http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/best-regional-slang_n_5572269.html?utm_hp_ref=travel&ir=Travel
QuoteWe Americans love our slang. Winky terms like terrific and awesome are now so ubiquitous that they barely even qualify as slang anymore. We wear bling to parties and have a blast; we goof off and then catch some z's.
Despite the pervasiveness of slang, however, there are deep reserves of regional slang that we haven't yet taken mainstream. Texas isn't the only English-speaking region with some killer phrases begging for nation-wide popularization. What about the quirky terms used only in NorCal, the U.P., or Boston -- just for starters?
Here are 9 useful -- and fun -- regional slang terms we should all start using as soon as possible:
hella
Used in: Northern California and the Pacific Northwest
Translation: "really"
Example: "These kimchi tacos are hella good."
Why should Northern Californians -- and Gwen Stefani -- have all the fun? Using hella instead of very evokes a laid-back surfer vibe that can make any conversation seem more chill.
wicked
Used in: New England
Translation: "really"
Example: "These tacos are wicked good."
In today's hyperbolic culture, the words very and really have become really, very overused. We need all the colorful alternatives we can lay our hands on.
y'all
Used in: The South
Translation: "you all"
Example: "When are y'all going to get tacos?"
Try as we might, we can't come up with a more succinct, gender-neutral term to address a group. You guys? All of you? You all? None has quite the effectiveness and simplicity of y'all. This needs to catch on outside of the South already.
bubbler
Used in: Eastern Wisconsin, eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Australia
Translation: "drinking fountain"
Example: "Eating that taco made me so thirsty. I really need to find a bubbler."
Not only is this one of the original patented terms for the device, it's cute, descriptive, and much easier to say than the cumbersome drinking fountain.
garburator
Used in: Canada
Translation: "garbage disposal"
Example: "If you're not going to finish that taco, just put the rest down the garburator."
Okay, so this clever word only saves you one syllable -- but that isn't nothing. And aside from being faster to say, garburator just sounds neater and more gadgety than garbage disposal.
loo
Used in: Britain
Translation: "bathroom"
Example: "Does this taco place have a loo I could use? Too many margaritas!"
We've had toilets for decades, but Americans don't yet seem to have a good euphemism for them. Bathroom? Powder room? Restroom? Little boys' room? Crapper? None possesses the ideal combination of brevity and delicacy. We need a loo.
pank
Used in: Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Translation: "compress or tamp down"
Example: "I'm gonna pank more kimchi down into this taco so each bite is spicier."
Who wouldn't get a lot of use out of this word? Every day we're panking down the garbage so we can fit another night's leftovers in there, or we're panking down the laundry into the hamper. Okay, maybe people who do their chores in a timely manner won't use it as much, but it's still a solid addition to the language.
bufflehead
Used in: Pennsylvania
Translation: "idiot"
Example: "What kind of bufflehead doesn't like kimchi on his tacos?"
Don't get confused: Bufflehead can also refer to a "buoyant, large-headed duck," which is more of a scientific term. But if someone snippily calls you a bufflehead, they probably mean that you're a fool -- it just sounds way funnier.
whoopensocker
Used in: Wisconsin
Translation: "a superlative instance of something; something wonderful of its kind"
Example: "This taco
I think it would be alright if we didn't use any of these. My ironic use of hella turned into genuine use. -_-
Already use y'all and wicked. The others are shit.
I don't think the article makes a good case for any of them.
I really hated hearing "hella" and "wicked" - thankfully those dropped out of use around here fairly quickly.
y'all is a good early warning device to detect M'erica Fuck Ya types. It can give a false positive but better safe than sorry.
Bubbler was the one that confused me the most when I moved to Massachusetts. Kids stepping out of class to ask if they could go to the bubbler. :wacko:
Quote from: garbon on July 21, 2014, 02:13:16 PM
garburator
Garbon! Garbonzo! The Garburator! Making copies!
Quote from: garbon on July 21, 2014, 02:22:34 PM
Bubbler was the one that confused me the most when I moved to Massachusetts. Kids stepping out of class to ask if they could go to the bubbler. :wacko:
Still confuses me why it's called a bubbler if no bubbles come out.
"Hella" is still too popular. People Assfuck Millennial Aspies who use it need throat cancer.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 21, 2014, 03:22:54 PM
"Hella" is still too popular. People Assfuck Millennial Aspies who use it need throat cancer.
