@garland did you see the bit that Gov. Murphy did with Stephen Colbert re: Does Central Jersey exist? You can find it online though I probably can’t link to it here. Funny stuff - especially “Taylor Pork”…
Yup! (I’m from the same area as Murphy, too.)
I have lived in many regions. We lived in Wisconsin when my S was in preschool, then moved to Kansas where he started kindergarten. He only asked if he could go use the bubbler ONCE. He quickly learned they called it a water fountain at his new location.
When I’m in North Jersey, people tell me I come from South Jersey. When I am in South Jersey, people tell me the same place is North Jersey. Hence, Central.
Okay, since it’s been mentioned a few times, what the heck is Taylor Ham/pork roll?
In Maryland, sprinkles are the things you put on ice cream. Jimmies are the male blue crabs we are famous for!
So I can give my take on some that have been brought up:
Sprinkles, soda, rubbernecking, numbered roads are prefaced with route - so route 78, highways (the Belt Parkway or the Brooklyn Queens Expressway or the NY thruway are all highways ), bathroom, growing up we never had any special name for the night before Halloween, sneakers, and fireflies. And the whole bubbler thing is weird (my daughter has friends in Boston who say that).
Pork roll is a pork-based processed meat commonly available in New Jersey, New York, Delaware and parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland.
The History of Pork Roll
Although several manufacturers make a generic product named “Pork Roll,” John Taylor’s Original Pork Roll is what most New Jerseyans ask for by name. Made since 1856 it ia a main staple of diners, kitchens, Holiday tables, and boardwalks of the Garden State.
What is the difference between Taylor Ham and Taylor Pork Roll? The proper name according to the manufacturer, Taylor Provisions of Trenton NJ, is John Taylor’s “Original Taylor Pork Roll.” It was originally called “Taylor Ham” and although the name was changed in 1906 many of us in North Jersey still call it simply, “Taylor Ham.”
Yes, I say wait “on line” instead of wait “in line”. People in NYC have been saying that since way before the internet usage of on line. It is an expression used exclusively in a small part of the country: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/semantics-voting-you-say-line-i-say-line/321708/
@kiddie do you say pocketbook even if it’s a large bag? I always thought pocketbook was just a small one. (Have never lived in Brooklyn or with anyone from Brooklyn).
I’ve lived in SoCal, SF Bay Area (where I am now), Nebraska, and Missouri; my mom is from Pittsburgh, my dad is from Minnesota, I had a college roommate from New Jersey, and my husband is Australian so I’ve heard most regional variations, but every once in a while a new one pops up. I’ve picked a few things up from my hubby that I use instead of the normal American usage although mostly the kids and I give him a hard time about his. (Last week it was the word ‘nougat’. Apparently Aussies and some Brits don’t pronounce the ‘t’ at the end. It was driving me nuts. I finally looked it up on google and yes, I’m saying it the normal American way and he’s saying it the normal Aussie way and there’s even a 3rd British way, like nugget.)
Gravy is made from meat drippings, not tomatoes.
Macaroni is just the elbow ones, the generic term is pasta.
People in the Bay Area do use rubbernecking now, maybe they didn’t 30 years ago but it’s common usage today.
We wait in line. Online is for computers.
We go to the beach, not down to the shore.
Don’t call it “Cali”. Or “Frisco”. Although I have to be honest that even the local young people are using Cali now, but not us older ones.
Aluminum not Aluminium (that’s for my husband and the other Brits/ Aussies ;-)).
When I was a kid in Nebraska I drank pop but switched to soda in college and stayed with that in CA.
The last meal of the day is dinner, not supper or tea.
Cheese pizza not plain pie (that was a new one to me recently).
One last funny Aussie anecdote - when my oldest was born my husband’s male cousin was in the US visiting and stopped by to meet her. Afterward my mother in law asked me, “Did Paul nurse the baby?” I couldn’t really formulate an answer to that for a minute or two. Like… what on earth was she thinking??? I can’t remember how we figured out the misunderstanding but what she was asking was whether Paul had held her, and what I thought she was asking was whether he had breastfed her.
