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Hello I’m Mr Sunshine and I’m here to teach you irrelevant poo poo about my language. Please teach me irrelevant poo poo about your language. The Norrlandian Shu The northernmost part of Sweden is called Norrland (literally “Northern Land”. We don’t go for poetic bullshit names). To our US friends, the inhabitants of Norrland are like a cross of rednecks and alaskans. Or like Finns. They live in snowy wastelands and mosquito-infested bogs. They have to drive a snowmobile for two hours to get to the nearest bar. They like not having to interact with another human for several months. They don’t talk much. The greatest expression of the Norrlandian spirit is the shu. Not really a word, more a sharp intake of breath through pursed lips. It’s a general-purpose sound that can mean “Yes” or “I agree” or “Things are good/tolerable/not abysmally bad)” or “I hear what you’re saying but I don’t really give a poo poo”. A typical norrlandic conversation can consist of up to 80% shu. The shu has seen increasing use in southern Sweden due to its versatility and the fact that southern Swedes hate interacting with other humans just as much as the norrlanders do. The Ubiquitous Satan English has gently caress. Swedish has jävla. Djävulen (pronounced “jevulen”) means the devil. Jävla means “of the devil” or “devilish”. It is a versatile swear word that can be adapted into many forms, much like the english “gently caress”. Jävla skit would be “loving poo poo”. Something can be för jävligt (too devilish) or jävligt kass (devilishly bad), meaning it’s all hosed up. Another Swedish word for Satan is fan. Satan, fan and jävla can all be combined in various ways, with a sprinkling of i helvete (in hell) to really drive home the point. So Fan i satans helvetes jävla fan i helvete (“The devil in the devil’s hellish devilish devil in hell”) is a completely congruent Swedish curse when you hit your thumb with a hammer. The Gothenburg La, Änna and Go Gothenburg lies on the west coast (or front) of Sweden. Its inhabitants - the göteborgare - are known as down-to-earth, humorous, working class people who are either fishermen or work at the Volvo automobile plant. They are also goa gubbar (see below). La and änna are gothenburgish multi-purpose words. La is a sort of rhetorical amplifier, like “Detta va la XYZ” would be akin to “Well well, wasn’t this XYZ”. Änna is a kind of the-opposite-but-not-really, a word you tack on to mean “Yeah this is sort of XYZ” but which actually means “This is really loving XYZ”. Go (pronounced “goo”) is the gothenburgish contraction of the regular Swedish god (good). A person or a thing can be go, meaning they’re pleasant, nice and not a loving hassle. A go gubbe (lit. nice old man) is a dependable maybe-sort-of-weird-but-kinda-funny dude. The local drunk down at the pub can be a go gubbe, unless he’s an rear end in a top hat in which case he’s a sur jävel. When you call up an old friend to ask for a favor and he says he knows a couple of guys, they’re gonna be goa gubbar. However, if someone is go i huvet (“good in the head”) it means they’re an idiot. This leads us to the most gothenburgish phrase in the Swedish language: Du e la änna go i hela jävla huvet - “Well, aren’t you sort of good in the entire loving head”, meaning you’re the dumbest motherfucker alive.
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Dec 10, 2021 00:25
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Here in the Yay Area, we like to say hella and remind people that thizz is what it iz. PLUR was popular in the rave community (Peace, love, unity, respect/responsibility) but that likely extends beyond SF to raving at large, I was only in it for a straight minute.
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Dec 12, 2021 20:02
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Related to the OP's post - in Scotland, primarily, though not exclusively, in Glasgow you'll come across the phrase 'Nae Danger' almost certainly from the same root as 'Inge fara'. There are a number of other Scottish/Scandinavian cross over phrases too boot
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Dec 14, 2021 12:57
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In Sweden we have a saying, "Jag anar ugglor i mossen", lit. "I suspect there's owls in the bog" which means something's fucky.
