"The devil is beating his wife": Dialect maps document U.S.'s many linguistic divides

[my_tee_mouse]

Many conversations here at home have to be broke down by dialect / language usage. It can be quite entertaining at times. While I bundle stuff together with elastics, it's not much use to ask my DW to bring me one. If I do I would get one of those wide elastic pieces they put in the top of your under gotchies to keep them from falling down over the end that goes through the fence last.

I don't ever remeber playing tennis in my life, it's just a sport that doesn't fascinate me, but yet my DW buys me "tennis shoes" but when I want to go outside I look for my "sneakers". I know my ABC's all the way through to "zed" however my DW says "zee" which reminds me of the old black and white tv show where the POWs are constantly breaking in and out of zee barracks. (My feeble attempt at german humour).

We even argue over who went up the water spout. My DW claims it was "itsy bitsy" the spider while my source tell me it was "inky dinky" that was the culprit. I don't think that cold case will get solved anytime soon as she persists on being wrong.
If we lived closer to the north Atlantic ocean I'd be tempted to catch some lobsters in a pot while my DW thinks a lobster pot is what you cook them in. I swear to all that is holy, when you pull a lobster pot out of the water, the water drains instantly out through the pothead. She says the potheads live next door. I guess I should have realized there would be problems when I detected her minimal use of the letter "u" in words such as labour, neighbour, and the like. I'll work on her but I think it's much easier to just hope she catches on.

Speaking of "catching on", where did that come from? When I tell a joke and someone looks confused afterward, I ask "Do you get it?" while others say "catch on?" My father had always had a line he used if someone said "I catch on" or "I caught on". His reply was "Grease your arse and slide off". I guess he didn't "get it".

:floorlaugh::floorlaugh::floorlaugh:
Are you a stand-up comedian or something? I heard a "Carlin" voice when I read this.

And "under gotchies." I'm gonna start using that one, by jiggers!!!!



"Bless your heart" can also be used by the speaker to remind herself that she is a lady and should thus avoid letting loose with the string of expletives she really wants to say.

Dewey, you jist ain't right!

Re Up: My Delta-lovin' self can't help but refer to this place where I have lived for half a dozen years as the mountains. I am constantly corrected: "These are hills." Nope. A speed bump is a hill. Ants live in hills. These are mountains. And since I've lived up here, north and south have ceased to exist. I either go up the mountain or down the mountain. I go up to Bentonville or down to Ft. Smith. My perfection-loving father finally got totally exasperated with me over this one day and said, "Where does this 'up' stuff come from?" I bowed up (ya'll know that one?) right back and said, "Well if you were traveling 540 over air bridges and through the tunnel blasted through a mountain, passing Walmart trucks that can barely make the grade, ears popping and engine straining, you'd most assuredly know where that 'up' stuff came from!" He hasn't fussed at me about it since; but nor has he come up this mountain to try and prove me wrong either!

 

[my_tee_mouse]

Ya'll's: Probably the only word in the English language where it is perfectly proper to use two apostrophes, as in, "Is the cook at ya'll's camp or ours next weekend?"

 

[Elley Mae]

"All-mond" or "ah-mond"? The different use of English in the U.S.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8334-201_162...mond-the-different-use-of-english-in-the-u.s/

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

My Tee Mouse wrote: Are you a stand-up comedian or something? I heard a "Carlin" voice when I read this

BBM: Yes, the latter. :floorlaugh:

 

[my_tee_mouse]

BBM: Yes, the latter. :floorlaugh:

:drumroll:

Dewey, you still jist ain't right.


I love me some Ah-mon Joy candy bars!

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

:drumroll:

Dewey, you still jist ain't right.


I love me some Ah-mon Joy candy bars!

Thank you for noticing. People who don't know me, still think I'm in my right mind. Or, as some may same, If I never opened my mouth, no one would know I'm foolish. :blushing:

 

[my_tee_mouse]

Thank you for noticing. People who don't know me, still think I'm in my right mind. Or, as some may same, If I never opened my mouth, no one would know I'm foolish. :blushing:

lol


Oh: "Cow ate the cabbage," as in, "He smarted off to me, and I told him how the cow ate the cabbage." (Whereupon "he" would probably be "yes ma'aming all over the place").

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

"I smell what you're stepping in" is a polite way of saying BS

 

[oh_gal]

Ya'll's: Probably the only word in the English language where it is perfectly proper to use two apostrophes, as in, "Is the cook at ya'll's camp or ours next weekend?"

You'uns - Appalachian cousin to you'all's.

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

You'uns - Appalachian cousin to you'all's.

