The working vocabulary of the average 14-year-old has declined in the last 50 years from 25,000 words to 10,000. Language reflects the depth of our human experience. Because we think in words, are we losing the capacity to say what we feel?
Like, whatever.
If you were tickled by my doozy of a dialect post a while back
or delighted with this humdinger of a dictionary,
then you’ll definitely want to try this …
The New York Times published a quirky quiz last year based on the Harvard Dialect Survey, and it turned out to be the most popular piece posted in 2013 (wouldn’t you love to be the intern who created it?).
It’s called:
How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk.
If you haven’t taken it already, just click the link above, answer the questions, and watch for the maps that link your lingo to certain regions of the country. According to the Times, “The colors on the large heat map correspond to the probability that a randomly selected person in that location would respond to a randomly selected survey question the same way that you did. The three smaller maps show which answer most contributed to those cities being named the most (or least) similar to you.”
So, is this a highway or a freeway?
Photo by SayCheeeeeese via Wikimedia Commons
A pop or a soda?
Pill bug or roly poly?
Photo by Walter Siegmund via Wikimedia Commons
Did the quiz pin you down to the right place?
Winnie Nielsen says: Yep! Pretty much hit the nail on the head, except for Pecan and a few others. I am in that 1% group that does not say “PeeCan”. There are some other differences and perhaps I fall out of the group because I grew up in Virginia with parents from the mid-west. And that last photo? Definitely a ropy-poly!!
Mine was pretty accurate as well! Winnie, we must have had some difference in questions because i didn’t get one about pecans!
Interesting!
CJ
Gail says: Some of the questions must have been different! I didn’t get the pe-can question at all. I will say, though, that the results were spot on as to where I live! Fascinating survey!
Anne says: Funny survey but I have never used many of the terms provided as answers in the survey. The survey concluded I was from the deep South, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee area. It was easy off. I am from Naples Fla. My family had been her for 7 generations and I have only left briefly twice.. I think you might need to come here and tall to real natives. You might get many more words.
Sandi says: This was so far off, guess I am from no where or everywhere. Growing up my family moved across the US from the east coast of New York State to the west coast of California and Arizona. I’ve lived in Arizona, California, New York, Indiana, Kentucky, and Oregon, but mostly in Indiana and Kentucky the last part of my 71 years. The map said Illinois, Michigan or Louisiana, which I have never lived in. Guess I just picked up the lingo from people I know or knew. Some of the questions I had to put ‘other’ or ‘none’ or ‘no difference’ as I never heard of the ‘lingo’ they had as answers. We use ‘pill bug’ not roly poly and pa’con for pecan. But when I first come here to this area, I was confused when someone would say oral meaning oil, and war meaning wire. It took me a while to understand them.
Winnie Nielsen says: Yay!! The mystery revealed to Winner, er, Winnie!! I love this story!
Winnie Nielsen says: I am completely clueless about the subject matter of this photo. Could it be a light source?
MaryJane says: I will send you a clue tomorrow when my crew gets in. We can’t have our Winnie in a clueless state!!!! Hint: Her name is Myrtle.
“All spring and summer my parents ricochet from garden to garden, mulching, watering, pulling up the polyphiloprogenitive weeds, ‘until’, my mother says, ‘I’m bent over like a coat hanger,'” writes Margaret Atwood in a book called Bluebeard’s Egg.
Photo courtesy of Joe Mabel via Wikimedia Commons
I feel pretty certain that you and I are both still stuck at poly …
Polyphiloprogenitive, was it?
Thank goodness for a computer’s “copy” and “paste” functions (I dare not re-type that one on my own).
This term—polyphiloprogenitive (see, I pasted again!)—is one of those words whose meaning a farmgirl can glean from context,
particularly when the context involves garden weeds (think extremely prolific),
but that doesn’t make saying it any easier.
A syllabic breakdown is in order.
Join me:
po-ly
phi-lo
pro
gen-i-tive
Now … say it three times fast!
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth via Wikimedia Commons
Wink.
Winnie Nielsen says: A total tongue twister for me but quite an interesting word for the complex work involved in every garden. I bet it was one of those words that broke the stalemate of an intense Scrabble game late one evening!
Lisa A says: I just saw this on Wordsmith this week! Do you get their e-mails?
MaryJane says: I don’t get their e-mails but will sign up.
Winnie, not enough letters to work with to do in Scrabble I’m afraid to say, not even if building onto another word. Trust me ,my family are Scrabble geeks of the highest order. We play with an egg timer and we are vicious ! Neat word, I’m giving a a gardening lecture on Tuesday and think I will try and use it.
Ah, the sounds of morning …
Birds singing,
Photo by Brian Robert Marshall via Wikimedia Commons
tea kettle pouring,
Photo by Patrick George via Wikimedia Commons
and the pelting of peas upon windowpanes.
Photo by Parvathisri via Wikimedia Commons
Curious?
I thought you might be.
Pea pelting was the work of “knocker ups” in England and Ireland before alarm clocks put an end to the profession.
Note, gentle reader, that “knocking up” bore no resemblance to our modern slang terminology (ahem).
