Regional names for things

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I'm grateful to finally know what a jumper is. Thats the word I meant. Maybe in my sub conscious I remembered a sweater in Brit is called a jumper. That would drive me nuts in brit movies and books!

"What is a jumper???" (My mind going crazy).

Ages ago, when I lived near Chicago, a jumper was a sleeveless dress worn over another top. So I would be confused when a male, in a British book or movie, was putting on a Jumper.

In Wisconsin some people steal from Canada and sound like they call a house a "hoose" and hockey is "hookey." I think it is very cute!

In Boston, I didnt think New York???, the "r" is often added or taken off, depending on the word. Also in my opinion very cute/sexy?? Example: Quarter sounds like quartah."

When I was a teen and vacationed in Michigan, i got ribbed for my Chicago accent. I would brush it off and say "Chicagoans dont have an accent." To which my Michigan friends would quip "I'm from Chicawwwgo and I dont tawwwwwk funny." And we would all laugh.

A pet peeve of mine is people who say Illinois with the "s" attached! It is a silent "s"!

This is fun, and, yes, I am up late with a cough that is keeping me awake!
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
I'm grateful to finally know what a jumper is. Thats the word I meant. Maybe in my sub conscious I remembered a sweater in Brit is called a jumper. That would drive me nuts in brit movies and books!

"What is a jumper???" (My mind going crazy).

Ages ago, when I lived near Chicago, a jumper was a sleeveless dress worn over another top. So I would be confused when a male, in a British book or movie, was putting on a Jumper.

In Wisconsin some people steal from Canada and sound like they call a house a "hoose" and hockey is "hookey." I think it is very cute!

In Boston, I didnt think New York???, the "r" is often added or taken off, depending on the word. Also in my opinion very cute/sexy?? Example: Quarter sounds like quartah."

When I was a teen and vacationed in Michigan, i got ribbed for my Chicago accent. I would brush it off and say "Chicagoans dont have an accent." To which my Michigan friends would quip "I'm from Chicawwwgo and I dont tawwwwwk funny." And we would all laugh.

A pet peeve of mine is people who say Illinois with the "s" attached! It is a silent "s"!

This is fun, and, yes, I am up late with a cough that is keeping me awake!
Jumpers, same in our region, a sleeveless dress worn over a top.

Also "pant-suits" (women's apparel), which is probably the universal name for it nearly everywhere, but thought I'd mention them seeing how we're on the topic. :)
 

Jabberwockey

Well-Known Member
A pet peeve of mine is people who say Illinois with the "s" attached! It is a silent "s"!

Like when people pronounce Missouri as Missourah. Main one I can think of almost got me in a fight once. While I was in the military, I was visiting with a friend from my unit in his home in upstate New York. We went out for a drink and the attractive young lady behind the counter asked what I wanted and I said Busch. She glared at me and asked me again. I repeated what I said at which point my friend came running over saying loudly "He's from Missouri! He wants a Budweiser!". I pointed out who manufactured Budweiser and still had to bring a case of Busch beer next time I went back to prove I wasn't messing with her.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
How do you say "root"?

I pronounce it to rhyme with "suit".

I have been married to so different men who were from Minnesota (which is strange, since I had never been to the state until a few years ago). They both pronounced it to rhyme with "foot".
 

ahhjeez

Active Member
SWOT I always thought the same about jumpers. They were those dress things that went over a shirt. Or like a jumpsuit type of thing. I had no idea they were sweaters for years. LOL. I'm from the Boston area and I always find it so interesting to hear what people from different regions call things. My family has always called soda tonic. A soda was rootbeer with vanilla ice cream. We call water fountains bubblah's, living room are parlors, traffic circles are rotaries and liquor stores are package stores.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
I spent the first 1/3 of my life in Texas and the rest in Ohio, so I still say "y'all" and "all y'all" quite a lot. It took a while for me to stop calling all carbonated beverages "Coke" though. Even though I preferred, and still prefer, Dr Pepper.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Oh! THOSE CIRCLES ON THE STREETS!

They are suddenly popular in Wisconsin and I dont like them. We call them roundabouts (one word). I heard they are big in the NE.

On how do we pronounce root, I use both pronunciations with the "foot" rhyme used more often.

Annieo, I had also heard that in parts of the south all soda or pop (depending on what you call fizzy drinks) were called Coke! Now for me, growing up in Chicago, a soda was also a fizzy drink with ice cream in it and often a yummy cherry on top, and the fizzy drink was called pop. But in Wisconsin, pop is called soda and soda with ice cream is an ice cream float. Got it?? :)

This is fun!
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
My family has always called soda tonic.

I had a college friend from Boston and I remember her calling it tonic - we thought it was SO FUNNY! We were easily amused.

so I still say "y'all" and "all y'all" quite a lot.

Missourians do a lot of Y'alls as well. And ain't.

