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

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

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".

 

[wfgodot]

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).

snipping a great post

Love the zed. (Also nil for nothing-naught-zero.) Earlier thread on differences between British and American Engish usages:

"Separated by a common language"? Tabloid claims British English invading America - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

snipping a great post

Love the zed. (Also nil for nothing-naught-zero.) Earlier thread on differences between British and American Engish usages:

"Separated by a common language"? Tabloid claims British English invading America - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

When I worked at Lowe's we had a gentleman that worked in the paint dept who's name (nic-name) was Zed. He said as far as he knew, he was the only person left in the city that believed the alphabet ended in "zed". He felt so strongly about it that it became what everyone called him. (RIP Zed )

 

[gramcracker]

I reckon iffen David Bow-ee was fixin' to cut a body he'd use a Boo-ee knife. that's how it was pronounced in the theme song for the 50s TV show The Adventures of Jim Bowie. JB, of Scottish/Irish heritage was borned in Kentucky, raised up in Louisana and died at The Alamo. and is it Looz ee ana or Louise ee ana? my Arkansas Nana (Nan ee) said Looz ee ana and I picked that up from her. she was breakfast/dinner/supper, my parents were breakfast/lunch/dinner. there were many confused discussions when extending/accepting invitations for meals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxJ0_DW9mCc

how 'bout hittin' one over the fence w/ a Loo ih vill Slugger? or is it more like Loo vill?

here in Utah they bath the baby or the dog, they don't bathe anyone. and evidently there are elevations invisible to the eye: everything is "up" somewhere: I got this up to WalMart or We're fixin' to go up to The Implement cuz they're havin' a sale on dutch ovens

my dad's people emigrated from Finland to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. say yah to da U.P., eh? da yoopers and their Finnglish is a whole nother thing. lotsa ol' guys up there don't say you're welcome, they say oh sh**, dat ain't nuttin'. Eero Saunamaki is killed in the iron ore mine and Jaakko Raappana is elected to notify the family because he is famed for his verbal finesse. Mrs Saunamaki answers the door and Jaakko says are you the Widow Saunamaki? and she says no and Jaakko says da hell you ain't!

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

my dad's people emigrated from Finland to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. say yah to da U.P., eh? da yoopers and their Finnglish is a whole nother thing. lotsa ol' guys up there don't say you're welcome, they say oh sh**, dat ain't nuttin'. Eero Saunamaki is killed in the iron ore mine and Jaakko Raappana is elected to notify the family because he is famed for his verbal finesse. Mrs Saunamaki answers the door and Jaakko says are you the Widow Saunamaki? and she says no and Jaakko says da hell you ain't!

BBM: :floorlaugh: :floorlaugh: :floorlaugh: :floorlaugh:

ETA: I think I just peed a little :floorlaugh:

 

[tlcya]

Nawlins - Loos eee anna

Lou ville - Ken tuck ee

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

I grew up surrounded by little french acadien villages. Some common phrases one might hear were:

Tro da cow over da fence, some hay.

When one tourist stopped to ask directions at a little french mom & pop store on the french shore where my father was delivering Coca-Cola at the time, the conversation went somethng like this:

Tourist: Could you tell me how far it is to Comeauville?
Store owner: Well, (rubs his chin) If ya walk it's quite da ways, if ya go by car, it's not so far, and if ya telly phone, yur dare now!

At another store my father came in carrying cases of Coke just as the female store owner was doing her daily store cleaning. He was met with "Stoods in de corner while I brooms de floor"

 

[gramcracker]

this is the funniest thread ever! gonna be brave here and ask for the meaning of bless your heart. I've often seen it referred to and giggled about but it's never revealed, that I've seen. it it a suthern secret or sumthin'? TIA to anyone willing to spill!

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

this is the funniest thread ever! gonna be brave here and ask for the meaning of bless your heart. I've often seen it referred to and giggled about but it's never revealed, that I've seen. it it a suthern secret or sumthin'? TIA to anyone willing to spill!

As explained to me by a southern belle from VA, it's a polite way of saying someone just aint right! :floorlaugh:

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

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"

 

[tlcya]

this is the funniest thread ever! gonna be brave here and ask for the meaning of bless your heart. I've often seen it referred to and giggled about but it's never revealed, that I've seen. it it a suthern secret or sumthin'? TIA to anyone willing to spill!

To my understanding it is the sutherner's genteel way of saying someone is a bit slow or tetched or stoopid. (Bless his heart)

Kind way of saying something that could be considered cruel.

ETA "I saw so and so at the Wynn Dixie the other day, he was still pining after Daisy Belle, bless his heart"

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

To my understanding it is the sutherner's genteel way of saying someone is a bit slow or tetched or stoopid. (Bless his heart)

Kind way of saying something that could be considered cruel.

ETA "I saw so and so at the Wynn Dixie the other day, he was still pining after Daisy Belle, bless his heart"

BM: When my oldest sister was little we used to call her bucket mouth b/c she said whatever she was thinking without a second thought. One day when she was very little my mother and her were out for a little walk when my mother spotted a lady pushing a baby buggy (carriage) down the sidewalk toward them.

