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

[my_tee_mouse]

Dungarees or jeans?

Jeans. Before the 70s, they were always referred to as blue jeans. Couldn't say the latter without the former.

AM-buu-lunce
po-LEECE (or just "po-po")

 

[oh_gal]

Jeans. Before the 70s, they were always referred to as blue jeans. Couldn't say the latter without the former.

AM-buu-lunce
po-LEECE (or just "po-po")

Or, am'lance

 

[TrackerSam]

I think what you call your grandparents could peg where you're from. I've always said Granma, but there are enough variations to have it's own page. Meemaw, Mawmaw, Nana etc.

 

[STEADFAST]

I think what you call your grandparents could peg where you're from. I've always said Granma, but there are enough variations to have it's own page. Meemaw, Mawmaw, Nana etc.

LOL -- we called them Grandmother + Last name. Gives you the warm fuzzies, doesn't it?

 

[STEADFAST]

I call them jeans now, but I can't remember when I stopped calling them dungarees. I am a product of the 50s :blushing:

Me, too! But I don't remember being allowed to wear jeans until about 1966.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Dungarees or jeans?

Jeans. My mom used to call them "Levis" after the brand name.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Me, too! But I don't remember being allowed to wear jeans until about 1966.

Same here. Some time during high school.

 

[wfgodot]

I call them jeans now, but I can't remember when I stopped calling them dungarees. I am a product of the 50s :blushing:

Yes, they were dungarees, not jeans yet, certainly not first-name-basis, name-dropping Levis, and if my mom didn't wash them first they were stiff as bricks (and would have been itchy but they were so stiff they didn't really touch one's legs). One would do a stiff-legged stagger (all one had to do was then hold one's arms out to resemble a little-kid version of Frankenstein's monster) till they got washed a couple times.

 

[my_tee_mouse]

I think what you call your grandparents could peg where you're from. I've always said Granma, but there are enough variations to have it's own page. Meemaw, Mawmaw, Nana etc.

My maternal grandmother was "Ga'Ma." My other grandmother died before I was born, and I've always referred to her as "Grandmother," because Dad refers to her as "Mother.*"

I am "Grandmomma," because I am "Momma" to my son. However, my oldest granddaughter...the one who is very much into all things princess...pronounces it "Grand-mah-mah." Giggle. Very regal-sounding, eh? After all, a princess must have a royal grandparent!!!

*ETA: My own mother was "Momma" until she died. Then I started referring to her as "Mother." I think it must be a sign of respect for the dearly departed or something. Is that a southern thing, I wonder? Or maybe just my family's thing?

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

...By the way....need some advice on starting a thread. Doing a semi kitchen remodel and I am just overwhelmed with the choices for counter tops. Where do I start a thread on kitchen counter top remodeling? Includes sink, faucet and garbage disposal, but keeping my cabinets.

<snipped>

A thread like that would probably be best "downstairs". When DH and remodeled our kitchen after we'd lived here for 10 years (original owners, new build), we chose Corian countertops, sink. Seamless and doesn't scratch like granite. Love it!

 

[Skully]

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, so I say lots of stuff weird. Like when I moved to the south and worked in an office, no one knew what a "gum band" was. Really, you call it a rubberband.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, so I say lots of stuff weird. Like when I moved to the south and worked in an office, no one knew what a "gum band" was. Really, you call it a rubberband.

I've heard people call it an "elastic".

 

[my_tee_mouse]

my gramma would say "It'll all come out in the warsh"

I don't regularly say warsh but sometimes I throw it out just as a nod to gramma

This thread is making me very aware of just how "suthun" I do sound. I caught myself saying "fer" instead of "for" yesterday, plain as day.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Dialect maps featured on the Today show:

http://www.today.com/video/today/52118527/#52118527

 

[Confusion]

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, so I say lots of stuff weird. Like when I moved to the south and worked in an office, no one knew what a "gum band" was. Really, you call it a rubberband.

I've never heard them called gum bands, they were always rubber bands or binders here. I haven't heard them called binders in years either.

 

[my_tee_mouse]

Broke down "back home" definition: What my car/truck/mud buggy did just down the road apiece.

Broke down "urban dictionary" definitions: You'll have to read for yourselves, but interesting!
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=broke down

Tore down "reglo* dictionary" definition: To take something apart, as in "We tore down the old barn yesterday."
Tore down "back home" definition: The level to which you got intoxicated, as in, "I sure did get tore down (pronounced "toe") last night!"

*(And for those that need it: "Reglo" definition: A contraction of the words "regular" and old," although I doubt any true suthnuh would ever say "old" in place of "ole.")

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I've never heard them called gum bands, they were always rubber bands or binders here. I haven't heard them called binders in years either.

:lol: Binder: what the nuns called a brassiere when I was in school.

 

[Show Me]

:lol: Binder: what the nuns called a brassiere when I was in school.

Ohhhh...Binders full of women. lol Now I get it.:floorlaugh:

Called grandmother Grandma...friend used to say mame-maw. Wore jeans, used rubber bands. Saw an am-bu-lance. Use the bathroom at home, ladies room in public buildings. We have a toilet, some people have a ter-let.

 

[TrackerSam]

This is bringing back memories. I called the refrigerator an icebox for years and called the couch a divan.[/quote]

Refrigerator was always a refrigerator or fridge.

Or a frigidaire, which is actually a brandname. Success = when your product becomes synonymous with your brand.

I also recall calling the movies "flicks", although they had stopped flickering long before I was born.

 

[Show Me]

Or a frigidaire, which is actually a brandname. Success = when your product becomes synonymous with your brand.

I also recall calling the movies "flicks", although they had stopped flickering long before I was born.

Yeah we write kleenex on our grocery list and then buy puffs.