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Dec 16, 2021 22:55
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Also my brother is fond of saying "Kukars vrede!" ie "Wrath of cocks!", but I suspect that's less of a regional saying and more that he's a marine corps sergeant.
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Dec 16, 2021 22:58
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I do the Midwest-White "ope!" a lot
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Dec 16, 2021 23:03
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Who What Now posted:I do the Midwest-White "ope!" a lot I encountered a rare triple 'ope!' when leaving a theater once. Two guys were coming in at the same time and all of us took turns saying 'ope!'
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Dec 17, 2021 00:16
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Down here we call our little girl babies “mamas”. We also call women 18-30 mama as well as women 31-97
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Dec 17, 2021 03:46
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In Wales, there has been a number of cases of racial tension from the regrettable Welsh inclination to call EVERYONE 'boy' or 'boyo' - so much so that 'boyo' is also a slur against the Welsh. Strange, but true - 'boy' from a Welshman is generally not supposed to be demeaning or racist, but a genuine term of endearment. The, uh, golliwog dolls that you can still find there? THAT'S due to racism.
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Dec 17, 2021 08:57
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Here in Aus we will say Yeah nah Or Nah yeah And it's never quite clear without context and tonality what is the intended intent
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Dec 17, 2021 09:51
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Mr. Sunshine posted:In Sweden we have a saying, "Jag anar ugglor i mossen", lit. "I suspect there's owls in the bog" which means something's fucky. We have that In Norway too. It's actually a mistranslation of the danish expression "there's wolves in bog."
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Dec 17, 2021 12:38
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Mr. Sunshine posted:Hello I’m Mr Sunshine and I’m here to teach you irrelevant poo poo about my language. Please teach me irrelevant poo poo about your language. That's also the case with wolves, because people were scared of them they tried to avoid using the word "wolf". Instead they came up with other words: grey legs, grey fur, skrubb and varg.
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Dec 17, 2021 12:53
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Jestery posted:Here in Aus we will say
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Dec 17, 2021 13:08
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If you learn a word in Finnish, it's probably perkele, a word for the Devil or evil spirits or old pagan god. But the most popular swearword by a large margin is vittu. Vittu means oval office and in usage is the equivalent of English gently caress and Swedish jävla. Something can be vitun siistiä (lit. oval office's clean, loving awesome) or vitun hirveää, loving awful. A dickhead is vittupää, cunthead. If you are pissed off, you can say that vituttaa. If there's a lot of something, there's vittuna of it. If there's a lot of something, or it's quite something in either good or bad, it can be vitunmoinen. If you want to sound like an edgy teen, just use vittu in your sentences instead of comma! Of course it has not always been a curseword. Vittu was an old word for a vagina, especially that of an older woman who had successfully had children. It was considered to hold a considerable magical power, and a woman could ward of bears and evil spirits away by exposing her genitals. She could also cast a savekeeping spell by standing or stepping over something without underpants. When cattle was send out in the spring, the woman of the house would stand on top of the doorway or gate with her genitals exposed. This would keep the cattle save.
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Dec 17, 2021 13:16
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Alhazred posted:I find it interestint how taboo the devil is in Scandinavia. That invoking his name is one of the worst things you can do in polite society. And because his name is so taboo there's a lot of synonyms for the devil in Norwegian: old Erik, red Simon, jævel, faen, fanden, hinmannen, the ugly one and the man with the hoofs.
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Dec 17, 2021 16:55
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Ope! Lemme just scootch right pastcha.
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Dec 17, 2021 17:13
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From Minnesota and we say "uff da" a lot. Literally translated from Norweigan it means "oof, then" Very similar to yiddish's "oy vey". But more of an involuntary under-the-breath mutter than an exclamation. Done properly, you're shaping the exhale of a sigh. It's an understated "Yikes". Non-judgmental, or as close to non-judgmental as a Minnesotan can be, though.
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Dec 17, 2021 17:18
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Oh i bet that'd be good in a casserole, dontcha know.
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Dec 17, 2021 17:39
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Queen-Of-Hearts posted:Oh i bet that'd be good in a casserole, dontcha know.
