All Questions
669 questions
4
votes
6
answers
755
views
Does “You all” sound too southern?
Multiple people made me dinner tonight. How do I say the following without sounding too country?
Thank y’all for dinner.
(I got made fun of in San Diego for saying y’all and now I'm sensitive). I ...
- 209
5
votes
0
answers
149
views
Is there any implication of drunkenness in "high lonesome" as used in the term "high lonesome sound"?
Wiktionary has the following entry for "high lonesome sound":
high lonesome sound (music) An expressively emotional, powerful and earthy style of musical expression associated mainly with ...
- 169k
1
vote
1
answer
148
views
Is there a word for using purposefully incorrect grammar to suit a particular vernacular?
I am thinking of an educated person who knows better purposefully using "me" incorrectly in the subject of a sentence where "I" would be grammatically correct. In doing so they are ...
4
votes
0
answers
118
views
"Different than" followed by nominative case?
I'm going to try to explain my question as clearly as I can:
"Different" usually takes a preposition, either "from" (standard English regardless of region), "to" (British ...
- 252
6
votes
2
answers
602
views
Tour or Tore Pronunciation
In the past few years newsmen and sportscasters have changed the pronunciation of tour (rhymes with lure) to tore (rhymes with wore).
Why is this?
6
votes
3
answers
999
views
Is "go through the effort" a new variant of "go to the effort" or is it a long-standing, maybe regional, variant?
I'm 99% sure I've always used and read and heard "go to the effort" but I've started noticing in the past year or so that people younger than me, at least on YouTube are saying "go ...
- 7,820
9
votes
1
answer
177
views
Where does "off'n" come from?
The preposition "off'n" is seen/heard in Southern and other dialects of American English.
He drank so much he fell off'n the bar stool.
There's nothing about it in Etymonline, and Merriam-...
- 153k
5
votes
2
answers
280
views
Grammatical, stylistic and vocabulary features that distinguish written dialects?
Apart from pronunciation differences in the spoken language, I'm curious what common language features are found in the prestige dialects of English in different countries.
Prestige language is ...
- 252
4
votes
1
answer
96
views
Are there any other out-loud-slashers here?
Native speaker (American English): I say "slash" out loud sometimes in place of "and" or "or," and an example sentence that is natural in my idiolect is "When slash ...
- 252
2
votes
0
answers
37
views
think "it" silly vs. think (that) "it's/it is/it was" silly [duplicate]
As a native American English speaker, I would only ever use the second one. The first one, though, is something that I have seen (not so much heard) a lot from native speakers in both formal and ...
- 252
4
votes
1
answer
164
views
dialect/idiolect quirk? "for whom" instead of "whose"
I'm a native (American English) speaker and I've noticed that this is a weird feature of my idiolect. Here is a direct quote:
To the person for whom I spilled apple cider, if you're watching this, I'...
- 252
1
vote
0
answers
140
views
Why would someone use their native regional accent instead of BBC English at an international conference? [closed]
Anecdote. A friend of mine works at the Chemistry department of a university in the Netherlands. My friend went to a scientific conference in continental Europe. The participants from continental ...
- 269
0
votes
1
answer
440
views
Current prevalence of idiom "pulling for you"
A prior question asks about the origin of the phrase "pulling for you," a phrase that conveys well-wishes and support (Merriam-Webster):
US, informal
: to say or show that one hopes (...
- 41.7k
2
votes
2
answers
353
views
Does the part of speech of "said" differ between dialects?
Note: This is similar to, but not a duplicate of, an old question on Linguistics SE.
Consider these two sentences:
One employee accused him of serious crimes, but said employee did not provide any ...
- 19.6k
6
votes
3
answers
842
views
Who uses "uni" for "university"?
I think much has been clarified by the many interesting comments this post has received. In Edit 5 below, I've tried to summarize what I think I've learned and what questions are still outstanding.
I'...
- 151
5
votes
1
answer
362
views
Is "wheat skin color" a thing in any dialect of English or just a bad translation from Chinese?
While shopping for action figures, I came across various sellers offering "wheat skin" colored figures, for example here and probably more notably Walmart.
That color seems to be what I'd ...
- 291
1
vote
0
answers
47
views
Prefixing a road name or number with "the" -- geographical preference or proper English? [duplicate]
In reading about the LA Freeway Fire this week, it struck me (from the East Coast) as very awkward when they consistently refer to roads by prefixing them with "the". i.e., "The I-10&...
