I come from Brooklyn and have the definitive Brooklyn accent. I say wait on line, carry a pocketbook (never a handbag), a sloppy joe is something made with chopped meat (never ground beef), and I have sauce with my macaroni (never pasta) unless the sauce has meat in it and then it is gravy (not Sunday Sauce).
So, what things do you say that are influenced by the region where you grew up?
Wait…are you saying “wait on line” is a a Brooklyn saying? Rather than saying “wait in line”?
I grew up in MD suburb of DC with a fairly neutral accent, unlike nearby Baltimore and its environs which have their own twang and sayings.
-Soda (not pop or Coke)
-Purse (not pocketbook or hand bag)
-Going down to the beach (not the shore or ocean)
-Highway (nor parkway or freeway)
-Subs
-I’m Italian but we never say gravy or macaroni in my family (it’s pasta with sauce in my family)
-Liquor store (not packie, package store or bodega)-in nearly all of MD, with few exceptions/counties, you can only buy liquor, beer and wine in what we call “liquor stores”
-Sneakers (not runners or tennis shoes)
-you or you guys to refer to a group (not y’all, youse, youse Guys, etc)
And though we are technically below the Mason-Dixon Line, we do not consider ourselves to be Southerners
I’m sure there are more but I can’t think this morning
I don’t know if this one is considered regional, but the first time I used it in dh’s presence (he’s from San Francisco/Bay Area), he had no idea what I was talking about
rubbernecking - when a driver slows down to check out the scene of an accident (or other disturbance like a cop pulling someone over) which then causes traffic to back up
“What kind of Coke would you like?” When I left home I quickly realized not everyone used “Coke” the way I did.
Ya’ll and Ya’ll all
Tump as in The chair tumped over and he fell on the floor.
I am sure there are many more. To tie it in to the drop off/early college experiences, I was from a small southern town and went to school near NYC so I quickly became aware of many ways in which my speech was different.
Most michigan ones are well known so I’ll do my favorite very, very specific word:
-Doorwall. (What the test of the country calls a sliding door or sliding glass door.)
If that’s a word you use, I can trace your origins to about a 20 mile radius lol
Others:
-Pop
-Party store (convenience store, like 7-11)
- Look it (instead of “look at the”)
- Highway and freeway are interchangeable words.
-Paczki Day instead of fat Tuesday
Those are what I can think of off the top of my head.
In California we refer to the interstate highways as ‘the 5’ or ‘the 101’. I have never heard that in other states. There it is ‘Interstate 70’ or ‘Interstate 64’, etc.
That’s funny, Kiddie. I’m from Upstate NY (the real Upstate, not Westchester), and I say wait in line, I sometimes carry a purse (never a pocketbook or handbag), a sloppy Joe is made with ground beef, I have sauce with pasta (macaroni is an elbow shaped pasta used in salads), and gravy is a sauce made with drippings from roasted meat that’s generally served over potatoes. We drink soda and drive on the interstate to get to the beach unless we’re heading to the Island. Then we use the parkway. If we’re traveling in state but not in the metro NY area we use either the Thruway (a toll road) or the highway (any 4 lane road that doesn’t have tolls), but never the freeway. Freeways are those large, messy roads near DC and Los Angeles.
I grew up in NY, on Long Island, but have lived in the midwest most of my adult life. I feel like I have a combination.
Pop, instead of soda
I still use rubbernecking, although here it is a “gaper delay”
Purse, not pocketbook or handbag
Sneakers, not tennis shoes
Guys - any group of people, of any gender (although I’m trying to get away from that)
Liquor store for me too
The Lake = Lake Michigan
Bathroom, instead of washroom or toilet
And then there are some local commuting language and destinations:
the “L” - for the elevated train
LSD = Lake Shore Drive
Fields = the old Marshall Field’s store
The Bean = Cloud Gate Sculpture in Millennium Park
The Taste = The Taste of Chicago Food Festival in July
PS. Definitely sauce with pasta ; )
Puny or “pekid” (peaked). I didn’t know until college the Southern oddities of my speech. I asked someone if they were puny and they were offended. So I followed it up by asking if they were “pekid” to discover that this was also a regional “diagnosis.”
I’m from philly and we say we are “tapping MAC” when we are going to an ATM and “down the shore” to mean any beach trip in NJ regardless of direction.” I don’t have an accent most of the time on most words, but I occasionally say “jawn” when I can’t get the word for a thing to come to mind. One peculiarity that comes to mind is that everyone I know refers to a particular street as City Line Ave… even though the name is just City Ave.
The first time I ordered ice cream in New England, and they asked me if I wanted jimmies. I was like, who’s Jimmy?
My husband and I, both from the same place, argue about jimmies: to me jimmies are chocolate and the rainbow ones are sprinkles. He insists it’s the opposite.
I thought they were all jimmies, regardless of color ; )
“you guys” used in the same way “you all or y’all”
gym shoes
pop
lightning bugs
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas
“Fixin’ to” - about to or planning on doing something
- Goosey night > Mischief night, Cabbage night or any other incorrect name for the evening before Halloween
- taylor ham > pork roll (there is no debate on this)
- down the shore > to the shore
- coffee grinds > coffee grounds
- sprinkles > jimmies
I’m sure there are others, that I can’t think of.
My first job was at a Baskin Robbins on Long Island. My boss said to us, “you might get someone in here who asks for jimmies”, and he explained what it meant. So funny!
I’ve lived in a few places and my parents were from different regions, so I’m a mixed bag. I say sunshower instead of “the devil is beating his wife” but I also say neutral ground instead of median.
I grew up saying pasta and sauce - macaroni was only elbow shaped and only used for macaroni and cheese or macaroni salad. Gravy was for Thanksgiving.
@momofsenior1, They’re all sprinkles. They just come in rainbow or chocolate flavors. 
@TatinG, references to roads is regional in NYS. Downstate you might hear people refer to 84 (an easy/west highway) or 87 (the NYS Thruway) as in, “take 84 east until you get to the exit for 87 north.” Farther south (near the City) you’ll hear people refer to I-95 or I-87. Farther Upstate people refer to the Thruway as just “the Thruway” unless you’re near Albany where it becomes the Northway. But you have to be careful there because the Thruway heads west to Buffalo and the Northway takes you North to Canada. When I was in college I worked at a restaurant on the Thruway a couple hours west of Albany and we used to get a lot of travelers who intended to go to Boston but took the wrong fork in Albany. They were not happy campers.
I live in NJ. I thought we all said “Mischief Night” (which is very local) till I met students from Bergen County who said “Goosey Night”–literally had never heard of that before.
Soda, not pop (except when I was in school in Michigan.)
Sauce not gravy unless it’s made from meat drippings.
Highways.
It’s going “down the shore” to go to the Jersey Shore, and going to the beach, when you’re there.
I had no idea that lightning bugs was regional, but yeah. that.
Taylor ham, not pork roll (arguing about this is my students who come from all over NJ’s favorite thing to discuss in class.)
Sneakers.
Sprinkles.
Also, I have adopted the north NJ usage “Not for nothing but…” (I grew up in Central Jersey which doesn’t exist according to some.)