<_<
Another regionalism I like and use is the Minnesota "yah sure, you betcha."
Not sure how an English slang word can be described as 'regional'. :hmm:
Quote from: mongers on July 21, 2014, 03:28:35 PM
Not sure how an English slang can be described as 'regional'. :hmm:
I feel like they got lost when they added England and Canada.
Quote from: garbon on July 21, 2014, 03:32:44 PM
Quote from: mongers on July 21, 2014, 03:28:35 PM
Not sure how an English slang can be described as 'regional'. :hmm:
I feel like they got lost when they added England and Canada.
Yeah, there must be literally tens of thousand of American slang words they could have chosen from.
Quote from: garbon on July 21, 2014, 03:27:18 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 21, 2014, 03:22:54 PM
"Hella" is still too popular. People Assfuck Millennial Aspies who use it need throat cancer.
<_<
It's lazy and it's ignorant. You know better than that.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 21, 2014, 03:37:11 PM
Quote from: garbon on July 21, 2014, 03:27:18 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 21, 2014, 03:22:54 PM
"Hella" is still too popular. People Assfuck Millennial Aspies who use it need throat cancer.
<_<
It's lazy and it's ignorant. You know better than that.
Lazy? I think it requires a bit more energy to say "that's like hella awesome" as compared to "that's like awesome." It also has a bit more flavor to it than "that's like very awesome."
Besides, ignorant? :huh:
I don't think garburator
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 21, 2014, 03:37:11 PMIt's lazy and it's ignorant. You know better than that.
Surely you mean "lazy and ign'ant."
"bufflehead" - I wonder where in Pennsylvania this is used. I grew up there and don't recall ever hearing that before.
Bufflehead sounds funny and kind of cutesy.
What y'all need to do is start calling people goofs more. That'll get some fireworks going in the right places in Canada at least.
Quote from: Jacob on July 21, 2014, 04:18:05 PM
What y'all need to do is start calling people goofs more. That'll get some fireworks going in the right places in Canada at least.
Please elaborate.
I prefer doofus and goofus to goof.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 21, 2014, 04:21:59 PM
Quote from: Jacob on July 21, 2014, 04:18:05 PM
What y'all need to do is start calling people goofs more. That'll get some fireworks going in the right places in Canada at least.
Please elaborate.
I prefer doofus and goofus to goof.
Goof is regional prison slang for child molester, and more generally means the lowest of the low. Calling someone a goof is grade A "fighting words" that require an immediate reaction in a number of local milieu, as I've witnessed on a few occasions.
So yeah, if you're crawling dive bars in Vancouver, don't call random dudes a "goof".
The article has it wrong. "Y'all" is singular. "All y'all" is the plural form.
I didn't know hella was regional, I hear it all the time from RL Americans. Give me über anyday.
And for plural you , youse works perfectly fine without racist police chief
connotations.
Instead it has racist mafioso connotations.
It's interesting that, in Britain, "y'all" has a racist connotation. In the American South, everybody speaks Suthrun, except the Yankees and the Asians. The accent has no racial affiliations at all.
Quote from: Tyr on July 21, 2014, 06:34:11 PM
I didn't know hella was regional, I hear it all the time from RL Americans.
It spread out of the West Coast around the turn of the century.
Quote from: Tyr on July 21, 2014, 06:34:11 PM
I didn't know hella was regional, I hear it all the time from RL Americans. Give me über anyday.
And for plural you , youse works perfectly fine without racist police chief
connotations.
'Youse' should be a jailable offense. Uneducated types use it in Southwest Ohio and it just sounds horrible.
Quote from: garbon on July 21, 2014, 03:27:18 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 21, 2014, 03:22:54 PM
"Hella" is still too popular. People Assfuck Millennial Aspies who use it need throat cancer.
<_<
He's Old. Give him his dignity.
I do not use "y'all." Evidently I sound enough like a rube to you bigoted cocksuckers anyway.
Quote from: derspiess on July 21, 2014, 07:46:32 PM
Quote from: Tyr on July 21, 2014, 06:34:11 PM
I didn't know hella was regional, I hear it all the time from RL Americans. Give me über anyday.
And for plural you , youse works perfectly fine without racist police chief
connotations.
