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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 35
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 35 |
You're correct, I believe. It's very definitely local idiom. People don't really think about it if they've lived in an area all of their lives. So when speaking with newcomers, it isn't apparent to them that it would confuse direction-giving. Add that to "Oh, to get to the mall you turn right at the Smith's house" not "Oh, to get to the mall you turn right on Rt. 648". Who the heck are the Smiths?  It makes the words "think before you speak" applicable in more than just relationships. "Adversity is the whetstone of creativity"
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
I've learned to question what is meant when someone tells me to go down ( that didn't come out the way I meant it  ) when giving me directions. The lack of correlation with compass points seems to be prevalent. More confusing are all the regional idioms which require knowledge of local history and geography, but the integration of cultural references makes for richer exchanges. In Michigan, for example, our terms for each other -- yuper, fudgie and troll -- would make no sense to outsiders, but can identify the geographic origins of both subject and speaker.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Sparteye: yuper= someone from the Upper Peninsula?
Can't guess fudgie and troll, unless a troll is someone who lives near all those lakes and rivers you have up there.
(Trolls for fish, that is.) I caught a Northern pike up there one time--scared the bejeebers out of me.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Exactly. A "yuper" is someone from the U.P.
The state is, geographically and economically speaking, divided into three parts: downstate is the lower half of the lower peninsula, which is heavily populated and is the center of manufacturing and government; up north is the upper half of the lower peninsula, which is mostly agricultural and recreational; and the UP, the whole of the upper peninsula, which has extraction industries such as lumber, mining, and hunting. The only point at which the two peninsulas meet is the Mackinac (pronounced Mak-i-naw) Bridge, a 5-mile long suspension bridge over the straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. In these parts, we speak of "the bridge" without further need to identify which one.
There are a lot of tourists in the up north area, especially in the summer, and especially in the Traverse City area on the west side of the lower peninsula. For whatever reason, there is a fudge shop on every corner of the tourist-trap towns in that area, and many of the tourists walk around carrying boxes of newly purchased fudge. A "fudgie" is a tourist or new resident of the area (defined as anyone who hasn't lived in the area for at least 20 years).
To a yuper, a "troll" is anyone who resides in the lower peninsula: a troll lives under the bridge.
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