Thursday · August 14 2003
This survey of regional dialects was posted on Gapers Block this week. The list of responses to each question is at least as interesting as the regional breakdown. You've probably discussed some of these when you meet someone from another part of the country. I've learned quite a few phrases through this type of small talk, but there's always a few new ones lurking.
Evidence backing my own experience:
- Chicagoans prefer gymshoes to tennis shoes or sneakers.
- Drivers from Colorado don't say expressway
- If you're thirsty in Boston or Wisconsin, you drink from the bubbler
- I say 'pop', you say 'soda', Bostonians say 'tawnic'
- News to me #1: The devil is beating his wife = a sunshower?
- News to me #2: Minnesotans "whip shitties"
This is such an great article. Coming from the land of freeways, tennis shoes, and no decision on the soda/pop issue, I find the Chicago and Boston areas quite interesting. Of course the Boston accent is a whole world unto itself. Minnesota is quite odd with the "whip shitties". One I have never heard. :)
Fascinating!! I love seeing the coke map all broken down like that. My grandmother used to say cocola. And everything is coke to me, it's just a matter of "what kind."
Hee-larious. Prior to moving to Chicago, I said "interstate," not "freeway" or "expressway." I had limited experience with major thoroughfares growing up in Colorado Springs; there was really only ONE, I-25, so it was always just "THE Interstate." Colorado now has more than one interstate, though. And Stacy spent some of her formative years in California, not to mention frequent visits to THE SOUTH, which could easily explain her usage of "freeway."