Very local word usage...

[izzarina]

Also, TO BE doesn't exist here. "This needs washed" is fairly common and honestly the one local habit I'm guilty of. Hamlet's speech in Pittsburgh would have been "...or not...".

Steubenville has all of those lovely Pittsburgh-isms as well. I always thought it was funny to read in the classified that a house which was for sale "needs painted". And there are plenty of "yinzers" there as well. I was talking to someone outside the local library at closing time, and the night watch type guy drove over to us (we were standing in the parking lot), and said "Are yinz going to be long? I can't leave till yinz do."

[scheky]

Heck Izz, Steubenville is a Pittsburgh Suburb...haven't you read the billboards?

My parents lived in Cadiz for a bit (Ohio, not Spain) and I know the to-be doesn't exist there either...however, n'at and yinz are gone from that far away.

[jlunt]

I grew up just below Pittsburg, you mispelled younse and younses.

Firstly, thanks for the spelling correction. It makes much more sense to me now. Sad to go 42 years misspelling a word I heard every day for decades, but there ya go.

I remember when WPGH 53 TV was invented. I am crawling under the rock now.

Second, yeah, I remember ch 53 going on the air. We'd just got a color TV and I remember sitting there watching "Gilligan's Island" and thinking that life can't get any better. As it turns out life can get better than "Gilligan's Island" but it took me a long time to realise it.

[Innocent Bystander]

Here's another Irish one for yez. In the North they say "Stickin' out" when they mean "definitely" or (sometimes) "wonderful". Never heard anybody say it down South, although I understand it does happen, or used to.
In the 1920s there was a song called "Stickin' out a Mile from Blarney". The chorus went
"How's your old one? She's game ball
Stickin' out a mile from Blarney."
Not sure how many people know the song, though.

[Lambchop]

"to squat" means to squish or pinch something vs. to go down on one's haunches. Eg - "I squat my fingers in the door".

In Florida, nearly everyone is from someplace else. This one's easy . . . squeeze, squoze, squat.

"Don't take that one, it's boast." What she meant was, the jam was past its safe date, bacteria had been at work and the air had expanded under the lid, and raised it. So the lid was "boast" by being a) proud (raised) and b) hollow (vain).

Here, I would "hear" it as a contraction of "''bout to bust." "Don't take that one! It's 'bout to bust."

[Walden]

I don't know how local these are. Several of them are normal usages where I come from in Oklahoma.

[cowtime]

flustrated, Katy bar the door, you-uns, you-uns-iz, heetz ("it's" when talking about a child ) and right

All of the above have already been mentioned and are common here in southwest VA too. You-uns is heard here but in my county is considered "backwards".

Here's a few more that I either use everyday practically or hear used by someone else very often.

pert (pronounced as pyert)- looking good, healthy- "Yore lookin' pert today."
ill- grouchy, mad "What's got you a-actin' sa ill? Who put a burr under yore saddle? "
pooch- sticking out- "Fix yer har(hair). It's poochin' out in back."
very - (pronounced "vury")- just barely ok, as in
"How ar ye?" "Oh, vury well I reckon."
reckon--think- I reckon as how I can do that if I try right real hard.

'lowed- thought "I 'lowed you'd be 'round here tomorrow."
nigh almost - " He hasn't been 'round here in nigh on to a coon's age." Sometimes this is used with pert - "I'm pert nigh
done in" - I'm tired.
coon's age- a long time
a- put before lots of words- I'm a-going inside now.
up under, or up-nunder- look up-n-under that table.
fetch- get something
riled- high emotional state
yonder-there, as in "I'm a-goin' over yonder"
hippoed- one of my mom's favorite words used say someone thought themselves into a situation, like they thought themselves into being sick, or thought themselves into doing a poor job- hey there's another one-
poor or poorly-bad- That calf just hasn't grown well. It's just doin' poorly. You did a poor job of it. That's a poor excuse for a calf.

On the odd occasion I've heard -
"kye" for cow



We never pronounce ending "g".
" i" is always long, none of this "ah-ee" for that letter.
"r" is always hard and pronounced, never turned into the uh sound on the end like they do in the deep south.
"r" is found in words that don't really include it- like tahrd(tired), wahr(wire), worsh, or warsh(wash)
"A" is usually dropped at the beginning of a word
Words like was, is wuz, get is git.


Here's a good link to how we talk and why-

http://www.wvculture.org/history/journa ... h30-2.html

[Redwolf]

One habit I acquired in North Carolina that still gets confused looks here in California is saying 'waiting on line' at the grocery store instead of "waiting IN line." Then there's "might could" instead of "maybe"...I must admit, I still use that (y'all!).

So, does anyone outside of California refer to a chili burger as a "chili size"?

Redwolf

[Lambchop]

That was excellent reading, Cowtime! I loved this paragraph:

Along with a propensity for calling a spade a spade, the dialect has a strange mid-victorian streak in it too. Until recently, it was considered brash to use either the word bull or stallion. If it was necessary to refer to a bull, he was known variously as a "father cow" or a "gentleman cow" or an "ox" or a "mas-cu-line," while a stallion was either a "stable horse" or else rather ominously, "The animal."

