What words/pronounciations do you use that DIDN'T make it onto the dialect survey?

North Carolina here. We say ‘go over yonder’ instead of ‘go over there’. Also, you make me ill…not meaning you make me sick, but you make me mad or angry or tiffed. I dated a guy from New Hampshire for a bit when I was younger and he could not get over the use of ill as meaning out of sorts. Course he said Saturday without the ur so that got me.
We use a lot of slang words, it amazes me how different Virginians pronounce words when the two states are as close as they are. Major differences so much that you can tell they people from Virginia right away.
We use breezewalk for a covered sidewalk. Trailer for a mobile home. Coke means all soft drinks. Lots more that don’t come to mind right now.

I’m originally a city gal, as are my parents (which explains why my younger siblings, though raised in the 'burbs, speak the same way.)

On the other hand, the only real-life Chicagoan I’ve ever heard drop the ‘h’ off North or South or say ‘dese’ ‘dem’ and ‘dose’ was Mayor Daley, Senior. I remember hearing him introduce Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth as “Ladies and gennulmen, Da Queen.”

I was thinking about “mash” for “press,” too, Ogre. And “chunk” for “throw”: “He was chunking rocks in the water.”

One that I’m surprised they didn’t include is “Appa-latch-uh” versus “Appa-lay-shuh.” It makes me ill (thanks, ultress :wink: ), when people move to the region and call it “Appa-lay-shuh.” Hey, if you’re gonna live here, say it right!

The most durable dialectal quirk I have is thing pronounced as thang. I used to sell “pank thangs” (pink things - cherry sherbet on a stick) at 6 Flags.

My Mom’s favorite is “Fixin’ to”, for about to. As in “I’m fixin’ to go to the store, want sumpen?”

In MA, we use “directionals” to signal a turn while driving (aka “blinkers” or “turn signals”). And we go to the “registry” (DMV) to get our licenses.

I say “dungarees” and I don’t think I’m THAT old yet! I keep my dungarees in my bureau (dresser) draw.

Allow me to introduce my husband. He drops the “h” from both of those words (but only sometimes). We always thought it was because he started life in the city, but maybe he’s just lazy. :slight_smile:

Many moons ago, I was in a Linguistics class. The Professor knew, just by the way I said “could” that I was from the northside of Minneapolis. Now that’s specific!

BUT, the NE side of Minneapolis tend to have it’s own dialect, somewhat similar to a Chicago accent (It’s not Northeast, but Nord-eest). Much of the NE side was settled by Polish, Russians, Czechs.

“Doing donuts” have always been called “pulling shitties” or “whippin’ shitties”

Here’s a question in the vein of “pulling shitties”: What do you call it when you get a ride via holding on to the bumper of a vehicle, usually on ice?
I’ve always called it “skitchin’ a ride”, but my dad calls it “skoochin”…

In the Boston area it was called car hopping. Pronounced “cah hoppin.” As in “let’s go hop a cah.” We used to do it in the snow with just our boots on our feet. You hit a patch of bare pavement and you were looking at some severe road rash–or worse. It was a blast though.

Nowadays, with a nine-year-old son, I call it complete and total lunacy.

MissTake, at least in southeast Alaska of the early 1980’s your ‘skitchin’ a ride" was “hooky-bobbing.” I think my north-idaho bred man says this too.
I thought ‘wicked’ was generic gen-x ubiquitous? Up there with ‘stellar’ and ‘brilliant’.
Hawaii has a language all its own-- a lot of the English usage sounds really 1950s-- people in a fight are ‘beefing’, when you eat you ‘go grinds’, the garbage/ trash is the rubbish, etc.
When I lived in Oregon I never got used to filbert for a hazelnut, but I assume that’s on the Hahvud chart.