In fact, it was a valued service generally provided by elderly women and men, and occasionally undertaken by police constables looking to pad their paychecks during early-morning patrols.
Each morning, the knocker up was charged with rousing sleeping people so they could get to work on time. She would use a heavy stick called a truncheon to knock on clients’ first-floor doors. For residents above arm’s reach, the knocker up would wield a long stick, often made of bamboo, to tap upper-story windows.
Image courtesy of Au Bout de la Route blog
Some of the more adventurous knocker ups, like Mary Smith of London’s Brenton Street (shown below), employed pea shooters to hurl dried peas at windows until the sleeper within woke up.
Image courtesy of Basilica Fields blog
In return for their services, knocker-ups were paid a few pence a week.
Now you know!
Winnie Nielsen says: Hahahahaha!! Who would have guessed these old forms of alarm clocks? I love that photo of the pea shooter. What a hoot!
Karlyne says: The photos are adorable! I’d heard of the knockers-uppers, but not pea shooter ones!
Rdavisgarden says: I did not know that! Very nice!
michele says: Nice to know others love words, too!
OK, who remembers playing with pea shooters as a child ? and spit balls? Boy I bet the cops would be called in these days if you played with them now. Definitely a great way to be awakened, instead of an alarm clock. I am so lucky , with my own business, working from my farmette, I haven’t used an alarm clock at all except for maybe once a year to get to my Doctor’s appointment. Yep, that’s the way to do it.
Kim Reeves says: Never heard of this before! Very interesting!
Nancy says: Have read about “knockers-up” but loved the photos! Lisa is so right when she says that peashooters today would not be acceptable!
Winnie Nielsen says: Sprouting ice twigs and leaves!
Winnie Nielsen says: Even rusty gears get an artist’s touch!
Would you sign up for a lesson in campanology?
My glamping friends are no doubt whooping “YES!” with cabin-fevered fervor.
We’re all chomping at the bit in anticipation of our first spring camping trip,
but campanology really has nothing at all to do with tents or teardrop trailers.
Speaking of which …
Photo by Don Stucke via Wikimedia Commons
Trailer envy!
Wait—what am I saying?
Ah, yeah, back to the point:
Does “campanology” ring a bell with anyone?
(Hint: that was an intentional pun.)
The term campanology refers to the study of REALLY BIG bells, like these:
Photo by Brian Webster via Wikimedia Commons
By study, I mean all facets of bell construction and tuning to the art of ringing these behemoths, an age-old practice that doesn’t command a lot of attention these days, especially here in the U.S.
Derived from the Latin word for bell, campana, campanology was coined in the Campania region of Italy, which is known for the mining of bronze that was used to cast bells.
These days, though, much of the talk of campanology resounds from the hallowed halls of English churches, and I was surprised at how many young people are chiming in.
Take, for instance, Becky Dunnet. She’s the teen star of this fun bit of campanology promotion:
I never would have guessed that campanology is considered cool.
Now, about that camping trip … have you made any plans yet?
Winnie Nielsen says: My first introduction to the world of bell ringing was in a Dorothy Sayers murder mystery. There is an entire musical art build around the proper ringing of the church bells and there is even musical scores to read. Imagine! Speaking of camping plans, I read on the MJF connection about an upcoming camping opportunity in Arizona this late March! The plans are hatching and people are counting down the days!
Karlyne says: The Nine Tailors, Winnie!
And camping! With sunshine! Ahhhhh….
Actually, I’ve found learning about bells to be interesting . . thank you!
Glamping/camping trips? Yup . . Backyard Glamper Party & Sleepover at my daughter’s house in Arizona in March. GLAMPER-IFIC GATHERING TWO in Southwest Colorado “Mesa Verde Country” JUNE 13-15.
And, whatever we can manage the rest of the summer!
Melody Larson says: My Grandfather, Ted Berry was a famous Church Bell Ringer in the town of Orfino, Idaho for many years, and a friend of his wrote a wonderful poem about him ringing the bell! I am so proud of him in so many ways, and this special distinction only made me prouder of the man he was!!
MaryJane says: Orofino is a lovely town. Now it’s even more lovely knowing it has church bells that ring! I hope someone still rings them????
Peggy Richmod says: My father-in-law used to Bell Ring with his church group, it was lovely. Camping plans, you bet! First one is March 1-4 Chuckwagon cookoff with SOTF in Pigeon Forge TN, March 29-April 1, Lazy and laid Back with SOTF in Sweetwater, TN, April 12-15 Moonshine Creek with SOTF in NC, April 20-22, Country Living Fair in Lebanon TN, camping with SOTF, June 7-10 Synchronized Fireflies, Elkmont, TN Smokey Mountains, August 2-5 Longest Yard Sale, Fall Creek Falls State Park, TN, September 5-9, Flying Dragons Racing, Pensacola, FL (actually this is staying with Sisters in a beach house but its like glamping) Sept 14-16, Henry Horton State Park, TN, October 25-28Country Living Fair, Stone Mountain Campground, GA and that is as far as I have gotten planning this year.
Howdy, you ‘uns!
