Regional Sayings

Serious Business 116 replies 4,277 views
FatHobbit's avatar
FatHobbit
Posts: 8,651
Mar 10, 2011 2:56pm
Fab4Runner;706430 wrote:That reason is probably you pronouncing one of the names wrong.

Well, duh. :)
FatHobbit's avatar
FatHobbit
Posts: 8,651
Mar 10, 2011 2:57pm
Thread Bomber;706518 wrote:Or the capital of Kentucky...

Louisville

Lu ee ville or lewis ville????
Ha ha. Frankfort
Thread Bomber's avatar
Thread Bomber
Posts: 1,851
Mar 10, 2011 3:09pm
Man you got a bad accent.....
believer's avatar
believer
Posts: 8,153
Mar 10, 2011 6:17pm
Since moving to Pennsylvania I hear:

Soda vs Pop
Twiest instead of twice
Dest instead of desk
Ignernt instead of ignorant
Yenz as opposed to you'uns in Ohio
Redd-up which means tidy up
Penn-suh-vania instead of Penn-syl-vania
Curly J's avatar
Curly J
Posts: 7,282
Mar 10, 2011 7:00pm
Thread Bomber;706518 wrote:Or the capital of Kentucky... :p

Louisville

Lu ee ville or lewis ville or looo ville ????
Fraaaankfort !!!

That was an Oldie, but a goodie. My 7th grade history teacher tried this one on me.

The reason she asked me was she was old friends with my anut, who is from Louisville and taught her how to say if properly...Lou-ah-vull.

Fab4, my Grandma called it Dope when she first moved up from Tennessee well over 60 years ago. The poeple at the store had no idea what she was talking about.
Thread Bomber's avatar
Thread Bomber
Posts: 1,851
Mar 10, 2011 7:01pm
believer;706748 wrote:Since moving to Pennsylvania I hear:

Soda vs Pop
Twiest instead of twice
Dest instead of desk
Ignernt instead of ignorant
Yenz as opposed to you'uns in Ohio
Redd-up which means tidy up
Penn-suh-vania instead of Penn-syl-vania


I'm surprised you have heard anything other than "fuck you Rogers"
Mohican00's avatar
Mohican00
Posts: 3,394
Mar 10, 2011 7:51pm
OneBuckeye;706176 wrote:Loudonville = Lawndville (Loudonville is a town in Ashland County)

I'm from there and pretty much anyone not familiar with the town fucks it up. Loodenville is my favorite

Pronounced how it's spelled: Loud - on - ville
Wildcat24's avatar
Wildcat24
Posts: 261
Mar 10, 2011 8:11pm
The few that stick out in my mind from my part of rural Alaska:

I'm kidding = "I jokes" (my wife HATES this one)

This one is more rooted with the local Natives, but they don't often call their kids by their actual names...lots of "Come here Son" or "Stop that Daughter" or "Son, go get Sister and Cousin and come eat."

The one from my childhood I always get a kick out of, is "Devilstrip." They actually used it in Criminal Minds to pinpoint where a criminal was after he used it on a webpage. Though they screwed it up and said he was in Columbus and not Akron/NE Ohio.
se-alum's avatar
se-alum
Posts: 13,948
Mar 10, 2011 8:18pm
Mohican00;706834 wrote:I'm from there and pretty much anyone not familiar with the town fucks it up. Loodenville is my favorite

Pronounced how it's spelled: Loud - on - ville

I've always pronounced it Loud-un-ville.
Fab4Runner's avatar
Fab4Runner
Posts: 6,196
Mar 10, 2011 8:39pm
se-alum;706871 wrote:I've always pronounced it Loud-un-ville.

Me, too.

Apparently I pronounce Dalton wrong (the small town in Wayne County). I say it Doll-ton and the locals are very adamant that it's Dall-ton like Dallas.
F
fan_from_texas
Posts: 2,693
Mar 10, 2011 9:16pm
People in WisCAAAAHNsin say some funny things. Like, we live in "Mwaukee." (apparently we hate IL so much we drop them from the name of our city.)

People really stretch out their vowels, here, too--tough to type a description, but the further north you go here, the stranger it gets.
OSH's avatar
OSH
Posts: 4,145
Mar 10, 2011 9:17pm
Can't forget Wooster.

