So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[HudsonHawk]

Terms like ya'll, fixin to, and ain't are part of my every day vocabulary. I "code switch" for no one. My own sister laughed when i told her something was "in yonder" one day. We live in the same state, how has she never heard that before?

Someone once asked me how far away a place was, and I said "not far at all, really just a 'possum toss'". That had a few folks spewing beer out of their nostrils.

 

[Zombie_61]

I do this all the time with my Southern accent. Normally, people say they can hear it, but it's just there in the background, so to speak. There's the ubiquitous "y'all", I'll occasionally use phrases like "fixin to", and I sometimes have a pronounced drawl (which is elongating words, making a single syllable word into two syllables), but for the most part, I speak fairly "normal", especially in a work setting. But when I get around my family or others whose accent is much more pronounced, I suddenly turn into Jed Clampett...

My wife grew up in the Chicago suburbs, but moved to southern California with her parents and older sister in 1976. She has retained a hint of that "nasal" Chicago accent over the years, but for the most part it's nowhere near as noticeable as other Chicagoans we know who never lost that accent regardless of where they live/have lived. But send her to Chicago and expose her to her relatives for a week or so, and when she returns to California that accent comes back with her...for a while, anyway.

I've been told I have a typical "southern California" accent which, of course, I don't notice; no one ever thinks they have an accent unless/until it's brought to their attention. But sometimes when I'm really tired I suddenly begin speaking with what sounds to family and friends like a "southern drawl", and I have no idea why. No one in my family spoke that way, and as far as I know I have no heritage connected to the "southern" U.S..

 

[LizzieMaine]

When I lived in California the first thing I noticed was that the locals there tended to speak slower than I was used to in the Northeast, and when I talked at what I thought was a normal pace they'd tell me to slow down. I don't know if I'd characterize that SoCal accent as a drawl, but it certainly doesn't have that rat-a-tat style you get in the NE.

As for quaint regionalisms, my mother is a fountain of them. When somebody is strutting around like they're All That, Ma will sneer "don't he think he's the cat's ass."

 

[3fingers]

don't he think he's the cat's ass."

That used to be a common one here but I haven't heard it for quite a while. Another one I haven't heard lately is "richer than four feet up a bull's ass."

 

[Zombie_61]

When I lived in California the first thing I noticed was that the locals there tended to speak slower than I was used to in the Northeast, and when I talked at what I thought was a normal pace they'd tell me to slow down. I don't know if I'd characterize that SoCal accent as a drawl, but it certainly doesn't have that rat-a-tat style you get in the NE...

That's interesting, because an alleged linguistics expert once told me that southern Californians don't have an accent per se, but that we tend to speakquicklyandrunallofourwordstogether; I've noticed I'm guilty of that when I'm not stammering or tongue-tied. And I've had several native southern Californians comment on how annoyed they get with people who speak too slowly. So if we speak slower, by comparison you Northeast folks must really speak fast.

 

[Haversack]

My first posting in the Army was a cornucopia of regional US accents. The Battery Commander was from North Dakota. The four lieutenants were from rural Kansas, Staten Island, Florida panhandle, and Northern California. The First Sergeant was from Beaumont, Texas. and my platoon sergeant from Frog Hollow, Alabama.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

My wife grew up in the Chicago suburbs, but moved to southern California with her parents and older sister in 1976. She has retained a hint of that "nasal" Chicago accent over the years, but for the most part it's nowhere near as noticeable as other Chicagoans we know who never lost that accent regardless of where they live/have lived. But send her to Chicago and expose her to her relatives for a week or so, and when she returns to California that accent comes back with her...for a while, anyway.

I've been told I have a typical "southern California" accent which, of course, I don't notice; no one ever thinks they have an accent unless/until it's brought to their attention. But sometimes when I'm really tired I suddenly begin speaking with what sounds to family and friends like a "southern drawl", and I have no idea why. No one in my family spoke that way, and as far as I know I have no heritage connected to the "southern" U.S..

Please, tell me that she isn't a Cubs fan!
Even though I'm not a big sports fan I've noticed this here in California. People who are originally from New York or Chicago, for example, who still retain a strong loyalty to their former hometowns. I've noticed that many are still hardcore Yankees or Cubs fans even after being out here for many years. I've often said that LA is the only place where there are probably more visiting team fans at a sporting event than home team even though practically everybody is a "local."

