What did you say?!

From bubbler to drinking fountain and coke to Sodi-pop there are many different words for MANY different things. Each dialect of North American English (NAE) will have words that will be foreign to all the dialects of English including the subset of NAE. 

Here I am going to just through down words from various NAE dialects. Hope you enjoy (won't list the meaning).

• Faucet
• Spigot
• teeter-totter
• seesaw
• dandle
• cabinet (not what you are thinking)
• grinder
• johnnycake
• leaf peeper
• rotary
• catty corner
• kitty corner
• stoop
• breezeway
• hoagie
• jimmies
• pavement
• bubbler
• davenport
• euchre
• hot dish
• yooper
• barn-burner
• hoosier
• billfold
• chill bumps
• commode
• fix
• house shoes
• yonder
• poke
• loobery or lubery
• buggy
• anagogglin/sigogglin
• pecker wood
• sparkin'
• roly poly
• crawdad
• tchotchke
• gewgaw

Mamaw and Papaw, Granny and Gramps

Kinship Terms!!! (one of my favorite topics!)

The vast number of Kinship terms that are used to title 'Grandparents' in all of the North American English dialects happens to be quite incredible. Growing up I used specific titles depending on how distant the person was related from me.

• Mamaw/Papaw - Grandmother/grandmother (mothers parents)
• Papaw*/mamaw + first name - Dads parents
• *for my dads father I reduplicated his name so it was 'Joejoe'
• Mamaw + Last name - Great-grand mother mothers side
• Grandma + Last name - Great-grand mother dads side
• Grandma + First name - meant someone that I was not blood related too (in one particular instance)

There are many a different names that children give to their grandparents and with that many names grandparents try to instill in their grandchildren. Some will come from the roots of grandfather/dad/mother/ma . Others will be completely unrelated and just be something interesting the child came up with.

Just a few examples: Nana, Grandma, Granny, Gran, Gram, Grammy, Papa, Grandpa, Granddad, Gramps.

Across languages there are different ways of forming kinship terms, so the crazy process of having many distinct and different words is not limited to the English language!

-Нафаня-

Dryland Fish?

Dryland Fish?

Yesterday happened to be Black Friday and since I here in Minnesota I was unable to go down and visit my Mamaw (grandmother). Though I was able to call and chat with her.

Later that day I received a text message from my sister ... "Mamaw just said that mushrooms were dryland fish.." I asked what she meant and my sister replied "...We are watching a cooking show and the guy was chopping mushrooms and mamaw said "dryland fish." I guess that is what people from Kentucky called them."

I thought before that I knew most of "Appalachian" vocabularies but it seems that I still have a lot to learn. I decided to do some research and figure out if it is usually used as a word for mushrooms or a certain type. I discovered that the mushroom Morchella is called dryland fish colloquially down in that area. There are also other names such as Hickory Chicken etc. Though generally the word applies to one mushroom it seems my Mamaw uses it for most mushrooms!

The Appalachian dialect that my mamaw speaks is full of words and grammars that are unique. It, for me is one of the most interesting dialects in the North American English dialect.

-Нафаня-

Begging for bags

For about 3 months I have been living up here in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area. Since being here I have come to greatly appreciate my own variant of English (Not to say that how people speak up here is anywhere near bad).

When I first started catering (no longer cater, now I am in payroll), I was asked by one of my co-workers "do we have another beg (what I heard)." For a moment I was unsure of what they wanted but then figured it out. I have  known for years that here in the upper Midwest it is common to raise the vowel (/æ/ i.e. the vowel in cat) to where it sound similar to the vowel in eight (/e/). Thus rendering bag as what others who don't have this shift as beg.
The vowel does not have to be /e/ (ei-) but it will be somewhere between /æ/ and /e/ (cat and eight). This raising happens before voiced velar sounds (/g/ e.i. g and /ŋ/ e.i. ng). 


Now whenever I say the verb 'beg' I cannot help but to think I mean bag... 

-Нафаня-

Introduction

Hello Everyone!

This new blog will be dedicated to discussing things or phenomena dealing with linguistics but mainly Dialectology.

I will try to post everyday a different topic and example of different dialects and different aspects.

If you have any topics in specific you would like to hear about pleas feel free to message me and I will do my best to answer any and all of your questions.

Thanks and let the Dialects begin!

Нафаня (aka Nathan)