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Dec 17, 2021 18:58
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We've got a couple hyper-local regionalisms in Vermont (and a little bit into northern NH and NY) Jeezum Crow. A way of saying Jesus Christ without taking the lord's name in vein. Witch Window. A window set at an angle along a gable end of a roof where it meets another portion of the house. Like so:  Also sometimes called a "weird window." Creemee/Creamee/Creamie/Creemie/Creemmee/whatever other weird spelling variation. Just soft-serve ice cream.
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Dec 17, 2021 19:32
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Driver: misses exit. Midwestern passenger: so uh, where we goin?
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Dec 17, 2021 20:46
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DrBouvenstein posted:Witch Window. A window set at an angle along a gable end of a roof where it meets another portion of the house. Like so: The siding being at the same angle as the window makes it look like the entire house just tipped over.
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Dec 17, 2021 20:56
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Oh goodness. Let me tell yinz abah' Pennsylvania English; specifically west Pennsylvania English. The Appalachians have quite a lot of colorful culture going on as it was historically separated heavily from the rest of the country due to geography. There's also a weird friendly rivalry comparable to what happens between England and Scotland going on between the halves of the state. We make fun of each other constantly but if you mess with part of the state you mess with the entire state. As much as I might refer to people from the Schuylkill area as "a bunch of loving skooks" I'd be throwing plenty of any extra money I had at relief effort funds if a disaster hit them. The opposite is also true; yeah they might call the rest of the state a bunch of dirty hillbillies but they have our back when the chips are down. It's a lot like siblings who give each other poo poo publicly but always have each other's backs when things are going down no question asked. That's actually a common family dynamic in the state now that I think about it. Pittsburgh English is the most colorful. That word "yinz" up there? Yeah, if you say that I know where you're from. You'll be from either Pittsburgh proper or within an hour or so away from it. Go watch some Pittsburgh Dad videos on YouTube. That's perfectly accurate to what Pittsburgh sounds and acts like. Yinz is comparable to y'all and used in similar situations. Instead of "you all" it's "you ones." Nobody is exactly sure where it came from and part of this has to do with who immigrated to the region in the first place. There was a lot of Polish, Irish, German, and Scottish people moving into the area in the 19th century and they dogpiled the mountains of Pennsylvania pretty hard. A ton of them moved to Pittsburgh and worked in the industry there which is part of what gives the city its unique character as well as linguistic perks. Pennsylvania is one of relatively few parts of the country that is heavily Slavic. This history has led the region overall to have words nobody else has even beyond Pittsburgh proper. A lot of the idiosyncrasy comes from the weird accent (I will never give up my revolting Pennsylvania mountain person accent for any reason at all ever) but we do have some unique words. "Jagger" means thorn. A "jagger bush" is a bush with thorns though it might also be used to describe a tree. Your parents will tell you to "redd up" instead of clean. Shopping carts are "buggies." Vacuum cleaners are "sweepers." "Hoagie" usually refers to subs but can be used to describe any large sandwich. Faucets are "spickets." A lot of people refer to their grandmother as their "baba." A lot of sentences are ended with "'n'at" which is short for "and that." It effectively means "and so forth." So you could say "yeah dat place 'as burgers, soup, fries, chicken, 'n'at" if you were saying what a restaurant has. Turn signals are "blinkers." If you're being "nebby" it means you're being nosy. "Jagoff" means "jerk." If you want eggs that are overlight or sunny side up so you can dip your toast in the yolk ask for them "dippy." Interestingly there's a lot of overlap between the words people use but if you're from the area you can get a pretty clear idea of whereabouts they're from by just listening to the words they use. We're talking subdialects that are sometimes so specific you can tell what neighborhood they're from. Usually though it's a specific county or near it. Due to the rough terrain people didn't move around the region much until pretty recently so most of the communities can still be insular. This is in more of a "well hey a new person we don't get many of those" way than a "we don't like your kind around these parts" way. What confuses most people first time they come to the area is the accent. It's kind of a local pastime to lay in on thick for