Regional Dialects/Odd Sayings

[Lucy]

Here's one I do, and people from different regions make fun of me for it. I say "might should" or "might could". It seems to mean "perhaps." Like, "We might could go to this one bar, if that one's closed." Or, "You might should just call him if you're worried about it." Does anyone else do this? Or am I just a freak?

[Google]

 

[SurvivorGirl]

Originally Posted by John

In Ireland: "JAYsus."

Reminds me of a deacon at the church I go to.

[ravs]

Originally Posted by ozjod

In Australia it's also "take-away" and "chemists".

Some other differences between the US and Australia that I can think of off the top of my head.

Thongs, we wear ours on our feet. I'm not sure what you call them, flip flops?
Root, in the US you root for a team, in Australia that's what Betty and Bob do in private
Our car's don't have trunks, they have boots and they don't have hoods, they have bonnets.
Our generic term for pop/soda is "soft drink".
You cook with bell peppers, we call them Capsicums.
In a city, you have a downtown, we have a CBD (central business district)
You have egg rolls, we have spring rolls.
You have cotton candy, we have fairy floss.
You have papaya, we have paw paw.

that's all I can think off at the moment, I know there are heaps more

Woo Hoo! - Finally another aussie around here.

Here's some more...

You have cookies, we have biscuits.
You have diapers, we have nappies.
You have strollers, we have prams.
You have cell phones, we have mobiles.
You have thongs (underwear), we have G-strings.
You have fanny-packs, we have bum-bags.
You say "she's all that!" like on Ricki Lake, we say "she's up herself"
You have line edgers or grass edgers, we have whipper snippers.
You have candy, we have lollies.
You have quilts, we have doonas
You have young'n (small child), we have ankle biters.

[AmandaFabulous]

Originally Posted by ravs

Woo Hoo! - Finally another aussie around here.

Here's some more...
You have thongs (underwear), we have G-strings.

Actually...we call them both - they are 2 different things. This is a g-string

and this is a thong

Difference is a g-string has a string back, a thong has a "T" shaped back or a little triangle of fabric at the top.

Another difference..g strings hurt...thongs you don't feel.

[Bill747]

Originally Posted by AIWANNABE

Canada has some very strange ones. They call sneakers, runners.

Correction. We call them "running shoes", not runners. Runners means something else, usually long narrow carpets placed in hallways.

I lived/lives in Vancouver/Toronto; my sister in New York/Seattle. So I've noticed a lot of differences. The alphabet "z" is pronounced "e-saad" in Canada, but in the States it's similiar to "c", or "zee".

Many Canadian terms are being displaced by American terms, e.g. chesterfield by sofa, serviette by napkins. But some new Cdn terms have developed recently. E.g. "a loonie" = a dollar coin = 4 quartres. In the 1980's, when the Cdn gov't introduced dollar coins to replace the dollar bills, people began calling it a "loonie" because:
(1) it was a looney idea.
(2) the face of it has a Canadian loon.
(3) while Prime Minister Mulroney (or Mulooney) was in charged, the Cdn dollar droped in value from $1 US to 75 cents US.

[queenb]

Originally Posted by Lucy

Here's one I do, and people from different regions make fun of me for it. I say "might should" or "might could". It seems to mean "perhaps." Like, "We might could go to this one bar, if that one's closed." Or, "You might should just call him if you're worried about it." Does anyone else do this? Or am I just a freak?

Bless your heart, Lucy you know that's a Southernism. You could always say "ort to" , thats another one. Here's some more with explanations where needed; I wrote these all down as I heard them, just TODAY!

Tacky - in poor taste, garish, outdated or otherwise inappropriate (and not a good definition here, but all the Southern ladies know what this means)
Purty - pretty
Spring lizard - salamander
Branch - creek
Stumped (not stubbed) a toe
Washing powders - laundry detergent
Booger man - fictitious evil creature that will "get" you
Growed up - overgrown with vegetation , as a trail that is not used much
Idjit - idiot
Haint - ghost ( also, 'ain't. I swear this is true; one of my old great-aunts used to say of a neighbor she disliked "She's so ignernt [ignorant] she says haint instead of ain't")
Dadgummit or dadgum - dammit or damn
Bream - bluegill and various other sunfish
Snake doctor - damselfly (like a dragonfly but smaller and thinner
Plum - absolutely (You're plum crazy, smoking while you pump gas!)

Grin like a horse eating briars
Grin like a possum eating s**t
Sorry the day away
Run like a scalded dog
He could eat a watermelon through a chain link fence - he's buck toothed

And yes, I say " fixing to" and the "Coke" thing; I had no idea this bothered people so badly, but I was born in rural Georgia and have lived here all my life. So I don't even notice when I hear these things, and I have no intention of trying to stop saying them, even though I know it's incorrect.

By the way, John, my sister and I visited your part of the country (sort of) last year - road trip in Wisconsin and the U.P. We did OK in Milwaukee, but when we got to the North Woods area and the U.P. we almost needed an interpreter for both sides!

[nlmcp]

Originally Posted by queenb

By the way, John, my sister and I visited your part of the country (sort of) last year - road trip in Wisconsin and the U.P. We did OK in Milwaukee, but when we got to the North Woods area and the U.P. we almost needed an interpreter for both sides!

LOL queenb, I'm from the UP. I can see why you would need help there.

Yoopers -people living in or usually from the UP (as most of us leave there)
yeh eh...universal greeting
youse- you or you people maybe pural may not

Words like Don and dawn, cot and caught sound alike.

pasty is a food. A very good food.

There's more but I'm not awake enough

[ravs]

Originally Posted by BamaFabulous

Actually...we call them both - they are 2 different things.
Difference is a g-string has a string back, a thong has a "T" shaped back or a little triangle of fabric at the top.

Another difference..g strings hurt...thongs you don't feel.

Wouldn't know what a g-string or thong would feel, but thanks for clarifying. In Oz, the t-shaped and string back are all called G-strings. I haven't heard a different name for each.

A friend once told me how an American friend she just met looked at her really funny when she told him that she wore thongs all the time in the summer. Of course, she was referring to what you american's call 'flip flops'.

Another incident involved another friend of mine when she was travelling in a bus and an american tourist said loudly on how her fanny hurt from the seat. The other people on the bus just laughed and my friend had to go to the tourist and explain what fanny meant in Oz . Lets just say, the tourist was a bit embarassed.

[Wisconsinswede]

Originally Posted by BamaFabulous

Speaking of salesmen with an accent - Troy the apprentice - I was shocked when I found out he was from Idaho. I would have bet that he was from Georgia just by listening to him talk.

PS - forever I read your screen name as Wisconsin WEED - I only got it like a week ago.

Ya Troy definitely did it for me as well! I'd buy a bridge from him.

Weed???? WTH? Bama....what did you think about me all this time?
giggle....the trip to Sweden story didnt even send off any tiny bells or whistles

[Wisconsinswede]

Originally Posted by nlmcp

pasty is a food. A very good food.

ugh I used to hate when my mother made this....who said a "meat filled pie" was ok to feed people