Local & Dialect Words

[maximus otter]

…the words Mush and Charva came from the gypsies…

Mush and chav are Romani.

maximus otter

 

[hunck]

Not heard that one before. It's 'stingy' (soft g) up here.
Skinflint is a good one that's still used though.

As demonstrated in this Who song

'There goes mingy stingy'

 

[Eyespy]

Woodlice= Pillibugs,

They were being discussed at book club when someone was explaining the inter-village sport of Granfer racing, which has sadly died out. Apparently it was a very popular diversion.

 

[JahaRa]

Growing up I learned some terms that are common in the U.S. but mean something different than they did in the 60's & 70's in New Mexico. One is "Honkey", we used it to describe those silly people who wore cowboy boots, listened to the worst country music and had never been near a horse. But I learned the hard way when someone got angry with me when I was in basic training and called me a Honky Bi***, I got angry and told her we are wearing the same boots so if I am a honkey so are you. At that point people finally quit trying to label me, they decided my label was "crazy", which actually worked well because no one dared bother me after that.

We have some slang that is weird too, "get down from the care" comes from the conquistador spanish being translated (no such thing as cars you ride in, only wagons); "do you want a coke?" "What kind you got?" "We have Big Red, Dr. Pepper, Rootbeer, Pepsi..." Lots of other weird words but they were spanglish so I don't know how to spell them so that they make sense.

 

[Floyd1]

Growing up I learned some terms that are common in the U.S. but mean something different than they did in the 60's & 70's in New Mexico. One is "Honkey", we used it to describe those silly people who wore cowboy boots, listened to the worst country music and had never been near a horse. But I learned the hard way when someone got angry with me when I was in basic training and called me a Honky Bi***, I got angry and told her we are wearing the same boots so if I am a honkey so are you. At that point people finally quit trying to label me, they decided my label was "crazy", which actually worked well because no one dared bother me after that.

We have some slang that is weird too, "get down from the care" comes from the conquistador spanish being translated (no such thing as cars you ride in, only wagons); "do you want a coke?" "What kind you got?" "We have Big Red, Dr. Pepper, Rootbeer, Pepsi..." Lots of other weird words but they were spanglish so I don't know how to spell them so that they make sense.

I'd love to go to New Mexico.
It's difficult for most of us, over this side of the pond to really comprehend the size of the USA and Canada.
Can you tell if someone is from north/south/east/west New Mexico by their accent/terms?
Here you only have to go a few miles in either direction and you'll get a different accent.

 

[JahaRa]

I'd love to go to New Mexico.
It's difficult for most of us, over this side of the pond to really comprehend the size of the USA and Canada.
Can you tell if someone is from north/south/east/west New Mexico by their accent/terms?
Here you only have to go a few miles in either direction and you'll get a different accent.

When I was growing up there were different dialects and accents. You could tell if someone lived in southern New Mexico near El Paso or in Northern New Mexico where the bean feilds used to be. You can still tell if someone is from the rez (well, Navajo have a distinct intonation and the pueblos are different). My grandmother was born in Utah but her family was from Oklahoma and Missouri so she had some funny ways of saying things (I'm fixin' to go to the store), my other grandmother was born and raised in Arkansas and her family were teachers so they had a lot funny sayings too, one I remember is one of the old aunties saying something about "speak the kings english" someone replied, "the king is dead and we are no longer british". They had weird accents that used to be southern, then sounded more Texan. In central new mexico there was more spanglish and in the village we lived in when I was young very few of the grandparents spoke english, it was all conquistador spanish (archaic).

Nowdays I can only tell who is from the area by the way they pronounce the street names and small towns that have spanish names. If they pronounce them like spanish they are probably from New Mexico or at least the southwest. The midwestern immigrants seem to have the hardest time with the culture and the place names. They call Madrid (an old mining town) Maaaaadrid. Very annoying, and even worse when you say it correctly and they correct you telling you that you are wrong.

When I lived in Virginia with my husband's family my sister in law said something weird commenting on my daughter's "accent" "She talks like those people on television just like you do." (my daughter was 3). And it was funny to me that she thought the californians had an accent instead of her.

 

[charliebrown]

From the 1986 movie Crocodile Dundee I use “ let’s take a walk about “ instead of let’s take a stroll.

I love using that saying all the time.

 

[Spookdaddy]

Round here = 'jasper' for wasp, 'kecks' for trousers. The latter is fairly common in the north, I think. Not sure about the former.

(Jasper Kecks would have made a great Dicken's character.)

 

[Beresford]

Woodlice= Pillibugs,

Woodlice are slaters in my part of the world.

 

[escargot]

When I was growing up there were different dialects and accents. You could tell if someone lived in southern New Mexico near El Paso or in Northern New Mexico where the bean feilds used to be. You can still tell if someone is from the rez (well, Navajo have a distinct intonation and the pueblos are different). My grandmother was born in Utah but her family was from Oklahoma and Missouri so she had some funny ways of saying things (I'm fixin' to go to the store), my other grandmother was born and raised in Arkansas and her family were teachers so they had a lot funny sayings too, one I remember is one of the old aunties saying something about "speak the kings english" someone replied, "the king is dead and we are no longer british". They had weird accents that used to be southern, then sounded more Texan. In central new mexico there was more spanglish and in the village we lived in when I was young very few of the grandparents spoke english, it was all conquistador spanish (archaic).

