American Lingo

[Jimagination]

Oh in SE Pa you mostly here yous, Oh I hate that!
Oh and they put a t on across and say acrost. AAAHHHHH

 

[SeaChick]

In Maine we use "wicked" as an adjective meaning "very"... as in "wicked cool", "wicked cold", "wicked nice".

We say "soda" as a generic word for pop/soft drink.

There are actually a few people who still say, "Ayuh", but they're pretty much Down East (which means North-East along the coast, counterintuitively!!)

How about "Aunt"????? I grew up pronouncing it "ANT" (my parents were both midwesterners, OH and PA) but here in New England, it's "ONT".

 

[speckledhen]

What planet are you people from, LOL????

No self-respecting Southerner would say "pop" or "soda". Everything is COKE. Doesn't matter if it's Diet Rite or generic or what, it's coke. When I was a kid, we always said "Ya wanna co-cola?" We even think Pepsi is for Yankees, LOL. My husband's family came here to Georgia in the 1600's so he's REALLY Southern! And we say "Ant" for "Aunt", too.
How about this one? We put things in the foot of the car. Nobody says floorboard who grew up here.

 

[chixrme]

I was married to my husband for about a year before I knew it because of his eastern shore accent! Here they don't bother to waste time with the first syllable, nor with a lot of other syllables either! And don't forget that "Staunton" in Virginia is pronounced "Stanton", while in Mass it is "Staw-nton". I once cracked up a friend's kids when I told them to cut the light off...they're from NH and say turn it off.

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
I've never, ever heard anybody who has grown up here say foot of the car. It's always been floorboard.

Of course my family are relative newcomers to the area, only been here since the early 1800's

How about "Yonder"
As in"we're fixin ta go over yonder and get a co-cola.

Yonder can mean any place or distance from several feet to another continent.
" My uncle served over yonder during the war"

And " a spell" = an undetermined amout of time.
"Come on over and set (sit) a spell"

How about "direcly" = soon
"We'll go get that co-cola direcly"

I don't speak this way but my grandfather does, and after being around him for a couple of hours I find myself doing it!

Edited for spelling

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
I know the origin of that one!
Way back when they had to use kerosene lamps for lighting you had to turn the wick down to extinguish it, thus you "turned the lamp off"

 

[speckledhen]

Why, Lee, you're just a newbie to these parts, buddy, LOL! I always heard foot, not floorboard. I remember a friend from high school in Decatur, originally from Connecticutt, stopped my friends and I one day when we were discussing packing up the car for a trip. He said, "What? Foot? What are you talking about?" Never heard that before. Guess you must have more Yankee in there than you know, Lee, LOL!
All the others, yep, them's awful familiar. One of my sons as a little boy about five years old was rather confused about the yonder thing-I was at one end of the house and when I called his name, I hear from his room, "Mom, I'm in yonder!", LOL.

 

[Henrietta23]

Quote:
I moved from Upstate NY where we also said "Ant". I took such grief from kids at school here in CT that I quickly changed to "ahnt".

 

[Henrietta23]

Quote:
I'm thinking it's got something to do with drunken sailors....

 

[Henrietta23]

Quote:
Uh huh! I'm in Eastern CT and some of the difference between here and RI (which I can be in about 15 minutes we're so close) astound me!