My dad used a simple, sharp “Eh!”
I find I use this with my kids, too.
No, it’s definitely not the same phenomenon as the greengrocer’s apostrophe. (Or at least what I’m talking about in my post isn’t the same thing.) This is something that manifests itself in speech. The greengrocer’s apostrophe is misuse of the apostrophe in written form, [i.e. using the apostrophe before any and all “esses,” usually mistakenly writing plurals as possessives.]
What I’m talking about is treating trade names that don’t end in “s” as possessives. For example, you know how you would say “I’m going over to Mike’s” tonight? Well, we might say “I’m going over to [the] Jewel’s to pick up some groceries.” Or, “Did you see the sale they have over at Zayre’s” (The trade name is “Zayre,” or at least was, when it existed.) It is completely distinct from the greengrocer’s apostrophe.
Oh, he’s not from LA, man. That’s hella far from where he lives.
We have some of that over here, too, and I think it has something to do with the ending letter. It particularly seems to happen to stores with vowels on the end. (And L and R at the end of words are semivowels).
That said, we also have (or at least had) a tendency to change the -mart at the end of a store name to “mark” or “marks.” My dad used to always talk of going to Wall-marks.
Which reminds me of another regionalism: we tend to add Rs in certain words. I grew up using a worshrag, and had no idea it was the word wash plus rag. We also use “Chest 'o drawers,” aka chesterdrores.
Totally. Fer sure.
Well that’s interesting. Finally have a possible source to give my dad for our linguistic weirdness.
And here in Michigan, people add an s to business names as well- “I work for Fords, going to Krogers, shopping at Kmarts…”
And with the ope thing: I’ve caught myself saying something similar, but it’s more of an “ut.”
Well, she ought not. I’ve heard that expression all my life here. “We went by Grandmom’s on the way over here.”
I’m fixing to get us a coke. What kind do you want? I’m having Dr Pepper.
I’m sure you’re all familiar with typical NJ/NYC ways of speaking. I just re-realized the other day that certain phrases that we use every day such as “whatchya doin’?” sound peculiar to people from not around here.
In my Air Force days, my fellow airmen would get a kick out of phrases I used (and I guess the way I said it) such as “you bustin’ my balls?” And the way I pronounced coffee.
Definitely used around here (Chicago), too, or at least it doesn’t sound at all odd to me. It can be “whatchya/whatchoo/waddaya doin/up to/up ta.”
We’ve lived in Wisconsin for less than three years, and already my seven-year-old son spontaneously says “come with.”
Yeah, all those sound right to me. 
I recall in grade school, we had a new student arrive from Texas. The first time a group of us went to play at his house we were greeted by his mom.
Mom: You boys want a coke?
Us: Sure!
Mom: What kind?
Us: Uhhhh. Diet?
Mom: We don’t have that.
Us: What do you have?
Mom: We got grape, cherry, Mountain Dew …
Us: Stare dumbfounded
This is also due, I think, to our regional habit of calling carbonated, flavored, sugar-water “pop”. Coke was a type of pop to us. This was my first exposure to regional idioms. is “idioms” right? I don’t care. I’m usin’ it.
I still occasionally do the ‘aina’ thing for ‘is it not so’. I grew up in 'Sconsin, so if someone is a truck driver for Wal-Mart, “he drove truck” for Wal-Mart.
And it’s not “pop”, it’s “soda”.
Regards,
Shodan
People around here say “like”. Like all the time.
Cincinnati has some weird ones.
People around here often say “please?” in place of “what?” or “excuse/pardon me?” when asking for clarification of something or for you to repeat yourself.
A lot of Cincinnati west-siders will alter words, turning “wash” into “warsh”.
We also have some local phrases, like “up the pike” in place of “up the street”, or calling I-75 in Kentucky the “cut in the hill”.
Of course, we also have “Who Dey”, which can end with a question mark (“Who dey?”) or an exclamation point (“Who Dey!”).
The last couple seasons “Who Dey” has mostly ended in questions marks for the Bengals though.
I grew up in a very French Canadian area. I actually had an old man yell at a bunch of us “The next time you go through my, you go around!”
It was always “Uuuhht-tut-tut-tut.” I still sue that one on the dog.
I’ve a really strong Scottish accent - a bit of a mix of one because we moved around a fair bit when I was growing up. British people with strong accents can usually code-switch, so toning it down, speaking more slowly, enunciating fully every word, dropping regionalisms. It’s pretty necessary in this big old interconnected world of ours where I’m as likely to phone an office in Bangalore or Baltimore as one in, err, Barrhead.
But I can’t stop using “aye” for “yes”. It seems to be hardwired now. It’s not a problem because every English speaker knows what it means anyway, but the closest I can get to eliminating it is to answer a question with “Aye, yes” rather than just plain “Aye”. Most odd.
When I moved down to Florida from Western NY, for about 10 years I still used “eh” as an affirmation “tag question” at the end of a sentence. At first it never occurred to me that everyone didn’t do the same until everyone kept accusing me of being Canadian. I still think it’s useful and easier to say than “right?” I also now use y’all for the plural second person because that’s useful as well.
I just watched an episode of “Forensic Files” filmed somewhere in the trackless wastes of Canada. The female protagonist, her mother and her father were interviewed, and all of them were unable to end a single sentence without adding “eh”.
I practically rooted for the evil guy, because he was the only one on the show who didn’t keep saying “eh”.
Grew up in Maryland and live in Ohio. If anything I have consciously chosen to use the most neutral words possible. For example, in Maryland “coke” or “soda” was common (if you consult the US map of pop/soda/coke I think MD is a state with overlap/multiples, iirc). Here, it’s “pop.” I say “soft drink” or something more broad.
Other things I tried hard to drop. Think I successful beat “warsh” out of my vocabulary. I think that was around the time people started asking me what country I was from.
I’m sure there are many things I have retained that I’m just not aware of but I can’t think of any.
In my experience all the California lingo ends up spreading. I have relatives in CA that I visited when I was a kid and heard some words that I would hear again YEARS later in MD. It seems like they travel all the way East before coming back Midwest, though. The other night I overheard some dudes speaking like 1993 Californians, but probably weren’t born until the mid-90s and have never left central OH.