[...] sir, in case you don’t know it, words move, they change from one day to the next, they are as unstable as shadows, are themselves shadows, which both are and have ceased to be, soap bubbles, shells in which one can barely hear a whisper, mere trees stumps, [...].
I read the above quote today in Jose Saramago’s Death with Interruptions, which is most excellent by the way. But this quote seemed to fit in nicely with two new books about words that I thought might be of interest.
The first is an update of an already existing book, the book is called Dictionary of American Regional English, or DARE. At that link you can read a bit about the book and peruse 100 entries from the book. But first, you might want to read Words of America: A Field Guide at Humanities Magazine to wet you whistle.
I would love to get my hands on this book and spend a weekend browsing through it. I find reading about regional vocabulary differences really fun. I can’t imagine I am the only one who does. I’ve actually had the pleasure of moving from one dialect region to another. Growing up in California, we always called carbonated beverages like Coke and Pepsi “soda.” In Minnesota it is “pop” and even the signs in the grocery store say it. Also, there is “casserole” in California for a meal you bake in one dish in the oven. In Minnesota it is “hot dish.” The one regional difference that caught me up most was the word used for the big multi-level parking structures to be found at malls, sports stadiums, downtown, etc. In California we called one of these a “parking garage.” In Minnesota it is a “ramp.” The first time someone told me to “park in the ramp” I didn’t know what the heck they were talking about. To me, a ramp is what you drive up to get to the next level in the parking garage.
So go check out the 100 sample entries, you won’t be able to say you’ve lived until you know what a “schnibble” is. And as you look over the list, yes, I know what lutefisk is. It is popular around here especially around Christmas with those of Norwegian descent.
In other interesting word news, it is apparently possible to tell a good deal about a person from their use of function words, particularly pronouns. Stuff like this can make a person nervous to say anything for fear of what others might think. The Secret Life of Pronouns website also has some exercises you can do to see what your words say about you.
It is an interesting idea and there is likely something to it, but I have a hard time going along with it fully after doing the exercises. I had it analyze my Twitter personality and it said I was very angry, yet very upbeat at the same time as well as highly worried. It makes me sound schizophrenic! The good news is, I am very low on the depression scale.
Go forth and be wordy. Or not. I might have to begin cultivating a strong silent type persona. Not sure how that will work for blogging though.
I’m fascinated by regionalisms, too. I grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country, so there were a lot of interesting phrases and usages there. Then I moved to Boston where I found out a milkshake was just that and if I wanted a milk and ice cream drink (pre-veganism), I had to order a frappe. Jimmies were the chocolate sprinkles that went on top. If you ordered a soda, you got soda water; if you wanted a soda, you ordered a tonic.
I know language is flexible and new words can be exciting and descriptive, but I cringe when we lose the depth and subtlety of words because they are used incorrectly and then become part of general use. Like ‘impact’ as a synonym for ‘affect’ or ‘effect’. And I wonder why ‘disappear’ has ‘gone missing’? Yes, I know it’s a British usage, but no one or nothing ‘disappears’ anymore.
Joan, I imagine there was a big difference between Pennsylvania Dutch country and Boston. It’s so interesting how we can all speak the same language but so many variations exist depending on where you live. It’s also funny how we can get attached to certain usages too or be resistant to others. It took me a long time before I could bear saying that I “texted” someone. As for ‘disappear,” it has not disappeared from use in Minnesota so if you’d like to find it, stop on by
Also, I just took one of those tests. I am a cultured suburbanite, who is also a slacker *and* a preppie. Hmm.
Somehow my previous comment didn’t take — shoot. These sites are fun. I *love* regional language differences! Here in the Bay Area we even have East Bay and “West Bay” (that’s East Bay for “San Francisco”) differences.
I’ve found a wonderful book this year that I think would be a fabulous Christmas present for a bookish friend or relative – A History of the English Language in 100 Words, by David Crystal. I’ll review it properly on the blog in November, but the short entries for each word are just fascinating, and he moves through from the oldest words to the newest – twitterspere is one of the last, I think! I’ve always thought of myself as a story person rather than a word person, but sometimes the information on words is so intriguing I have to change camps!
Heh. Here on the West Coast of Canada we have pop, casseroles and parkades. Back East they have chesterfields but we have couches. We also go camping in the bush rather than the woods/forest/country. I love all these regional differences.
Daphne, LOL, somehow I never would have put you and suburbanite in the same sentence
Litlove, oh that sounds like a fun book! Words have stories too sometimes and they can be very interesting
Sylvia, I have no idea what a parkade is so I had to look it up! To go with the chesterfields, there are quite a few people here who call couches “davenports” and that took me a very long time to figure out what was meant. And how interesting that you camp in the bush. Regional differences are so fascinating and then when you compare English-speaking country to English-speaking country it gets even more interesting!