“Pahk ya cah in Hahvahd Yahd,” or, Regional Linguistic Pet Peeves
Darren Rowse over at Problogger has put together a group writing project, asking his readers to post some lists. I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, but figured now was as good a time as any to post it.
I’ve lived in New England for over 18 years (with a short break for a school year in Minnesota in the early 90’s). In case you’ve never seen “Murder, She Wrote” or heard a bad JFK impression, people talk funny in these parts. But it’s not all dropping the letter “r” from the end of your words - witness some further linguistic weirdness collected from my time in Massachusetts and Maine:
* Putting “the” before a street name. Maps call it “New Gorham Road.” Street signs call it “New Gorham Road.” Why do you insist on calling it “The New Gorham Road?”
* The Law of Conservation of the letter R. As I said earlier, it’s not all dropping an “r.” In fact, sometimes the sentence becomes an equation, where an “r” unnecessarily dropped from one word is unnecessarily added to the end of another. For a perfect example, read this sentence (overheard many years ago on a cold, windy day in North Reading, MA) aloud: “It’s really rawr out theyah!”
* The possessive “’s” after the name of a store that has none. Examples: “Hannaford’s,” “Target’s,” “Ames’s”
* “So don’t I” when the meaning is “So do I.” I’ve actually never heard this in everyday conversation, but I remember a high school teacher bringing this up as one of their pet peeves, and it’s bugged me ever since.
* …and this is probably less of a New England thing (more local advertisement in general), but quotation marks around random phrases in print ads. For example, “We sell for less!” or “Bringing you the best since 1962.” Quote use like this is just screaming for some creative attribution, like:
"Best pies in the tri-county area!" - Bishop Desmond Tutu
Anyone got some further linguistic pet peeves from other parts of the country (or world)? Leave a comment and let me know - this kind of thing fascinates me.
Popularity: 26% [?]
August 14th, 2006 at 10:12 am
I have a fair amount of them locally, I reckon. Unfortunately, I’ve become so inured to them that none come to mind immediately. [I had just as many about my Lower Midwestern home, too.]
August 15th, 2006 at 4:06 am
[...] “Pahk ya cah Hahvahd Yahd,” or, Regional Linguistic Pet Peeves by Andrew [...]
August 15th, 2006 at 8:07 am
Ha ha ha, annoying indeed! Our list is up if you’d like to look - http://lilduckduck.com/ducky-moments-in-time/240
Have a great day!
August 15th, 2006 at 9:04 am
[...] “Pahk ya cah Hahvahd Yahd,” or, Regional Linguistic Pet Peeves by Andrew [...]
August 15th, 2006 at 10:54 am
Ha! I’m moving to Boston at the end of the month.
August 15th, 2006 at 11:17 am
Funny list…here in NJ we are split between saying “water/and wudder”….
How my kids ended up with the latter I have no idea. I’m a water girl myself!
August 15th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
I’m from the west and even our school teachers say “I seen her yesterday”. It took me about a week to figure out who they were talking about. Also “up north” means a town an hour away, not Canada like I first thought. Great post
August 15th, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Hilarious observations–and so true!
August 16th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
[...] “Pahk ya cah Hahvahd Yahd,” or, Regional Linguistic Pet Peeves by Andrew [...]
August 17th, 2006 at 1:05 am
[...] “Pahk ya cah Hahvahd Yahd,” or, Regional Linguistic Pet Peeves by Andrew [...]
August 17th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
[...] Just for Fun: Top 5 Look-a-Likes The Top 10 of Top 10s 9 Weird Words that Amuse me European Honeymoon List Fun The Secret to Blogging for Baby Poop 5 Easy Steps to Snag a Date with Me The Top 5 Things my Kids have Said Pahk ya cah in Hahvahd Yahd [...]
August 26th, 2006 at 3:35 am
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August 26th, 2006 at 10:50 am
[...] 208. Top Ten Favorite posts on Random Stuff by Random Good Stuff 209. A Short List of Lists by Joe 210. Top 5 Lists of All Time by Bald Man 211. The Top 10 of Top 10’s by Julien 212. A List of Lists for Listing by Curt 213. My list of my 5 favourite lists by Matt 214. 101 Questions… Consumer, Political, Humorous and Starbucks by Doug 215. Yazarken Dikkat Ettiğim Kurallar by Utku Tönel 216. Ducky Moments in time by Lisa 217. Listmaking - The “Old School” Way by PJ’s Past Noon 218. She Lists a Bit off Center by Carol 219. Top 5 Look-a-Likes by Solid 220. Where is my Ovary? by Baggage 221. 9 Weird Words That Amuse me by Erik 222. “Pahk ya cah Hahvahd Yahd,” or, Regional Linguistic Pet Peeves by Andrew [...]
September 15th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
[...] “Okay, then,” he said. ” ‘Pahk ya cah Hahvahd Yahd,’ or, Regional Linguistic Pet Peeves might interest you more.” [...]
November 21st, 2006 at 8:36 am
[...] Continuing along the theme of regional dialect, I found this little test via Alex King’s blog. The results are interesting, if not surprising given where I live. [...]
December 1st, 2006 at 1:27 am
Have some lobstah deah.
December 24th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
[...] “Pahk ya cah Hahvahd Yahd,” or, Regional Linguistic Pet Peeves by Andrew [...]
December 26th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
[...] while back, I posted about some regional linguistic pet peeves of mine, one of which was the “random” use of quotation “mark’s” and [...]