# Linguistic Indicators **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 14, 2005, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943 "2005-08-14T07:22:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Oregon\_sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/21 "2005-08-15T03:42:54Z")
“Spendy” is used around here, too. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/22 "2005-08-15T04:24:44Z")
The Philadelphia region has an unfortunate fondness for calling water “wood-er”. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/23 "2005-08-15T04:26:08Z")
> [@LaurAnge](#): > > Matt, today I called a thing of shelves a ‘ranging’. Oops. I love it. Once, when tired, I referred to having learned “a packet of showses.” ---
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/24 "2005-08-15T05:08:58Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > _The number of freeway/expressway/Interstate - Southern California, Buffalo, Toronto._ Beat me to it. I noticed this in SoCal when I regularly took _The 5_. > [@](#): > > Originally posted by **Hamish** > _For some weird reason, Anglophone native Montrealers pronounce “merry” and “Mary” differently, unlike all other anglophone Canadians to my knowledge._ I’m from New Jersey, and I pronounce them differently. Only person I ever knew who didn’t was a girl named Karri who tried to convince me her name should be pronounced Kerry. I always asked her, then what do I call my friend Kerry? Words that people can pick out my origin from are the words I can accentuate the “aww” sound in, like _Dawg_ for dog; _CAW-fee_ for coffee; _SAW-sidge_ for sausage; etc. Honestly, it irks me to hear _cof_ for cough… and the like; it just sounds so weak. Out here on the eastern side of Washington, though most I know guilty of it are actually from Idaho, people _warsh_ their cars instead of wash them. The state to their west is _Warshington_, although the guy on the one dollar bill is George Washington. They also say _crick_ for creek. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/25 "2005-08-15T06:16:05Z")
_Cool_ – California (not that no one else says it, but no one else says it like we do) (Not to be confused with the bustling metropolis of Cool, California, pop. 2520). ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/26 "2005-08-15T07:49:26Z")
> [@soulmurk](#): > > I’m from New Jersey, and I pronounce them differently. Only person I ever knew who didn’t was a girl named Karri who tried to convince me her name should be pronounced Kerry. I always asked her, then what do I call my friend Kerry? Yeah, it’s a feature of Canadian English (except Montreal, as I say) that merry, marry, and Mary are all homonyms (an American would think we were saying merry, though some American lects have this too). We also don’t have a cot/caught distinction – again, many Americans don’t either but IIRC most do. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/27 "2005-08-15T11:44:55Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > The Philadelphia region has an unfortunate fondness for calling water “wood-er”. Baltimoreans say “wood-er,” too. Along with “zink” for sink and “awl” for oil. We also spend our vacations “Downey Ocean,” or down at the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/28 "2005-08-15T13:09:02Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > I just stood on the _Devil’s strip_ to open my car door. Where am I from? errrrr…Akron? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/29 "2005-08-15T13:44:03Z")
Judging by [this](http://www.wilk4.com/humor/humorm221.htm) the ‘brogue’ of the Baltimore area has quite a few interesting features, including most notably the reduction of diphthongs to just the first vowel. Also unstressed vowels may be reduced to the point of nonexistence. For instance: at-sod (=outside) boskle (=bicycle) canny (=county) flare (=flower) danny ocean (=down at the ocean/down to the ocean)\* \*in more extreme forms, “danny ayshen”. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/30 "2005-08-15T13:45:19Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > I just stood on the _Devil’s strip_ to open my car door. Where am I from? 😕 What the devil is the Devil’s strip? And as for where you’re from - I dunno - Hell? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/31 "2005-08-15T14:41:06Z")
> [@LaurAnge](#): > > Whoa, **featherlou** , now I’m curious. How ought Banff be pronounced? Most Canadians pronounce it something like “Bamff”, the n and f sounds together being virtually unheard of in English. I heard a girl from Montreal pronounce it once, and she got the n and the f to harmonize together like I really can’t (well, not easily). Oh, I thought of some for Albertans - Emmonton for Edmonton and hammerger for hamburger. I’m not sure which region this indicates, but growing up in a Mennonite town in rural Saskatchewan, I heard people say “amn’t” a bit (i.e. a contraction of “am not”). ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/32 "2005-08-15T15:20:46Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Judging by [this](http://www.wilk4.com/humor/humorm221.htm) the ‘brogue’ of the Baltimore area has quite a few interesting features, including most notably the reduction of diphthongs to just the first vowel. Also unstressed vowels may be reduced to the point of nonexistence. > > For instance: > > at-sod (=outside) > boskle (=bicycle) > canny (=county) > flare (=flower) > danny ocean (=down at the ocean/down to the ocean)\* > > \*in more extreme forms, “danny ayshen”. I always have to believe that people from _Balmur_ have marbles in their mouths. ---
