<p>In Florida if you order a Cuban sandwich they’ll ask if you’d want it pressed (squished flat and toasted.) When I hear the term 'hot pressed Cuban" though, I for some reason think of Desi Arnez and not a sandwich!</p>
<p>Many New Yorkers when asked to draw a map of United States would only have New York City, Florida, and Las Vegas on the map.</p>
<p>Stradmom - I was trying to make the same point. The “to be” is dropped. </p>
<p>Yes, in western PA it was the radd-iator. We just called them a ray-diator. Of course I’d never actually seen one before we landed in Oz. It took me a year to acclimate but it was a wonderful community, great place to raise a family, and we left with a heavy heart knowing the absolute vortex we were going back to in DC.</p>
<p>In DC & suburbs you not only have ‘The City’ but ‘The Hill’.</p>
<p>I had a southern Nana and Granny. My kids have a southern Mimi and a Danish Farmor (Far=father Mor=mother My fathers mother). This actually makes a distinction between cousins calling the same grandmother a different name. My SILs kids call her Mormor. I have staked claim on Mimi and told my boys before proposing this has to be checked out with the potential MIL. She has to be something other then Mimi. ;)</p>
<p>I live in NC. I work w/ a woman who’s fr. the Pittsburgh area. She drops the “to be” all day long.
It drives me CRAZY. </p>
<p>The Brew-Thru stores at the NC Outer Banks is a local chain business. There aren’t any of those anywhere else in NC.</p>
<p>What do you mean, the “to be” is dropped?</p>
<p>Dropped “to be” – something “needs fixed” instead of “needs to be fixed.” I’ve seen it in writing. Crazy, but common in some places.</p>
<p>Both of my parents were born and raised in Pittsburgh so some of this is making me chuckle…“neb-nose”, the clothes need warshed, etc. I’m born and raised here in CT but have picked some of this up (not the warshed part, thank goodness). One thing both my parents do/did, and I DID pick up, was to ask questions DOWN. I can’t explain it, but the inflection goes up in the middle of the question and down at the end. It drives DH crazy.</p>
<p>So…living in CT and working at an insurance company - I have to ask…do you say in-SURE-ance? or IN-sure-ance?</p>
<p>^^ The “war” sound where there’s no R also comes from the south. My mom says “warter” for “water.”</p>
<p>Yes…my co-worker does the DOWN thing at the end of questions too!</p>
<p>I say “warter” and in-SURE-ance.</p>
<p>No mention of temperature, literature, etc? They are pronounced quite differently in the north and the south.</p>
<p>I grew up in Baltimore and always said “wooder” for water until I went to college in Pittsburgh and no one could understand what I was asking for. Now, living in Texas, I notice interesting differences:</p>
<ol>
<li>No distinction between the pronunciation of pen and pin (both “pin”).</li>
<li>INsurance and not inSURance</li>
<li>Waiting on someone = waiting for someone (not only referring to a waiter)</li>
<li>Coke for any kind of soda</li>
<li>Official pronounced “aw-ficial”</li>
</ol>
<p>My FIL from Pittsburgh says warsh. Warsh! </p>
<p>When I lived in St. Louis, people said “highway farty” for Highway 40, a major east-west thoroughfare. But who am I to judge, since I say orange, Florida and Oregon with the “ar” sound instead of an “oar” sound.</p>
<p>so this conversion could actually take place?</p>
<p>server- “what would you like to drink”
Me- “I’ll have a coke”
server - “OK…what kind would you like?”
Me - "Uh…a Coke
server-“yes, but what kind of coke would you like?”
Me - what kinds do you have?
server- we have Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, and Mountain Dew
Me - “I’ll have a Coke”</p>
<p>I say inSUREance. I have a friend from the Eastern Shore and we used to joke when he asked for a “pin”, fountain pen or stick pin? (In architecture school either were possible.)</p>
<p>Geeps, that conversation wouldn’t happen because no restaurant serves both Coke and Pepsi.</p>
<p>I was once a waitress far from my soda-land roots. I was thrown briefly the first time a customer asked me what kind of pop I had. I thought “Pop? Well, I don’t call him Pop, but he’s ok.” I quickly realized what I was being asked, and answered with the list of carbonated beverages.</p>
<p>Mathmom, do you really use fountain pens, or is that a generic term for a standard ink pen? I live in an area that makes a distinction between pens and pins, but I have heard the term ink “pin” in other places.</p>
<p>Geeps20, theoretically yes. But it’s not likely. Usually when people are ordering in a restaurant, they are specific to the brand. A more likely conversation would go like this:</p>
<p>Hostess: There are cokes in the cooler on the back porch.
Guest: Oh, great! What kind?
Hostess: Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite.</p>
<p>Snowme, most people here pronounce pen, “Pin”. So pin and pen sound exactly the same.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, close. As Snowme correctly points out, you won’t find both Coca-Cola and Pepsi on the menu at the same restaurant. But here, to the best of my recollection, is an actual conversation that did occur between my young NY-bred daughters and a friend of ours, an older Southern matron whom we were visiting:</p>
<p>HOSTESS: Would you girls like a coke?
D1 [speaking for herself and her younger sister]: Yes, please.
D2 [piping in and following her older sister’s lead]; Yes, please.
HOSTESS: What kind would you like? We have root beer or ginger ale.
[Pause while D1 and D2 exchange confused glances].
D1: Do you have Coke?
HOSTESS: Yes, honey, we have root beer and ginger ale. Which would you like?
[Another pause, more confused glances].
D1: Can I just have water?
D2 [clearly baffled, but sensing an opportunity]: I’d like a root beer.</p>
<p>For years afterward, D1 resented D2 for getting a root beer when D1, as a result of her leadership, had settled for water. Sugary soft drinks were a rare treat in our household.</p>
<p>At that moment, our daughters and our hostess were not speaking the same language.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, it can. When my family moved from NH to Maryland this was the funniest language thing we experienced. The best version. “Would you like a coke?” “Yes” “What kind?” “A Pepsi please”. So essentially we asked for a Pepsi Coke … never had anyone verify we wanted a Pepsi Coke unfortunately</p>
<p>We sometimes use Coke as a generic term for carbonated soft drink. Kind of like saying do you want some Kleenex. My S says pop, but mostly to torment me. </p>
<p>And I love, love, love Boston accents. </p>
<p>Years ago when I had a long commute, I listened to a series of tapes, meant for actors, on how to recreate different accents (including the 4 in Texas – listen to LBJ for an example of one). I find this whole area oddly fascinating, and I read the Language Log and dialect blogs on occasion.</p>