Nowdays I can only tell who is from the area by the way they pronounce the street names and small towns that have spanish names. If they pronounce them like spanish they are probably from New Mexico or at least the southwest. The midwestern immigrants seem to have the hardest time with the culture and the place names. They call Madrid (an old mining town) Maaaaadrid. Very annoying, and even worse when you say it correctly and they correct you telling you that you are wrong.

When I lived in Virginia with my husband's family my sister in law said something weird commenting on my daughter's "accent" "She talks like those people on television just like you do." (my daughter was 3). And it was funny to me that she thought the californians had an accent instead of her.

Reminds me of the writer Richard Armour's method for distinguishing between Spanish-speaking ethnicities in early 20th century California. It was important in his cinema job but he couldn't always tell at a glance.
Spanish patrons were directed to more expensive seats whereas the Mexican customers had the cheaper area.

The trick was to ask cinema customers, in Spanish, if they liked apples.
He'd pretend not the catch the reply so they'd repeat it, saying in Spanish 'Yes, I DO like apples!'

The pronunciation of 'apple', with or without a lisp, told young Richard whether they were Spanish or Mexican.

(If he got it wrong a Mexican person might get a posh seat, which was OK, but sending a Spanish customer to the Mexican area caused trouble.)

 

[charliebrown]

From watching BBC America, the terms boot and bonnet seem strange referring to American’s hood and truck of a car.

I finally realized cornets are ice cream cones.

 

[SimonBurchell]

'Woodlice' and 'bunking off' or 'skiving' (sky-ving).

Down here, bunking off, skiving, also dossing off. Woodlice for me was always woodlice, but I've 'eard them strange folks up in Guildford call them "cheesy bobs".

 

[Erinaceus]

I knew woodlice as cheesy bugs in the bit of Kent closest to London.

 

[Min Bannister]

We have an entire thread on slaters/woodlice/cheesy bugs -whatever you call them!
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/250-words-for-slater.67429/

 

[Spookdaddy]

Of course, some local usage is so local that people from outside the area (and probably many in it) will never get it.

'Swain's Alley' was a phrase used by local lads to express displeasure at, or challenge, what someone else said - because, back in the day Swain's Alley was where, as schoolboys, we went to sort out our differences on the field of combat. Despite it's origins in scrapping, it was generally used in a good natured way, as a sort of faux challenge (although a genuine challenge to meet at Swain's Alley at lunchtime was a thing of awesome terror).

 

[Cochise]

In our house the standard Monday fryup of leftovers from Sunday dinner was called pummeyumdum. Goodness knows how it was meant to be spelled. Others might call it Bubble and Squeak, but I think that was fractionally more upmarket.

 

[Mythopoeika]

In my family, we invented the word 'horridible' if something was both horrible and horrid.
But, as it turns out, other people also invented the word, so it's more common than I'd thought.

Edit: Oh yes, and we also invented other words. 'Berrer' was used instead of 'better'. 'Cough messerunt' was used instead of 'cough medicine' and so on.

 

[maximus otter]

In my family, we invented the word 'horridible' if something was both horrible and horrid. 'Berrer' was used instead of 'better'. 'Cough messerunt' was used instead of 'cough medicine' and so on.

Your family?

maximus otter

 

[Ascalon]

Around our way, wood lice, were, well, wood lice.
Skipping school was mitching, and something that was both dirty and disgusting was minging. But you could sometimes here someone say they were 'minging wet'.

However, minge is lady garden. Also, goul is a southern and south western colloquial for the same thing, but as a pejorative was about as offensive as you could get. Gee is also a common label for the same region, but much less offensive. Imagine the hilarity on reading some Indian recipes featuring clarified butter! In fact, there is a parody account on Twitter along the lines of TheWildGees - which is funny on many levels.

But a minger was always someone of the opposite sex who was deeply unattractive. Not a two-bagger, but an outright 'wouldn't touch with yours'.

Not sure of its etymology, but a packet of crisps was often referred to in our neighbourhood as a package o' merps, which I always found funny.

It has been adopted among my siblings along with 'waddleade' from my son who could not pronounce marmalade.

 

[Cherrybomb]

Wood lice were known as "Bakers" in South West Cornwall - I think because they were often found in bags of flour, but i might be wrong.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Your family?

maximus otter

Thanks, Max - but no.

 

[JahaRa]

Round here = 'jasper' for wasp, 'kecks' for trousers. The latter is fairly common in the north, I think. Not sure about the former.

(Jasper Kecks would have made a great Dicken's character.)

In which part of england do they say "jumper" for what we call "sweater" (the one grandma's used to knitt)?

 

[JahaRa]

Reminds me of the writer Richard Armour's method for distinguishing between Spanish-speaking ethnicities in early 20th century California. It was important in his cinema job but he couldn't always tell at a glance.
Spanish patrons were directed to more expensive seats whereas the Mexican customers had the cheaper area.