I also hate the Kentucky pronunciation of Athens, it's pronounced A-thins (like the alphabet "A" then "thins"). How is it pronounced in ALL the rest of the world like Ah-thens, but Kentucky says it like they do. Why question Kentuckians though...they do have Versailles too, pronounced Ver-sales. If you spend time there, you'll definitely get picked out if you cannot pronounce Louisville right, and you won't live it down either.
B
bigkahuna
Posts: 4,454
Mar 10, 2011 9:20pm
Fab4Runner;706481 wrote:The one near Toledo...Ore-gone. I just say it the way people in Toledo say it. The state...I say Ore-gin.

This, but I refuse to pronounce it gone. They're both Oregin.

I've notices that accent we were talking about is much more prevalent in women than men... at least in my experience.
NNN's avatar
NNN
Posts: 902
Mar 10, 2011 9:21pm
Fab4Runner;706895 wrote:Me, too.

Apparently I pronounce Dalton wrong (the small town in Wayne County). I say it Doll-ton and the locals are very adamant that it's Dall-ton like Dallas.

Yeah, I got chewed out for this one once. I simply showed a map of my area, pointed to Pataskala, and said, "Okay, your move."
LJ's avatar
LJ
Posts: 16,351
Mar 10, 2011 9:21pm
fan_from_texas;706943 wrote:People in WisCAAAAHNsin say some funny things. Like, we live in "Mwaukee." (apparently we hate IL so much we drop them from the name of our city.)

People really stretch out their vowels, here, too--tough to type a description, but the further north you go here, the stranger it gets.

Is it supposed to be "Wis-con-sin" or "Wi-scon-sin"

I've always pronounced it and heard it pronounced "Wis-con-sin" but the Common Man and Torg on 97.1 pronounce it "Wi-scon-sin" with an emphasis on the "scon" and it has always annoyed me
C
Con_Alma
Posts: 12,198
Mar 10, 2011 9:33pm
It seems that most of these slang bastardizations come from lazy pronunciations. It's easier for folks to drawl than pronounce the dang word the correct way.
Curly J's avatar
Curly J
Posts: 7,282
Mar 10, 2011 9:44pm
Here's a few towns in Indiana where I used to work. It was always funny to listent o the Dispatchers mispronounce them.

Versailles, Ver-sai...no it's Ver-sales
Milan, Ma-lawn...no it's My-Lan
Vevay, Ve-vay...no it's Vee-vee
Sykotyk's avatar
Sykotyk
Posts: 1,155
Mar 10, 2011 10:46pm
Knowing someone from Oregon, they say it simply as this: In a fight, would you rather have a knife 'or a gun'?

Generally, we compress words to the point they lose their differences and meld together.

Warsh (western PA upbringing that I try to vet out), Chwuh-nee (twenty), etc. are bastardizations that if you don't realize you're doing them, will just keep doing them.

A big Western PA thing growing up is the lack of the term 'to be':

The car needs washed (as opposed to the car needs to be washed), It needs done (needs to be done), etc. Went my whole school-aged life not thinking "To be" was just a quote from Shakespeare.



My grandmother always said "En-Velps" instead of Envelopes, despite all the corrections her kids and grandkids made. It was common to say "Redd-up", which I use, as well. Another localism, was she pronounced Pymatuning Lake (nee Resevoir, technically) as Pam-ah-tuning instead of the correct Pie-mah-tuning. She honestly didn't realize there was a 'y' in the name until we got a map. Her whole life, she had thought it was Pamatuning, and hence the incorrect pronunciation.

I've always said "Pop", my friend from Philly says "Soda".


Now, what will blow your mind is city names in other states:

Milan, MO: pronounces My-lun, not Mih-lawn
Nevada, TX: Nah-vay-duh, not Nah-vah-duh or Nah-vaw-duh
Prescott, AZ: Press-kit, not press-caught
Peabody, MA: Pee-bih-dee, not pee-body
Kearney, NE: Carnie, not Kerr-nee or care-nee
Boise City, OK: Boy-city, not Boy-zee City (you run it together quickly)
Haverhill, MA: Ha-vrull, not hay-ver-hill
Woburn, MA: woo-burn, not woe-burn, and the doozy:
Worcester, MA: woostah (no r sound at end)

