QotD: Back where I'm from...
Soda? Cola? Pop? What do you say? Any other regional words that set you apart?
Vox Question of the Day submitted by Gladys.
Pop.
According to this test (thanks to Laura and Mena for providing link), I sound as upper midwestern as I actually am:
65% General American English
20% Upper Midwestern
5% Midwestern
5% Yankee
0% Dixie
There are just a heckuva lot of words that can set you apart when you're darn near Canadian don'tcha know!
Now don't expect to go to Minneapolis/St Paul (also known as the Twin Cities), which are actually very urban and hip, and expect to see the place filled with people talking like they're extras in the movie Fargo (which I thought was mean-spirited). But there are some lingering and telltale ways to detect someone with Minnesotan heritage.
Listen real closely and you can hear a hockey player's out come oot of my mouth from time to time.
- We don't make a tuna cassarole (I know, ick), we make a hot dish.
- There are some who claim that the phrase whatever orginated in MN
- Agree with me, then say you betcha! or you got that right!
- Found a great bargain? It's a heckuva deal!
- The answer to "how are you doing?" is Can't complain. Could be worse.
Lastly, I will leave you with a little life-in-Minnesota snippet that was reported in City Pages back when I used to work there.
At a party last winter, two Minnesota transplants--a New Yorker and a Los Angeleno--were talking. The New Yorker said, "We used to call this 'flyover' country back east. What'd you guys call it in California?"
"We didn't," she said.
