Criks and Rufs

RCMerchant · August 27, 2011, 08:32:31 AM

This is a totally nonsensical post...but I noticed some people say the words "creek" and "roof" as "crik" and "ruf". I'm one of them.
Is it a midwestern thing...or is it global?

Someone pointed it out to me the other day...they were from Jersey.
Im a Michigander.

claws · August 27, 2011, 08:34:23 AM

First time reading this. It must be a local thing

RCMerchant · August 27, 2011, 08:40:43 AM

Quote from: claws on August 27, 2011, 08:34:23 AM
First time reading this. It must be a local thing

Sure...SUUUURE! Yer guilty!

FatFreddysCat · August 27, 2011, 08:45:17 AM

The first time I heard "creek" pronounced "crik" was years n' years ago when I was a kid and we went to a family reunion somewhere in Ohio. One of our distant cousins (an Ohio native) asked my brother and I if we wanted to "catch some fish down by the crik" and we said "by the what?"

They also call soda "pop" out that way too, which was a new one on us at the time. "You boys want some pop?" "Some what?"

RCMerchant · August 27, 2011, 08:50:14 AM

Quote from: FatFreddysCat on August 27, 2011, 08:45:17 AM
The first time I heard "creek" pronounced "crik" was years n' years ago when I was a kid and we went to a family reunion somewhere in Ohio. One of our distant cousins (an Ohio native) asked my brother and I if we wanted to "catch some fish down by the crik" and we said "by the what?"

They also call soda "pop" out that way too, which was a new one on us at the time. "You boys want some pop?" "Some what?"

Where ya from? It is pop!!!!
I freaked out when I was in New York.."Wanna Soda?" .
"Huh?"
Huh?
"POP! Sure!"

I think it is homegrown dialect.

We usta steal pop from one of them old vending machines that had the glass bottles of Nehi ,
You'd put yer 15 cents in-and if you grabbed a neck and yer brother grabbed one...you'd get 2 pops for 15 cents!
Gee...that was in 1971. I was 9.

Newt · August 27, 2011, 08:58:47 AM

Regional dialects are fascinating!

Where I grew up, the rural kids often had a very different way of speaking and a different set of words for familiar things - or so it seemed.

I heard 'crik' from them, and 'ruf'. But...it is always 'pop'! 'Soda' was something we heard from the tourists/summer people who came up from NY State.

G'Day, eh?

RCMerchant · August 27, 2011, 09:04:04 AM

Quote from: Newt on August 27, 2011, 08:58:47 AM
Regional dialects are fascinating!

Where I grew up, the rural kids often had a very different way of speaking and a different set of words for familiar things - or so it seemed.

I heard 'crik' from them, and 'ruf'. But...it is always 'pop'! 'Soda' was something we heard from the tourists/summer people who came up from NY State.

G'Day, eh?

Ay?
Canada.
I noticed that yoopers (from upper Michigan-think Red Green) talk like Canucks.
Yeh...the Chicago folks always came to Michigan...they said "soda pop" which gave me a clue why some forgieners sed "soda".

And yeah...I was very rural...we lived onna dead end road. The bus wouldnt even take it in the winter. We had to walk a half mile to the corner of 3 Mile Lake road.

AndyC · August 27, 2011, 09:09:23 AM

I don't recall for sure, but I believe my dad uses those pronunciations. He has something of a regional accent from the part of Ontario where he grew up. Probably most common among those who grew up before TV or easy car travel, when rural communities were more insulated. Dad's hometown was rural, far from large populations and predominantly Scottish, and he grew up in the 1930s and 40s. Newt will probably be familiar with Flesherton; it's still pretty far off the beaten path. Dad definitely has a strong element of what's properly called Canadian raising (http://www.yorku.ca/twainweb/troberts/raising.html), along with some peculiar pronunciations.

He might say "On Sairdee morning, I'm going to clean out the Gradge and trow out all the garbeedge, so it's nice when cumpny comes to the hoase on Choosdee."

Newt · August 27, 2011, 09:14:11 AM

Ah Flesherton: the heart of farm country! Seems to me your dad would have had a claim to a Scottish accent.

Did he invite visitors to come set in the dooryard, Andy? My neighbours did. They also had 'idears' and 'warshed' their hands. My parents were from Toronto, so I had to become somewhat 'bilingual' once I was in school. And being near Ottawa we had our share of Quebecois French: drove the French teachers in the schools crazy!

RCMerchant · August 27, 2011, 09:19:07 AM

Quote from: AndyC on August 27, 2011, 09:09:23 AM
I don't recall for sure, but I believe my dad uses those pronunciations. He has something of a regional accent from the part of Ontario where he grew up. Probably most common among those who grew up before TV or easy car travel, when rural communities were more insulated. Dad's hometown was rural, far from large populations and predominantly Scottish, and he grew up in the 1930s and 40s. Newt will probably be familiar with Flesherton; it's still pretty far off the beaten path. Dad definitely has a strong element of what's properly called Canadian raising (http://www.yorku.ca/twainweb/troberts/raising.html), along with some peculiar pronunciations.

He might say "On Sairdee morning, I'm going to clean out the Gradge and trow out all the garbeedge, so it's nice when cumpny comes to the hoase on Choosdee."

Sounds like us backwoods Michiganders. When I went to NYC in the 80's...I couldnt understand wtf they were saying...or them me.

RCMerchant · August 27, 2011, 09:21:42 AM

Quote from: Newt on August 27, 2011, 09:14:11 AM
Did he invite visitors to come set in the dooryard, Andy?

Door yard...hahahah...I use that one....it's the porch.
In NYC the Dooryard,or porch,was the steps.
We also called it the front stoop.
"Grab a pop-sit onna front stoop Listen to the radio."

I know its supposed to be RAYdio-but I say RADio.

AndyC · August 27, 2011, 09:37:40 AM

Quote from: Newt on August 27, 2011, 09:14:11 AM
Ah Flesherton: the heart of farm country! Seems to me your dad would have had a claim to a Scottish accent.

Did he invite visitors to come set in the dooryard, Andy? My neighbours did. They also had 'idears' and 'warshed' their hands. My parents were from Toronto, so I had to become somewhat 'bilingual' once I was in school. And being near Ottawa we had our share of Quebecois French: drove the French teachers in the schools crazy!

No to "dooryard" and "idear," but a big yes to "warsh." He does warsh things. Oh, and he does sometimes get a sore troat.

As for da Quebec French, I know about dis as well. I have a sister-in-law from da Cornwall area.

Derf · August 27, 2011, 09:48:42 AM

Many even down in South Texas say "crik." Fewer still say "ruf," but I do hear it. That, and "rut" for "root," as in "Give me a rut beer."

RCMerchant · August 27, 2011, 09:54:05 AM

Quote from: Derf on August 27, 2011, 09:48:42 AM
Many even down in South Texas say "crik." Fewer still say "ruf," but I do hear it. That, and "rut" for "root," as in "Give me a rut beer."

Hey-it is rut beer!

AndyC · August 27, 2011, 10:01:45 AM

Quote from: RCMerchant on August 27, 2011, 09:54:05 AM
Quote from: Derf on August 27, 2011, 09:48:42 AM
Many even down in South Texas say "crik." Fewer still say "ruf," but I do hear it. That, and "rut" for "root," as in "Give me a rut beer."

Hey-it is rut beer!

Made me think of the Hanson Brothers, from Slap Shot. "Gimme a grape or an orange, and none o' that stinkin' rutbeer!"

Their accent is actually pretty close to what I remember of some of the kids I grew up around. Especially the pronunciation of "corter," as in "The machine took my corter."