# Southern California-isms **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 29, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573 "2005-12-29T15:11:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/141 "2006-01-04T08:50:43Z")
> [@Exploding Kitchen](#): > > You may be correct…but I’m female, caucasian, 24 now, and I still use it, and picked it up from my mostly caucasian peers in high school. > > Heck, when I visited a friend down at UCLA, they had dorm arguments over it – you said “a grip” if you were from SoCal, and “hella” if you were from NorCal. I don’t doubt it. The conclusions I reached may well be only the results of a combination of amateur sociology with the peculiarities of the particular crowd I knew in high school. FWIW, nobody on my high school basketball team (basically even thirds white, black and Hispanic) said it, and nobody I’ve known since really uses the term with any regularity. In fact, I don’t know if I ever hear “a grip” in that context these days. Then again, I now spend most of my time in either East County or Spring Valley, so take from that what you will. Those NorCal folks sure are fond of “hella”, it’s true. [shudder] ---
**Author:** ![Exploding\_Kitchen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Exploding\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exploding_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/142 "2006-01-04T08:58:13Z")
But there’s a grip of posts in this thread… _grin_ ---
**Author:** ![Agonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@Agonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agonist)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/143 "2006-01-04T09:13:13Z")
> [@Exploding Kitchen](#): > > “Where the hell is Tehachapi?” Along the Pacific Crest Trail. But I suppose I’m the only person who thinks of that. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/144 "2006-01-04T09:27:22Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > No it isn’t the end of nowhere, but you can see it from there. > D&R Hey, you’ll get no argument from me. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/145 "2006-01-04T09:52:57Z")
> [@The Sausage Creature](#): > > Hey, you’ll get no argument from me. And I don’t know why I posted that Lancaster isn’t so bad. The worse people think it is the more they will stay away and I like the northern desert like it is and not cluttered up with people. :smack: It’s sort of like snow. If I want snow I can go to the mountains, I don’t have to wade around in it where I live. If I want people I can drive to Los Angeles. I don’t have to wade around in them where I live. I must be slipping. As my 92 year old cousin says, maybe it’s time for the ice floe. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/146 "2006-01-04T14:31:04Z")
> [@scout1222](#): > > Heh. My dad retired to Lancaster, and I’m amazed at the number of people in San Diego who haven’t even heard of it. They think he moved to Pennsylvania! Yeah, but have you ever been to Rainbow? Its where the cattle have shorter legs on the right than the left. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/147 "2006-01-04T14:34:09Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > I moved to Lancaster from San Diego when I was 15. Graduated from Quartz Hill High. > > Lancaster is next to Palmdale, where SR-71s and L-1011s and the Space Shuttles were built. It’s near Edwards Air Force Base, where the Space Shuttle landed after the early flights, and where Chuck Yeager broke the ‘sound barrier’. Also nearby is Mojave, where Burt Rutan designs his fantastic airplanes; including the Long EZ (John Denver dies in one) and the Voyager, which was the first airplane to fly around the world unrefueled. The Antelope Valley and Western Mojave Desert was the stomping grounds of the famed aviatrix Florence Lowe ‘Pancho’ Barnes. It’s a fascinating area, really. Well, then, That means you weren’t far from Nine Mile and Chimney Peak. (don’t ask.) ---
**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:** [January 4, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/148 "2006-01-04T16:18:36Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > It’s pronounced in an entirely American English way. If the Sepulvedas were Anglo Americans (which I doubt given the umlaut), it may be pronounced right. But if they were Hispanic, which I assume from the spelling of the name, the pronounciation would be more like say-pool-VAY-dah (or seh-paul-VEH-duh at the worst). The accent referred to before is, in Spanish, used to show stress. The original name of the family was Sepúlveda, with the stress on the U, thus “seh-POOL-veh-dah.” Anglophones use English phonotactics for the name, of course (suh-PUL-vah-duh) but the stress is on the right place. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/149 "2006-01-04T18:29:35Z")
[A quick check of Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepulveda) seems to show that the name is of Spanish origin, but that the accent was, in fact, over the u (Sepúlveda). That would imply that the typical Angeleno pronunciation is pretty close to correct. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/150 "2006-01-07T05:46:59Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > A guy I used to work with was stopped for directions to ‘stah-tah co-yeh-heh’. It took him a minute to realise the guy was looking for State College Blvd. Wow. I’ve had that happen. Obviously, this is from people who are trying to pronounce it in Spanish, which means they mangle it just as badly as the English speakers mangle almost all the Spanish names. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/151 "2006-01-07T06:51:17Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > I’ve noticed that phrase is more popular (here) among males of Asian descent just over age 18 than just about any other population. Rumor has it that “grip” has roots in the San Francisco Asian-American community. Attended classes that were ~40% Asian for most of the past twenty years, I’m pretty sure this isn’t true. “Hella” has indeed been our doing, but for the most part, it’s died out in common use, as far as I can tell (unless it’s become so ingrained I don;t notice it any more). ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/152 "2006-01-07T08:26:48Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > That would imply that the typical Angeleno pronunciation is pretty close to correct. Well, it would tell us that the accent is on the right syllable. Still sounds atrocious to me. > [@Troy McClure SF](#): > > Attended classes that were ~40% Asian for most of the past twenty years, I’m pretty sure this isn’t true. Hrm. Peculiarity of my school, I guess. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573.md?page=7)