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#9935 11/06/00 06:11 PM
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of troy Offline OP
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Avy, your post in AnnaStophic thread "English as a global language"

http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=7527&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&part=all&vc=1

prevoked many comments, (and threads! wow!) and set me off on a different tangent. English as a Local Language. The thread is veering that way, now with your introductions of some favorite local words and idioms that haven't yet, (and might not ever) reach mainstream English.

Here in NY, we use the word "stoop" to describe the front stair (outside of the building) of a residence. The stairs in front of Metropolitan Museum of Art would never be called a stoop, but if the Mayor tripped at his residence, no one would think twice about calling the steps to Gracie Mansion a stoop (Mayor Trips on Front Stoop!).

It is a pretty local word, and traces back to the Dutch influence in NY, stoop being the Dutch word for steps. And by local, I mean to say NY Metropolitan area. Houses have front steps in Philadelphia (PA) and Baltimore (MD) to the south, and New Haven( CT) and Boston(MA) to the north.

I was wondering about other local words. I know there are some regional words in use in rural New England–I have heard words there that had meaning only in NE–(but can I think of any? NO!) Partly because they were words I heard, but never got in the habit of using. They never really entered my vocabulary.

Less well known in NY, but still used, is the word Kills for a (here is a party!) Fen, Marsh, Bog, Swamp, Salt-water Meadow, wetland, slough... Since most of the Kills have been drained, and paved over it has lost meaning. It too is from the Dutch, and still used as a place names in NY. (I tend to think of Fens, Bogs and Meadows, as being treeless, but Swamp's as being more forested.)

As we have traveled, either in time and space, or like Emily Dickenson, with a book as our frigate, what words have you found to be purely local?
(I would not consider Boot/trunk, Flat/apartment, lorry/truck to be local words, since they work over rather large geographic areas.)

An other example might be a hero (NY) which is a sub (NJ) or a hoggie (Phil.), or poor boy (New Orleans).
What do you call oversized sandwiches?


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well, this post dredged up all sorts of thoughts -- I'll start with some general ones.

there is a large reference work in progress, mentioned here before, called the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) -- we could fill up the present size of this board many-many-orders-of-magnitude times with local english. so far there are three huge volumes which cover only through the letter O.
http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dare/dare.html

in regards to the hero (not to be confused with the Greek gyro 8), we seem to be conflicted in the midwest -- it depends on whose cafe you frequent: bomber, grinder, hero, hoagy, Italian sandwich, poor boy, sub, submarine sandwich...

I'll just throw out one word that I believe to be regional since it came up in an email last week. when we see a vehicle with one headlight (or headlamp) burned out we learned to cry out: padiddle! and therefore a vehicle so afflicted is so called.

p.s. - here's another that just came to me. a friend who grew up in Duluth, when he wants me to tighten something down, tells me to "reef it on" -- I'm thinking it is probably a sailor's term and might be familiar to those who live near the sea.

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When I was growing up, and still to some extent, all
carbonated soft drinks were Cokes, never mind the brand name or the flavor. I was very surprised when my friend from Canada, who lived here for a time, offered to bring me
a soda from the drink counter. I was expecting seltzer water with vanilla ice cream in it, and she brought me a
Coke!(BTW, Coke w/ vanilla ice cream in it is a Coke float.)

My college roommate, from Pittsburgh, used to tell me to
open the light.


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[quote]what words have you found to be purely local? [quote]


When I first read this post, dozens of examples came to mind, but I discounted almost all of them as they were Maori words that have become part of standard NZ English, and I'm not sure that you had that sort of regionalism in mind. One that may fit is "clayton's" meaning "ersatz," or "sham." In the late 70s there was a drink marketed here called Clayton's, the slogan for which was "The drink you have, when you're not having a drink." It was inended as a substitute for alcoholic cocktails, but never caught on, and faded away quickly. The name however stuck, and one of the most common uses of it today woiuld be in the phrase "A clayton's solution" - often used to describe political policies. The phrase seems to be fairly specific to Australia and NZ, as a quick search at Google reveals several uses of the word "clayton's" in this manner, and all sites that do are from the .au domain.


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I have always been interested in very local words and find that bread tends to have quite local names. It didn't, traditonally, have to travel very far, it was made locally so it was fresh every day and the local baker could give it any name they liked as long as the locals understood it.

Here's a link to an earlier thread:
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=wordplay&Number=1630


#9940 11/11/00 06:50 PM
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American soldiers stands AT attention while British soldiers stand TO attention.


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Stoop is known and used by residents for the front steps (always just a few) in Philadelphia and Baltimore, at least as early as my parents generation, which grew up there in the 20's and 30's.
The most identifiable 'Kill' in the Philadelphia region is the Schuylkill Expressway. Schuylkill means 'hidden river'. The road is also known locally as the SureKill.


#9942 11/12/00 04:37 PM
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isn't that the river that burns at times?

oh, and stoop is quite common in the midwest for a platform at the top of some steps.

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To: In Troy
Fascinating!
In Atlanta, "Hoagies" are called Gyros, pronounced "Euro's". Say "Euro" in Tampa, you're told it's "Ji-roh (Gyro)". I think "hero" also derives from "Gyro"? In the Southeast,a large sandwich is called a "sub" short for submarine.
Pronunciation for "Florida" has just recently changed to "Floriduh" sad to say....

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After moving from Michigan & living in the South for a while, my 4yr. old daughter requested apair of stairs
for her birthday. With help from the locals, I learned that she wanted pierced ears!

whizzper


whizzper
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