In Winnipeg, that’s “bumper-shining.”

up on da range

Well where do I start. I live 4 hours north of Minneapolis on “Da Range”. I am a transplant from the Chicago/Gary Indiana area. It has taken 3 years and I can sometimes understand some of the people here. Some say the accent here sounds a bit like the movie “Fargo” but don’t let anyone hear you say that. Dem’s fighten werds".

on Da Range

boat becomes boot, as in “I got me ah hoose boot last week.” (house boat)

or initiating a conversation with, “Hey dere”, as in “Hey dere, where ja get dat hoose boot”

the reply of course would be. "Oh yah, I got it from Luukonen’s and Matshiner’s Boot sales dont yah know. And a bitchen deal to boot, you betcha.

There is plenty more where that came from if anyone is interested.

whippin shitties also found on Da Range, as well as the omission of “the” from “the hospital”, “The store” etc. more of the oddities are:

topper instead of cap.
The raised cover that you put on the bed of a truck.

Oddly enough, the cab of a truck, the part where you sit and drive has become “cap” as in,

“I hadtah take a cab to dah lutafisk potluck cause I locked my good huntin cap an dah keys to my to mah truck cap in dah topper”

tabs instead of tags. the sticker that shows the year in which your vehicle is registered.

Well.
Now.
Hey dere, drafy. How the heck are ya? Settlin’ well up Nort’, are ya? Sure sounds like it!
(will NOT do the obligatory “Yah shuur yubetcha”)

Now, best getcher self over to da General to pick up some of dat SPAM, cuz, yanno, it’ll cure what ails ya.

:slight_smile:

Yolk.

My aunt: brang.

My dad: bowm (bomb), stanchiol (stanchion).

My sisters: variegated vowel in “room”, long oo, short oo, almost uh, and ghost vowel “rm”. First and last occur in broom.

My brother: has acquired the southernism of ew for oo. Two equals tew.
Even in nuh-rthern Minnasuh-ota, people are saying Farguh-o.

I used to differentiate between “o” (cot) and “ah”, and definitely “o” and “aw”, but suh-o many people duh-ont that I have lahst it. Ahdly, it’s when I’m least myself and muh-ost like uhthers, that uhthers say I have an aaacksent.

Ca-rib-be-an vs. Ca-rib-be-an

PEEnalize vs. Penalize

New Orleans vs. Nawlins

Two of these words sound alike:

Concord
Concorde
Conquered

…and it’s not the first two. Hence the “joke” in the Concorde commerical (the kid was concieved in Concord, NH) falls very flat to those who actually live near Concord.

I’m not sure what Calm Kiwi meant by “wicked” since it doesn’t mean the same thing as “the new england wicked” Or else things are really in NZ.

61. What do you call the area of grass that occurs in the middle of some streets?

A ‘median’. It’s what everyone else calls it in Florida.

62. What do you call the long narrow place in the middle of a divided highway?

Either a ‘median’ or a ‘divider’, depending on height. If it’s a mere space or a walkway, it’s a median. If it’s an actual barrier, it’s a divider.

83. What do you call an easy course?

A ‘filler course’.

95. What is “the City”?

Any general large city–it’s a generic term, like ‘I live in the city’. It could be Tampa, it could be Berlin, it could be Tokyo. Sometimes, it can mean the closest city of signifigant population–in my case, Leesburg or Ocala.

And having just left the Sacramento area, I can vouch for ‘hella’ and ‘hecka’–I catch myself using them once in a while, but only to make fun of Californians in general. But my sister says her clique said it about five or six years ago, in central Florida–the words are no longer used here.

I lived in Fairfield, and north of that city, there was a town called ‘Vacaville’. The natives pronounced the first vowel as in ‘cat’ (for all you linguists out there, ["væ.k@.vIl]). I pronounced it as in ‘pot’ (["va.k@.vIl]).

There seems to be a word used in this area that I’ve never heard elsewhere–‘devo’ ([di:.vo]) for ‘steal’. I don’t use it and neither do my friends, but I’ve heard it a lot recently. It gets on my nerves, personally, but I think it’s a matter of the person using the word, more than the word itself.