US Regional Vocabulary Differences

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
121

Front room. God. Front room. Frontroom.

I haven’t thought about that word in about twelve years. . .but it’s what my grandmother (a native Chicagoan) called the living room that had the front door in it. I had no idea that was a regionalism. . .and, honestly, I don’t know that I’d use it. I used to call the living room that had the front door in it at my old house the “living room,” and the one that didn’t the “family room.”

Carbonated drinks are sodas.

A couch is usually a couch. Maybe a sofa if it’s fancy. But I think I use “couch” more. If someone told me to sit on the davenport or the chesterfield, I’d probably take a moment of blank staring to figure out what they meant.

Creek is not crick. Milk is not melk. Though my pronunciation might be a blend of milk/melk. I don’t know. Probably is.

Mary/merry/marry might have some differences, but they’re subtle enough that I have to strain to hear them, and I suspect they don’t really exist.

There is no W in Blackhawks. Chicago is actually spelled Chicagah.

I usually say “sore-y” instead of “sah-ree”. Sah-ree being the accepted pronunciation around these parts, and “sore-y” being because of my Canadian mother. I apologize a lot, and I suspect it’s this one word that makes my accent a little off.

Also. . .breakfast/lunch/dinner. Supper is like dinner, except the person calling you to it is probably older. Dinner is not lunch.

122

Front room is current here.

123

When we lived in the South, suddenly our front room turned into a parlor.

And whenever a kid moved out, the converted bedroom turned into a den.

124

In MD/DC/VA, they call it “the Beltway”.

Growing up in San Antonio, we always just called it “Loop 410”, or just “the Loop”.

Personal achievement and slight hijack: I once did a 540 on Loop 410. It was rainy and my crew and I were going out partying w/ the g/fs. As we entered the curve from 35 South to 410 West (quite a hard curve), my girlfriend said “don’t do anything stupid”. To which I replied, "Who, me? and proceeded to do some stupid toe-heel driving and caused the car to spin out of control. We made a full revolution while moving forward and then spun backwards onto the grass median. The girls were screaming, the guys were laughing because we all knew we were going to die.

Once stationary, we took a quick inventory, re-started the car and drove to the first exit and gas station. No damage to the car. After much cursing me, and then laughter, we rebooted the party and continued upon our stupidity.

Yeah, we were young and indestructible. And incredibly stupid and lucky.

I miss the 80’s.
End hijack.

125

I’m from Texas, but I’m also well traveled, so who knows where I learned to talk like I do.

The bubbly sweet drink with no alcohol? Everybody I knew from Texas called it a Coke. As I was taught by my dad (from Boston, similarly well-travelled due to being an Army brat), I stubbornly insist that a Coke is one of the various products of the Coca-Cola company, usually branded as “Coke” or “Coca-Cola” on the label. Thus, these drinks are, in my family, Sodas. Or Cokes, if they happen to be Cokes, which they usually are since that’s all my mom and dad drink.:smiley:

The wide chair in the living room, den, loft, or music room? It’s a couch or a love seat, unless it’s designed to sit three or more comfortably, then it’s a Sofa. If it’s actually a long chair, then it’s usually whatever the doctor calls it, since it’s in his office. :cool:

The difference between a living room and a den is that the den is usually a basement counterpart to the living room, generally reserved so the kids can watch tv and play video games without disturbing our parents or their guests upstairs. If this room happens to be ABOVE the living room, then it’s a Loft. The Music Room is similar to a Sewing room, depending on if my little brother or my mom successfully lay a claim on it first. If I somehow lay first claim on it, it’s a Computer Room. Mind you, the primary purpose of a Music Room is to play XBox in. For half an hour a day, it also is used to practice music in while the XBox is paused.

I grew up with Lunch and Dinner. Now that I’m in the military, the three meals of the day are Chow, Chow, and Chow, but only if you’re eating on base.