'Youse' should be a jailable offense. Uneducated types use it in Southwest Ohio and it just sounds horrible.
Pretty standard part of northern british.
I use wicked, loo, y'all and the double up all y'all. Especially when drunk.
Quote from: grumbler on July 21, 2014, 06:50:45 PM
It's interesting that, in Britain, "y'all" has a racist connotation. In the American South, everybody speaks Suthrun, except the Yankees and the Asians. The accent has no racial affiliations at all.
Outside of Tyr, "y'all" has no racist connotations for Brits at all. Anyone who has ever watched a film set on the south, or listened to hip hop or heard an interview with a black person from the south knows that it's a non-racial part of the dialect. Outside of the south it seems to be used more by black people than white (going by music, TV etc)
I'm pretty sure he was just mocking Tyr's ignorance dude. :)
Quote from: Ideologue on July 22, 2014, 03:42:03 AM
I do not use "y'all." Evidently I sound enough like a rube to you bigoted cocksuckers anyway.
You don't sound like a rube... you just sound like you're from South Carolina, which isn't an inherently bad thing despite your inevitable vehement protests to the contrary. :)
Quote from: Gups on July 22, 2014, 06:46:13 AM
Quote from: grumbler on July 21, 2014, 06:50:45 PM
It's interesting that, in Britain, "y'all" has a racist connotation. In the American South, everybody speaks Suthrun, except the Yankees and the Asians. The accent has no racial affiliations at all.
Outside of Tyr, "y'all" has no racist connotations for Brits at all. Anyone who has ever watched a film set on the south, or listened to hip hop or heard an interview with a black person from the south knows that it's a non-racial part of the dialect. Outside of the south it seems to be used more by black people than white (going by music, TV etc)
I started using it in australia, but they got it from US country music culture (I was out in the pilbara and maranoa when I was there)
There's a difference between the rappers " peace out yall" and the drawly "now what y'all doing here this time o night "
Quote from: garbon on July 21, 2014, 02:22:34 PM
Bubbler was the one that confused me the most when I moved to Massachusetts. Kids stepping out of class to ask if they could go to the bubbler. :wacko:
Its pronounced 'bubblah'.
Quote from: Tyr on July 22, 2014, 07:01:32 AM
There's a difference between the rappers " peace out yall" and the drawly "now what y'all doing here this time o night "
Not really, no. "Y'all" still serves the same function.
Quote from: Tyr on July 22, 2014, 07:01:32 AM
There's a difference between the rappers " peace out yall" and the drawly "now what y'all doing here this time o night "
...which you say with the authority of someone who has visited the Southern US. :)
Quote from: Caliga on July 22, 2014, 08:44:00 AM
Quote from: Tyr on July 22, 2014, 07:01:32 AM
There's a difference between the rappers " peace out yall" and the drawly "now what y'all doing here this time o night "
...which you say with the authority of someone who has visited the Southern US. :)
Tyr is to language as DSB is to the law. :cool:
Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on July 22, 2014, 07:46:11 AM
Quote from: garbon on July 21, 2014, 02:22:34 PM
Bubbler was the one that confused me the most when I moved to Massachusetts. Kids stepping out of class to ask if they could go to the bubbler. :wacko:
Its pronounced 'bubblah'.
Thankfully we didn't not have affectation in central mass. Which was good as I was confused enough on how to say Worcester.
Quote from: grumbler on July 22, 2014, 08:48:54 AM
Quote from: Caliga on July 22, 2014, 08:44:00 AM
Quote from: Tyr on July 22, 2014, 07:01:32 AM
There's a difference between the rappers " peace out yall" and the drawly "now what y'all doing here this time o night "
...which you say with the authority of someone who has visited the Southern US. :)
Tyr is to language as DSB is to the law. :cool:
Well do recall that DSB generally pulls that authority out on a great many subjects.
Woostah. :smarty:
Quote from: garbon on July 22, 2014, 08:03:39 PM
Wisstah.
Maybe if your mom drank during pregnancy.
Never heard Wisstah.
It is said but I'd say probably the least common of the 3.
IIRC 'Woostuh' was probably the most common one.