**Author:** ![Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/33 "2005-08-15T15:39:26Z")
Jahb - Job - Buffalo/Upstate New York. Pop - Soda - “” Jeeack - jack - “” It’s something about the vowels. They’re done with, I want to say the throat? At any rate, it’s very noticeable. I live in Maryland, and people always ask if I’m from Minnesota or the Midwest because of how I say soda and coach (and other words, but those come up the most.) It seems I stretch out the “oh” sound, but I’m pretty sure I picked that up from Wellsville, NY. ---
**Author:** ![Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/34 "2005-08-15T15:45:47Z")
We western Pennsylvanians have a very distinct way of talking. I never picked up much of it, for some reason: I’ve always said _creek_, not _crick_; I always said _wash_, not _warsh_, and I’ve never said _y’uns_, though my grandmother sure did. It drives Britons I know absolutely crazy that I pronounce _route_ as _rowt_ sometimes, and sometimes as _root_, and it particularly galls them that I still do this, even though I’m fluent in French. My speech has always been so accent-free that locals would sometimes assume I was English (which is a mistake that no Briton has ever come close to making.) But one major chunk of dialect I clung to was the word _pop_ instead of _soda_ when talking about fizzy, sweetened kids’ drinks. Even though I live in what’s clearly _soda_ country, that word still sounds hopelessly affected to me. I’ll use it, but sometimes _pop_ pops out anyway, and my Connecticutian girlfriend laughts at me. When I was in college, East Coasters would mock me for saying _needs done_ and _needs washed_ and the like. I was an English major, and I remember wondering when you’re supposed to say _needs done_ as opposed to _needs to be done_. I had no idea what that grammar rule was. I didn’t realize it was just dialect. Still, I have to wonder what it is about the sense of those words that causes those in Pittsburgh, Youngstown and environs to drop the _to be_. Even though I use the standard English these days, the _to be_ still sounds superfluous to me. When the Pittsburgh Playhouse did _Hamlet_, the famous soliloquy started, “Or not. That is the question n’at.” (Well, not really. But y’uns git it, dontcha?) ---
**Author:** ![Detritus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@Detritus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Detritus)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/35 "2005-09-02T03:46:17Z")
> [@soulmurk](#): > > Out here on the eastern side of Washington, though most I know guilty of it are actually from Idaho, people _warsh_ their cars instead of wash them. The state to their west is _Warshington_, although the guy on the one dollar bill is George Washington. > > They also say _crick_ for creek. SE Idahoans are entirely guilty of _crick_ as a small streamlet. We also can be found _down-ta_ places, as in “She’s down-ta the church this morning” or “I’m going down-ta Alby’s (Albertson’s grocery store). Want anything?” Growing up in southeast Idaho, my mother & grandmother–Okies–were the only people I knew who used _warsh_ and _Warshington_, but I had to move to Texas to truly appreciate that you _warsh_ the car, then you _wrench_ the soap off. According to a Houstonian buddy, you might remove bolts with a crescent _ranch_. Not sure where horses and cattle live in that world… East Texans put an extra dip in just about everything, for instance you spell “ranch” _ar-ruh, ay-uh, ay-un, cee, ay-utch_. Do not let an east Texan loose on a voice response automated phone system. Circuits fry. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/36 "2005-09-02T04:53:04Z")
> [@](#): > > Luh’vull. Actually, all my Hoosier relatives who live south of Naptown say “Luh’vull,” too. (And Naptown is two-and-a-half syllables–Na\*:\*ptaown.) ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/37 "2005-09-02T05:54:56Z")
> [@uglybeech](#): > > Wicked. New England? Here we say “It gave me chicken skin,” instead of “It gave me goosebumps.” ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/38 "2005-09-02T07:46:44Z")
> [@Large Marge](#): > > New England? Boston. Might be used in other parts of New England, but I’ve never thought about it/noticed. ---
**Author:** ![Dusty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Dusty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dusty)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/39 "2005-09-02T08:14:24Z")
Used up here, to. That and “jeezum”, do you have that expression down there? Business names also take the possessive case here. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943/40 "2005-09-02T09:03:04Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > The Philadelphia region has an unfortunate fondness for calling water “wood-er”. Oo. it rhymes with bread and “bood-er”! 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistic-indicators/316943.md?page=3)