My wife's family says you'uns or you'ins alot. sometimes they fancy it up with all y'all you'ins. I'm guessing the latter means the whole fam damily :floorlaugh:

 

[STEADFAST]

"I smell what you're stepping in" is a polite way of saying BS

That's polite? :rolling:

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

That's polite? :rolling:

compared to some of the alternatives, yes! :floorlaugh:

 

[STEADFAST]

To continue to bore you all with my memoirs of the french acadiens (who by the way are great people) there was a local little ditty they would sing. I can't remember it all but I do remember the last line of the song was "You can't get drowned on Lake St. Pierre, so long as you stoods on da shore"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EVNfNuFeUKg

A highly dramatic rendition of "The Wreck of the Julie Plante." Go to 2:54 to hear the bit you remember.

 

[my_tee_mouse]

My son and I just got back from having a surprise noon meal (insert lunch or dinner as you see fit) out at a pretty nice restaurant. There was a parental couple and an eighteen-ish couple catty-corner to us. The things that girl was saying! Where everyone could hear! She was talking in a public place about things I never even discussed with my husband!

And all the boy could talk about was how much his daddy made, how much his daddy paid for his house, how big a man his daddy was, how big his daddy's bull was...at which point I sooooo wanted to say, "Yeah? Well you seem to have a lot of bull yourself, Buddy Bubba!! But instead I just looked at my son and said, "Bless his little ole heart."

 

[my_tee_mouse]

That's polite? :rolling:

Sort of like when we say, "Law, ya'll need hip waders around he-uh!"?

OR

If the speaker is drawnk, "Law! Ya'll need hip waders up in hee-uh!!!"

 

[Confusion]

My son and I just got back from having a surprise noon meal (insert lunch or dinner as you see fit) out at a pretty nice restaurant. There was a parental couple and an eighteen-ish couple catty-corner to us. The things that girl was saying! Where everyone could hear! She was talking in a public place about things I never even discussed with my husband!

And all the boy could talk about was how much his daddy made, how much his daddy paid for his house, how big a man his daddy was, how big his daddy's bull was...at which point I sooooo wanted to say, "Yeah? Well you seem to have a lot of bull yourself, Buddy Bubba!! But instead I just looked at my son and said, "Bless his little ole heart."

That's another one that's different here. Everybody I know says "kitty corner". Where did that phrase come from anyway? :dunno:

 

[wfgodot]

Catty-corner ruled the day in my household in SE KS.

Catty-corner, kitty-corner (grammarist.com)

Catty-corner, kitty-corner, and cater-cornered all derive from the Middle English catre-corner, literally meaning four-cornered. All three forms are used throughout the English-speaking world. They usually mean positioned diagonally across a four-way intersection, but they can work in other contexts relating to one thing being diagonal from another.
---

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EVNfNuFeUKg

A highly dramatic rendition of "The Wreck of the Julie Plante." Go to 2:54 to hear the bit you remember.

Thank you, that's the one! I don't remember it being sang to that rhythm but it's for sure the same song. Thanks again!

 

[oh_gal]

We were driving today in a semi-urban area when traffic stopped both ways for a gaggle of geese (mom, pop, and youngsters). Just as I was feeling all warm and fuzzy over the goodness of my fellow man, stopping for these poor creatures who knew no better than to cross 4 lanes of traffic without nary a look in either direction, I was immediately alarmed by the few souls who sped up, almost squishing them. We passed one guy, who looked over at me, and I mouthed, "shame on you!" and did the right index finder sliding down the other index finger gesture (does anyone know what I'm talking about??). I don't think I've done that (gesture) since I was about 8 (many moons ago!). I turned to my husband and said, "Did you see what I just did? I wonder what the origin of that gesture is..." We have conversations like that.

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

We were driving today in a semi-urban area when traffic stopped both ways for a gaggle of geese (mom, pop, and youngsters). Just as I was feeling all warm and fuzzy over the goodness of my fellow man, stopping for these poor creatures who knew no better than to cross 4 lanes of traffic without nary a look in either direction, I was immediately alarmed by the few souls who sped up, almost squishing them. We passed one guy, who looked over at me, and I mouthed, "shame on you!" and did the right index finder sliding down the other index finger gesture (does anyone know what I'm talking about??). I don't think I've done that (gesture) since I was about 8 (many moons ago!). I turned to my husband and said, "Did you see what I just did? I wonder what the origin of that gesture is..." We have conversations like that.

I'm not sure what that gesture means, but if someone was to do that to me, I'd think "They want to hump my leg?" :floorlaugh: :floorlaugh: :floorlaugh: