the man had!
how would you like your po boys DRESSED? hmm, no suit and tie? oh, you want it to have lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayo!
we use DRESSED as a way to say Do you want Lettuce, Tomato, Pickles, and/or Mayo.
Quote from: Bull on June 07, 2010, 08:06:50 PM
how would you like your po boys DRESSED? hmm, no suit and tie? oh, you want it to have lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayo!
we use DRESSED as a way to say Do you want Lettuce, Tomato, Pickles, and/or Mayo.
The old folk say "dressed" here in Kentucky as well, only to mean "with everything". I remember years ago my grandma going into a restaurant in Pennsylvania and asking for her hamburger "dressed." The waitress literally had no idea what she was talking about: "you mean, you want us to put
clothes on it?" My grandma thought the waitress was being a smart ass.
People around here add "R" to things they shouldn't which is odd because as previously stated, they drop the "R" where it is needed. A big one they say is "soder" as in I'm going to the vending machine to buy a "soder".
Quote from: The DarkSider on June 07, 2010, 09:07:42 PM
People around here add "R" to things they shouldn't which is odd because as previously stated, they drop the "R" where it is needed. A big one they say is "soder" as in I'm going to the vending machine to buy a "soder".
Yes, that's the well known principle of conservation of "R"s: "R"s are neither created nor destroyed, but can only be moved from one word to another.
I once knew I guy from Oklahoma who referred to the Oklahoma Sooners as the "Oklahomer Soonas."
Quote from: Rev. Powell on June 07, 2010, 08:36:07 PM
Quote from: Bull on June 07, 2010, 08:06:50 PM
how would you like your po boys DRESSED? hmm, no suit and tie? oh, you want it to have lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayo!
we use DRESSED as a way to say Do you want Lettuce, Tomato, Pickles, and/or Mayo.
The old folk say "dressed" here in Kentucky as well, only to mean "with everything". I remember years ago my grandma going into a restaurant in Pennsylvania and asking for her hamburger "dressed." The waitress literally had no idea what she was talking about: "you mean, you want us to put clothes on it?" My grandma thought the waitress was being a smart ass.
(pulling a page out of Trevor's Book) :bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle: :thumbup:
Quote from: The DarkSider on June 07, 2010, 09:07:42 PM
People around here add "R" to things they shouldn't which is odd because as previously stated, they drop the "R" where it is needed. A big one they say is "soder" as in I'm going to the vending machine to buy a "soder".
strange, we have all but eliminated "R" up here. "Soder" would not be said anyway....it's "Tonic" up here. Car is "caaaa" yard is "yaaaaad"
Quote from: paula on June 11, 2010, 02:50:38 AM
Quote from: The DarkSider on June 07, 2010, 09:07:42 PM
People around here add "R" to things they shouldn't which is odd because as previously stated, they drop the "R" where it is needed. A big one they say is "soder" as in I'm going to the vending machine to buy a "soder".
strange, we have all but eliminated "R" up here. "Soder" would not be said anyway....it's "Tonic" up here. Car is "caaaa" yard is "yaaaaad"
Exactly. A typical Boston sentence: "My sista was drinking tonic in the caaa and spilled it all ova my new flooah mats. I wicked wanted to kill her."
Quote from: The Burgomaster on June 11, 2010, 02:01:50 PM
Quote from: paula on June 11, 2010, 02:50:38 AM
Quote from: The DarkSider on June 07, 2010, 09:07:42 PM
People around here add "R" to things they shouldn't which is odd because as previously stated, they drop the "R" where it is needed. A big one they say is "soder" as in I'm going to the vending machine to buy a "soder".
strange, we have all but eliminated "R" up here. "Soder" would not be said anyway....it's "Tonic" up here. Car is "caaaa" yard is "yaaaaad"
Exactly. A typical Boston sentence: "My sista was drinking tonic in the caaa and spilled it all ova my new flooah mats. I wicked wanted to kill her."
I used to have a roommate from Massachusetts. His brother Carl used to call for him, and if my roommate was out, he'd say, "Just tell him Caahl called..." Used to crack me up. (If you're from Boston don't name your son Carl, or Earl!)
Chav.
Means common person. Or someone who like to wear certain labels and hoodies.
Usually found in groups by bus stops.
Usually drunk.
Always annoying.
Quote from: Doggett on June 11, 2010, 03:04:19 PM
Chav.
Means common person. Or someone who like to wear certain labels and hoodies.
Usually found in gropus buy bus stops.
Usually drunk.
Always annoying.
Here in Scotland we use the term "Ned" to describe the same ilk. It seems to stand for "Non-Educated Delinquent".
Quote from: Doggett on June 11, 2010, 03:04:19 PM
Chav.
Means common person. Or someone who like to wear certain labels and hoodies.
Usually found in groups by bus stops.
Usually drunk.
Always annoying.
So, should I change my name to Chav, then?
Quote from: JJ80 on June 11, 2010, 04:48:27 PM
Quote from: Doggett on June 11, 2010, 03:04:19 PM
Chav.
Means common person. Or someone who like to wear certain labels and hoodies.
Usually found in gropus buy bus stops.
Usually drunk.
Always annoying.
Here in Scotland we use the term "Ned" to describe the same ilk. It seems to stand for "Non-Educated Delinquent".
Gee, makes me feel special. :bluesad: :bluesad: