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

A forum for discussing US dialects (accents).
cnfrancis
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Insurance, fixin, ya'll, grinders, subs, liquor store vs.

Postby cnfrancis » Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:29 am

I'm from Connecticut originally. I've lived in Colorado (there you have sacks for groceries, not bags). You have tennies not sneakers, you have subs and heroes and I learned then from the New Yorkers there that some are wedges. I am used to grinders.

Then I lived in New Jersey. It's the shore there, and I think only in Jersey it's the shore. Weird, but you adjust.

Then I moved to Florida. People here say IN surance. Where in Connecticut we say insurance, all one word. That is one word that drives me crazy here. being i am from the insurance state of Connecticut.

You have insurance, youhave subs, grinders, wedges, heroes, 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?

then here people saying fixin. what exactly does fixin mean? where i come from it would be fixing, and that would mean y ou have to or are repairing something. ya'll is ok, it's common and growing up when you heard an accent you knew ya'll was part of it.

i am used to them all. it started when i moved to colorado at 18 and i'm now 47, so i've heard it all. i mean in new york and new jersey the word pisser is used. and the phrase she's a piece of work is also common.

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.

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.

just wanted to say i loved this test. 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.



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Hi I'm Cheryl, I live in FL, also lived in CT, NJ and CO so I have learned lots of diff ways of speaking.

Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:29 am

Fixin' : a good Texan term for; I'm going to. See how they took all those superfluous letters out to give you the whole concept in five small letters? Genius I'd say. Like Boy Howdy in Oklahoma it's just so expressive. All the regional idiosyncracies make our language richer and definately more fun.
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.
You didn't think I was putting you down where I was making fun of wedges now do you? Nope I was just going for the joke. :)

mark

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
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cnfrancis
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reply to my post

Postby cnfrancis » Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:08 pm

no i would not get offended about wedges, none of that stuff. we have such diversities that sometimes we forget and get opinionated. that is all we have opinions. who really is right or wrong?

hell no you can call anything anything you want. me insurance sticks in my craw, but not so much that i get angry. like everyone else i like to vent.

i was 26% dixie and a yankee for sure. what were you?

also for bailey about the fixin thing, and all the comments. you are right that is what makes all of us US>>>>>>
Hi I'm Cheryl, I live in FL, also lived in CT, NJ and CO so I have learned lots of diff ways of speaking.

Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:32 pm

I was All over the map, I had a nomadic family we lived everywhere in the US, except for Alaska and Hawaii. I still want to live a few years in Alaska if I can. Hawaii? no, I'll pass, too many bugs! I hear they have a giant centipede of which monster movies are made.

mark

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
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Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Wed Apr 19, 2006 6:10 pm

Put on you bell bottoms and paisley shirt and check out the The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag by Country Joe & the Fish.

[Stargzer has a nostalgia rush.]

OOH! Check out the April 2006 Calendar! Serendipity!
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

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

Postby sluggo » Thu Apr 20, 2006 6:51 pm

[quote="cnfrancis"]I'm from Connecticut originally. I've lived in Colorado (there you have sacks for groceries, not bags). You have tennies not sneakers, you have subs and heroes and I learned then from the New Yorkers there that some are wedges. I am used to grinders.

Wedges?? What might these be?

Then I lived in New Jersey. It's the shore there, and I think only in Jersey it's the shore. Weird, but you adjust.

And if you're in PA headed that way, you're going "down the shore" -never "to", glide past the TH of "the", and full frontal "ore" please... and if you're the partying type you might stop at a State Store before you leave, this being the way liquor is vended in PA.

Then I moved to Florida. People here say IN surance. Where in Connecticut we say insurance, all one word. That is one word that drives me crazy here. being i am from the insurance state of Connecticut.

