Curiosity strikes me, mostly due to this thread, about how words and mannerisms are different in my hometown than in other places in the country. (I’ve never really traveled far from here, so I really don’t have a firm grasp on how “bag” and “vague” do not rhyme, for example [I mean it, I cannot fathom it])
Here are a few that I can think of off the top of my head (things that I believe aren’t really used elsewhere):
Bubbler for water fountain
Tyme machine for ATM
“Drove truck,” as in “He drove truck for Miller for a few years.”
“Sout side” (No “th”, just a hard “t”). Similar to “Up Nort”, which doesn’t necessarily mean a location north of where you are.
“Come here once”
I know that there are only a few Milwaukee area/Wisconsin dopers here, I don’t mean to post an irrelevant thread that no one cares about, so I apologize if this is too geographically specific.
“Bubbler” was the common term used for water fountains in Boston metro area in the 70’s and I never heard the term used in the 15 years that I lived in Madison (1984-1999).
Dropping "th"s for "t"s or “d"s (depending on whether the “th” is voiced or not”) is common in Chicago accents, as well as a number of other urban accents. I say “Sout Side” and “Nort Side” when I start talking quickly in my native accent. I assume this would be common anywhere there has been historically a large non-English speaking immigrant population, as the “th” sound is not present in most languages.
I grew up in Northern Indiana and have lived in middle Tennessee for a number of years…both places have a lot of guys who “drove truck” for a living at some point of their careers.
I should have been more clear, “Bubbler” is pretty specific to the Milwaukee metro area. People from Madison do not call it that (but they do call soda “pop” sometimes.)
I was vaguely aware that there was a pocket of MA that said “Bubbler” too, but I didn’t know that is was Boston! These have got to be the only two places in in country that say that…
Exclusivley in the hills where I grew up (the Madisonians only 40 miles away thought it was weird) was “wadder” for water, and having no “t” at the end of words; just a breathless, cough-like “eh!” with my name “what” pronunced “whuh-(eh!)”
Even though we lived “way out in the sticks,” we could point to people who by our reconning really lived out in the sticks, who’d use words like “pert-near” for “almost” or “shicken” for chicken.
This puzzles me. The a in “bag” rhymes with the a in “had,” “sat,” and “back.” The a in “vague” rhymes with the a in “bake,” “made,” and “hate.” How is this not fathomable? Am I missing something?
I’m just as puzzled, Gary. Although I can tell you that it is hard for me to pronounce “bag” with the same sounding “a” in “had, sat and back”. It sounds weird, almost British or something (Same as “Back”?). It sounds like we say “vague” the same way, though. Try saying “Baaag”, with a hard “a”, and hold the “a” sound a bit.
“Go by her house” is a straight lift from German “bei dem Haus” and way, WAY back when Milwaukee had a trolley system, one heard: “…down by where the streetcar bends the corner round.”
Let’s not forget the pronunciation of “Teutonia” as “TIE-TONE-YA.”
I was a Milwaukee school kid on a class trip to the Field Museum in Chicago and asked a museum guard where there wasa bubbler. Because I was thirsty. After a brief period of mutual incomprehension, he said “Wait–you want a water fountain?” “Yeah, I SUPPOSE you could call it that…” I answered.
Also “sweet roll”–known in the rest of the world as a “Danish.”