The trick was to ask cinema customers, in Spanish, if they liked apples.
He'd pretend not the catch the reply so they'd repeat it, saying in Spanish 'Yes, I DO like apples!'

The pronunciation of 'apple', with or without a lisp, told young Richard whether they were Spanish or Mexican.

(If he got it wrong a Mexican person might get a posh seat, which was OK, but sending a Spanish customer to the Mexican area caused trouble.)

Well, the spaniards that colonized the New Mexico territory (New Mexico, Arizona, Utah & Colorado) must have all been low class because none of the ancients that I knew growing up used the lisp, which was different from the Castillian we learned in school (no lisp in Castillian and we were told that was the proper Spanish like Oxford used to be the proper English). I remember the spanish teacher explained where those people who lisped were from but I can't remember. (50 years ago now)

 

[JahaRa]

From watching BBC America, the terms boot and bonnet seem strange referring to American’s hood and truck of a car.

I finally realized cornets are ice cream cones.

My brother in law, who grew up in Virginia called the trunk of the car "the boot". I never heard the term "bonnet" except on british television.

 

[Floyd1]

In which part of england do they say "jumper" for what we call "sweater" (the one grandma's used to knitt)?

I've only ever said 'jumper'. I think 'sweater' may be used occasionally in some parts, but whether that's a relatively modern usage I'm not sure.

'Sneakers' has not come into use though (yet).

 

[Floyd1]

Not sure of its etymology, but a packet of crisps was often referred to in our neighbourhood as a package o' merps, which I always found funny.

Yes, I wonder where 'merps' came from?!

 

[JahaRa]

From the 1986 movie Crocodile Dundee I use “ let’s take a walk about “ instead of let’s take a stroll.

I love using that saying all the time.

I started saying "Crickey" after seeing that movie.

 

[JahaRa]

I've only ever said 'jumper'. I think 'sweater' may be used occasionally in some parts, but whether that's a relatively modern usage I'm not sure.

'Sneakers' has not come into use though (yet).

Yeah, sneakers was a word used when I was a kid but no one uses that one any more, now it is running shoes or athletic shoes.

 

[Ermintruder]

'Sneakers' has not come into use though (yet).

In the very early days of internetworking via WorldWideWeb V0.1 circa mid-1980s, there was a blip of popularity in the use of the term "sneaker-net" to indicate the opposite of something being done/transacted online. This was synonymous with (and sentimentally-resonant alongside) the expression 'snail-mail', which has also become utterly sidelined & obsolete.

Curiously, there was *no* group misunderstanding that such a term inferred any level of sneakyness, or a covert aspect: non-North American English speakers were already fully-primed by their Hollywood lexicons to recognise that allophonetic footwear term in a literal/non-metaphoric sense (in the same way that faucets, sidewalks & gas etc have all been subliminally-absorbed into our lifetime non-American vocabularies).

My instinct is to say that 'sneakernet' (ie just walking across a room or the world to deliver somethingorother) may have entered brief currency via either WarGames (the Matthew Broderick movie) or popularised via The X-Files original series.

On a related note: I am certain that the now-omnipresent term "online" was popularised (and first used to the masses) in a seminal conversation between Mulder & Scully. The word was used in a pre-emptive/autonymic sense in 'Wired' magazine etc prior to its screen demoticisation, I will try and find that self-parodic & uber-memetic exchange.

 

[Spookdaddy]

Well, the spaniards that colonized the New Mexico territory (New Mexico, Arizona, Utah & Colorado) must have all been low class because none of the ancients that I knew growing up used the lisp, which was different from the Castillian we learned in school (no lisp in Castillian and we were told that was the proper Spanish like Oxford used to be the proper English). I remember the spanish teacher explained where those people who lisped were from but I can't remember. (50 years ago now)

Old Spanish used to have many sibilants (I think at least eight, but can't swear to that). The modern 'lisp' in European Spanish (the ceceo, I think) - which isn't really a lisp at all - is the result of a merging of some of those sounds. There's also, I think, a regional element involved - but, despite the mythology, it has absolutely nothing to do with lisping kings. My ex was Spanish, and I lived in Barcelona for a short time (and I've recently started learning the language again) - people tend to overuse the sound when caricaturing the Spanish language, but one of the things that becomes apparent to an outsider very quickly is that the 'th' sibilant is not at all ubiquitous.

I believe the sound has almost completely disappeared in South American Spanish. I can see a class distinction arising in pre revolution/independence South and Central American nations - where the use of European Spanish may have been used by some to associate themselves with the 'Old Country', and the upper echelons of the colonial regime, but my understanding is that it has not survived as a class marker.

In which part of england do they say "jumper" for what we call "sweater" (the one grandma's used to knitt)?

I would tend to use 'jumper' and I'm from the top half of England. That said, I think jumper and sweater are pretty much interchangeable in British English. (I'm convinced that one of the reasons English developed the way it did is so that when you can't recall a word at short notice, you have around a dozen others to choose from. Which makes everyone think that you know what you're talking about.)