Dialect differences

[sheath]

It occurs to me that in order for fireflies (as in Rufus T.), lightning bugs (see alt. lightening bugs), or even flickers to light up our early summer nights, there must exist actual bug fuckers.

But that thread is two doors down to the left and has "what the hell is up" in its title. We'll have no more talk of bugs or bug-fuckers in this intellectual thread, thank you.

God, that felt wicked good, what I just said theah.

I particularly LIKE this post.

S.

 

[sheath]

Re: Thank Heavens!

And you know there will always be room at my big ol' desk for you, dearie. On it, under it. Wherever. Ahem. (Am I blushing? yup)

Thanks for letting me back on, I hope you won't regret it!

Oh, I won't regret it, darlin'. Trust me.

*murmuring*

Mighty big desk, at that...lots of room...

S.

 

[sheath]

Speaking of "cooch"...Oh christ..I can't even say it....

What can I say..I've been spoiled...

Being spoiled is a good thing.

Or as we say down South...'Bein' spoilt, it's a good 'un'

S.

 

[SlickTony]

I love this kind of thread! They're such fun!

those same creatures are also called "Slaters" here

That must be the Scots influence--I understand that they're also called slaters there. In the 18th century you sometimes found them in medical compounds. I came up in the Houston metro area in Texas, and some people called them doodlebugs there.

June bugs are those sort of rectangular brown insects with a shiny, amber colored carapace, and barbed legs so that they stick to everything, including (as has been pointed out) your screen. When I was coming up, we used to find dozens and dozens of them on the porch, also in the mailbox; you don't see nearly as many of them now. Probably a result of pesticide use. Wish pesticides were as good for ants and roaches and flies, but no...they have killed a great many of the harmless June bugs, which never bit me.

 

[CelticFrog]

Heh.

I never expected this thread to take off like it did.

And for the LOVE of GOD, they're FIREFLIES!!!

June bugs to me have always been strange. I think it's because when I was a kid, everyone around me had a different definition (see the other posts in this thread!!!) and so I never knew which was correct. I ended up just ignoring the June Bug title altogether and describing the insect I was talking about anytime I wanted to talk about it... which incidentally is rare.

And a creek? It is NOT pronounced like the damn sound a rusty door makes. *teeth bared*

J never hesitates to make fun of me about where I'm from (Montana) and my family's business (meat packing). Makes for more jokes than NORMAL about sheep and other livestock.

It's country music.

And it's either a clicker or a remote. Or that thing I never get to see.

I KNOW there's others that have caused marital strife... even if only the fun kind. That induces lots of makeup sex.

Ang

 

[SexyChele]

I'm from California and somehow managed to escape the "Valley Girl" thing. Well, except when my friends and I were goofing off.

Most of my relatives live in Wisconsin, and yes, I do have fun with them. (No offense to anyone from MN, WI, or Chicago!) That accent is the only one I simply cannot duplicate! Of course, my relatives tell me I have an accent, but I deny that vehemently! After all, when broadcast journalist learn to lose whatever accent they might have, they all end up sounding like people from California. (Well, and Conneticut - the two states I've heard really have no accent, so go figure that!)

The most enchanting accent has to be southern, even if I understand only 30% of what they are talking about. It just sounds so good that I keep smiling and nodding until the other person finally figures out I'm not understanding a word they are saying.

Don't know anything about fireflies, lightening bugs, firebugs, or any variation thereof. We don't have those here and I've never seen one. However, we do get those June bug thingies and I absolutely HATE them! For those who are wondering what they really look like? Just go here for a pic. Oh, and yes, they are edible. Not that I've ever tried, but if you ever want to dare some one to do this at least you know they won't die or get sick. Well, other than from the thought of actually putting one of these horrid things in your mouth!


Oh, and Ang? I call them either roly-polies or pillbugs equally!

 

[zhukov1943]

Yeah - D.C. (where I grew up) seems pretty darned accent-neutral as well.

As soon as I moved south, though, I picked up an accent. Weird, huh?

 

[PrincessHoney]

Speaking of "cooch"...Oh christ..I can't even say it....

What can I say..I've been spoiled...

but being spoiled is good! i got spoiled several times last night

 

[midwestyankee]

J never hesitates to make fun of me about where I'm from (Montana) and my family's business (meat packing). Makes for more jokes than NORMAL about sheep and other livestock.

Ang

I'm sorry, but is there such a thing as a normal amount of jokes regarding sheep and other livestock?