 

[HudsonHawk]

Please, tell me that she isn't a Cubs fan!
Even though I'm not a big sports fan I've noticed this here in California. People who are originally from New York or Chicago, for example, who still retain a strong loyalty to their former hometowns. I've noticed that many are still hardcore Yankees or Cubs fans even after being out here for many years. I've often said that LA is the only place where there are probably more visiting team fans at a sporting event than home team even though practically everybody is a "local."

It can feel that way here in Houston sometimes too. Not that there are more visiting team fans, but there are usually more than you'd expect. But Houston is a relatively "new" and very diverse city. Few true "natives". It's especially that way in parts of Florida too

 

[LizzieMaine]

Of course, most teams in California came there from someplace else...

The rap on Washington DC as a sports town always touched on the "everybody there is from somewhere else" theme as well, which made it hard for the local teams to build any kind of a fanbase.

 

[Zombie_61]

Please, tell me that she isn't a Cubs fan!
Even though I'm not a big sports fan I've noticed this here in California. People who are originally from New York or Chicago, for example, who still retain a strong loyalty to their former hometowns. I've noticed that many are still hardcore Yankees or Cubs fans even after being out here for many years. I've often said that LA is the only place where there are probably more visiting team fans at a sporting event than home team even though practically everybody is a "local."

She isn't, but that's because she's even less interested in sports than I am. We might watch a "big" game if we had money in a pool at work, but otherwise we're the kind of people who watch the Superbowl for the commercials and half-time show and really couldn't care less about the outcome. Most of her relatives who still live in the Chicago area are indeed sports fans and we've heard reports about the occasional serious argument between some of them about their favorite teams, but for the most part all we've ever seen is some very good-natured teasing about those teams' successes and failures during any given season.

From what I've seen the big difference between New York/Chicago sports fans and Los Angeles sports fans is that here they're mostly "fair weather" fans. If, say, the Dodgers are doing well they're happy and supportive, but if they're performing poorly the local fans will be the first to rip 'em to shreds and turn their backs on them. But my wife's relatives stand by their teams through thick and thin, and if "their" team is having a bad season the worst you'll hear is, "Oh, we'll get 'em next year."

 

[Harp]

My first posting in the Army was a cornucopia of regional US accents...

I recall cleaning my M16 inside the Louisiana barracks and having to ask for cleaning patches and LSA from a Maine
guy whose heavily accented dialect stole the foreign language prize that summer.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My brother went to boot camp at Fort Jackson, where he was ridden mercilessly for his accent. At least he thought he was being ridden -- he couldn't be sure, because he couldn't understand what anybody else in the barracks was saying.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The only words of New Englandspeak that I know are "ayuh" and "wicked."

 

[LizzieMaine]

You could probably survive here for a month with just those two words.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Conversational Usage:

"That's a wicked new lobster trap ya got there, Bob.."
"Ayuh"
"I'm hungry, I can do with some poutine at Beaulieu's, it's wicked good!"
"Ayuh"

 

[LizzieMaine]

And don't forget, it's pronounced "Bowl-Ya." Just like "Tibba-dough," "Mee-show," and "Terry-yo."

 

[GHT]

The only words of New Englandspeak that I know are "ayuh" and "wicked."

In the UK the type of viewer that watches the lowest common denominator shows also has a two word vocabulary. Absolutely & Basically.

Do other countries have adverts for pharmaceuticals for the common cold? We have one that implies that a cure has been discovered for the common cold. Lemsip Max Strength for relief from colds and flu. It's no more than the 19th century quack medicine. Told with drama, you would believe that one sip and you are up and about, almost like shaking off a hangover. Are people really so gullible?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Quack "supplements" and "oils" are rampant here in the USA -- all they're missing is a stage with a banjo player and a fake Indian chief.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Ah, supermarket people in the evening...

Girl, next time, let your malfunction electronic-cash trash-card at home and pay cash.

 

[HanauMan]

That has happened to me so often now that I always carry emergency money to cover the cost of my shopping should the Gremlins come calling again next time I use cashless payments.