Insurance, fixin, ya'll, grinders, subs, liquor store vs.

A forum for discussing US dialects (accents).
sluggo
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Postby sluggo » Sat Apr 22, 2006 11:56 pm

Firesignese
You wouldn't happen to be referring to Firesign Theater, the all time awesome purveyors of Harvey Tirebiter and Nick Danger - Third Eye, would you?
Annie, you're hip like a zip let's take a trip! Actually that would be George Tirebiter (Camden N-200R) -I know it so well since I was given that nickname long before Sluggo...

I didn't see anyone mention that "fixin' to" seems cognate to or derived from "repairing to" (now there's a bizarre idiom) - nor is it unironic that "fixin's"* are used on the sandwiches that were the original root of this thread.

*that's an apostrophe for the G, not the plural, just so's y'all know...

Paid for by the Tirebiter for Political Solutions Commitee, Sector R
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!

Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:00 am

This whole rebel-yankee test thing reminds me of the song Rocky Racoon; his girl and her man "were in the next room at the hoedown."* a line I always found hilarious, I Guess they have few hoedowns in Liverpool. Don't get the connection? Ok.

mark
*http://www.kiwilyrics.com/lyrics_b/beat ... _song.html

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb









The Deacon
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Postby The Deacon » Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:06 am

I have to add that we in New York and Parts of New Jersey have a plural for you also, we say, 'youse" Ie How are youse guys doing?

:) Peace,
The Deacon
Ubi Caritas et amore, Deus IBI Est.

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:27 am

Ah, the Firesign Theatre!

My favorite is Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him, especially the first cut, "Temporarily Humbolt County." It's a capsule history of how the American Indians were treated by the Spanish and the Americans.

I first heard that cut on the car radio about 1968 or 1969, and when I got home I left the car running so I wouldn't miss any of it. I'd never heard anything so bizarre, so funny, or so sadly true, before.

An excerpt, from memory:
. . .

[Conquistador #1 with Spanish accent] Say hello to your new father, Father Corrona.

[Priest with Irish accent] Down on your knees, lads. Do ya recognize what I'm holding over your head now?

[Indian with no accent in even, measured tones] It's a cross, symbol of the quatering of the Universe into active and passive principles.

[Priest] God have mercy on your heathen souls!

[Conquistador #1] No, what the Father means is, "What is the cross made of? Gold! You got any?

. . .

[Conquistadors singing as they exit] God bless Vespucciland!

[Priest with Irish Accent] Oh, and by the way: Domine, Domine, Domine--your all Catholics now!

[Silence for a moment, followed by a very loud harmonica playing the chorus from "Oh, Susannah" signalling the arrival of American settlers.
. . .
So of course after I typed all that and then some, I found a transcript posted online. Just remember the Conquistador and his soldiers have Spanish accents and pronounce Indians as IN-ee-ens, but the Priest has an Irish accent. The transcipt is a poor substitute for the real thing, but when it's all you've got . . .

About eight or ten years ago I read something about the cross being a Native American symbol, especially inscribed in a circle. Made a copy of the above cut and gave it to an Anthropology professor who spoke to our astronomy club about archeoastronomy. His specialty is the American Indians of the American Southwest, espcially the Chaco Canyon area.

Firesign Theatre is filled with puns and other juxtapositions. Ya gotta hear it to really appreciate it.
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:34 am

I have to add that we in New York and Parts of New Jersey have a plural for you also, we say, 'youse" Ie How are youse guys doing?

:) Peace,
The Deacon
In East Boston (Easta Bost) it's "all-a-yuz."
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

AdoAnnie
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Postby AdoAnnie » Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:06 am

Firesign Theatre is filled with puns and other juxtapositions. Ya gotta hear it to really appreciate it.
And you've got to hear it over and over again because you won't catch it all the first or tenth time around. Thirty five years later and I still catch puns and historical references and political inside jokes, etc., etc., that I'd laughed over or through before.

Let's all sing another rousing chorus of, 'Bringing the War Back Home!'

Betty Jo Bialonski?
Oh, you mean Nancy!
The neighbors said that they knew the man who'd been shot for years.

sluggo
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Postby sluggo » Mon Apr 24, 2006 8:42 pm

I have to add that we in New York and Parts of New Jersey have a plural for you also, we say, 'youse" Ie How are youse guys doing?

:) Peace,
The Deacon
In East Boston (Easta Bost) it's "all-a-yuz."
I've seen it spelt both youse and the more phonetic yuz (when I first saw youse in print I thought it must be said 'yowse').

From the Irish immigration, very common around Philly but even though that's my heritage I could never bring myself to use youse (hee hee) since it's kind of associated with the more ignorant types, at least in that area.
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:06 pm

Ah, but Easta Bost, at least as was explained to me by a native back in 1969, was one of the Italian sections. Those in East Boston had been there for a generation or so; those in the North End were "straight offa da boat." As Don explained it, back then you didn't walk the streets of East Boston at night if you were too dark; you didn't walk the steets of the North End at night if you were too dark OR too light.

