Local speak
 

Every once in a while we get to kidding my brother about the way he says things down there in North Carolina. But every region has its little verbal quirks, right?

For example, a Vermontish word is "baff", and can be used two ways: "The cat must be dirty, she's taking a baff" or "Oh oh, I think the cat's going to baff on the rug."

A New Hampshire word is "conkid". That can be used as "I live near Conkid" (Concord) or as in "Alexander the Great conkid the Persian Empire."

What are some of your local words?

Picking on NC huh?

Good! One job I had to remind people that "I'm not from here. You can expect more from me." :cool:

I was a concrete finisher when we first moved down here and one of the guys would ask me to 'tote' something for him. (Bring it here or carry it to him).

BUT! If he needed a ride somewhere in a car he would ask you to 'carry' him. If I remember right he referred to the glove box and the trunk with the same term; 'boot'.

And I still meet people who call the biggest/nearest city 'Fedval'. (Fayetteville).

And nothing tops when we all went to a restaurant many years ago and the waitress asked in a deep drawl, "Where y'all from? Y'all talk funny".

WE talk funny princess? Heard yourself lately?

Oh boy.....I could go on all day about some of the expressions we use here in the South.

I reckon you've heard most of them, though.

I'm fixin to go cook supper.

He lives a fer piece up the road (he lives far away).

How-dooooooo! (Hello)

I'll swanee (I swear)

He's got people there. (He has relatives that live there).

I'm so tired I'm 'bout to fall out. (So tired I'm about to drop).

It's pert 'near supper time. (It's close to supper time).

Let me put my earbobs on and I'll be ready. (Let me put on my earrings).

She sure was tore up about that. (She was upset/emotional).

I'm plumb tuckered (I'm tired).

"Pop" of course is pop, any pop.

"Cool" is anything that is good.

"I live in Chicago" is pretty much anything within 100 miles of Chicago. And it's pronounced Chi-cago by many.

"Yea Man" explains itself.

"For real" can mean "Are you for real?" or "For real, that person was whack!"

And for the record because I've spoken both northern and southern. Southerners say "Ya'll come." Northerners say "You ALL come." :wink:

Please don't even get me started on the word "like" around here. Way overused word and makes me feel like I am back in the 80's and hearing Valley talk. lol

SWOhio is very boring. We are just plain folk here. If we visit the North they think we're from the deep South. If we visit the deep South, they think were from the Nawth.:D

A course we do have quite a few Kentucky transplants here, so it depends on, to whom you speak...or...who you speak at..:D

I had a dear friend from KY and we had a running joke... I would say, "ah smell that air" and she would say, "that air what". :D

I grew up in New Mexico. Way too much 'Spanglish' spoken there. Now I'm in Oregon and the Hispanic population is booming. I find myself reverting to 'Spanglish' all the time.

Here are a couple more that took getting used to: "hun the rud". Whuh? Well, a road grader is a "hone", and every once in a while they have to hun the rud (hone the road).

One of my favorites: When Bob and I first got married and were discussing food preferences, he said that he liked pretty much everything, then mentioned that he didn't really like camel. WHUH? Um. I was trying to think under what circumstances he might have eaten camel. Is it even LEGAL? Then one day we were ordering ice cream sundaes, and he said he didn't want any "camel sauce" on his. Oh. Caramel. Thank goodness.

And once, when I was a teenager, my cousin (Florida?) asked me if we lived on the macadam. I had absolutely no clue what she was talking about. (No, we didn't live on a paved road).

We're always fixin' to do stuff here in TX. Fixin' to go to the store, etc. I don't know why we gotta "fix" something to do something but that's life...

Oh, by the way. It's POP!!! None of this Soda stuff. It's Pop. Period!

Tom