Stupid Regional Sayings

In some parts of the rural south, there is this strange tendency to reverse compound words. They refer to a certain kind of train freight car as a "carbox" and a certain insect as a "hoppergrass".

No - you just appear to be British lol. We say hose pipe!

NO! You have unearthed my secret.. *runs*

1. Here in Buffalo we call chicken wings "chicken wings" because that's what they're called (just saying "wings" is also acceptable). Everywhere else you people insist on calling them "Buffalo wings". I'm not sure if you've noticed but bison do not have wings or anything even resembling wings. I remember having friends up from New Jersey a few years back. I took them to Duffs, the home of the best wings in the world, and they took one bit and said "tastes like chicken". Duh!!!! The worst though is when you call them "hotwings". Of course they're hot. There's no other civilized way to serve them. Ordinarily, the wings are hands down the worst part of the chicken, but somehow when you deep fry them, drown them in hot sauce and smother them with blue cheese, they become one of nature's little miracles. Mmm mmm mmm, so good!


2. A freind of mine moved to North Carolina a couple years ago. He soon reported that instead of "excuse me", people there say "do what". He said he really had to try hard to maintain a straight face as he was presenting a finaincial recovery plan to the mayor of Raleigh. The mayor must have said "do what" in a thick southern accent about a hundred times during the presentation.


3. Back to Buffalo. About 90% of people here say "pop" instead of "soda". That drives the other 10% of us nuts. When you buy a bottle of Sunkist, it clearly says "orange soda" on the label. Nowhere can you find a label that says "orange pop" except possibly on an imitation creamsicle. When you buy cream soda, it says "cream soda", not "cream pop". When you buy club soda, it says "club soda", not "club pop". Why? Because it's called "soda", dammit.

Fizzy pop? Another Britishism lol.

Soda is fizzy water.

One question is whether pop comes in cans or tins. The answer to this depends on where in the UK you are from.

In London a teacake is a sweet bread-like thing with currants in. In Yorkshire that's a currant teacake - a teacake is what Londoners would call a bap.

There are loads of regional terms for bread products - ovenbottom cake, barmcake...

I understand that the London use of "cheers!" to mean thanks confuses people.

Regional terms of affection are also fun -

Mate is universal in London
Love (used for male and female) is common in Yorkshire (and is used between men etc)
Duck is more common in Sheffield

Random bits of Yorkshire dialect include snicket/ginnel for an alleyway (one or the other - not both used in the same area). Clarting for heavy rain is another one.

Fascinating.

In Minnesota, north is "up" and south is "down." You'll get funny looks if you're in Minneapolis and say you're going "down to Duluth" for the weekend, or "up to Wisconsin."

Nolan forgot the ubiquitous Minnesotan agreement particle, "Yashur." Often followed by "ya know," you betcha! Oh, and our pop is definitely sold in cans.

If someone upset you you're likely to say "That really frosts my cake!" Some people get their cookies frosted instead however. This may be less regional than I suspect.

In my office dialect if you need to use the lavatory you either "Have to go around the corner" (most common) or "Go down the hall" (next most common).

Besides the above, Minnesota is known more for its pronunciation than its phraseology. And I thank the heavens above that I'm only a couple generations removed from Scotland, which has saved me from phonological doom. I know no native Minnesotans outside of my family for whom "caught" and "cot" are not homophonous.

Frappe = Milkshake in Massachusetts


Didlo. This word is soooo regional it applies only to Darwin Appleby.

A bap is what we over here in Gringolandia call a hamburger bun.

Have heard..not sure where they came from... prolly NYC.

's'matter?'

or 's'matter witches?'

From Maine:

ayuh or ayup = yes

Downeast =driving north up the coast

Wicked good = very good

Yup. Also in Massachusetts...

A soda pop is a "tonic".

If you order your coffee "regular", you'll get cream and sugar.

- Ace

In the South:
Yonder = Over there.
Yaw = You.

and online:
KTHXBYE OMFGBBQ

Not the show, just the stuffed animals. I think I have 8 or 9.

Orange soda, mountain dew, and some others have "brominated vegetable oil" in them. What that is is vegetable oil + bromine (a lethal poison that lingers in your fat cells and is so toxic that they can only use an ounce per 500 gallons in order to get it past the FDA- though even at that level the FDA has to review its use annually).

Have a nice day.

"Sa-weet"

Watch American Chopper on TDC, the Tuttles are full of them:

I-deers & "Sick" are my most hated sayings.

Uh, interesting informastion I guess (I only drink water anyway), although I'm not sure what this has to do with regional dialect.

Anyway, I thought of a fourth. This one comes from Erie, PA, where I lived for about a year. In Erie, you can't order a "plain pizza". Everywhere else in the civilized world, a "plain pizza" is the same thing as a "cheese pizza", but in Erie if you order it "plain" then all you get is dough and sauce, no cheese. It's rediculous, but it's true. If you want cheese you have to specifically ask for cheese.

Oh, and a fifth: In Binghamton, NY, where I lived for 2 or 3 years, everything is "wicked". In fact, the more times you can incorporate "wicked" into a single sentence, the cooler you are. If you can find ways to immediately follow "wicked" with another adjective, you are even cooler. For example, "We had such a wicked good time at that wicked cool party in that wicked big house that had that wicked deep pool with those wicked hot girls until that wicked mean neighbor called the cops about our wicked loud music," would make you the coolest guy in the room for about 3 seconds until the next person responds with a sentence with even more "wicked's" in it.

And while we're on the subject of Binghamton, they actually think they invented a food. You see you marinade cubed meat and grill it on a skewer. Everywhere else in the world, this would be called shish-kabob, but in Binghamton it's a "Speedie" (capitol S is very important here). Binghamton actually thinks they are world famous as the inventors of the Speedie. All I could conclude in my 2 years there is that Binghamton people are just too wicked ignorant to accept that shish-kabob has been around since before the pyramids, and that simply renaming something does not count as an invention. I was mighty tempted to re-invent the wheel, and call it a Roundie or something, but I was too wicked busy.

Apparently the Northewestern portion of the United States are the only normal folks out there..

Can't think of a single wierd regional saying.

Are you "gettin' aggravated" over it? Are you gonna "show 'em your size 12"?

In Socal, we call our freeways "the." I don't get on I-10, I take "the 10," "the 405", "the 8", "the 91"... you get the Idea. In LA the complicate this case freeways have names, and the same freeway has different names. For example the 5 south from LA is the santa ana freeway, and the five north from downtown is the Golden State freeway.

From my beloved mother in Australia:

shivering like a dog shitting razor blades.
shitting blue lights (usually: 'I was so scared I was shitting blue lights);
All over the place like a mad womans shit.
Getting from (A)rsehole to (B)reakfastime.

The list goes on and on and on, but you can blame her for my anal fixation.

You laugh. All my friends say didlo now. Next thing you know, it'll be a SoCalism.

I'm sure there are tons I don't even realize, but pretty much everything surfers say counts, I imagine.

Yeah, Boston's got that, too. And in Boston, whenever anyone makes some sort of stupid decision, they've "traded the Bambino." Whenever I tell that to baseball fans, they nod and understand. Everyone else just cocks their head.

From New York:
We say ON LINE when referring to standing IN LINE -Lets get on line and wait for the bus.


When I lived in New England:
Bubbler was the term we used for a drinking fountain.

Everybody was called "kid" including adults. It would be disturbing to hear "Last night I had sex with this kid I know"...but that "kid" may very well be 23 years old.

It can make you wicked sick.