<p>tsdad, Around here (Philly) the Jersey beaches are considered to be “down the shore.” As in, “It’s like a ghost town here each summer, because everyone is down the shore!”</p>
<p>Well, here, we just go to The Cape (never mind that there is another one. The Cape is Cape Cod).</p>
<p>Huskem 55, WHY do people in CT say “wicked” for very…“It’s wicked hot today”.? Drives me crazy</p>
<p>haha wicked is DEFINITELY a boston thing. no one in ct says it!</p>
<p>“wicked” is vey Maine.</p>
<p>Houston Street in NYC, a main east west street that divides Greenwich Village from SOHO, among others, is pronounced “How-ston” Street. You can always tell when someone is a tourist when they ask for a street that sounds like the city in Texas.</p>
<p>Huskem, they did when I grew up in CT but maybe it migrated to Boston now…that’s a good thing for CT.</p>
<p>I’m originally from St. Louis, but have never said “quatter” for quarter, or “pop” for soda–it was soda. But I have always been annoyed when people from other parts of Missouri say “Missoura”–there’s no “a” at the end of it!!</p>
<p>It took a long time to get used to saying “standing on line” instead of “standing in line” after meeting my New Yorker H, but I use that all the time now. And we never have liked the term “tag” for license plate, but that’s what is used around here!</p>
<p>I’m on Staten Island and we go “down the shore” too.</p>
<p>They’ve been saying wicked in Boston suburbs for over 30 years. I remember my mother scolding me for bringing that expression home in 2nd grade.</p>
<p>DH is from north of Boston and waaay beyond 30 - he grew up with “wicked” and “p*ssa”. I grew up in RI and never heard it used until we moved to MA.</p>
<p>In RI we never found an “r” we couldn’t drop from inside a word or an “r” we couldn’t add to the end of a word. Ex. WATER = waRtuh and IDEA = ideaR.
A “cabinet” was milk, syrup and ice cream - I’d love a nice big coffee cabinet right now! We never drank choc. milk - we had coffee milk (made with either Eclipse or Autocrat coffee syrup). A room with a toilet and a sink was a “lavette”.</p>
<p>When I was about 14 we spent a few weeks “down the cape”. I babysat the neighbors. They told be there was “tonic” for me in the frig. I was so scared that they thought I drank! </p>
<p>I lived in Chicago for a number of years and could NEVER get used to “come with” as in “I’m going to the store, you wanna come with?”</p>
<p>herbrokemom, that took me back to my CT days and visiting relatives in NH…when I moved to CA it took me years to learn to say “Father” without the FA ther sound…and “sure” without the weird accent.<br>
Coffee is always weird…on the East Coast we always said coffee regular for coffee with milk and sugar. When I traveled to Australia coffee with milk was “coffee flat” and of course in CA hardly anybody drinks drip coffee so it’s nonfat soy milk double latte. My favorite thing on the East Coast is to go to good ole Dunkin Donuts and get a coffee regular…</p>
<p>sigh, the good ol’ days when you could actually get a “dunkin” donut…nobody knows what they are anymore…</p>
<p>My kids always come back from time with the Chicago family branch, not only saying “come with” but also “go with” as in “Do you want to go with?” A well-educated family that does recognize a dangling participle–but “go with” is apparently a complete verb form…</p>
<p>My neighbors growing up came from Ohio and used the expression “you’re in my road” for “in my way”–or would say “get out of my road”. Also “that is none of your beeswax” for MYOB. This is not to suggest that they weren’t friendly, just a different vernacular…for those expressions.</p>
<p>The post about the “lavette” reminded me of other historical period or regional room types: breezeways, lanais, mudrooms, and three-season rooms are all somewhat “local” to different places…was “rumpus room” a national craze or just strange southern Californian…</p>
<p>go with, come with, take with - arrrgh - like nails on chalkboard (or is it blackboard) to me!</p>
<p>Houses are called different things in different parts of the country too. Growing up, a duplex was a house for two families that shared a common wall. A double or triple decker were apartments stacked one on top of the other. Our first house was a 2 flat in Chicago. No one back East knew what we were talking about until they say the pictures, then it was - oh a double decker!
And the east seems to be the only place that what you wear in the hospital is called a “johnny”. Everywhere else seems to call it a hospital or patient gown. Hardly gown-like if your fanny is hanging out!</p>
<p>In Boston a trash can is called a “barrel”.</p>
<p>In Cleaveland, it was a drinking fountain, but in Milwaukee, it’s a bubbler.</p>
<p>In Milwaukee people would say “I’m going down by Sears” instead of “I’m going to Sears”. </p>
<p>In Texas and othe southern states I would hear people use the word “carry” in place of “take” as in, “Can you carry me down to the post office?”</p>
<p>How about lunch, supper and dinner? In Texas, dinner is lunch and supper is dinner…I grew up in the Midwest and lunch was lunch and dinner was dinner…we never ate supper. Took me a while to figure that one out.</p>
<p>Funny story on accents…I had just moved to Texas from Wisconsin and I was shopping for some fabric with stripes. So I asked the saleslady if she had any striped fabric. She kept looking at me really strangely and repeating “striked fabric?” To explain what I meant, I gestured up and down with my index finger and saying “stripes–you know they go up and down”. Then she got it…her face lit up and she said, “Oh! straps!”</p>
<p>Everywhere else I have been it’s a “parking garage.” In Wisconsin it’s a “ramp.”</p>
<p>I think it’s really interesting how there can be such a difference in pronunciation or regional expressions within such a short distance. I lived the first 9 years of my life in Northern Delaware and the next 12 in (slower) Lower Delaware. There was/is a big difference in the two areas even though they are less then two hours apart, including a slight southern, rural accent in lower Delaware.</p>
<p>On this thread I’ve read of people talking about certain expressions, “back east” that I’ve never heard of because when they say back east they are probably referring to a certain area they are familiar with. I’m guessing that Californians think of the East Coast as one area whereas we that live (or, at least I do!) here think of it in specific regional areas: Southeast (Virginia, Carolina’s, Florida) Mid-Atlantic (MD, DE, PA, NJ, NY) but then sometimes the Northern Jersey/NYC area is a region onto itself, and then the New England States. The only time the east coast is referred to as one area is when there is a hurricane “coming up the coast”. I enjoy the different accents over here on the East coast but isn’t it funny to think of how different people in North Carolina can sound from people in Boston, but is there no difference from someone in San Diego and Seattle - or is there? I mean, I realize that’s because the east coast was settled first and people were isolated and developed their own expressions and pronounced things according to what country they immigrated from, I think it’s still neat how different we can all sound.</p>
<p>“Hmm…that sounds more like a lisp than a regional dialect.”</p>
<p>No it is not.</p>
<p>kathiep, there really is no discernible difference in the accents of people on the West Coast, although people may bring their accents with them when they move from another location. I think there may be some specific subgroup lingo – surfers, grunge or whatever – but people in Seattle tend to sound just like those from San Diego to me. </p>
<p>Growing up in So Cal, lots of people used the expression “Back East.” It wasn’t until I met my husband that he pointed out the phrase was inappropriate for me, since I’d never lived on the East Coast! We did tend to view the whole area east of the Rockies as something of a monolith.</p>