Let's Talk Regional Terms

[pollyhyper]

Twice recently I have heard people refer to a slide as a "sliding board" - I had never heard it before, but then again, there was a huge gap in my discussions about slides and playgrounds between ages 12 and 35

Comments

[pom_e_granate]

Ooh! This subject came up this weekend between me and Joey! Apparently, there is one phrase that is only said in Middle Tennessee (where I was raised) and the UK. He asked me what I call that long green thing you get water from outside. I said it was a hosepipe. He said that's how he knew I was definitely raised where I was raised. Apparently people in West Tennessee and pretty much everywhere else call it a garden hose. I had no idea!

Is that what you call it?

[pollyhyper]

We just call it a hose. I guess I would recognize garden hose, but I'd never say it. I've never heard hosepipe! If someone said hosepipe, I would first snicker, then assume they were talking about the spigot... or the spicket.

[lesliele]

Huh, I've never heard sliding board. I grew up in the middle of Indiana.

And we always just say hose.

One thing about Ohio-- they call the devil strip the "treelawn" and the side of the road the "berm" which...uh... we just called it the edge. LOL

[pollyhyper]

WTF is a devil-strip?

[pollyhyper]

We call the side of the road the "shoulder."

[pom_e_granate]

I have never heard devil strip OR tree lawn! We call that the median. And the side of the road is the shoulder.

[brieza]

I've never heard sliding board before.

I just call it a hose, but I'd recognize either garden hose or hosepipe.

I recognize spigot, but would laugh at spicket, and call it a faucet. (Though, in conversation, it is just "turn off/on (water to) the hose")

Is the devil strip that you refer to the area between the sidewalk and the curb? We use median for that.

Side of the road is the shoulder if there is no curb attached.

From Colorado for the past 21 years. All over the world the 12 years before that.

[pollyhyper]

I would never say "spicket" but it would just roll right off me if someone did, as it's so common around here! I guess "faucet" would roll off me too, although for some reason faucet seems like an indoor thing and spigot an outdoor thing.

If you can pull your car over, it's a shoulder (here). If you'd pop a tire doing it, it's likely because there's a concrete curb.

[pollyhyper]

I just posted above re: devil strip, and it IS what you describe. But that isn't what we call the median here - the median would be the grass strip down the middle of a divided highway.

HMMMM!

[brieza]

They are both medians to me. (Actually, I sometimes hear "sidewalk median" for the devil strip.)

[pollyhyper]

Me: water fountain, sprinkles, soda
Delaware: water fountain, jimmies, soda

Coke is a Coke. Unless it's Pepsi. ;p

[pom_e_granate]

sprite is a flavor of coke! duh!

[crowjoy]

Something that confounds me here, people pronounce words that end with -tary with an emphasis on the -tary. Like el-eh-men-TAR-ee, doc-que-men-TAR-ee. I've never heard that anywhere before!

[pollyhyper]

is it "tar" or "tare"?
I say "ELementree" and "DOCumentree" - they'd hate me!

[brieza]

And I say:

el EH men tah Ree (with strong stress on the second syllable and light stress on the last, and mostly but not completely eliding the 2nd to last. (almost el EH ment' Ree)

dah QUE men tah Ree

[ziola]

And I stress the MEN. Dah que MEN tree, el em EN tree.