Local idioms

[cruisin]

^^

[Southpaw]

We call the ice cream soft serve. Carvel was the best! But try to find a Carvel store anymore.

They're all over the place. You need to get out of the sticks more often!

We also get accused of just calling our state Joisey, we don't it's New Jersey.

The people of Hudson County disrespectfully disagree.

[NinjaTurtles]

"Upstate" New Yorker here, though I definitely say WESTERN, as I'm only 20 minutes from Canada for crying out loud.

Draw a line between Rochester and Syracuse, and that denotes Western NY. The counties bordering Pennsylvania are called the Southern Tier (this runs from Chautauqua all the way to Binghamton). Syracuse, Utica and Albany are Central NY. Everything north of the cities is Northern NY, or "the Adirondacks" only if you're specifically referring to that region, including Lake Placid. The terms are not interchangeable: Watertown is in Northern NY, but not the Adirondacks.

Albany is technically Eastern NY, but people don't use that term. I've only heard people live there call it the Capitol area (if you said "the Capitol" I'd assume you mean DC). South of the Central NY cities is "the Finger Lakes" — like the Adirondacks, the Finger Lakes are part of Central NY but it's not interchangeable. The Catskills and Hudson Valley are usually included in a general Downstate, and I find a lot of people will call NYC just "the city".

It doesn't piss me off if people say I live upstate — I do. If you are a literate New Yorker, you'll know the difference between the boroughs of NYC as well.

/obvious geography geek

This is a very good characterization of the different regions and what they're called. It's funny how complex NY can be and all of the about "upstate" vs. "downstate". I always preface my NY roots with "upstate" to avoid confusing the poor souls who ponder where in NYC I grew up that there were more cows than people.

Here's an interesting map, though it's a bit off and more specific than I typically hear (Rochester is not part of the Finger Lakes, and I've never heard Thousand Islands Region)

I did my undergraduate degree in the Finger Lakes area and I think Rochester gets lumped-in to that because it's really the closest "major" city; so a lot of Finger Lakes people travel to and from Rochester and the greater Rochester area.

[znachki]

They're all over the place. You need to get out of the sticks more often!

Sticks - there is another one. Out in the middle of nowhere.

In the NW it's usually the "boonies", or we used to say the "toolies", although we had a discussion in my office about that once, and I'm not sure anyone else had ever used it.

This of course led to my trying to figure it out. Apparently it comes from The word Tules which is bulrush from the Lake Tulare area in California. So, lost in the weeds or out in the middle of nowhere.

[skatingfan5]

Sticks - there is another one. Out in the middle of nowhere. In the NW it's usually the "boonies", or we used to say the "toolies", although we had a discussion in my office about that once, and I'm not sure anyone else had ever used it.

This of course led to my trying to figure it out. Apparently it comes from The word Tules which is bulrush from the Lake Tulare area in California. So, lost in the weeds or out in the middle of nowhere.

I used to hear the "sticks" but now more often it's the "boonies" (i.e. boondocks, which I don't hear much anymore). I've also heard toolies/tulies used.

[Bostonfan]

Someone today told me that the "break down lane" is not universally used in the U.S. I use that verbiage all the time when referencing the "shoulder" on a highway (which we don't call it here in Mass).

I once said to a co-worker of mine (who lives in the South) over the phone, "Don't get your knickers in a twist" and she laughed and said that was a"high falutin Yankee expression". Not sure what the equivalent expression is elsewhere.

[Ozzisk8tr]

Re: Carvel ice cream. I have a tank top (or singlet as it's called down here) from Carvel with a big ice cream cone on the front, and on the back it says "Ask me for a lick". I was most popular when I wore this to Mardi-Gras in Sydney. Actually, a friend of mine named Alison Jiear, who was in the original "Jerry Springer The Opera" musical always wanted to wear it. Here is a link to her singing "I just wanna dance" from the show. I know Fergus, Michael, Ziggy and certain other FSU'sers will go crazy for this if they haven't heard it already. I know there will be some users who think I (and Alison) should burn in hell for this, but f**k 'em. The show was a little average for me but Alli gave such an emotional performance (as seen in this clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_loaVSMRa5g
I thought I should post it. Look on youtube for all the different recordings of her, including her doing it at Mardi Gras in Sydney with Tina Arena (MarieM I know you will know who Tina is). I met Alison when she was 18 and living next door to me in Sydney when I was doing the Original Australian production of La Cage Aux Folles. She was this big girl with an even bigger voice, and the most gorgeous personality. All she wanted to do was be successful. Alison was nominated for an Olivier Award for Jerry Springer and has since gone on to sing on projects like Danny Elfman's Corpse Bride among other things. I remember her as the fat clumsy girl, but she was such a funny funny girl. British people would know her from a famous Aussie group called "The Fabulous Singlettes" who had their own television show on Channel 4 over in the UK. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLdktUk_HoY I'm sure the British had no idea what a "singlette" was. Sorry, I digressed. Sorry again.
Edited to add (the following morning) Oh my, free mini bar is not good, especially before I posted this... so very sorry all.