The road that runs along the highway is a Service Road, I think. Any big artery-type road with multiple lanes, high speeds, and very few if any stop lights, is generally a Highway. A Freeway is some vaguely larger highway that necessarily has no tollbooths (not that I’ve seen any tollbooths outside of Oklahoma or Houston). Every Freeway I’ve ever seen has also almost always happened to be an Interstate, and could also be called an Expressway.

126

Out of curiousity, how long have you been in the area? I am MD born & raised and only ever refer to I-95 as the Beltway…the expression isn’t used for other roads.

I am relieved to hear from others that they say “on accident”, as my partner says it and I constantly correct her.

My grandmother from Iowa always referred to the trashcan as a “wastepaper basket”. This confused me mightily, as I thought it meant that you could only put paper in it, not other kinds of trash.

127

Where in Texas? Most of my growing up was done around Austin and I don’t remember encoutering sweet tea as an assumption until some years later I ended up living in Georgia where I had to specifically ask for “UNSWEET tea” every time I ordered tea.

Oh, and tea=iced tea.

My parents, my mother especially, moved a lot, and so have I. I probably sound a bit mixed up, vocabulary-wise. The arguments I had with my Michigan-born ex-boyfriend about “soda” vs “pop”…sigh It’s soda, dammit.

128

There used to be a local grocery chain called Hamady’s in Flint area, so a lot of people here still say hamady sack. I’m not sure if it’s specifically the brown paper grocery bag or if it includes plastic.

Toboggans are long runnerless sleds with the front curved up and ropes running down both sides. Sometimes there’s even a pad on top but that’s for sissies. In my day it was wood and we liked it.

My neighbors (clearly better educated than I) greet me with ‘How are you?’, where as I usually say ‘Hey what’s up?’, sometimes even “what’s happening” cause I’m prone to 70’s flashbacks.

129

and in Flint the server will ask you if you want it Flint style or Detroit. Flint style is more dry (crap, is it ‘dryer’ or drier’? I’m sure someone will correct me :P) and I think beans are verboten; Detroit style is soupier, what you’d expect to get if you ordered a bowl of chili, pretty much.

A burger with lettuce, tomato and onion slice is ‘deluxe’

at the bar you can order a shot and a shell, which is a shot - usually cheap well whiskey, the shell is a short glass of draft beer to chase the shot

130

And just to bring things around, that “barrow pit” in Montana is a “bar ditch” in Texas.

131

Oh, forgot that one. Depending on who I am hanging out with, the warm fuzzy hat sometimes called a Toboggan is alternately called a Stocking Cap, a Watch Cap (my preferred term), or a Penis Cap/Head Condom (the preferred terms in the marching band in high school back in Texas).

Not quite regional, but it’s fun to see what the different services call identical things like headgear. In the Air Force, we wear Flight Caps, the Marines have Garrison Caps or Pisscutters, dunno what the Navy calls them, and in the Army they went out of style in favor of Berets (which are not worn by the Marines, are only worn by Special Forces types and Security Forces in the Air Force, and only worn by women in the Navy. Which I like to point out to my Army friends as often as possible.)

Oh, and a friendly greeting where I went to college was “Howdy”, a much shortened form of “How do you do?”. I’ve seen this scattered throughout the southwestern US (more often in Arizona than in Texas, actually). I once slipped up and saluted a Lieutenant Commander with “Howdy, Sir” and was relieved to get a salute and “Howdy, Airman” in reply. Never did get a chance to see if he was wearing an Aggie Ring or not. :smiley:

132

And see, I always thought those were called “Drainage Ditches”

133

You’re from BC, aren’t you?

We also have a chesterfield and footstool - I wouldn’t know a davenport from Adam’s off ox.

In summer we’d fire up the clinkerbuilt and throw a couple of hoochies and strip teasers in the tackle box, and go out after sockeye, pinks, coho or dogs. Great times.

134

The word is spelled cupboard. As the linked page states, the term is a combination of the words “cup” and “board”. Similarly, clapboard is often pronounced “clabbard”, although I’ve never heard clipboard slurred to “clibbard”.

