Moving south

[Southside]

I do recall that one, of course there was the time I was at a Shoneys in West Virginia with my then girlfriend who became my wife when the waitress propositioned me, or so I thought, when in reality all she wanted to know was if I wanted any "ice" in my Mtn Dew.  The look of complete shock and disbelief on my face as I sat there contemplating my dilemma caused my GF to say "ICE, she asked you if you want any ICE in your drink".  I kinda mumbled yes and shook my head, after she walked away my GF looked me dead in the eye and said "I know what you THOUGHT you heard, your face gave it away".  There was not much talking for the rest of the meal....

[YellowHammer]

Yeah, some crazy story about some Canadian inserting little sticks loaded with gps trackers into water wheels to see where they go. 

I couldn't understood a word he said. 

[Andries]

Ever see that movie called "Lost in Translation"?
The movie has a whole lot of deadpan humour with Bill Murray getting twisted around by Asian language and culture while on a trip.
 
Well, Resonator was recalling a lunch table discussion at Customsawyer's Pro-ject last year. It was a moment straight out of that movie.
YH is a born in the wool engineer and his mind was having difficulties imagining that a biologist (me) would be using GPS tags to track whale migrations in the Arctic.
I was telling some fine folks from Western Georgia about that, and they didn't seem to have any problem with my Glaciated accent - but Robert . . . no, no, he thought I had to be shooting GPS darts into wheels of some kind and tracking them around the Arctic.
Blank look on my face when he asked me what the heck I was doing that for.
"Water Wheels" was all that his personal wired-in translator was able to come up with.
What I was talking about was 'whales' in the water. 
Me (frozen yonder accent): "whales, Robert"
Him (rolltide accent): "yeah, I heard ya, but what for?"
And did'ja notice that he still thinks that GPSwheels was what I was talking about? What in the heck ? ?
Is that what his career in DARPA was about? Had I stumbled across some super top secret project? Blank looks all 'round. Bill Murray deadpan stares.
Then Jake translated and we all about fell on the grass laughing about it.
Don't those engineers lock-on like a laser on a rocket when they get an idea into their noggins?
Fine folks. Fun to be around. They can make a five-round single hole at 100 yards with a nine twist 308 barrel, just for fun.
Gotta respect THAT.
.
But if you think that thread drift is a big deal on the Forum, you should try a lunchtime discussion at Jake's Praw-ject in Georgia.

So, to make feeble try at getting this thread back on track, Bruno - bring a translator if you decide to move to the South.

[SwampDonkey]

Friend of mine lived in Virginia for 3 years. I went down to visit him and his family for a spell. I noticed he was developing an accent and I asked him about how he was fitting in with his new way with words. It sure ain't New Brunswickan.

[Southside]

The "whales" in the south are a challenge, they show up in the darndest places.  My MIL is from west Texas and was telling us about when she grew up and her dad and his crew would bring in a "whale" how the whole town would celebrate.  I legitimately asked her if they got stuck in the creeks or something as that made no sense, I then said something about the fact she was not old enough for that to have been legal, all the while she is looking at me wondering what I am talking about while I make hand movements of a fish type thing flopping around when she says something about "Earl" - I have no idea who he is and how she thinks I would know him, well that turns into more info about how "Earl" comes out of the ground from the "whale", even my wife is standing there bewildered now ready to call 911 thinking her mother is having a stroke when somehow through all of it we realize she had been talking about her dad bringing in a "well" as in a place where one gets "oil" out of the ground.....

[Magicman]

Bad thing is that when a whale or azz gets stuck in your mind, it's difficult to get it unstuck.

[YellowHammer]

I kept thinking about some new types of LiDAR 3D Terrain mapping "prawjects (southern pronunciation) not "PrO-Jetts" (northern pronunciation) we had been working on before I retired, and couldn't for the life of me figure out why anyone would try to map anything in the ocean with old tech gps transmitters because everyone knows they can't communicate underwater, and the wheels Andries was describing would go underwater after the tracking sticks were attached.  It made absolutely no sense to me, none at all. So at one point, when everyone else was nodding their head and saying "Ohh, and Ahhh..." I couldn't help it and just blurted out "What the heck are you talking about?!!"   "Why on Earth would you put GPS trackers on underwater wheels!?!"  You could have heard a pin drop, then everyone laughed so hard that people were spitting beer out of the noses!

[Dave Shepard]

We have the language barrier contained right here in our little state, no need to head South to be misunderstood. I'm a few minutes from the NYS border. Two hours the other way is Bahston, where they pahk the cah, and other insults to American English. 

[barbender]

 I definitely agree that the Boston accent is an insult to the English language😁

 I've never spoken to Andries, but I can guess that if you take what any of you may have heard on the movie "Fargo", and then add words like "eh" (pronounced āy), prō-cessor, and a-boot, that should be pretty close. As a Minnesotan, I can feel a kinship to an Ontarion's pronunciation until they start throwing some of those crazy words in😁😁

 One time I was in the local gas station. There was a walleye fishing tournament going on, and one of the fisherman started visiting with me in line. After a minute, he told me, "see, I'm from Canada, eh?" I never would've guessed😁

[SwampDonkey]

Been watching too much of the Mackenzie Brothers, eh? 