Last Cabbage Night,
Photo by JR Conlin via Wikimedia Commons
Farmer Jane was sitting out on the veranda
Photo by Carl Tashian via Wikimedia Commons
chewing on a homemade grinder
Photo by jeffreyw via Wikimedia Commons
when she heard the spine-tingling scream of a catamount
Photo by Art G via Wikimedia Commons
tearing through the timber.
Photo by IvoShandor via Wikimedia Commons
The sound caused her chickens to pile up in a real gawk block.
Photo by Katie Brady via Wikimedia Commons
Feathers ruffled as the girls gathered to gabble about the clear and present danger.
Jane fled to get her faithful old flintlock
Photo by Andrzej Barabasz via Wikimedia Commons
in case she would need to defend her flock.
But when she returned, all was quiet.
Still prickled with goose bumps,
Photo by turtlemom4bacon via Wikimedia Commons
Jane decided to stand guard a while longer.
She tucked her hair into a horsetail,
Photo by Evil Erin via Wikimedia Commons
popped a PEEcan
(peCON?) into her mouth,
Photo by Judy Baxter, USDA, via Wikimedia Commons
and counted the peenie wallies
Photo by Daniel Schwen via Wikimedia Commons
as they began to flash in the shadows.
Just another night on the farm!
…
Jest dabblin’ in the dialects that pepper various regions of the country. Even though we all speak the same language, nuances abound!!!
To pin down your own dialect, take this fun quiz, published recently in the New York Times.
Were you surprised at your results?
Winnie Nielsen says: Well, I am definitely located in the deep South along with Alabama, Georgia Mississippi and Tennessee. Those expressions you listed are all new to me EXCEPT for Peecan! I was raised saying Pecan but most everyone here uses the double vowel e in the word. I am in love with the photo of the pumpkin patch!!
Acrroding to the quiz, I am the Richmond VA and Baltimore dialect which is not surprising as I grew up in Maryland ( mostly eastern MD ) and Virginia ( mostly Norfolk and also the DC area). It took me 13 years to stop saying y’all !! I sound most southern though if I am back down south, with relatives or drink any alcohol. Its always in there no matter how much you might want to change.
Oh and I still say a “passel” ( sp?) of this and ” whole slew” of that. No one local can understand me, needless to say. Lots of other old time sayings like ” screaming bloody blue murder” and such date from my grandmother’s time I think. She was from TN. The locals here in Lancaster County use PA “Dutch” phrases and pronunciation, like a w for a v, hence my cats’ doctor is a ” wetinary”. The local VFW is the ” wee-eff”. And my elderly friend’s house is covered in ” wines”. I love local speech patterns which in this day of TV , internet and such is fast being lost. I have a friend ( the one who gave me the wonderful Sourwood Honey) who is an Appalachian food historian and her website is full of taped interviews and short videos of her locals remembering their foodways : http://www.appalachianfoodstorybank.org
I am southern and even I have a difficult time understanding the words. Appalachian dialect is really fascinating and many phrases date back to early English/Scotch/Irish settlers. They still say yonder for instance. Listen to them tell their stories for a taste of the past.
MaryJane says: Those are common phrases to me also: passel, whole slew, and screaming bloody murder. How about gag a maggot?! Love the food story bank. Taste of the past!
Nope, never heard of ” gag a maggot”. Glad you like her food story bank, shes an amazing and dedicated young woman (along with her helpers.) She’s working on documenting the Lancaster County Saffron story from her visit here last summer with my Mennonite friends, identical twins, Marion and Martha, the “Saffron Twins”.
Karlyne says: I’m with you on most of them, but “peenie wallies” are nowhere to be found in my brain! What are they?!?
Marga Ayers says: Well this had me pegged. It showed that the two cities with dialects most like mine are Salt Lake and Boise which is appropriate since I was born and raised in Salt Lake. I’m like you MaryJane, I still use passel, slew and gag a maggot! Even though we are as far as could be from the Deep South my Southern Utah grandparents still used words like “fixin” and “pertnear” as in “we are FIXIN to leave and we are PERTNEAR there” and a man you might not know well was a “feller” as in “That there FELLER did a fine job.” So funny and sweet. I agree that with internet and TV I hope we don’t loose the small things that make us unique.
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It’s Spring, so Sing!
Lovely spring arrangement, but I hope it was an abandoned nest, here in PA it is illegal to take nests. I used to collect them but now only if they blew out of the tree.
Yup, only when they’re on the ground. Hurray for PA for forward-thinking legislation. Good morning, Lisa!
Good Afternoon MJ. Look for your private email re trout.
The blue jays just finished their nest in the cedar right next to my kitchen, gonna be a raucous spring! I am right eye level with it. Last year they were in the antique apple tree nearby and that was loud enough.
I received your note last night. Thanks for the thanks:) Lisa’s gone trout fishing, I mean trout surfing.
Ugh, this year the blue jays are eating all my heirloom wheat starts so I’ve positioned two big fake owls to scare them off. I think it’s working.
How lovely! And so nice for Easter. With snow on the ground still, our birds are not ready for nest building yet. Hubby & I went & cleaned out the 10 birdhouses we have on the property so when they come they can start building right away! Ahhh….spring!