- 111
-3
votes
1
answer
633
views
What is "Antipodean English"? [closed]
I was watching this video where the English gentleman asks the Scottish MP to speak in "Antipodean English". From what I know, 'Antipodes' refers to the southern hemisphere and I am unable ...
- 155
3
votes
3
answers
171
views
“Core” as the name of a class in school
When I was in middle school (roughly ages 10–13 years old) in the US in the early 1970s, they combined English—or what might now be called language arts—with social studies into a single class that ...
- 3,609
3
votes
1
answer
217
views
Use of definite article in school grade names
I'm a younger speaker from Chicago. All throughout my education, I've noticed two different ways in which people can refer to grade levels. One includes the definite article and one does not. For ...
- 890
0
votes
1
answer
98
views
What's the meaning here of "until I would have frailed him"?
Jewel, the one she labored so to bear and coddled and petted so and him flinging into tantrums or sulking spells, inventing devilment to devil her until I would have frailed him time and time.
— As I ...
20
votes
2
answers
4k
views
What does this Peter Sellers sentence mean?
What does the sentence mean which Peter Sellers is here quoting from his grandad?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mbUdsQfSq0&t=294s
(I refer to the sentence he says immediately after you start ...
- 319
19
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Origin of the phrase "crazy as a coon"—is it racist?
Encountered most recently in the Procol Harum song "Lime Street." Does the phrase refer to a raccoon, or is the word here used in the sense of the slur?
- 207
-5
votes
1
answer
161
views
Do terms that end with 'mate' need to be clarified where people say 'mate'?
Do terms that end with 'mate' need to be clarified where people say 'mate'?
Like while playing chess, if someone says "checkmate" in somewhere like England or Australia, is it assumed they ...
user486316
2
votes
1
answer
101
views
I was trying to describe a recipe to my friend that I'd had a go of
Is this dialectal use:
And I thought I've got a nice kitchen now maybe I should learn to cook. And I'm learning, it's going quite well. I don't always know the right words for things. I couldn't ...
- 39
5
votes
2
answers
167
views
Do "radiant" and "brilliant" rhyme for the purposes of poetry? Wiktionary says their transcriptions are /ˈɹeɪ.di.ənt/ and /ˈbɹɪljənt/
Is this a dialectal/idiolectal thing, where some merge /i/ and /j/, and others don't? I'm ESL and always thought they're merged until now.
- 59
6
votes
1
answer
160
views
Is "did" used conditionally, regionally or otherwise? e.g. "Did you want..." instead of "Would you want..."
My partner frequently asks me questions that, when read literally, are questions about the past, but in intent and intended response are actually conditional questions:
Did you have any thoughts ...
- 803
7
votes
0
answers
424
views
Is there dialectal variation in the weak form of "on"?
This question is related, but not quite identical, to a previous one and to another similar one.
In a recent video, phonetician Geoff Lindsey claimed that the words "off" and "on" ...
- 19.6k
5
votes
2
answers
187
views
Apparent trill in the "br" of "bridge"
I occasionally hear "br" in words such as bridge, bring or British, pronounced with almost a bilabial trill.
One example is the word "bring" in The Assumption Song by OneyNG, ...
- 53
2
votes
1
answer
144
views
Unusual conjugation of "to be" [closed]
I encountered several times a certain type of sentences (in colloquial contexts) which were clearly grammatically incorrect but seems to be widely spread and, as a non-native English speaker, I would ...
- 121
3
votes
1
answer
570
views
Meaning and usage of "head(s) AND tails above"?
I've come across the expression "head(s) and tails above" (the rest, the competition etc; different from something like "can't make head or tail of something" i.e. can't figure it ...
- 481
4
votes
1
answer
187
views
Is there a documented merger or split responsible for whether or not people treat lair and layer as homophones, and if so, what is it called?
Discovered a weird bit of pronunciation distinction in friends today, between three words:
lair (as in home to monster)
layer (as in levels of a cake)
layer (as in "one who lays things down"...
- 628
11
votes
2
answers
2k
views
"Swear" as a noun as opposed to "swear word"
I'm a teenager from Chicago. During my childhood (and, presumably, that of almost all English-speaking children), I was taught that some words were "bad" words; these words were ...
- 890
1
vote
1
answer
345
views
Flapped r after th in English?
