Regional vocabularies of American English
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Despite the standardizing influences of the mass media in the United States, a number of regional vocabularies continue to exist throughout the country. It is still not uncommon for an American away from his or her home region to encounter novel ways of referring to familiar objects and concepts.
This article deals only with differences in everyday vocabulary, but this linguistic description of regional differerences provides a more academic approach to the subject.
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Regional Vocabulary Tables
Pacific Northwest (Oregon State,Washington State, British Columbia, and Alaska) |
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Regional Term | General Term |
Cascadia | The Pacific Northwest, its people, culture and bioregional successionist movement. |
Crummy | A vehicle used to transport woodworkers. |
Gyppo | Contract work (or worker) |
high muckamuck | The chief, the boss, or management (modern usage). In modern blue-collar usage, this word is a sarcastic slang term used to refer to bosses and upper management. |
Jefferson | A mostly rural area of Southern Oregon and Northern California known for its seccessionist movements. |
Packing a card | To be a member of a union, such as the Wobblies. |
Pecker pole or Peckerwood | A small tree, often found in the understory of old growth |
Potlatch | A social gathering (a Chinook term) |
Pop | The traditional word for carbonated drinks is used more often than "soda." |
powwow | A gathering or meeting, esp. of Native Americans. |
Second-growth | Timber that has grown back on a previously harvested unit, either by natural reseeding or replanting. |
Skidroad | The path over which oxen pulled logs; it came to mean the part of a city where loggers congregate. |
Snoose | Damp snuff or dipping tobacco |
Timber Tiger | Chipmunk (Lumberjack Jargon) |
Till | A cash register. |
War Zone | A Clear cut, an area where all harvestable timber has been logged. |
Weak sauce | Slang term for something disappointing (used more in the younger crowd). |
See:
- Chinook Jargon was a trade language (or pidgin) of the Pacific Northwest, which spread quickly up the West Coast from Oregon State, through Washington State, British Columbia, and as far as Alaska.
- List of lumberjack jargon
- Cascadian English: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/05/317962.shtml
- Contrary to belief, local linguists say Northwest has distinctive dialect: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/225139_nwspeak20.html?source=rss
- Pacific Northwest Vowels: A Seattle Neighborhood Dialect Study: http://www.aip.org/149th/ingle.html
Delaware Valley (Greater Philadelphia, Pa., southern New Jersey and northern Delaware) |
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Regional Term | General Term |
cellar | basement |
fireplug | fire hydrant |
pavement | sidewalk |
parlor | living room |
hoagie | submarine sandwich |
driveway | back alley-way |
rowhomes | attached houses |
shore | beach Often associated with South Jersey speech, esp. in the phrase "down the shore" (at the beach) |
New Orleans, Louisiana | |
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Regional Term | General Term |
cold drink | soft drink |
neutral ground | median strip |
po' boy | sandwich on French bread (baguette) |
bobos | any kind of wound, especially a bruise |
by location | to be at or in someplace (e.g. "by your mama's [house]") |
pass by location | to stop and visit someplace |
to make groceries | to go shopping for groceries |
lagniappe | a little bit of something extra |
goute ("goh") | a little taste |
Where y'at? | How are you doing? |
Cap (from Captain) | Sir |
passion mark | a love bite/hickey |
locker | closet |
valise, grip | suitcase |
hard quarter | a 25-cent piece |
New York City Area | |
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Regional Term | General Term |
"The City" | Manhattan |
to wait/stand on line | to wait/stand in line (e.g. I stood on line for 5 hours to get these tickets.) |
plain pizza | cheese pizza |
The South | |
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Regional Term | General Term |
buggy | shopping cart |
straight drive | manual transmission in an automobile |
tump over | combo of turn/bump over |
tote | to carry, as in "Tote that bag in the house for me." |
yonder | over there |
y'all | contraction for "you all"; considered to be the plural form of the pronoun "you", it is properly used to address two or more people. However, incorrect usage by newcomers and inaccurate portrayals of Southern dialect in movies and on television have given non-Southerners the idea that this term is used as an address both for single and multiple speakers (as in, "I'll see y'all later", addressed either to a single person or a group). Still, native speakers still consider it grammatically incorrect to use it when addressing only one person. |
coke | generic term for any brand of soda/pop More at Soft drink |
Eastern Wisconsin | |
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Regional Term | General Term |
bubbler | drinking fountain |
to budge | to cut in line (also common in Minnesota) |
flatlander, F.I.B. ("fucking Illinois bastard") | a person from Illinois |
Wisconsin and northern Illinois | |
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Regional Term | General Term |
Cheesehead | a native of Wisconsin; considered derogatory in Illinois, but a term of pride in Wisconsin (becoming well known across the U.S. through sports media) |
Minnesota | |
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Regional Term | General Term |
Pop | generic term for any brand of soda/pop More at Soft drink |
Duck duck gray duck | A children's game, more commonly called Duck duck goose |
hot dish | a simple entree cooked in a single dish, more commonly called casserole |
Northern and Eastern Missouri (Saint Louis, Columbia, Missouri, and Surrounding Areas) |
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Regional Term | General Term |
to love on someone | to show love to someone or love someone |
Maine and Northern New England | |
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Regional Term | General Term |
cellar | basement |
"The County" | Aroostook County, Maine, so called due to its large size. |
dinner | sometimes used to describe the practice of going out for dessert after the evening meal |
dooryard | driveway |
fiddlehead | a type of fern which grows to form a head resembling the scroll of a fiddle or violin, considered a local delicacy in Northern Maine |
"from away" | phrase describing a person from another state or country (or as is sometimes the case in Northern Maine, a person from Southern Maine) |
leafer | a tourist who has come to see the area's vibrant autumn foliage |
wicked (adv.) | very, extremely (this has gained popularity throught the U.S. in popular culture, especially among younger people) |
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See also
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Regional American English
- New York-New Jersey English
- Baltimorese
- Pittsburgh English
- Southern American English
- General American
- Northeastern American English
- California English
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English Around the World
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Language Studies
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