[cowtime]

That was excellent reading, Cowtime! I loved this paragraph:

Along with a propensity for calling a spade a spade, the dialect has a strange mid-victorian streak in it too. Until recently, it was considered brash to use either the word bull or stallion. If it was necessary to refer to a bull, he was known variously as a "father cow" or a "gentleman cow" or an "ox" or a "mas-cu-line," while a stallion was either a "stable horse" or else rather ominously, "The animal."

Yeah, I got a kick out of that too! But, you know...it's true.

As a kid, on the farm, I loved to work with the animals. (remember I later spent a good part of my adult life working with them too) It always irritated me that I was never allowed to go help the men pull a calf- just not considered proper, you know. Hah, little did they know it would have been good training since I married a farmer and believe me, the "fun" of calf pulling wore off real fast.

[Innocent Bystander]

flustrated, Katy bar the door, you-uns, you-uns-iz, heetz ("it's" when talking about a child ) and right

All of the above have already been mentioned and are common here in southwest VA too. You-uns is heard here but in my county is considered "backwards".

Here's a few more that I either use everyday practically or hear used by someone else very often.

pert (pronounced as pyert)- looking good, healthy- "Yore lookin' pert today."
ill- grouchy, mad "What's got you a-actin' sa ill? Who put a burr under yore saddle? "
pooch- sticking out- "Fix yer har(hair). It's poochin' out in back."
very - (pronounced "vury")- just barely ok, as in
"How ar ye?" "Oh, vury well I reckon."
reckon--think- I reckon as how I can do that if I try right real hard.

'lowed- thought "I 'lowed you'd be 'round here tomorrow."
nigh almost - " He hasn't been 'round here in nigh on to a coon's age." Sometimes this is used with pert - "I'm pert nigh
done in" - I'm tired.
coon's age- a long time
a- put before lots of words- I'm a-going inside now.
up under, or up-nunder- look up-n-under that table.
fetch- get something
riled- high emotional state
yonder-there, as in "I'm a-goin' over yonder"
hippoed- one of my mom's favorite words used say someone thought themselves into a situation, like they thought themselves into being sick, or thought themselves into doing a poor job- hey there's another one-
poor or poorly-bad- That calf just hasn't grown well. It's just doin' poorly. You did a poor job of it. That's a poor excuse for a calf.

On the odd occasion I've heard -
"kye" for cow



We never pronounce ending "g".
" i" is always long, none of this "ah-ee" for that letter.
"r" is always hard and pronounced, never turned into the uh sound on the end like they do in the deep south.
"r" is found in words that don't really include it- like tahrd(tired), wahr(wire), worsh, or warsh(wash)
"A" is usually dropped at the beginning of a word
Words like was, is wuz, get is git.


Here's a good link to how we talk and why-

http://www.wvculture.org/history/journa ... h30-2.html

Aye, Lowland and Ulster Scots. If you find yourself in Down or Armagh, you'll hear people talk about their kye. Prefectly reasonable. It is the singular of "kine". And "fornenst". It might make you pause to hear them say "I'll be up to get him in the cyar." (i.e. car = motor car = automobile.) And there are people there doing poorly. Some doing grand too, likely. Plenty of "yonder" and "yon" and also "thonder" and "thon" which I think is a weird Ulster joke on the use of the letter "y" to indicate "th" - like in "ye olde Village Shoppe".

[brewerpaul]

Hamlet's speech in Pittsburgh would have been "...or not...".

Not exactly on topic, but that reminds me of Robin Williams' impersonation of Sylvester Stallone doing Hamlet (in his best Rocky voice)
"To be...or what?"

[emmline]

As a kid, on the farm, I loved to work with the animals. (remember I later spent a good part of my adult life working with them too) It always irritated me that I was never allowed to go help the men pull a calf- just not considered proper, you know.

Well, that explains one of the mysteries of my childhood. Visiting my grandparents' farm--Tazewell, VA--(Cowtime knows it,) when I was roughly 10, one of the horses had a urinary problem. My grandfather and the vet went to "draw her water." I wasn't allowed to tag along and I always wondered why a veterinary procedure was considered an improper thing for a little girl to witness. So it's that.

And I do recognize all that SWVa dialect! Very familiar, despite the fact that where I grew up--Baltimore/Annapolis suburbs (hey, I'm still here!,) my snobby little mind came to associate Bawlmerese with a lack of education. Not the case, really. In fact, our last governor spoke that way.
And, in fact, my paternal great-grandmother was a true Baltimore German native before she married Mr. Franklin in Leesburg, VA.

Classic Bawlmer: Where do you go on vacation? Downy Aishun. (translation: Down to the Ocean. i.e, Ocean City, Maryland.)

[izzarina]

I grew up in New Jersey, and we didn't go to the shore there. In Jersey, you go "down the shore". As in, "What are you doing on Saturday?" "We're going down the shore". If you say it correctly (We're going down to the shore...), no one will know what you're talking about

[rhulsey]

I don't know how local these are. Several of them are normal usages where I come from in Oklahoma.

I'm an Okie, and most of these are quite familiar to me, too.

I had an aunt from SE Missouri who would use "how" instead of "while" in many cases.

"How you are at the store, pick up some milk".

Reg