135

I thought I was the only one who grew up sitting on the chesterfield. I am chagrined to note that “couch” has replaced it. Fewer syllables?

I would sit on the chesterfield wearing my toque and ask for a serviette.

136

I moved here in 1996. Have heard the phrases “Baltimore beltway” (obvious reference to 695) and the more generic but well-understood “Beltway” (referring to 495 around DC / VA / MD area. Just tonight, I saw a commercial for some local Maryland hospital system where the patient says “take <this road> because the Beltway is backed up.” I-95 is just called “95”. Or so I’ve heard.

I was an army brat, so we moved a lot. I call San Antonio my home of record on my DD214. And besides, you Austinites are a bit more ‘liberal’ than your fellow Texxans down I-35. :smiley: Although, not as snooty as the Denizens of Dallas folk.

The Navy calls them Pisscutters. I would assume the Marines do the same thing.
The Army (officially) call them garrison caps. Unoffically, we called them cunt caps. Or crayola caps, if a senior NCO was around (even as an officer, I knew not to swear in front of an NCO).

As far as army berets go:
BLACK: Rangers (I believe they went yellow later, but that was after I left. Although yellow is not something I would say to a Ranger.
MAROON: Airborne (actually in an Airborne Unit, or with combat wings), not just for 5-jump chumps.
GREEN: Special Forces (my favorite)

Women were also allowed to wear a form of beret, but it was more of a “bowl hat” than a beret.

Many people in the army who worked hard to earn their right to wear a beret were PISSED when they switched over to berets for everybody. It takes a lot of hard work to earn a beret, and the army goes and gives one to everybody.

137

The Rangers wear Tan berets, IIRC.

Air Force berets are color-coded, with the Security Forces and Academy Cadets getting dark blue and light blue, Air Weather Service Parachutists getting pewter gray berets, Tactical Air Control Party and Tactical Air Liaison Officers getting black, Combat Controllers getting Scarlet and Pararescue Jumpers getting Maroon berets.

138

Huh. I lived in San Antonio for three years, but I was pretty little, first through third grade. So I don’t remember the tea issue there. But I’m still pretty sure I didn’t run into real honest-to-God Southern SWEET (it’s beyond regular sweet) tea until I was in Georgia.

139

On the whole coke / cola thing, I feel that I need to shed a little light on this a bit. Now I grew up in Mississippi as did my entire family going back generations. This is one of two things that I feel that people from the North don’t quite understand along with the usage of y’all.

Now this is just how I’ve always been told, and in my town it seemed to be the norm. I think there are a couple of factors at play. It seems that in the South that Coca-Cola is more prevalent to begin with. Most people when they ask for a coke will want a coke. And a Diet Coke is also a coke in my opinion. So when someone offers you a “coke” they actually do mean Coca-Cola because that’s what most people drink.

The more general term that would be analogous to “soda” would be a “soft drink.” But I don’t think this gets used all that often because most people drink coke anyway.

I submit that if you go into a restaurant in the South and you ask, “What kind of cokes do you have,” you’ll get a list of Coca-Cola products. I seriously can’t remember in twenty years growing up ever having a conversation where someone specifically referred to a Sprite or anything else as a type of coke. And most people will supplant “pepsi” if that’s what they have instead.

The other thing, the usage of “y’all” is never used to refer to the second person, singular. You’ll be looked at like an idiot if you were to do so. You will often have two people talking, and the word “y’all” will get thrown around, but it will always mean the person being spoken to, plus some other absent person(s). “How y’all doin’?” means “How’s your family?” not “How are you?”

I don’t know. I didn’t grow up in some kind of cloistered environment in the South. I had a normal upbringing, and I have no idea what the coke thing is. I’ve also lived in various parts of the state and still am clueless.

140

Consider the English “how do you do,” and the German “Wie geht’s” (how goes it or how are things going), as the source of that regional difference. There are all sorts of German, Dutch, Norwegian derived colloquialisms in the Midwest.