[Veronika]

I once said to a co-worker of mine (who lives in the South) over the phone, "Don't get your knickers in a twist" and she laughed and said that was a"high falutin Yankee expression". Not sure what the equivalent expression is elsewhere.

Undies in a bunch...

[Aceon6]

I used to hear the "sticks" but now more often it's the "boonies" (i.e. boondocks, which I don't hear much anymore). I've also heard toolies/tulies used.

Don't know if it's a localism or not, but we use Outer Mongolia.

[cruisin]

They're all over the place. You need to get out of the sticks more often!

There uses to be lots of them around here. But, it seems that almost all ice cream stores around here don't last. Coldstone closed, Maggie Moos closed, Rita's closed. They sell Carvel cakes in the grocery store, but they're not the same. And FYI, we're not the sticks!

The people of Hudson County disrespectfully disagree.

I respectfully stand corrected!

[skatingfan5]

People from NJ get accused of saying Joisey, we don't. That is a NY thing.

The people of Hudson County disrespectfully disagree.

I respectfully stand corrected!

Not just within the bounds of Hudson County, either. My godmother (who was born and raised in Newark) most definitely had a very strong "Joisey" accent. Though I never understood why my mother, who lived in the same neighborhood until she went to college, didn't have a trace of it. It was quite puzzling to me.

[Spinner]

Joining this thread late...

I'll be 40 in 2 months and have lived and traveled all over the midwest US. This thread is the first time I've ever heard a drinking fountain called a "bubbler".

Also odd, I'd only ever heard non-US people call it a "washroom" until I started working my current job (I'm in Chicago). Almost everyone here does. Weird. And by here, I mean the building I'm in.

[Spinner]

Undies in a bunch...

panties in a wad

[Louis]

"Bubbler" is one of those words that I've known existed since I was an early teen, but I never heard anyone actually say until a couple of years ago. I nearly peed my pants with excitement the first time I heard someone (a Bostonian) say he was going to the "bubblah" for a drink.

I remember taking a Dutch colleague to Boston and having him ask me what language the people in the train station were speaking. He refused to believe it was English. We were in business meetings, and he literally could not understand what people were saying.

The other one I couldn't believe was the "needs [verb]" without "to be" in between. Had heard it existed for years but never observed in real speech. Then one day, I heard someone who grew up in Western PA say, "the door needs fixed," and I was that it does, in fact, exist.

[cruisin]

Not just within the bounds of Hudson County, either. My godmother (who was born and raised in Newark) most definitely had a very strong "Joisey" accent. Though I never understood why my mother, who lived in the same neighborhood until she went to college, didn't have a trace of it. It was quite puzzling to me.

The Joisey accent is like the south western NJ Philly accent. It's not really NJ, it's NY Burroughs. My grandmother grew up in Jersey City, she had the "Joisey" accent. But, my parents (from Bergen County) did not. I rarely hear that accent. When I do, it's usually an older person or someone from NY.

[cruisin]

The other one I couldn't believe was the "needs [verb]" without "to be" in between. Had heard it existed for years but never observed in real speech. Then one day, I heard someone who grew up in Western PA say, "the door needs fixed," and I was that it does, in fact, exist.

my husband is from western PA. This morning he said to me "my underwear needs washed". The man is a lawyer, he is articulate, and he's lived in NJ for 40 years, but . Not only is there no "to be", the word wash is past tense. I said this up thread, he also says "they come over last night" instead of came over. His mother used to call bologna "jumbo". I had no idea what she wanted. I teased her for it. The next week she sent me a tear out from the newspaper, advertising jumbo on sale

[Spinner]

His mother used to call bologna "jumbo". I had no idea what she wanted. I tested her for it. The next week she sent me a tear out from the newspaper, advertising jumbo on sale

Jumbo?

[skatingfan5]

Jumbo?

Yes, even the Wikipedia entry on bologna allows that:

In Pittsburgh and the surrounding area of southwestern Pennsylvania it is called jumbo.

ETA: Apparently you can lay the blame for the "needs + past participle construction" on the language of the early Scots-Irish settlers of the region around Pittsburgh. At least you can if the wiki on "Pittsburgh English" is accurate.

[Marge_Simpson]

I remember taking a Dutch colleague to Boston and having him ask me what language the people in the train station were speaking. He refused to believe it was English. We were in business meetings, and he literally could not understand what people were saying..

New Yorkers have trouble understanding Bostonians, too. There's a conductor on Metro-North who is obviously a transplant. It's hysterical to hear him announce, "Passengers for Woodlawn must be in the first four cahs", because people start saying, "What? The first four what?"

[Mozart]

On Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia where I now live cottages, etc are called bungaloos.
Dinner is lunch