how to pronounce “Appalachia” is a contentious subject. Harpers Ferry and south we say “App-uh-latch-(ee)-uh” (the ee is in parentheses because it’s such a small sound most wouldn’t hear it). north of harpers ferry they say “app-uh-lay-tcha”. then there’s one small town of mostly people descended from eastern Europeans who say it “app-uh-lack-(ee)-uh”. fun fact, tekking on YouTube, the manga reviewer, is one of those weirdos who are somehow both simultaneously the most wrong and less wrong than most northern Appalachians.
i mean come on, the name comes from the appalachee tribe, and the “lach” there is pronounced mere like “latch” than “laych.” at least with “lack” i can reason through that my Ukrainian friend can absolutely not say her "ch"s the way western Europeans do so if you have an insular community of people that pronunciation will stick.
Where I’m from we call them Butt Lights
My favorite of these, which unfortunately I didn’t grow up there to experience it first hand, is that in Minnesota and Wisconsin some people call doing donuts in your car “whipping shitties”.
Great map, thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this knowledge.
The town I grew up in has a longish name, most people in the area shorten it to just the first syllable with a y at the end, similar to how Philadelphia gets shortened to Philly
But there’s a slight difference between how the people who are from town pronounce it and how everyone else does and you can pretty reliably pick out the townies based on that.
Shibboleth!
Then there’s Belgium and The Netherlands, where the same words have straight up different meanings.
you’ll run into that in latin america sometimes too, where some places a word is a delicious dish, and another the same word refers to testicles
“they’re the same picture”
Mure mur mûr mur
Spawning my own enclave of ‘glitter bat’ users.
What up my glitter bat?
we didn’t call them anything because they don’t live here.
That’s true almost everywhere these days. Climate change and pesticides did a number on them.
I used to see hundreds floating around at night. Now I’m lucky to spot one a year.
Also, lovebugs. There were so many everywhere it was difficult to drive sometimes. I haven’t noticed any in years.
also those godsdamned grass lawns
yup. I used ot see butterflies ALL THE TIME. Now i haven’t seen one in years. Sad :(
Everyone knows they’re properly called “sparkle butts”.
John’s Beetles.
So we said both where I grew up
We had an issue in my college town in the Midwest. Someone almost got expelled because he called out loudly a ground squirrel, which in his local town they called… Squinnies.
This was in college, which hosts many Asian students and he did it in front of them. I believe his phrasing was pointing in a general area and yelling something like “look at all the squinnies”.
Now, to many it could definitely be misheard as “squinties” a derogatory term. He got into a lot of hot water and if I remember correctly, a professor who studied local dialects actually knew the term and was able to save him.
a professor who studied local dialects actually knew the term and was able to save him
Lingua to the rescue!
linguo IS dead.
I’ve always preferred the Cunning type over the Super type.
A friend of mine had a similar problem when he, a Brit, was studying in the States. He was in the smoking area of a gay bar, when he asked a friend “shall I chuck this cigarette in the bin, or what?” (I.e. “are you going to come over here to take a drag of this cigarette before it’s over, or should I throw it away?”). Unfortunately, a common British slang word for cigarette is also a slur for gay people (it is a slur in the UK too, but the cigarette slang word is common enough that if someone hears the F word, they are far less likely to assume it’s in a slur context)
On the bright side, apparently my friend hooked up with the guy who punched him, after my friend admonished him for being so rude as to punch a person in a country without free healthcare. Apparently Southern English accent gets you far in the States
So you’re not going to tell us the phrase he actually said then? I’ll assume he was offering to have the ‘last suck on this fag’ At least he wasn’t asking to get the last cigarette for free, and therefore would be looking to ‘bum a fag’ All manner of confusion would ensue I’d assume, also being a Brit and I have never heard ‘fag’ being recognised as a slur here, it only means either cigarette or to do mundane tasks for older boys in public(private boarding) schools “oh Tarquin, have you heard? Simpkins is fagging for Fontleroy don’t you know?”
All manner of confusion would ensue I’d assume, also being a Brit and I have never heard ‘fag’ being recognised as a slur here
Might be an Americanisation thing, where it’s leaking over either from US media, or the internet.
after my friend admonished him for being so rude as to punch a person in a country without free healthcare.
That is hilarious or sad or both.
In other news, having learned English mostly with 90s New York rap, including all the slurs luckily not in use anymore, I was shocked to read LotR in English and see what (or rather, who) Gandalf asked Pippin to throw on the fire in the Inn in Bree.
Lmao this cant be real. What a wild story. a linguistic superhero saving the day from racism. I love it. was it in the papers? I wanna read more
What’s the night before Halloween called? If you said anything other than “Pumpkin night” I’m afraid you are incorrect.
I mean, that’s better than my “All Hollows Eve Eve”, by far.
“October 30th” around here. Theres nothing special about that day.
What happens on “pumpkin night”?
Everywhere else it’s either called Mischief night or… nothing. But in some small parts of Western Massachusetts it’s called Pumpkin Night because… reasons!
Its called devils night where I was born.
Michigander?
You got it! I’ll take a nice cold pop as well!
Traditionally, its for the older kids who have aged out of halloween. Its unofficial and many places just dont tolerate it anymore but the older kids would go around smashing pumpkins and causing mayhem, maybe teepee a tree.
We didnt participate but would bring in our pumpkins that night.
Mischief Night
Edit: it’s called that because it’s when the local ne’er-do-wells do mischief
2nd Edit: I should clarify that where I come from, Mischief Night also occurs on the 4th November, so we get to double dip, so to speak
Who the fuck cares lmaoo
And they’ve asked those 200 folks one by one for sure.
Feathers = Bird Leafs