 

[sunfox]

I'm an Illinois girl, with the flat no-accent we all have from the flatlands. But my dad's side is Northern Wisconsinite... and so I've learned about the bubbler, and waffle stompers, and Yooper speak. (Yoopers being U.P.ers.. or Upper Peninsula-ers, and waffle stompers being snow boots that leave the sort of waffle print in the snow.)

I say soda, not pop, lightning bugs, roly-poly, and june bugs are the brown crunchy beetles with the sticky legs that horrify me beyond rationality to the point where I scream and hide. Garter snakes are "gardener" snakes, and I ask "Where did I leave my keys at?" instead of "Where did I leave my keys?". Caramel is pronounced carmel.

I'll tell you the store is just down the way, instead of being more specific. And usually I'll accompany it with a vague pointing gesture in the general direction. (So helpful, I know.) Oh.. and it's time for supper. Not dinner.

That's all the flatlander jargon I can come up with for now.

 

[SlickTony]

However, we do get those June bug thingies and I absolutely HATE them! For those who are wondering what they really look like? Just go here for a pic. Oh, and yes, they are edible. Not that I've ever tried, but if you ever want to dare some one to do this at least you know they won't die or get sick. Well, other than from the thought of actually putting one of these horrid things in your mouth!

I am amazed that people should be so utterly creeped out by June bugs, even more than by other bugs. As insects go, they are relatively innocuous. They do not bite or sting. A farmer or gardener would be able to tell me if they're a crop-eating pest, but I've never had June bugs chew on the edges of my books, get inside my wall switch boxes, congregate in my kitchen, or go parading airly across my counter, hooked up with a mate, after I'd just cleaned it. I have never had one sting me just because I happened to brush up against it. It's possible that they're capable of nipping with their mandibles, as many insects have mandibles of some kind, but I'll bet they don't inject you with formic acid and/or leave pus-filled welts on your skin. They do not suck your blood.

I would not want to eat a bug, but that's because European society has always had a deep cultural prejudice against eating insects. Others do not. Alex Haley wrote in Roots about tribal councils in the village of Juffure, from whence his ancestors came, with children handing around bowls of freshly toasted insects; John the Baptist is said to have lived on locusts and wild honey; and in Uganda, they are so fond of crickets that when they swarm, there is a festival around them.

 

[CelticFrog]

Oh, and Ang? I call them either roly-polies or pillbugs equally!

Okay, well I have to admit I'm getting to that point just because J is such a BUTTHEAD about it. Same thing with the fireflies/lightnin bugs/things that glow at approximately three feet off the ground.

Ang

 

[CelticFrog]

I'm sorry, but is there such a thing as a normal amount of jokes regarding sheep and other livestock?

LOL!

Yep, there is. Montanans expect a certain amount to be thrown at them from people. But when your family is IN the livestock business, and your husband AND his friends know that, the usual expected amount of joking grows exponentially.

*sigh*
Ang

 

[CelticFrog]

Storytime!

Okay, when I went to Army Basic, I got sent to Fort Lost In the Woods (Ft. Leonardwood in MO) where I proceeded to spend 9 months going to basic, ruining my knees, learning to walk, going back through basic all over again, and then going to AIT.

9 months, apparently, is all I needed to pick up the accent.

It earned me plenty of ribbing when I got back home, but now it's an accent that is firmly embedded in the back of my brain, right next to the Gaelic accent I earned from my grandfather as I was learning how to talk.

Now, when I am talking throughout my day, I tend to not have much of an accent. Really. I don't speak with too many regional terms, and everyone can understand pretty much everything I say.

HOWEVER...
There are several instances where I've been caught slipping into an accent.

-When I'm drinking, even just a little bit.
-During and directly after a phone conversation with sheath
-Talking about my ancestry.
-Talking about food from my roots.

and others I'm sure I've missed.

I tell you what, though. The strangest thing you'll ever hear in your entire life is a Gaelic/US Southern accent. Don't expect to understand a WORD I say.


Ang

 

[SlickTony]

Same thing with the fireflies/lightnin bugs/things that glow at approximately three feet off the ground.

At my late MIL's farm, and also in the north Florida woods, they hang out in the trees. It's really cool--it's like the tree is bearing stars.

 

[CelticFrog]

I'd love to see that.

The only time I've ever seen them was out on the qualification firing range. It was awesome to see them out there, waiting for our turns, seeing something so homey, so heartening. It had a great calming effect on a lot of us. And for me, it being the first time I'd ever seen them, it lifted my spirits a lot. They needed it at that point.

Ang

 

[Guest]

June Bugs

 

[midwestyankee]

Bug disclosure: this is a bug-free post.

