Stupid Regional Sayings

Hrm.... Michigan.... Lemme see......


Well, for starters, all carbonated beverages are pop. Unless its carbonated water, then its well, carbonated water.


All Corporations are referred to in the plural. For example, if you work for Ford Motor Company - you "Work at Fords". Same goes for Meijer's, Kroger's, Blockbuster's..... you get the drift. What if its already plural? Sam's Club becomes Sam's's. I don't know why. I just live here.


People who say "Say Yah to dah UP eh?" are referring to the Upper Peninsula (UP), a place filled with people who are perpetually threatening to secede to Wisconsin, only to have another beer & get back in the snowmobile.


In Detroit, we have a lot of street names inspired by the French or German, however to this day we are incapable of pronuncing them. Examples are:

Gratiot : (Grass - shit)
Cadieux: (Cad - Jew)
Schoenherr: (Shayner)
Mackinac: (Mack-in-naw)
Dequindre: (Dee-kwin-dur)


Yes, there is an 8-mile. All East-West roads in the Metro Detroit area are numbered one mile apart - starting at 5 mile, and going up somewhere past 40-mile. What happened to One, Two, Three and Four Mile? I really don't know. But it starts at 5.


A "Michigan Left" is a long boulevard turn that is nearly un-explainable unless you live here. Suffice it to say it takes up a lot of real-estate, and often ends up consuming its own traffic light.


Oh - and just for giggles - we can turn left on red. (If its blinking).

Here's one that boggles my mind:

"Arkansas"

I mean... what the hell??

Okay, it's a proper name, but still... it makes no sense.

And stop dissing our proper use of the English language. We kicked your Yankee asses in 1812 (and stole all your letter u's), and we'll do it again if you keep it up.

But seriously though... I keep saying 'out' to myself over and over, and I can't hear a trace of 'oo' in it anywhere, despite my American friends saying that I do that. I think the too-warm weather south of the border has made them crazy.

LOL, we have 'advanced green' here in Ontario, blinking green light means you get to go ahead of the oncoming traffic. An American friend who was up visiting encountered this for the first time while driving, and almost had a panic attack. "What is it!? What does it mean???"

Oh the best one is this local I hangout in occasionally called SL... they have something they call FIC = feted inner core!! LOL what's up with that

A few of my favorites heard in these parts

1: thingamajig or whatchamacallit ..... in reference to an object

2: Hornier than a 10 peckered billygoat....... self explanatory

3: Slicker than greased owl shit........ umm,hehe

4: Busier than a cat covering up shit............. again, self explanatory

5: Busier than a 3 legged man at an ass kicking contest.........see above

6: Nervous as a whore in church.................. well, also self explanatory

7: Poke ................ a bag. "Y'all want that in a poke?"

Considering they speak a pidgin language and have developed their own unique culture, they probably aren't Acadian anymore so the proper term would probably be "Cajun." In a similar fashion, Mexicans are not referred to as "Spanish" and Brazilians are not "Portuguese."

Here's a piece of regional dialect: If I was in SoCal trying to appreciate Cajun music, I'd be "Getting my Zydeco on."

That's possessive (not plural) and it makes sense in all cases except "Sam's's," but it could just be that they think it is called "Sams." You know how those northerners are.

I believe "thingamajig(g)" and "whatchamacallit" aren't quite regional -- we have them up here in MN along with "thingamajob" and "thingamabob." And don't forget your garden variety "whoosit" and "whatsit," also known as a "dealy," "dealybob," or "doohickey."

That reminds me, does anyone else say "What's his face?" or "What's her face?" when they can't remember someone's name?

You are quite right,I stand corrected

Yup, along with "what's his name?" or "what's her name?"

ok - this is from the cassell dictionary of slang:

pop n.2 [early 19C+] 1. (usu. juv.) a fizzy drink
pop n.8. [1960s+] (US) a popsicle (the UK ice lolly). [abbr.]

Here's a couple from when I lived on the Pottawatomi(may have misspelled it, bleh) Reservation in NE Kansas:

"Innit?" Similar to "isn't it?", i.e.. "Hot out, innit?"

Another, sounds like a drawn-out "a" as in "spade". A bit like the Fonz, for those that remember him, typically used after some sort of joke, a bit like "Psyche!" ..Which is another good stupid bit of dialect.

Perhaps strangely, I only heard this among the Indians(Okay, okay, Native Americans.. Find me a smaller, more convienient phrase for 'em, and I'll use it) I lived with, and close friends of the family.

Also, the pop vs. soda debate is just silly, though fascinating to read. The English "invented" the language, true(more or less), but does that mean all English speakers sould use the same terminology as others? If they did, this thread wouldn't exist..! But on the plus side, this stuff's educational.

Oh, another one I thought of.. Addressing someone as "guy".. As in, "Hey, guy.. What's up?"

And, while we're at it.. "Fuckin' A!" A very exuberant superlative phrase. Also a term of agreement.

Heh, a friend of mine calls the advance green a 'protected turn'. I call it a 'protected turn' only when another vehicle turning simultaneously is literally protecting my turn by blocking it physically (so it would be struck instead of me).

I'd like to add "whatchamadingle" and "doodad", and also put forward my own invention, which is "pipey" (which happened when I tried to say "puppy" and had a brain-fart... eg. "Take that pipey and plug it into this doodad". Also, in software dev, my associates and I would often call objects "guys", like "this guy will get keyboard input, and pass it to his controller, and the controller will notify this guy".

Oh, one more: does anyone else say "grossnik" for something that's "quite disgusting" (moreso than "gross"?

What region beside the mid south uses "Dagnabit"?

"I know someone from the midwest who says "ya know" after every questions."

Ugh, yes, I've been working on breaking my wife of that habit, luckily I have been fairly successful!

Something I've never figured out was "Yea high". :\

I'm in SoCal, and I haven't heard anyone say radical or tubular in 20 years. Wicked, though... that gets used a lot. Saying "pop" for soda is just wicked silly.

My dad says "cattyasswompus" and he's from Iowa.

Because "out west" we refer to "down south," "up north," and "back east." What else would we call east?

It's Teutul, dangit! Don't you be dissin' my Paulie! Oh yeah... Mikey rules!

I believe that's in the Loony Tunes region, especially around Yosemite Sam.

I had to laugh, cause where I live it's actually known as the home of Lil Abner.

We use, Dagnabit, dang sure, sure shootin', Sooooiiiiie, Shuckies, y'all, um, outta pocket, fixin' and many many more adopted from regions other than our own...all with an east texas twang.

That's how they pronounce it in the southern part of the state. Northerners settled the upper half of the state and they pronounce it differently.
Whenever I'm with friends from Ontario, I unconsciously start mimicking their pronunciation. The "ooo" accent is definitely there, you find it's very strongest in the Old Empire Loyalist types in the St Catherine's/ Niagara on the Lake region. The ones who either have a picture up of Laura Secord or are descended from her. It's definitely something that was brought over by Scots and Scots Irish immigrants

Is "I could care less!" regional?

Because what it actually means is that you couldn't care less... seems like a stupid saying to me.

A couple of favorites...

"It don't make no nevermind to me."

"Off like a herd of wild turtles in a dust storm."

"Dagnabit"

"She's not just gonna have a cow, she's gonna have a dairy farm"