outsiders the first time they come around. It takes getting used to but once you understand it you can sort it out. Hour sounds more like "ahr." Understand will come out "unnerstan." There are a lot of letters that are just dropped entirely or mushed into linguistically unique sounds. It's such a unique linguistic set of characteristics there are people making entire academic careers just studying it and its history. There's also a surprising amount of information on it on the internet even though it's specific to a relatively small geographic area. Pittsburghese was actually voted "America's ugliest accent." Pittsburgh people (often called "yinzers" now that more people are becoming aware of the accent and dialect) actually take that as a mark of pride. One very interesting quirk of the area is that there are practically no euphemisms or figures of speech meant to talk about anything indirectly. I tried to think of some but I can't think of any off the top of my head. Why? Because people in the region are extremely direct. They're rough, obnoxious people that will tell you exactly what they think when they think it. Personally I think that's fantastic. As much as I dislike the city of Pittsburgh itself I'll admit that I like the people in the area quite a lot. They have a pretty long history of being tough, hard working people that are incredible at getting poo poo done. If I had to pick one group of people to spend the rest of my life with it'd be dem friggin' jagoffs dahn inna Burgh. Here's a few examples of English sentences converted to Pittsburghese: What's going on? -> 'sgoin' ahn? You want to go get some ham sandwiches? -> Yinz wanna git some jumbo? It will take about an hour to get there. -> Ill take 'baht n'ahr. That sure is interesting. -> Well ain't dat inneresin'? Let's go downtown have some beer and catch the Steelers' game. -> Les go dahntahn 'n' pahnd some ahrns 'n' watch'a Stillers. ToxicSlurpee has a new favorite as of 00:43 on Dec 18, 2021 |
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Dec 17, 2021 23:53
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The truly ancient women in my family I got to meet a few times as a kid who grew up on farms in the north delaware valley in NJ in the 1890s were forever saying "you'uns" so that seems a very likely evolution
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Jun 5, 2022 15:15
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I'm from Fresno, California and I learned a while back that it was really only people from the San Joaquin Valley region of the state that say "out in the tules" (pronounced like "too-lees") to mean "in an isolated rural area" or just "far away." Tules are a kind of rush that grows in marshy areas in California so "out in the tules" basically meant far enough away from everything that it wasn't worth draining the wetlands for agriculture. Sadly there really aren't any places like that in the Central Valley anymore so it seems that it's no longer a particularly common expression except in families that have been there for a long time, mine's been there since the Great Depression so we say it and I honestly didn't know it was a regional thing until a couple of years ago. Tules also lend their name to the tule fog, which is a particularly heavy fog that makes driving practically impossible sometimes in the winter. I still remember driving my date home from the prom with my head sticking out of the driver's side window and hers out of the passenger's side because the tule fog was so thick that that was the only way we could see the lines on the road. We don't have many local linguistic quirks so it was kind of neat to learn that this one was more or less unique.
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Jun 5, 2022 16:24
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Wisconsin, some extend into the rest of the upper midwest Ope! has been mentioned, more less equivalent to "oops, excuse me!" A horse a piece - when faced with two choices, both having roughly equivalent outcomes bubbler - a drinking water fountain, properly one that hangs on a wall, alleged to have been a model name for one made by Kohler and sold primarily in Wisconsin and the Boston area, apparently time machine - actually TYME machine, Take Your Money Everywhere, an early ATM widespread through Wisconsin but now long gone so usage has tapered off come here once, look at this once - don't hear this as much lately, but the added "once" used to be common
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Jun 5, 2022 19:35
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kNfbx9QKPQ
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Jun 6, 2022 01:36
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widefault posted:bubbler - a drinking water fountain, properly one that hangs on a wall, alleged to have been a model name for one made by Kohler and sold primarily in Wisconsin and the Boston area, apparently
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Jun 6, 2022 02:20
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