Last company I worked for did business in Worcester, and we always had to make sure to pronounce it like the locals did to not piss them off.
Fab4Runner's avatar
Fab4Runner
Posts: 6,196
Mar 10, 2011 11:15pm
Where in the hell did redd-up come from? I don't get that one at all.
THE4RINGZ's avatar
THE4RINGZ
Posts: 16,816
Mar 10, 2011 11:22pm
Redd up means to clean and straighten quickly.
THE4RINGZ's avatar
THE4RINGZ
Posts: 16,816
Mar 10, 2011 11:24pm
My grandmother used to call her couch/ sofa a "Davenport".
OSH's avatar
OSH
Posts: 4,145
Mar 10, 2011 11:39pm
Sykotyk;707074 wrote: Now, what will blow your mind is city names in other states:

Milan, MO: pronounces My-lun, not Mih-lawn
Nevada, TX: Nah-vay-duh, not Nah-vah-duh or Nah-vaw-duh
Prescott, AZ: Press-kit, not press-caught
Peabody, MA: Pee-bih-dee, not pee-body
Kearney, NE: Carnie, not Kerr-nee or care-nee
Boise City, OK: Boy-city, not Boy-zee City (you run it together quickly)
Haverhill, MA: Ha-vrull, not hay-ver-hill
Woburn, MA: woo-burn, not woe-burn, and the doozy:
Worcester, MA: woostah (no r sound at end)
I should add the capital of South Dakota to that list. I believe everyone educated outside of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota probably pronounces it wrong. Yes, it is spelled Pierre, exactly like the name...but it is pronounced "Pier" (pronounced exactly like Pier 1 Imports or something you'd find jutted out into a body of water). I made the mistake of saying a French name for the capital, just once...

I would be surprised if many people educated outside of the areas I listed know the real pronunciation. Just my assumption. I guess, if someone had traveled there or lived there and educated elsewhere, then yes, the proper pronunciation would be known.
swamisez's avatar
swamisez
Posts: 1,990
Mar 10, 2011 11:53pm
Grew up nodak we said things like comesee one word instead of three come and see
Also a slew of run on sentences
Not sure why it went this way I think it was the native American influence that led citizens to speed up their speech and create run ons.

Now live in south
Town nearby mebane nc (pronounced mehbin)
hear lordy mercy
Aw hell
Off a far piece down the road
And bless her heart
Curly J's avatar
Curly J
Posts: 7,282
Mar 11, 2011 12:53am
The town where I was born is named Hamilton, but it's pronounced Hamil-tucky. :)

And you are right Fab4 about Kearney, NE. I've been there a few times and The Wife went to college there many years ago.
B
bigkahuna
Posts: 4,454
Mar 11, 2011 12:59am
Sykotyk;707074 wrote:Knowing someone from Oregon, they say it simply as this: In a fight, would you rather have a knife 'or a gun'?

Generally, we compress words to the point they lose their differences and meld together.

Warsh (western PA upbringing that I try to vet out), Chwuh-nee (twenty), etc. are bastardizations that if you don't realize you're doing them, will just keep doing them.

A big Western PA thing growing up is the lack of the term 'to be':

The car needs washed (as opposed to the car needs to be washed), It needs done (needs to be done), etc. Went my whole school-aged life not thinking "To be" was just a quote from Shakespeare.



My grandmother always said "En-Velps" instead of Envelopes, despite all the corrections her kids and grandkids made. It was common to say "Redd-up", which I use, as well. Another localism, was she pronounced Pymatuning Lake (nee Resevoir, technically) as Pam-ah-tuning instead of the correct Pie-mah-tuning. She honestly didn't realize there was a 'y' in the name until we got a map. Her whole life, she had thought it was Pamatuning, and hence the incorrect pronunciation.

I've always said "Pop", my friend from Philly says "Soda".


Now, what will blow your mind is city names in other states:

Milan, MO: pronounces My-lun, not Mih-lawn
Nevada, TX: Nah-vay-duh, not Nah-vah-duh or Nah-vaw-duh
Prescott, AZ: Press-kit, not press-caught
Peabody, MA: Pee-bih-dee, not pee-body
Kearney, NE: Carnie, not Kerr-nee or care-nee
Boise City, OK: Boy-city, not Boy-zee City (you run it together quickly)
Haverhill, MA: Ha-vrull, not hay-ver-hill
Woburn, MA: woo-burn, not woe-burn, and the doozy:
Worcester, MA: woostah (no r sound at end)

Last company I worked for did business in Worcester, and we always had to make sure to pronounce it like the locals did to not piss them off.

2 That I've come across

Milan-I say it like Disney Movie Mill-Lawn, but it's pronounces Mylin
Saline-I say like the chemistry thing say-lean but it's pronounced celine dion