What is Your regional Slang?
 

Okay, so there's a show on the History channel about slang and the origins. I love learning about slang and the origin of words... and it was fun to learn what things New Englanders say differently from other parts of the country. Some of the stuff I say I never really thought was all that exotic... *shrug*

The guy on the video is Joel. Joel is one of the locals with a strong New England accent. The store he talking about is not far from here..



I was chatting with a friend from Ohio and we started comparing some of the colloquial terms that we use. I was surprised how some were similar, and others were so completely different..

Here's some examples from down here...

• Jeezum crow" is often used instead of "holy cow" or "oh my goodness.
  
• Instead of using the miles traveled to a destination, New Englanders tend to use time to measure the distance. If someone asks how far Boston is from here, we'd say "About 45 minutes."
  
• We use 'Wicked' for 'Very' or 'extremely'.
  
• We'll transfer R's from words and plant them onto other ones, like, "Do you have an ideaR what is for suppah?"
  
• If we have to make a U-turns, we'll "Bang a uey".
  
• We drink frappes and tonic instead of milkshakes and soda.
  
• Fluffernutters are pretty popular sandwiches - peanut butter and marshmallow fluff.
  
• if you say what is 3:45, we'll say 'quarter of four', instead of 'quarter til four'.
  
• We put our dungarees (not jeans) into a bureau instead of a dresser.
  
• I will huck stuff at you when you're not expecting it. Like snowballs or crabapples....
  
• Oh, and if you asked us how far something is, and we say it's "Down the road", it could be MILES away...
  
• "I'm All Set" means "No thank you". I use this constantly...
  
• And look out for Frost heaves when you drive in winter. The ground freezes up so bad it causes the road to buckle, creating huge bumps and potholes in the road.
  
• We change tv channels with the 'clickah'.

So what is your unusual slang in your region? And Anyone is invited to join in. I've loved learning overseas slang... it's amazing what I've learned just from watching Top Gear on BBC.. :P

Well, here in Texas, we use terms like "fixin to", "ain't gonna", and "nun-ya bizness", at least in rural areas. Mostly these are used by older folks, while younger generations use terms from FB and TV, like "lol", "cray-cray" and the like. Some people use the phrase "what-not", and "y'know" is another one that gets used a lot here. And of course, there's the ubiquitous "y'all".

I think the weirdest slang we have here in the ohio valley is the word "pop"
we don't say soda or soda pop we just say "pop"

Pennsylvanian slang grates on my nerves. Lots of "You's" and "Them's".

Australian slang is truly insane... we basically abbreviate everything and then slap "ie" on the end of it. :lol: BBQ becomes barbie etc. Or we slap a vowel on the end of things instead. The slang here does tend to vary based on your socio-economic background (hope that doesn't sound snobby to any other Aussies; just my opinion) and regionally also, certainly depending on whether you're a townie or if you're more from the country.

And then we've just got weird stuff like calling bathing suits "togs", which I have no idea how we ever came up with. :lol:

or "yinz" in Pittsburgh.. I once had someone ask me what I'd say if I didn't say "yinz".. I suppose there is no real word in English for addressing multiple people at once. The only thing I could think of was "you guys" or "y'all". Apparently "yinz" is short for "you ones".

Ah yes, we have around here what we refer to as a “Coal Cracker Accent”. I’d say Coach Z of Homestar Runner fame is a good example of our way of talking, especially if we’re talking about my grandma.

EDIT: Heh, there's a dictionary online for our slang words.

I've used those first three my whole life, never even knowing "fixing to" was even southern slang at all until I was about 17 or 18. And I spent all those years of my life living in Las Vegas! It was strange that nobody really called me out on talking like that. But then again, I don't really have a southern accent at all. I've heard people down here in Texas tell me I sound like a Californian surfer. I don't hear it, but I do acknowledge that I use a lot of their words. I guess I'll post an audio if somebody wants to be the judge of that! :lol:

Also, is "whatnot" and "y'know" really southern slang? I've heard Europeans use the former, and I've heard New Englanders use the latter.

[AND ALLOW ME TO STATE THAT I DESPISE "Y'ALL"]

Fixin' to. Use it all the time h ere in Alabama.

Tote and carry too. Check this out:

I'm fixin to carry my boyfriend to the store with me cause I need him to help tote the bags back out to the car.

Southerners know exactly what I'm saying. Non-southerners stop at "carry my boyfriend". :lol:

That one drives my cousins from California crazy.

Lets not forget Woop Woop when someone lives out of town lol.:lol:
I love being an Aussie.

Mix of Southern and New English. Lots of "Ain't"S And Hard A's and O's.

I'm from louisiana. We adapted a good bit of Texas slang from listening to Rexas rappers. Stuff like using already to mean bye or okay. We'll run know what I'm talking about into one word.

Then there's Cajuns that say all kind of crazy stuff

And people from New Orleans (Naw' Lins) speak differently than almost the rest of the state.

I can't even understand what some Cajuns are trying to say. That is one strong accent.

I say yo and n*gga a lot.

For the most part, this page does a fine job of listing southern slang and pronunciations.

http://www.alphadictionary.com/artic...uthernese.html

I'm from east NC and have either heard or spoken many of them myself. Over the years I've tried to better my grammar and enunciation. Yet, I can slide right into sounding like a fellow you rather not meet from a canoe trip gone wrong.

Visit Maryland, you will be referred to as "hun" at least a few times by people you don't even know.

Also Bawlmer=Baltimore and warsh=wash.

One of the most popular beers (that isn't even brewed here anymore) National Bohemian is referred to as Natty Boh.

Don't get me started on how any word with an O sound is pronounced.

On a related subject...

When I moved from Ohio to Alabama one of the most notable regional slang differences that I noted was the fact that everyone called pop Coke. It was just the generic term for pop so whenever we ordered Coke it was a crapshoot on what kind of drink we would be getting.

For some reason, when this music popped up in the Latest post section, I thought it was another CyberCubed thread about Slang. Looks like I'm wrong.

As for the question, I'm not so sure. I don't any slang, except maybe 'Yo' sometimes.

I thought this was a cubed thread at first too. :lol:

I try not to use slang at all as it seems very low brow and signifies a lack of intelligence. There's a reason why at job interviews they tell you to never use slang. You want to impress the interviewer not tell him you're "from the hood" or "down south" or "a country folk."

The only slang I can stomach using is "that's cold" which is meant to be a reaction to an insult.