[Old Greenhorn]

Aw c'mon BB, I think that bawston accent is wicked cool.

[Bert]

Pittsburgh has some pretty good dialect as well. We go to the grocery store and put chipped in ham in our buggy's. Go down by the crick but you have to watch out cause the mud is slippy. Run the sweeper  to redd up.

[SawyerTed]

I was in Pittsburgh many years ago with a group of educators at a conference.  We went to the Primanti Brothers sandwich shop in the warehouse district.  This was when you stood in line to order your sandwich.   

A lady from Charlotte, NC in our group was a transplanted northerner.  I'm not sure where she was from originally.  She was in line in front of me and had the audacity to order a "Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich."  

She couldn't figure out why the counter man was rude to her...

[Southside]

My wife and I were in a Food Lion and she asked the kid if they had any chicken paws, so he went out back and grabbed some. Of course she can't just say "thank you" like a normal human being - oh no we have to stand there and explain just how much the dogs love these.... I was pretty sure he was going to rip them out of her hand and go and put them back in the storage area he was so insulted.  

[barbender]

 There was a guy that moved up here from Maine, his last name was Card. Everyone thought his name was "Cod" from listening to him say it, until someone saw his name written on his time card (or is that time cahd?😁)

[Magicman]

I don't quite know how to write what happens to r's down here, but they are heavily accented and drawn out instead of being lost.

[Old Greenhorn]

My wife and I were in a Food Lion ....

OK, well here's my Yankee ignorance on display, this generates 3 questions:
1) What is a food lion? (assuming a grocery store?)
B) What are/is chicken paws? (assuming chicken feet?)
3) Why was the clerk insulted?

Bonus question:
D) Why does a chicken farmer buy chicken feet in/at/through a Food Lion?

[WV Sawmiller]

  I wonder if you can buy Babel language lessons to learn to speak New England (Separate tape required for Boston) or vice versa?

    Its bad enough we have American. Canadian, British and Australian English without all the local dialects. Smoking a Fag in the UK will give you lung cancer but put you in prison for hate crimes in the US.

    My 5 y/o GD went to visit her granny and G-granny in New Hampshire last summer and withing 2 days she was already saying things were "Wicked Good"

Tom: If anyone can answer your bonus question maybe they can tell me -
"Why is a blackberry green when it is red?"

[Magicman]

We get our Chicken Feet from....

The same grocery store that has Chicken Heads.

[SawyerTed]

Family friends have a daughter, Katherine,  who when 4 of 5 years old loved a toy stuffed pig.

Her mother had a friend from somewhere in the Northeast who visited.   After 2 or 3 days, Katherine  was calling it a "pee-ugh". 

[Machinebuilder]

I'm not sure how to type this

In rural Tennessee, you have to learn when to use Y'all, all Y'all, and Y'ens (You Ens).

I haven't lived here long enough to figure it out, I've only been here 30 years.

There are a lot of other regional phrases that I hear, but there are so many DanG yankees some of them ain't from round here.

[Southside]

My wife and I were in a Food Lion ....

OK, well here's my Yankee ignorance on display, this generates 3 questions:
1) What is a food lion? (assuming a grocery store?)
B) What are/is chicken paws? (assuming chicken feet?)
3) Why was the clerk insulted?

Bonus question:
D) Why does a chicken farmer buy chicken feet in/at/through a Food Lion?

1) Yup
B) Yup
3) Dawgs should not eat such delicacies 
D) We didn't have any of our https://k9carts.com/chicken-wheelchair/ available. 

[TimW]

I was raised in an Aggie household.  I almost went to A&M for Aerospace Engineering. I understand Gig'em and Hook'em horns. We are in part of the South, but for the life of me do not understand .....Roll Tide.
 But that's okay, when we first went to an Astros baseball game in the Astrodome, I thought they kept real bulls in the bullpen.  I kept asking Dad when were the bulls coming out.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I did a project for a couple of years up in Wierton WV in the northern panhandle between easter Ohio an western PA. I could look out my window and see the Welcome to PA sign 300-400 yards away then drive 5 miles and cross the Ohio River and be in Steubenville OH. That was the first time in that area I had ever heard the term "You'uns". I was cultured enough to understand y'all could be singular or plural and such and had worked with people for New Jersey (New Joisey?) and knew about "Youse Guys" and such.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

My wife and I were in a Food Lion ....

OK, well here's my Yankee ignorance on display, this generates 3 questions:
1) What is a food lion? (assuming a grocery store?)
B) What are/is chicken paws? (assuming chicken feet?)
3) Why was the clerk insulted?

Bonus question:
D) Why does a chicken farmer buy chicken feet in/at/through a Food Lion?

I've no idea at all. Im still trying to figure out the "ice" story Southside told.