"Sacks" are common in DeepSouth too. So is INsurance. If you pick a certain company you get the UMbrella INsurance. One wants to presume it's to distinguish from Outsurance :wink:
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!

sluggo
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-and inkpens too

Postby sluggo » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:01 pm

This thread reminds me of another anomaly -I was always in awe of the word "inkpen" encountered in New Orleans and the Deep South. Where I grew up it's just a pen, period. What else would a pen run on, thought I, and chalked it up as another local redundancy along with "video movie" and "no, uh-uh". Then a Nashville friend spelled it out: 'pin' and 'pen' are homonyms in the South so they need a way to distinguish. Aha, a reason to the rhyme!
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!

jlrussell
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Postby jlrussell » Fri Apr 21, 2006 5:23 pm

[color=blue][/color]I'm on a crusade to make the word "y'all" socially acceptable. It is all-inclusive, non-sexist, and therefore polically correct. (Although I've never personally worried about being PC!) So what do ya'll think about my idea?
Jan R.

sluggo
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Postby sluggo » Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:48 pm

I'm on a crusade to make the word "y'all" socially acceptable. It is all-inclusive, non-sexist, and therefore polically correct. (Although I've never personally worried about being PC!) So what do ya'll think about my idea?
Isn't it socially acceptable already?? I say it belongs in the latitudes of legitimacy right up there with "ain't", and for the same reason- we have no other (decent) word for "you-plural" as other languages do. We's just got to get it into common parlance. Y'all on the border states, step up to the plate! Pass the word and raze the ammunition!

But uh, can we stop short of the possesive y'all's? Multiple apostrophes give me the willies.
Last edited by sluggo on Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!

Perry
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Postby Perry » Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:51 pm

Fixin' : a good Texan term for; I'm going to. See how they took all those superfluous letters out to give you the whole concept in five small letters? Genius I'd say. Like Boy Howdy in Oklahoma it's just so expressive. All the regional idiosyncracies make our language richer and definately more fun.
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.
You didn't think I was putting you down where I was making fun of wedges now do you? Nope I was just going for the joke. :)

mark
Don't be so elitist (LOL). Over this'aways in Western North Carolina, at any given moment someone is a fixin' to do this or do that.

I agree with jlrussell about y'all; although I like to interchange y'all with you'uns from time to time. :lol:
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:53 pm

. . . Pass the word and raze the ammunition!
Say wha'?
Quick definitions (raze)

verb: tear down so as to make flat with the ground
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

raze

PRONUNCIATION: rāz
VARIANT FORMS: also rase
TRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: razed also rased, raz·ing, ras·ing, raz·es, ras·es
1. To level to the ground; demolish. See synonyms at ruin. 2. To scrape or shave off. 3. Archaic To erase.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English rasen, to scrape off, from Old French raser, from Vulgar Latin *rāsāre, frequentative of Latin rādere. See rash[sup]2[/sup].
But uh, can we stop short of the possesive y'all's? Multiple apostrophes give me the willies.
Well, then, just speak 'em, don't write 'em! I wouldn't'v' even thought about it if you hadn't mentioned 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

sluggo
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Postby sluggo » Sat Apr 22, 2006 1:18 am

. . . Pass the word and raze the ammunition!
Say wha'?
Quick definitions (raze)

verb: tear down so as to make flat with the ground, etc etc <snip>
Ah, yeah, it was a joke. The usual phrase is "praise the lord and pass the ammunition" (or in Firesignese, the other way 'round).

How 'bout "pass the word and praise the new locution"?
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!

AdoAnnie
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Postby AdoAnnie » Sat Apr 22, 2006 6:43 am

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?

I can still quote large sections of The Climate Controlled Car.

". . . Antelope Freeway on half mile . . . Antelope Freeway one quarter mile . . . "


BTW, here in Texas "fixin to" is also a kind of 'pre-start' adverb for a verb, such as: I'm fixin to start my homework, meaning that I'm in front of the tv or I'm fixin to go to the store, which would mean, I've got the shopping list, I've found my keys, i'm dressed and heading for the door, but I'm not actually driving yet so if there is anything you need or want before I get in the car and start the engine you still have time to get your request in for anything you might like to add to the shopping list before I am unavailable. It is a good, practical word. :wink:
The neighbors said that they knew the man who'd been shot for years.

Perry
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Postby Perry » Sat Apr 22, 2006 3:44 pm

The two things that I have retained from Firesign Theater are, "that would have blown my mind, if I had a mind" (Tim and Katy, no comments please :lol: ) and, "Hi!, I'm not a doctor. But I do look like one; and I'm being paid to tell you...".
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous

AdoAnnie
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Postby AdoAnnie » Sat Apr 22, 2006 5:32 pm

My favorites were always, 'She's no fun, she fell right over' and 'Oh, you mean Nancy!.'

Those guys were extrodinary!
The neighbors said that they knew the man who'd been shot for years.


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