The size doesn’t matter, even my grandmother’s behemoth bag was a pocketbook. I will say pie for pizza, but never tomato pie (a NJ version of pizza which isn’t pizza as far as I am concerned) and it is a slice not a piece. Remember the opening of Saturday Night Fever when Travolta asks for 2 slices (which you should never eat with a knife and fork - always pick it up with your hands).
Californian here.
- Soda (not pop)
- Freeways are called by their number; “the 5,” “the 57,” etc. Although Interstate freeways can also have the prefix “I-” as in the “the I-5” or “I-15.”
- Sprinkles. I never heard of the term Jimmys until this thread.
- And the name of the state is California - Never “Cali.” “Cali” is an abomination brought in recent years from elsewhere (probably from Hell), and needs to be stamped out immediately. “Cal” is acceptable in context but it refers only to UC Berkeley, not the whole state. Saying “Cali” is similar to pronouncing Illinois as “illi-noise.” No. Simply no.
- Same for calling Orange County “The O.C.” That was invented by that TV show. People who live there don’t say that, and you shouldn’t either.
- Here’s one that may be a regional term unique to California: the ground cover foliage that is planted alongside the freeway, especially next to freeway exits and entrances is called “ice plant,” no matter what the actual species is. I’ve never heard that term used outside of California.
- 7-11 and other similar small stores are called “convenience stores.”
I grew up in Iowa and lived most of my life in various states in the Midwest.
We used Beggar’s night for the night before Halloween. Many small towns had trick or treat on Beggar’s night (Oct. 30) instead of Halloween.
pop not soda
sack instead of grocery bag.
I think I must have a weird accent because sometimes people from other midwestern states look at me like I am crazy as we are having what I thought was just a normal conversation. I lived the first 20 years of my life in Iowa, the part called lapland, that oozes into Missouri. Our pronunciations must be almost southern though maybe not quite.
The term “rubbernecking” is commonly used in the San Francisco area.
Northern New England
Wicked to mean very. It’s wicked cold and snowy here in the winter.
Frappe instead of milkshake. (Cabinet in Rhode Island)
Yes to jimmies.
A sub or hoagie sandwich is a grinder although that seems to sadly be disappearing form usage.
My father is from Chicago and my mother from Boston. I grew up in DC and overseas, but I’ve lived outside NYC for the last 30 years. I will never ever wait on line, but I do go to tag sales, usually say soda (but also say soft drink), drink seltzer, make distinctions between downtown and midtown, generally say you guys. Caramel has three syllables. I drink milkshakes and eat soft ice cream except when I am visiting my New England relatives when I call them frappes and cremees. I’ve got potato bugs gathering under my potted plants. I drink from a water fountain.
Here’s a link to Harvard’s 2003 dialect survey results: http://dialect.redlog.net/
“The 5” (for example) for freeways (including non-interstates like 101) is more of a southern California way of saying and is rarely heard in northern California (where freeways may be referred as (for example) “highway 5”, “interstate 5” (for actual interstates), or just “5”).
Moved from Long Island, NY, to northern New England freshman year of high school. I was so disappointed when “the bubbler” just had regular water and not seltzer! Pardon me, I mean wicked disappointed.
I didn’t know that wait “on” line was regional. There’s a commercial on TV where a young woman talks about being “on” her period. I was never “on” my period. How would one even do that?? I “had” my period. I’ve been asking my menopausal friends when this terminology changed, but maybe it’s a regional term.
@mathmom we have similar backgrounds -my mother is from Boston, my father from Cleveland (I know, not Chicago but Midwest) and also grew up in DC area. I only lived overseas in college, but lived in NYC for seven years (four in college and three immediately afterward).
@washugrad I forgot about supper! We always called it supper (pronounced “suppah”) growing up b/c that’s what my Boston raised mother called it. She never called lunch “dinner” when we were kids tho. For some reason, as an adult I’ve never called it supper. I guess b/c once I left home, no one I lived with ever called it that.
As for the rubbernecking term, maybe my husband is just weird, but I distinctly remember when I first used that word in his presence - we were driving in Toronto and got stuck in horrible traffic due to an accident. I was stunned he’d never heard the word. That was almost 30 years ago.
When they filmed “Field of Dreams”, there as small to-do over the fact that Ray (Costner) asked his dad to “have a catch” instead of “play catch”. Apparently “play catch” is a thing in some places, of the country, who knew?