I have heard a few English speakers — native — say the word “three” with what sounds like a flapped r. This might include other words that begin with “thr”, but I can’t remember. It’s just been ...
TheAquilineNose
0
votes
0
answers
62
views
*an unitary operator* or *a unitary operator* [duplicate]
The rule that I usually use in such cases is that *an* precedes a vowel sound, while *a* is used before a consonant sound. I understand sound as different from letter - conventionally u would be ...
- 251
0
votes
2
answers
909
views
How are decimal numbers read or pronounced in different locales (different decimal separator)?
In the USA we use a period (dot) as the decimal separator. The word "point" is normally used for the decimal separator when reading such a number. For example, a number such as 3.14 would ...
- 109
1
vote
1
answer
196
views
Y'all pronounced as "yah"
I grew up in Texas, and I've heard and often said "yah" instead of y'all. I've never seen it listed as an alternative word to y'all.
Has anyone else heard this pronunciation? I cannot seem ...
- 13
-1
votes
1
answer
51
views
Does anyone know what the word "Some" means here? [closed]
Just to context:
I've playing a gang context game and after a funeral the rival gang drives by shooting and then the characters that were at the funeral have the car blown up and then they have to run ...
- 127
9
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Meaning of “a dizzard”
I’m working on translation of an American novel, dating back to the late 19th - early 20th centuries, and the main character came from a local little Vermont town.
The author describes him as “old ...
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-2
votes
2
answers
118
views
In which Englishes are "distant" relative clauses acceptable?
Are sentences like these
The man got beaten up who James saw take the train yesterday.
The potato was eaten that Hayley said she wanted.
with these meanings
The man who James saw take the train ...
user163011
1
vote
0
answers
530
views
Terms for grandparents and other relatives [closed]
I’m a teenager from the Midwest. Different people obviously refer to their relatives in many different ways, and I’ve noticed a wide variance in what people call their grandparents.
Many people who ...
- 890
2
votes
0
answers
117
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Where does the subcontinental usage of 'one' to mean 'named' come from?
Sometimes, when reading texts published in India, written by authors of Indian origin, I notice a usage of the word one in the sense of 'named,' or 'is called.' For instance, it's present in this ...
- 8,646
3
votes
2
answers
162
views
Is there a word for 'everything' in the Northern English dialect?
I'm wondering if there's a word for everything in the Northern-English dialect that's spoken in and around Yorkshire.
I know that there's summat (something), owt (anything), and nowt (nothing), but is ...
- 31
2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Is it common to pronounce "machinations" with /sh/?
In the show The Sandman, Ep7, a character speaks "machinations" with a soft /sh/, as "mash-in-ay-tions":
You seek to snare him in your machinations again?
I expected the "ch&...
- 169
5
votes
2
answers
154
views
Figurative meaning of the (verbal) phrase "(play at/run) kittly-benders"?
A kittly-bender is « an area of yielding or broken ice on a body of water; also fig; hence v phrr run kittly-benders, play at ~ to run or skate over such ice as a sport » (DARE):
1871 Hale How to Do ...
- 481
1
vote
0
answers
120
views
Why does the 'Intrusive 'R' appear in the state of Mississippi?
I've seen people discuss the intrusive 'R'. I have also been very curious about this subject, because I am from Mississippi and both my Mother and my Grandmother use the intrusive 'R'. ('Warsh', ...
- 29
30
votes
10
answers
13k
views
What would a British person call the biscuits that Americans put gravy on?
What are the biscuits that Americans put gravy on called in British English? They're very different from British biscuits. I like both kinds of biscuits, but the British ones would not be good with ...
- 770
0
votes
1
answer
314
views
Is using "what" in place of "that" associated with a particular dialect of English? [duplicate]
While watching Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, I heard the character Pete say the phrase "reindeer what fly" instead of "reindeer that fly". As a native English speaker, I have ...
- 131
2
votes
1
answer
768
views
Are "orange" and "ginger" synonymous (cat color)?
I recently watched a movie A street cat named Bob, where the cat was described as ginger cat.
I thought the color of the cat is described as orange, too. (confirmed with google image search)
The ...
- 677
4
votes
5
answers
8k
views
"call out" vs "call in"
When I am ill and cannot go into the office to work I say "I called out sick". I now live in Texas and people like to correct me and say that it's "call in sick".This doesn't make ...
- 41