My mother had seen this baby before, and let's just say the baby was anything but attractive to the eye. Fearing my sister would blurt out something about the baby's less than desirable looks, she bent down and whispered in my sister's ear "Say something nice about the baby"

When they met up my sister peers into the baby buggy and says "Aren't you cute" but before a smile of pride could form on Mom's face, Bucket Mouth blurts out "But you look like a little pig" :floorlaugh: I think Mom would have done well to tell my sister to just say "bless your little heart" :floorlaugh:

 

[wfgodot]

"Bless your heart" would be what one of my grandmother's friends would have said to me when I was nine, if I'd been volunteered to go to the store for her and pick up a few things but unfortunately had broken eight of the dozen eggs after tripping over one of those scrapers they used to have outside buildings to clean mud off one's shoes before entering.

Not saying this ever happened. (Cough-cough.)

 

[GetSmart]

My first husband was from Baltimore and it used to crack me up when he said amblance instead of ambulance

 

[AlwaysShocked]

wfgodot: About "piss up a rope". The only person I ever heard use this phrase was my late father, a wonderful man who was sometimes known to use "colorful phrases". My mother would just roll her eyes and sigh when he let out with one of these. As a kid, I could never figure out exactly what it meant. And in thinking about it, I still don't know!

But his use of it, if I remember correctly, would be in the context of somebody he was not pleased with, as in "And so I told him to go piss up a rope!"

He was raised in a small town in Western Pennsylvania in a family with a very strong German background. His grandmother was born in Germany until his teens he and his family lived in her home where German was still spoken at times. So I don't know if it was a German expression or not.

We do have a unique accent hereabouts. And a lot of regional expressions. For whatever reason, when I travel to the west coast I am often asked if I am from the South.

Couch vs. sofa - we mostly have couches in our homes. But if you look at ANY furniture ad, you will see that they are selling "sofas". I once had a short (very short) career selling furniture. One of the first lessons was "we do not sell couches, ever. We sell sofas."

Great thread!

 

[Confusion]

Just wanted to throw in a few boring facts. A sofa has arms, a couch doesn't. Davenport is the name of a company that made sofas years ago. It became synonymous with sofa, just like facial tissues are known as Kleenix, cotton swabs are known as Q-Tips and in-line skates are known as Rollerblades. MOO - sort of.

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

wfgodot: About "piss up a rope". The only person I ever heard use this phrase was my late father, a wonderful man who was sometimes known to use "colorful phrases". My mother would just roll her eyes and sigh when he let out with one of these. As a kid, I could never figure out exactly what it meant. And in thinking about it, I still don't know!

But his use of it, if I remember correctly, would be in the context of somebody he was not pleased with, as in "And so I told him to go piss up a rope!"

He was raised in a small town in Western Pennsylvania in a family with a very strong German background. His grandmother was born in Germany until his teens he and his family lived in her home where German was still spoken at times. So I don't know if it was a German expression or not.

We do have a unique accent hereabouts. And a lot of regional expressions. For whatever reason, when I travel to the west coast I am often asked if I am from the South.

Couch vs. sofa - we mostly have couches in our homes. But if you look at ANY furniture ad, you will see that they are selling "sofas". I once had a short (very short) career selling furniture. One of the first lessons was "we do not sell couches, ever. We sell sofas."

Great thread!

BBM: I had an uncle who was very argumentative, especially with my father or anyone younger than him. When he was in the hospital on his death bed, my father and I went in to see him the afternoon of the day before he passed away.
My father told Uncle Charlie that Dad and I had been working on U. Charlie's old Maul chain saw. It was a big brute of a thing and old as the hills. We tried several times to get it running but eventually the pull cord broke so we packed it away for the day. Uncle Charlie asked us what all we did to try and get it running. No more had my Dad began to tell him when Uncle Charlie jumped up in his hospital bed, looked at Dad and said "For Pete's sake Carl, you might as well try and piss up a rope if you are going to start a chain saw like that". LOL
I'm sure when he passed the next day he died with a smile knowing he got in the last barb. :floorlaugh:

 

[wfgodot]

wfgodot: About "piss up a rope". The only person I ever heard use this phrase was my late father, a wonderful man who was sometimes known to use "colorful phrases". My mother would just roll her eyes and sigh when he let out with one of these. As a kid, I could never figure out exactly what it meant. And in thinking about it, I still don't know!

But his use of it, if I remember correctly, would be in the context of somebody he was not pleased with, as in "And so I told him to go piss up a rope!"

snip

First place - only place, maybe - I heard it was in one of my favorite movies: "Local Hero," with Peter Riegert and Burt Lancaster. I adopted it forthwith and it's been in my vocabulary ever since, waiting for the occasion to justify it. I have no idea what it literally means; perhaps nothing. It's sense is all in the sound it makes maybe, and the impossibility of the act involved. But its usage is definitely in the context of "not pleased"!

 

[oh_gal]

As explained to me by a southern belle from VA, it's a polite way of saying someone just aint right! :floorlaugh:

Oh, you just summed that up so well!!!! Very diplomatic and kind!

:rolling: :rolling: :rolling: :rolling:

(I've also seen it used when someone just doesn't know what else to say about your particular situation (or when there is apparently, nothing else to say!)

 

[my_tee_mouse]

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

Yeezzzzzzz......but what kind of Co-Cola do you buy?