gster said:

 

I think you're describing the Gunsmoke character Festus. It sometimes took me 2 days to figure out what he said!

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Not too sure where this all fits, but two examples of regional dialects, sayings, etc.

First: The Minnesota "O", picked up by the elder within 10 weeks of attendance at college in Minnesota. Upon her return for the first break, her friends from high school were absolutely horrified to hear it, wondering out loud what had happened to her.

Second (again MN, with a bit of the South): I've noticed among those who are a bit older and who grew up in Minnesota (I am told this also applies to Wisconsin, some parts of the Dakotas, too) the tendency to end a comment with (as best as I can do this phonetically), "don'cha know?". Those of us who are familiar with folks from the South also are aware of the phrase "I'm fixin' to do..." in describing anticipated actions to be taken. When the elder was in Milwaukee for the first summer internship she had while in college, a young person from Louisville, as I recall, discussing attending the Milwaukee summer festival (which occurred towards the end of the period), stated "I'm fixin' to go down and see Chicago, don'cha know". Ah, the mixing of the expressions/dialect. If I'd been there, I fear I'd have been laughing.

 

Tracy Phillips said:

 

GSTER, yeah, I can imagine Festus havin' a few too many arns in the far.

Other words from SEK, SWM & NEO:
upagin (up against)
tweenst (between)
spud (any mechanical part that you're not sure what to name it)
Picksburg (pittsburg)
wendulls (windows)
wuar (wire)

 

Tracy Phillips said:

 

My-am-uh (Miami)

 

gster said:

 

VT- I come from a 100% Norwegian background with roots in both Washington state and Iowa. I've forgotten much of the idioms , but I remember "ooftah", lefsa and that damm fish I still can't stand! English spoken there and then definitely had it's own unique flavor with the various pronunciations.

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

gster, would that be "lutefisk" (phonetic spelling), a/k/a pickled herring?

 

gster said:

 

VT- Yup! Most of that diet I liked, but not that stuff,and I like sea food generally. I think it was the Norwegian version of Koreas's kimche!

 

Rox said:

 

"crick" for creek

Then there was a great-uncle of mine who pronounced garage as... Wait a sec. This is tricky. Long A first, rhymes with dare, then "idge". Accent on the GARE, so like gair'-idge?

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Not to forget "warsh" for wash.

 

Tracy Phillips said:

 

Rox, when we camp, we WORSH our DEESHES in the CRIK.

 

Tracy Phillips said:

 

One redneck I worked with was sharing stories about his sexual escapades.
He described one old girlfriend as "organistic". (orgasmic)

 

Danny said:

 

One of the dialect style pronunciations that I've noticed is, in Kansas we generally seem to say the word bottle as "boddle", where as in the northern states(Minnesota will be picked on as it is where I first heard it pronounced correctly) as bot-tle.

Slightly off topic(ok completely so), check out spock.com and see what all you can dig up about yourself on the web. It is nothing but a people search engine. And it picks up quite a bit. Talk about data mining just open sources of information(to my knowledge).

 

Tracy Phillips said:

 

Thanks Dan. Will do!

 

Rox said:

 

Ah, yes, how could I forget "worsh/warsh". My mother says it. I used to cringe when she said "worsh rag" for washcloth. I forced my kids to say it right. LOL

Pitcher for picture. I once had to keep correcting a very dear, very educated, very intelligent friend when I was directing a community theater production of "Plaza Suite".

 

Rox said:

 

Good grief! I really did need a nap. On that g-uncle garage, it rhymed with carriage. Now how simple was that? A nap took care of that problem. Thank you. :)

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Then my favorite Hoosier expression, posted previously: "Can't dance and it's too wet to plow".

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Rox, a nap may be just what I need. Getting nowhere slowly with work right now. But, it's closing in on 5, so I'll just grind for a bit longer, and, gee, it will still be here tomorrow.

 

Rox said:

 

VT, my nights are way too short. When I put my grandson down for a nap, he expects me to rub his back. A bad habit I started. Sometimes I nap for maybe 10 minutes, sometimes more. Today was more. I always say that you sleep the amount your body needs, unless you don't allow it to. Or some other excuse like that.