I grew up in Missouri from the time I was 2 months old, but my parents were from the pacific northwest and Nevada - so I actually have less of a dialect than many of my friends who's family were from Missouri. For instance, I say Missouri Not Missourah. They actually use the (mispronunciation) as a cheer at the University football games "Mizzou RAH!" Makes me crazy. It ends in an I people!!!

Other things I probably say differently: Root rhymes with suit, not foot. I drink soda, but some of my friends growing up said coke or pop. I had a boyfriend from Northern Iowa once laugh at me when I told him to turn on the DEfroster...instead of the deFROSTer. Apparently, the emphasis belongs on different syllables depending on where you are from.

I actually thought I had no accent at all, until I went to Seattle as a kid - about 17 - and my sister in law and I got lost and were looking for the bus. We were in a mall, looking for the right exit and people would ask where we were from as soon as we opened our mouths. I finally started saying, "We're from Missouri. They don't have busses. Tell us where to go." LOL

Then when I was practicing law I would be up late dictating legal briefs and listening to a tape one time, I remarked to my secretary, "OMG! I sound like a hick! I had no idea I had an accent!" She just laughed and told me that when I'm tired, it gets more pronounced also.
 

ahhjeez

Active Member
I still sometimes say tonic and people look at me like I'm nuts. LOL. We do seem to be a little traffic circle/rotary nuts around here. They just built a new supermarket a town over form me and stuck a rotary in the entrance to the parking lot. It's so bizarre.

I don't think I've got much of an accent either until I try talking to someone on the phone in customer service. They inevitably ask me to say "park the car." LOL.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Wow. What hit me the most is...ketchup and gravy??? Is it good?

Well, a Chicago thing is hot dogs with ketchup. Awesome!!

We just call our winter hats hats...lol. Do you have special names for other winter wear...coats, gloves, mittens, heavy socks, boots? Other clothes items? Summer clothes like swimsuits, shorts, tops?

Do you know what a sweater is when somebody from the UK uses the word?

Anyone from the UK here to help?

We do use grits.

Um....as a native Chicagoan, ketchup on hotdogs is so verboten that many hotdog joints don't even make it available to customers. Personally, I find it disgusting.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Lol! We get used to how we tawwwwwk. Until I was up here in Wisconsin long enough to comfortably say "Im from Chi-cogo" (cog part rhymes with flog) I used to get teased a lot for the way I "tawwwwk."

As a Midwesterner I definitely notice NY accents as different. In certain parts of the south, I have trouble understanding. And, as stated earlier, British English proounciation AND slang is challenging for me. Its all English, but it sounds different. It can sound lovely to me, but is often hard to translate for my Midwestern ear.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
Um....as a native Chicagoan, ketchup on hotdogs is so verboten that many hotdog joints don't even make it available to customers. Personally, I find it disgusting.

Most hotdogs are disgusting. Anything to disguise the taste and the more burned the better.

Hubby is a hot-dog snob. The only ones I've ever known Jabber to eat on a regular basis were Hebrew National. Or chili dogs. Cover them with chili and he'll scarf them down.

When I was a kid we used to sneak off-campus before our first class and get foot-longs from the gas station, with cheese, ketchup and sweet pickle relish. LOL That's what I put on my chili-dogs too; chili, cheese, ketchup and relish. Yes, I know. But I still to this day think it's yummy. Kind of sweet and sour hot dogs. :p

I think mustard on a dog is nasty! Different strokes.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Hubby is a hot-dog snob. The only ones I've ever known Jabber to eat on a regular basis were Hebrew National. Or chili dogs. Cover them with chili and he'll scarf them down.

When I was a kid we used to sneak off-campus before our first class and get foot-longs from the gas station, with cheese, ketchup and sweet pickle relish. LOL That's what I put on my chili-dogs too; chili, cheese, ketchup and relish. Yes, I know. But I still to this day think it's yummy. Kind of sweet and sour hot dogs. :p

I think mustard on a dog is nasty! Different strokes.

The traditional Chicago-style dog is made either with a kosher style all beef dog, or a all-beef dog made especially for a specific hot dog joint.

Many Chicago hotdog joints use Vienna or Best's kosher hotdogs and Polish sausage (bears little resemblance to the original kielbasa, basically a larger, fattier, and VERY garlicky hotdog)
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Hot Dog Snob.

I'm with Jabber on this one.

Hebrew National is the only hot dogs I will eat, preferably over a campfire and cooked on a stick.

With mustard.

Chili and cheese is good, too.

As long as it is Hebrew National.

Hubby once had me try Nathan's, but no. Cant stomach any other brand.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
I spent the first 1/3 of my life in Texas and the rest in Ohio, so I still say "y'all" and "all y'all" quite a lot. It took a while for me to stop calling all carbonated beverages "Coke" though. Even though I preferred, and still prefer, Dr Pepper.

You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can never take all the Texas out of the girl....

I say "Coke" even though I don't like Coke.

And y'all IS a word. Nobody can tell me anything different!
 
Top