Ah, yes, the so-called Liberal North . . . an eye-opener for a poor middle-class white boy from the suburbs of the Nation's Capital. No wonder they're called Damn Yankees. :wink:
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Stargzer
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Re: Insurance, fixin, ya'll, grinders, subs, liquor store vs

Postby Stargzer » Mon Apr 24, 2006 11:06 pm

. . . liquor store vs package store. by the way connecticut's packie as we used to call em close at 8 pm daily. what other state does that? we sell all our booze in one location. not some here and some there. in colorado they had 3.2 beer. that was horrible. 3.2 beer, 3.2 bars, it was crazy. is it still that way?
. . .
I remember buying 3.2 beer in West Virginia 30 years ago, but I don't know what it's like now.

Massachusetts also had Packies, or Package Stores. Virginia still has ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) stores:

Image

The ABC stores sell hard liquor and Virgina wines; grocery stores and convenience stores sell beer and wine.

In Maryland, beer, wine, and hard liquor are all sold at liquor stores licenced by the county or city. They set their own hours as far as I know. Long ago you could not buy hard liquor on Sundays, but that's one of the Blue Laws that bit the dust early on.
i mean in new york and new jersey the word pisser is used. . . .


I heard that in Massachusetts in college, but now that you mention it, it was from a New Yorker . . . "'at's pisser!" meaning something really good or really funny, etc..
and the phrase she's a piece of work is also common.
I've heard that phrase too, usually as "a real piece of work," meaning someone whose attitude, personality, ability to get things done, ideas, etc., leaves something to be desired.
we can forget about our accents, as they vary a whole lot more than even we know. i had no idea i had any accent. i knew new york did, i knew boston did, and chicago and down soouth, but when i moved to jersey i had no clue i had an accent, but everyone noticed it.
Where did you move from?

"Surely you are one of them. Even thy speech betrays thee!" :)
we can't be so critical of what other people do. mistakes in pronunciation, it's all our backgrounds and what we have heard growing up. sometimes we just do not realize it. things just replicate themselves.
See above. :)
as much as i feel like a country girl, love my country/western music, feel like sometimes i am more redneck than yankee, my word pronunciations and my dialect says otherwise

be proud of what you are. be proud of who you know. they may be different, and be tolerant. we are a melting pot after all.

:lol: :lol:
Yeah, let's just make sure the melting pot doesn't boil over and all go to pot. :wink:
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

AdoAnnie
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Postby AdoAnnie » Tue Apr 25, 2006 1:49 am

Yeah, let's just make sure the melting pot doesn't boil over and all go to pot.
I always prefered the image of a stew pot to a melting pot. I don't think that we melt down into into a sticky fondue, but harmonize into a savory stew where our indivudual ingredents are still recognizable, but our sum total makes for a wonderful new savory dish. Not too fancy, not too plain, filling and wholesome and . . . THAT'S why I woke up at 12:30 AM, I'm freakin HUNGRY!
The neighbors said that they knew the man who'd been shot for years.

Huia Iesou
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Postby Huia Iesou » Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:18 am

*that's an apostrophe for the G, not the plural, just so's y'all know...
Apostrophes form plurals? That's a new one to me. :wink:

sluggo
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Postby sluggo » Tue Apr 25, 2006 11:27 am

*that's an apostrophe for the G, not the plural, just so's y'all know...
Apostrophes form plurals? That's a new one to me. :wink:
Sure! Don't you read the sign's on the street's of Murka?
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!

stl_lahti
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Postby stl_lahti » Mon Jun 19, 2006 6:20 pm

. . . liquor store vs package store. by the way connecticut's packie as we used to call em close at 8 pm daily. what other state does that? we sell all our booze in one location. not some here and some there. in colorado they had 3.2 beer. that was horrible. 3.2 beer, 3.2 bars, it was crazy. is it still that way?


In Michigan a liquor or convience store is just called a "Party Store". Usually the owner will put his name in front of the words. So if Bob ownes the liquor store, it becomes Bob's Party Store.

Any other places that have weird names for different stores like this?

AdoAnnie
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Postby AdoAnnie » Mon Jun 19, 2006 10:18 pm

:roll: My hubby pointed out the first "brew threw" I'd ever seen. The place looked for all the world like a barn with two driveways going through it. And Texas just re-emphasized it's "no open container" law.
The neighbors said that they knew the man who'd been shot for years.

sluggo
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Postby sluggo » Tue Jun 20, 2006 1:21 am

:roll: My hubby pointed out the first "brew threw" I'd ever seen. The place looked for all the world like a barn with two driveways going through it. And Texas just re-emphasized it's "no open container" law.
Not unlike Louisiana, notorious for drive-through daiquiri stands. The ultimate mixed message.
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!


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