Pronunciations:
Arkansas City and River (that's a given)
NinNEScah River instead of NINnescah
Chainey, Kansas instead of Cheeney
(and those are just on the local news!)

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

While preparing to exit my air conditioned office into the 100 degree heat and 108 degree heat index, I cast an envious eye at the 79 degrees being currently reported by Waterville, ME, where the younger is no doubt once again congratulating herself on obtaining the admissions office job for the Summer rather than returning home.....

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

http://tinyurl.com/yu7ch3 found while delaying my exit for as long as is reasonable (I know the a.c. goes off at 6...)

 

Rox said:

 

But...but...there's no such thing as global warming or climate change. It happens all the time.

Yeah, right.

Good article, VT. Thanks for sharing. I've been saying for a long time, before the climate pros made GW a headline, that the climate was changing. I remember REAL seasons in Kansas. Don't see actual spring and fall here anymore.

How far from the coast is your daughter? I researched the coast of ME for a book and was surprised to learn that winters there weren't much different than ours. I'd move there in a heartbeat. The coast of Oregon is my first pick, coast of Maine a very close second.

 

Tracy Phillips said:

 

Some supposedly educated folks got their edumacation at the LIBARY.
Aaaaargh........that one drives me nuts!

VT, I hate planning my day around somebody else's idea of a building mngmnt. system schedule.
If I wanna come in Sunday at 4am, it sure be temperate enough to do that.

 

lindainks55 said:

 

Good morning blog friends!

I've been gone a couple of days and seem to be far behind; must read quickly to catch up!

I read and enjoyed an article in Newsweek early this week titled, "Let's Think Outside The Box of Bad Cliches," and thought about sharing it. It's about slopping writing which the author says leads to sloppy thinking. And here you start a couple of threads about how we are misusing the English language. Great mind think alike?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19999629/site/newsweek...

 

lindainks55 said:

 

Tracy, My relatives come from the same neck of the woods as yours. Maybe you are my stepmother or I'm your Grandpa?

 

lindainks55 said:

 

That is one of the best articles I've read on climate change. Without putting it together I have noticed some of what the article points out.

"Prepare to set aside larger chunks of leisure time for weeding." The other choice is the weeds take over -- my flower beds look like this is the choice I've made. Part of that is another thing the article's author brings up -- pest control. I must smell especially good to ALL pests and tend to get bites on the bites and end up looking like one large hive.

It's difficult to "buy native plants" when what works now is ever changing! Maybe we should be planting what worked best in Texas a year or so ago since we are now them.

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Rox, she's about 75 miles inland. Far enough to miss the worst effects of Nor'easters, and to have the experience of winters which, except for this past year, are significantly worse than ours. The coast of Maine is flat out beautiful, IMHO, and the ocean currents keep it reasonably temperate. I suspect that is why the wealthy folks on the East Coast built their summer homes there. However, I've noticed, and she has confirmed, that over the years she has been up there, the summer temperatures are a bit warmer a bit earlier each year; the fall is a bit later each year; etc. Still, a beautiful area of the country. She had the gall to tell her mother and me that she and a few friends have made two trips to Bar Harbor this summer (yes, a classic "tourist" place, but worth seeing at least once; go there in early June once the weather is warming, but before the "in season" prices hit), and are planning one more trip before school starts to climb Cadillac Mountain (in Acadia National Park) and watch the sun rise.

On climate changes; I'm no climatologist, but observation of how certain things bloom earlier, etc., over the years, combined with the warmer winters (no one needs to tell me come allergy time about the effects of milder winters on the "bad" stuff, combined with the bites from the flying critters not killed off over the winter), ice storms vs. snow storms, etc., convinced me long ago there was something going on. Looking at the grass becoming green in early March and needing mowing at least once before the 1st of April, the plethora of weeds, etc., is just further evidence.

On native plants, while looking to Texas might be a good plan, I suspect that many things native to Kansas will likely do well even in these times. If I had control, all lawns would be Buffalo grass; blue grass would be outlawed.