Quote from: Caliga on July 22, 2014, 08:44:00 AM
Quote from: Tyr on July 22, 2014, 07:01:32 AM
There's a difference between the rappers " peace out yall" and the drawly "now what y'all doing here this time o night "
...which you say with the authority of someone who has visited the Southern US. :)
If I had then it wouldn't carry such weirdly specific movie derived connotations for me :p
:cool:
Quote from: Caliga on July 23, 2014, 05:17:47 AM
IIRC 'Woostuh' was probably the most common one.
That's at least the one that I say.
Quote from: garbon on July 22, 2014, 08:03:39 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 22, 2014, 07:18:10 PM
Woostah. :smarty:
But can be Woostuh and Wisstah.
I knew a girl in college from there and she pronounced it more like "Wohrstah". I always called it "Worchester" to get under her skin. But she was in her third year at Marshall, so maybe she had been in Appalachia too long.
Plus I know I pronounce my hometown of "Huntington" differently depending on my audience. So maybe she was trying to pronounce it differently so we understood it better.
Quote from: garbon on July 22, 2014, 06:58:36 PM
Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on July 22, 2014, 07:46:11 AM
Quote from: garbon on July 21, 2014, 02:22:34 PM
Bubbler was the one that confused me the most when I moved to Massachusetts. Kids stepping out of class to ask if they could go to the bubbler. :wacko:
Its pronounced 'bubblah'.
Thankfully we didn't not have affectation in central mass. Which was good as I was confused enough on how to say Worcester.
If the sauce their shire makes is any indication it should be pronounced 'Woos-ter'
Quote from: derspiess on July 23, 2014, 09:29:52 AM
Plus I know I pronounce my hometown of "Huntington" differently depending on my audience. So maybe she was trying to pronounce it differently so we understood it better.
Detroit is like that; deh-TROIT in the suburbs DEE-troit in the city. If you pronounce it wrong to a certain audience in either you could be in trouble.
(Don't ever pronounce it day-twa to a native, francophones. Just trust me on this.)
More Anglo oppression of Francophones :mad:
Quote from: Valmy on July 23, 2014, 12:00:20 PM
Quote from: garbon on July 22, 2014, 06:58:36 PM
Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on July 22, 2014, 07:46:11 AM
Quote from: garbon on July 21, 2014, 02:22:34 PM
Bubbler was the one that confused me the most when I moved to Massachusetts. Kids stepping out of class to ask if they could go to the bubbler. :wacko:
Its pronounced 'bubblah'.
Thankfully we didn't not have affectation in central mass. Which was good as I was confused enough on how to say Worcester.
If the sauce their shire makes is any indication it should be pronounced 'Woos-ter'
Ah, like Marlboro(ugh) was the home of the Marlboro Man?
Quote from: garbon on July 23, 2014, 01:29:34 PM
Ah, like Marlboro(ugh) was the home of the Marlboro Man?
You know it
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F3%2F38%2FJohn_Churchill%252C_1st_Duke_of_Marlborough_by_Sir_Godfrey_Kneller%252C_Bt_%25282%2529.jpg%2F472px-John_Churchill%252C_1st_Duke_of_Marlborough_by_Sir_Godfrey_Kneller%252C_Bt_%25282%2529.jpg&hash=cfcb9148448fcb94deb7c039613f8cef9dcf94c6)
Quote from: Valmy on July 23, 2014, 12:00:20 PM
Quote from: garbon on July 22, 2014, 06:58:36 PM
Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on July 22, 2014, 07:46:11 AM
Quote from: garbon on July 21, 2014, 02:22:34 PM
Bubbler was the one that confused me the most when I moved to Massachusetts. Kids stepping out of class to ask if they could go to the bubbler. :wacko:
Its pronounced 'bubblah'.
Thankfully we didn't not have affectation in central mass. Which was good as I was confused enough on how to say Worcester.
If the sauce their shire makes is any indication it should be pronounced 'Woos-ter'
Or indeed the original city.
Quote from: Savonarola on July 23, 2014, 01:15:25 PM
(Don't ever pronounce it day-twa to a native, francophones. Just trust me on this.)
We'll trust you because francophones do not pronounce it this way :smarty:
Except some African francophones.
PS: French r for Détroit so uvular r (not trilled), not a w/ou as in watt/ouate.
Quote from: Tyr on July 22, 2014, 07:01:32 AM
There's a difference between the rappers " peace out yall" and the drawly "now what're y'all doin' roun' here this time o night "
FTFY.
I feel left out by this thread. Check your slang privilege, people. :mad: