Dialect differences

[sheath]

Supermarket cart is a shopping trolley here.

<snip>

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?

NOW I understand what a certain Australian man meant when he said something that sounded like "chillybuns". *snicker* I had no idea what he meant, and it sounded so cute I couldn't stop laughing, so I never got around to asking.

And he has said 'trolley' for shopping cart. He also says 'sweeper' when I say 'broom'. And of course, the one we all seem to attribute to Land Down Under...'Mate' instead of 'Friend'.

Anyway, in answer to your question...in the south we call them 'huggies' because they hug the drink cans.

S.

 

[wicked woman]

Originally posted by herecomestherain
In U.S recipes I have trouble imagining a "stick" of butter?

In North America some manufacturers sell butter ...instead of in one large rectangle for a pound of butter...they sell the pound wrapped in individual 'sticks'. They're a number of smaller rectangles that together make up the pound...either 4 or 6 or something like that.

 

[midwestyankee]

In North America some manufacturers sell butter ...instead of in one large rectangle for a pound of butter...they sell the pound wrapped in individual 'sticks'. They're a number of smaller rectangles that together make up the pound...either 4 or 6 or something like that.

A "stick" of butter is a quarter pound. I have no idea what the metric equivalent is. We are such provincial folk, we yanks, in some ways.

 

[sultresweetie]

I Don't know if it is regional or what, but I say fuck and shit a lot. LOL. You think I fuckin type it enough, well, shit, you oughta hear my filthy fuckin mouth! My boss is known as cuntrag by my coworkers-that's our code, and my bestfriend seems to find a way to use cocksucker in about every other statement. I don't think it's a California thing though...lol.

if you were to hear my colorful use of the english language it would sound a lil like this:

Honey, would you dick with my fuggin car a bit? Some doofy dropped his azz on the freeway, and I bowled it over doing fuggin 90 and shedt. If you could, that would be two tits to da mowf! Thanks, baybeeee!

 

[Precious_Lady]

Here I have always heard the things that hold cold drinks called Koozies(sp?) Also, being in Texas for as long as I have and my parents being from MO...My mother says Treller..instead of Trailer...and Baag..instead of bag. I have always swung between pop/soda...though i do get strange looks when i say you guys around here instead of y'all.

 

[herecomestherain]

Thanks for the descriptions and translation folks, that butter one's been floating around in my head for years...Could I ask for one more bit of advice or opinion? I've started receiving feedback on a recently posted story, positive comments I'm very happy to report...thing is I got one this morning that went something like this;
"What a magnicficent story. The way you write gave me the heebee geebies. Made me wet too."

"Heebee geebies" where I live this is sort of like saying it gives me the "creeps",or that makes me feel "strange"...help, I'm confused and my writer's fragile ego quakes at the thought of giving anyone the "heebee geebies'', "wet" I'm happy with and can understand, that one travels universally!

One more: Stickybeak/nosy parker/busybody.

Midwestyankee...we colonials think you provincials are very charming!

 

[SlickTony]

A stick of butter is, as has been pointed out, a quarter of a pound, and each stick is marked on the wrapper in tablespoons. It also tells you on the wrapper some other measurements like a half or quarter cup. Until I married my first husband and moved overseas, I had never been out of America and when I encountered my first pound of butter that was just a solid rectangular block with no demarcations, I was surprised.

All recipes in American cookbooks call for sticks or tablespoons or half cups or quarter cups of butter, and quite naturally I had brought my American cookbooks with me. I handled the lack of markers on the butter by chopping each pound into four sticks and eyeballing anything smaller than that. There's 8 Tbs in a stick of butter--that's easy to chop off; you can cut the stick in half and then the halves in half, etc.

 

[entitled]

Heebie jeebies are not necessarily a bad thing. It could mean a sense of de ja vu (all over again), or getting goosebumps, or striking a chord in a person that makes them go 'wow... How did THEY get inside MY head?' or something similar.

Being originally from the REALLY flat flatlands (eastern Colorado - there's nothing but flat. Trust me.) we say a lot of things differently. Speech patterns vary even from town to farm/ranch.

In town, a swimming pool is a concrete thing with chlorinated water in it. Out of town it's referred to as either a stock tank or a watering hole. (No 'ponds' on the plains, people. You call a watering hole a pond and you'll be branded an outsider for life.)
Wire is usually pronounced 'wahr'.

Hail sounds an awful lot like hell. Gets cussed like it, too.

I've heard tornadoes called a number of things, depending on region. Twisters, winders, and funnels are all pretty common.

Washing machines are either washers or warshers. I've heard a clothesline referred to as a stringer before.

The plains are the one place that you can find people that can easily tell you the difference between a hat and a cap - an are not afraid to point out that you're wrong when you call a cap a hat.

I always grew up saying we were going to get our pictures taken. Around here they have pictures done.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: June Bugs

 

[Guest]

non-bug post

 

[LovingDaddy]

I was born/raised in New Jersey, spent the past 12 or so years in the South, and am African American so my dialect is fairly diverse at any given time, depending on where I am, who I'm speaking to.
People that hear me say they can tell I'm from "Joisey", but of course I can't hear it. My grandmother say's "Churrins", for "Children", "Souf" for 'South".....There are tons

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: non-bug post

Seriously folks, here's one that has baffled me my entire life. My mom and quite a few of her peers say "I swanne", or "I suwanne" (have never seen it in print, so don't know how to spell it.) I know it loosely translates to "I declare!", or "how about that!" but where the HELL did it come from? The people who use it can't tell me.