When I first started studying linguistics in graduate school, I was the subject of considerable study because of my distinctive downeast (Maine) accent. I moved to Chicago within two years of leaving college, though, and gradually lost most of the accent.

However, my children and wife point out that whenever we return to Maine the accent is back in full force within an hour and stays with me for a few days after we return to the midwest. It also tends to return slightly whenever I talk on the phone with family members.

This is a normal occurrence, which CF noted in herself as well. Accents are a way in which we mark ourselves as part of a community so it only makes sense that we revert to our accents whenever the influence of that community is present in any strength.

 

[Imi]

And for the LOVE of GOD, they're FIREFLIES!!!

Oh for pete's sake, it's a bug. Who cares what it's called if it's outside. But as soon as it's inside, it's gonna be called MUSH as soon as I catch up with it. Can you tell I'm a Southern Transplant?

Now having added my prouncement to the bug discussion, let me say Great thread! I find all these different things interesting. Though I do wonder if a dialect includes HOW we say things (like the soft As) as well as the different names we call objects?

Now me? I grew up in New Jersey and have lived in Florida for about 10 years now. I'm still shocked when I here 'ya'll' come out my mouth. <----see there? Mixed dialect. Ya'll for south and just using 'out' instead of 'out of' for the African American influence of Essex County.

My mother is from the coal cracking region of eastern PA. She shocked me about six months ago when she called an umbrella a 'Bumper Shoot". WTF is a bumper shoot?

Then I alway call the thing at the supermarket that you put your groceries in with wheels on it, a cart. Down here they call them buggies.

What the heck is a trivet? It's a hot plate.
And who plays hoops? It's b-ball.
And the thing that changes channels on the TV is a clicker.

 

[sheath]

My mother is from the coal cracking region of eastern PA. She shocked me about six months ago when she called an umbrella a 'Bumper Shoot". WTF is a bumper shoot?

Wow. I had to sit here for a long time and think about that one, and I am still left with no clue.

Either I'm really into this thread or really bored, I'm not sure which.

S.

 

[SlickTony]

I'm familiar with that particular term for umbrella, although I figured it was spelled bumbershoot. Sound like it's derived from some foreign language.

Hey, it occured to me that in your Romance languages, there are two separate words for umbrella, depending on its use--we're familiar with the term parasol, and a lot of the time when I see black women using them in the sunshine, it's obvious; but the Spanish word for umbrella seems to be paraguas.

 

[midwestyankee]

My mother is from the coal cracking region of eastern PA. She shocked me about six months ago when she called an umbrella a 'Bumper Shoot". WTF is a bumper shoot?

Slick Tony is right: it's a bumbershoot. And the foreign language it comes from is British English slang.

 

[sheath]

Re: June Bugs

I just couldn't resist jumping in with this one.

"My" June bugs are about 3/4" to 1" long and are sorta boxy/rectangular looking, with hard green wings. When we were kids, we were so poor (growing up in SW Va, remember?) that we made pets out of them. Would tie a string (pronounced "strang") onto one of their hind legs and let them fly around in circles over our head. Their buzzing flight made for a really cool sound. Some of the more evil kids would help their flight by whipping the string a liitle faster than the poor things (thangs) could fly, which made for some interesting effects. Either the leg would pop off (oops) or else it would be dizzy when it landed. So that's it... for fun, us poor kids would watch staggering June bugs crawl around in the dirt.

And that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Gospel truth. ("Gospel truth" - another regional saying?)

Hooch

Remind me to NEVER let you tell my kids that one.

S.

 

[herecomestherain]

Haven't checked in here for a few days although I've found myself thinking about word differences at the oddest moments...

The umbrella reference had me laughing, we used to call an umbrella an umbershooter.

Supermarket cart is a shopping trolley here.

June bugs sound like our Christmas beetles, strong memories of beachside holidays, you've find these guys in overturned flailing around on their backs like turtles. I love bugs.

The remote/clicker gets called a telly changer at our place and like CF I rarely see it so I don't care what it gets called ( within the limits of decency ) of course.

Popsicle is an icy pole (water based ice confection)

In U.S recipes I have trouble imagining a "stick" of butter?

In Oz we have the esky, a insulated container for taking canned and bottled drinks on picnics etc, in New Zealand they're called chillybins, is there a U.S equivalent?

 

[CelticFrog]

In Oz we have the esky, a insulated container for taking canned and bottled drinks on picnics etc, in New Zealand they're called chillybins, is there a U.S equivalent?

Coolers. At least everywhere I've been.

Ang