Tchochke is a Yiddish word that’s so darn cute it’s made itself part of the lexicon.
When I was a little kid in Bangor, ME, we used to refer to peculiar things or people as “wicked quee-ah”. 17 years later, my dad and half sister had the nerve to say they made it up. Yeah, right, bite my ass.
I now live in Rhode Island and, boy, does this state have colloquialisms. A coffee flavored milk shake is a coffee cabinet. Clam chowder is quahog chowder and it’s available red or white as opposed to Manhatten or New England. Certain types of hot dogs are knows here as “New York system”. I haven’t tried one, even though I’ve lived her 5 1/2 years and am the parent of a native Rhode Islander, but I understand celery salt comes into play. In Rhode Island they refer to the Southern part of the state as South County, even though there is no country named South County.
Sakura says that a lot of her friends at school intersperse their conversations with “definitely.” As in, “I definitely failed that test.” “I definitely wasn’t listening.” “My parents are definitely hopeless.”
Mrs. Dave-Guy is from Rochester, NY, and before I met her I had never heard of “frycakes.” They’re not plain donuts, either, although that’s the closest approximation I’ve come to it. They’re just frycakes.
And in NYC and its surrounding environs, ordering coffee (or cawfee) is an art. Coffee with cream and sugar is “coffee regular.” Everything else diverges from that standard. Thus, you can have coffee light and sweet, coffee dark, no sugar, etc. And you have to say coffee first, then how you want it. Regular coffee is coffee with caffeine. Coffee regular is coffee with cream and sugar.
You’re right. I hereby apologize to all the mooks out there.
<channeling my dead, Mainiac grandfather> That’s a corker! </channeling>
Have you ever tried to explain what a frappe is to someone?
I get blank looks when I try to explain that yes, as the southern most point in the lakes region we get a lot of snow, but not as much as they do in the north country (collective term for the north-most counties in NH)People from the north country refer to snow mobiles as “snow machines” which makes the rest of us think of the machines that produce man made snow at ski resorts.
“It’s not the cold, it’s the windchill” replaces the more famous phrase during the winter.
While this exchange seems normal enough to me
" Can I get you anything?"
" No thanks, I’m all set."
People from various other locations complain it’s mystifying.
No one I know says anything other than soda and subs, although bubbler and fountain are both common.
Although I can’t explain the term “down east” nor why people go to “the north and south shore” I can point them out for you on a map.
If someone calls you a “hot shit” that means you’re funny. This seems to be a term exculsive to the south shore, though.
Although most dislike leaf-peepers, I’ve only heard people from ME say that they’re from “away.”
While I agree with Mogwei22 that Newbury Comics is great, the selection at Bull Moose is wicked good too, and has more of what I consider “local” artists.
Haverhill is properly pronounced with the “hav” sound from the word haven + rill. Portsmouth is ports+myth, similar with Plymouth.
There really are places you can’t get from here - directly from south eastern NH to south western, for example.
Fried dough is better than a funnel cake, imho.
You know how there’s a stereotype that old people up here will give directions by pointing out arbitrary, and possibly formerly existing landmarks? There’s a basis of truth in that. " First cha take a left onta green road, go about five miles, and you’ll see Mr Johnson’s farm. There was ah barn theyah he lost back in the blizzard of 52’ but it caunt be seen now, what with the weeds. Turn right theyah, then look for the tree that was stuck by lighten’ a few years back. It’s ah shame, it gave the best maple sirrip…"
Though I’ve heard a few people say “he was like” it’s far less frequent than " And he goes ‘I did not!’ So I said… "
Do other people say “come with?” As in “Do you want to come with?” instead of qualifying by adding us or me.
Ditto on the frappe. Amazing how few people outside of NE know what this means. I was in NJ a few weeks ago at a conference, and mentioned that I wanted to get a frappe at the nearby ice cream parlor. The response I got was “Huh?”
The other thing that gets me is how people mispronounce some of the cities and towns around here. No, it’s not Ded-ham! Silent “h”, people. Ded-em is a good approximation, at least in my yankee accent. Same deal with Needham. The “h” is quiet. Keep it quiet! Finally, there’s a little town called Dunstable on the NH/MA border. The emphasis is on the first syllable, and that a is short, buster! Keep it short!
I say that all the time. I had no idea it was regional!
Okay, who else put on their skidoo suit and touque to play in the snow? My husband had no idea what the latter was until I told him (and then he gave me an odd look). “Touque” may be Canadian-influenced, since I grew up about 30 mins. from there. Maybe the Canucks here know what a touque is??
And here (NY), it’s subs, soda, water fountain.
Another difference between Northern NY and Upstate NY is people upstate call the grocery store, “the market”, as in “I’m going to the market”, and when a child is being bad, he/she is told, “You’re being bold”, instead of “bad”.
Uff-da. A Minnesotan word that appears nowhere else in the USA. The meaning is approximately the same as the Yiddish “Oy.” But Minnesotans are strange anyway…
Northeast (US)
“bottle” is pronounced without the “tt” (bo’le?)
same goes for “little”, etc.
“come by us” = come over to our place
My wife and I are always confusing each other with “this” and “next”.
To her “this Weekend” is the very next Weekend to come. I facetiously point out that it can only be this Weekend if it is in fact, currently a weekend. Next Weekend is the one we’ll see next!
South
“sack it up” = put in a paper bag
(BTW toque = wool hat)[sub]only in Canada, you say?[/sub]
I used to frequent what I believe to be Bull Moose (Market Sq in Portsmouth, NH) and I agree about the local music…I mentioned Newbury for their use of such a New England word in their advertisements.
And Worcester and Dorcester and Pelham. Trying to explaining Rte 128 and 95 is also a bag of fun.
said… "
Not so much…but I know I’ve said it in the past.
Green Bean This water ice you speak of sounds yummy and I will do my best to find some.
Actually, I was wondering if it was a Canadian influence. My husband is from Albany and he had never hear of it, while I grew up near the border (close to Ontario and Quebec). Also, it’s a French spelling, which is why I’m thinking it may be a “Canadian” or, more specifically, a “Quebecian(?)” word.
Actually, I was wondering if it was a Canadian influence. My husband is from Albany and he had never hear of it, while I grew up near the border (close to Ontario and Quebec). Also, it’s a French spelling, which is why I’m thinking it may be a “Canadian” or, more specifically, a “Quebecian(?)” word.
Any Canadian Dopers want to verify this? I’ll lend you my Luba and Platinum Blonde records if you help me out here.
Ayuh, youse guys seem to have go’en all the wuhds, theah. ‘Ceptin’ the most impoahtint.
Grew up in SE NH (and you can get to SW NH from theah! We useta drive from Nashua to Keene all the time.) but have a firm Western Mass accent, as that’s where my folks grew up. So I don’t drop any of my 'r’s, unlike my beloved Valkyrie, who grew up on Cape Cod and in RI. 'S a matter of fact she came back from a visit to her dad with a bottle of Autocrat. Them’s some weird folks down there.
screech-owl, I’m pretty sure we said “going over” when we talked about visiting someone too, with just a hint of a ‘t’ as a nod to the preposition that should follow.
And to all you people throwing in NY/NJ/MD regionalisms as “Yankee” words… begone, infidels!
galen ubal “Uff Da” is of Scandinavian origin, and is a milder form of “Fy da”.
Nashua isn’t East! It’s in the center of the state(being as it’s about 60 miles from either border of the state.) Try, say, Portsmouth to Hinsdale. 3 hour trip to go 118 miles- in good traffic. Which is almost an hour longer than it used to take me to drive from central NH to southern MA to visit my grandparents…