- Hooch

I've seen it but never actually bothered to rundown the roots. It's usully spelled "swann."

As best as I can tell from the context, it's either a corruption of "I swoon" -- meaing "Well that just makes me light-headed" -- or a euphimism for "I swore," or "I swear."

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: non-bug post

 

[midwestyankee]

One more: Stickybeak/nosy parker/busybody.

Midwestyankee...we colonials think you provincials are very charming!

TY

If you're asking, a nosy parker or a busybody is someone who spends an inordinate amount of time and energy involving him or herself in the business of other people. We often use the phrase, "to stick one's nose" into other people's business, hence the "nosy" in "nosy parker." My guess is that stickybeak derives from the same image of pressing oneself so closely into another's life that the nose is right up against the offended person.

 

[sheath]

Re: non-bug post

Seriously folks, here's one that has baffled me my entire life. My mom and quite a few of her peers say "I swanne", or "I suwanne" (have never seen it in print, so don't know how to spell it.) I know it loosely translates to "I declare!", or "how about that!" but where the HELL did it come from? The people who use it can't tell me.

- Hooch

We say that here, too. "I Swanee" is even the name of a very popular newspaper column in this area. I hear it ALL the time, and at first I had no idea what it meant.

We also say things such as 'God Almighty' 'Lord have mercy' and 'I do declare'...things y'all have heard me say more than once on the boards. "How 'bout that?" is another. The word 'sweet' is used to describe ANYTHING good.

Ummm...I'm sure I will think of more.

S.

 

[CelticFrog]

I can think of one.

You've been saying 'coolage' WAY more than usual lately.

And each time, I have to refrain from retorting with, "Calvin?"


Ang

 

[sheath]

I can think of one.

You've been saying 'coolage' WAY more than usual lately.

And each time, I have to refrain from retorting with, "Calvin?"


Ang

Wow...that is a throwback from my high school days, when Boyz II Men and "Cooley High Harmony" was all the rage. In the concert choir or the studio, when something went really right, we would say "Cooley High Harmonies, dude" or something like that.

It stuck. "Coolage" just became a smaller version of that.

And of course, "Okie Dokie Hokey Pokey", but that might be just me, not a regional thing.

S.

 

[SlickTony]

The plains are the one place that you can find people that can easily tell you the difference between a hat and a cap - an are not afraid to point out that you're wrong when you call a cap a hat.

I'm interested to hear the plains people's take on that. I'd always understood a cap to be anything round and mostly with a bill in front, like a baseball cap or what's sometimes called in the south a "gimme" cap, because they often bear the logo of some business or other and they're given away by the hundred. You can hardly go out in the business world without acquiring a few of them. My husband worked for a construction supplies place (shamelessly and fondly replicated in "Terry's Last Day at work")and so we have Pavecrete caps, Patchcrete caps, etc; and then when he went to work for Comcast we acquired HBO caps and Starz caps, etc. Then there are golfing caps, which also have bills in front but are much flatter, and the poplin driving cap, which is kind of an anachronism but still seen occasionally.

A hat, now, has a brim, and it can be a Stetson, a Fedora, a Homburg, or an Aussie bush hat, or a boater, etc., etc.

How'm I doing so far?

 

[CelticFrog]

And of course, "Okie Dokie Hokey Pokey", but that might be just me, not a regional thing.

S.

I'd say it was just you but I've been saying "Okie Dokie Smokey Pokey" for somethin' like 13 years now. Why I put smokey over the hokey, I have no clue. I know it should be the hokey one, but I have my damn quirks and I can't seem to shed them.

Ang

 

[midwestyankee]

I'm interested to hear the plains people's take on that. I'd always understood a cap to be anything round and mostly with a bill in front, like a baseball cap or what's sometimes called in the south a "gimme" cap, because they often bear the logo of some business or other and they're given away by the hundred. You can hardly go out in the business world without acquiring a few of them. My husband worked for a construction supplies place (shamelessly and fondly replicated in "Terry's Last Day at work")and so we have Pavecrete caps, Patchcrete caps, etc; and then when he went to work for Comcast we acquired HBO caps and Starz caps, etc. Then there are golfing caps, which also have bills in front but are much flatter, and the poplin driving cap, which is kind of an anachronism but still seen occasionally.

A hat, now, has a brim, and it can be a Stetson, a Fedora, a Homburg, or an Aussie bush hat, or a boater, etc., etc.

How'm I doing so far?

I hardly qualify as a plainsman, but as I see it, your distinction between cap and hat is on the money. Or you could say, it fills the bill.

 

[Imi]

SlickTony, clear out your PM box!

 

[Imi]

I can think of one.

You've been saying 'coolage' WAY more than usual lately.

See, now I thought that when you added "age" to a word, that was more a Buffyism? Though I do recall in "The Breakfast Club" Judd Nelson asks Anthony Michael Hall for his "doobage".

 

[SlickTony]

SlickTony, clear out your PM box!

Done.

 

[entitled]

How'm I doing so far?

You've pretty much got it. But a REAL hat is a cowboy hat. The rest are just kind of lumped in there because they're not really caps. They just don't quite fit in.

 

[Phoenix Stone]

I participated in a Harvard dialect survey once upon a time (last year or so) that was damn fascinating once the results were in. I wish it were an ongoing thing. I learned a hell of a lot about why J says some things SO COMPLETELY different from how I do. And why he calls a roly-poly a pillbug.

So why does J say pillbug and you say roly-poly? (I say pillbug, and around here they say roly-poly.) I'm in CA but my mother is from Texas, if that has anything to do with it.

PS