Regionalisms

Throwback Thursday..60 years ago

A few weeks back, on Facebook there was a quiz from the NYT  (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?r=80l0084104000k2000j20000b00000060j1101802008020400&_r=0) that predicts where you are from based on your vocabulary and pronunciations of a few key words. It pegged me as a Michigander.

Well I have lived here 52 years though I am from upstate NY. I was surprised it could separate me from the rest of the Midwest. Apparently Devil's Night is only known in Michigan. What is a frappe? (pronounced 'frap')? A shake in MA.

We had a few Bostonians in our group last night: one with an extremely heavy accent even though she hadn't lived there in more than 40 years. The other, a young woman, moved from there recently but you couldn't really detect any accent. ( I guess I don't consider speaking Michigander an accent). She is like Zelig, sucking up the local lingo quickly. Both of them haven't had cancer themselves. One is there for her daughter, the other for her mother back East. The latter is concerned that her mother's poor diet has led to cancer and wants her to change her ways. Good luck with that! If nagging worked, we'd all be thin and perfect. 

Another woman reported her work as a nurse. A patient had  beckoned her:

I need some ass.

Huh? Not a service she was willing to perform. But a Southerner had overheard and provided  the patient with some ice.