Definition and Examples of Regionalisms in English

Definition and Examples of Regionalisms in English Regionalism is aâ linguistic term for a word, articulation, or elocution supported by speakers in a specific geographic territory. Numerous regionalisms [in the U.S.] are relics, notes R.W. Burchfield: words brought over from Europe, primarily the British Isles, and safeguarded in some zone either on account of the continuation of more seasoned lifestyles in these territories, or on the grounds that a specific sort of Englishâ was early settled and has not been completely overlaid or sabotaged (Studies in Lexicography, 1987). By and by, vernacular articulations and regionalisms frequently cover, however the terms are not indistinguishable. Dialectsâ tend to be related with gatherings of individuals whileâ regionalisms areâ associated with topography. Various regionalisms can be found inside a specific lingo. The biggest and most legitimate assortment of regionalisms in American English is the six-volume Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), distributed somewhere in the range of 1985 and 2013. The computerized release of DARE was propelled in 2013.â Historical underpinnings From the Latin, to ruleExamples and Observations The accompanying definitions were adjusted from the Dictionary of American Regional English.flannel cakeâ (n) A pancake. (Usage: Appalachians)flea in ones earâ (n) An insight, cautioning, troubling revelation; a rebuke. (Usage: mostly the Northeast)mulligrubsâ (n) A state of sorrow or surliness; an ambiguous or fanciful unwellness. (Usage: dissipated, however particularly the South)nebbyâ (adj) Snoopy, inquisitive. (Usage: mainly Pennsylvania)pungleâ (v) To dish out; to plunk down (cash); to pay up. (Usage: predominantly West)say-soâ (n) A frozen yogurt cone. (Usage: scattered)(Celeste Headlee, Regional Dictionary Tracks The Funny Things We Say. End of the week Edition on National Public Radio, June 14, 2009) Pop versus Pop In the [American] South it’s called Coke, in any event, when it’s Pepsi. Numerous in Boston state tonic. A not very many even request a bubbly beverage. In any case, the discussion between those soda pop equivalent words is a phonetic undercard in the nation’s carbonated war of words. The genuine fight: pop versus pop. (J. Straziuso, Pop versus Soft drink Debate. Related Press, September 12, 2001) Expressway In Delaware, an expressway alludes to any parkway, however in Florida, a freeway is an expressway. (T. Boyle, The Gremlins of Grammar. McGraw-Hill, 2007) Sack and Poke Sack and jab were both initially territorial terms for pack. Sack has since become a Standard expression like pack, however jab stays provincial, essentially in South Midland Regional vernacular. (Kenneth Wilson, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, 1993) Regionalism in England What some call a move, others call a bun, or a cob, or a bap, or a bannock, while in different regions [of England] more than one of these words is utilized with various implications for each.(Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England. Wiley, 1999)How do you make your tea? In the event that you originate from Yorkshire you presumably ‘mash’ it, yet individuals dressed in Cornwall are bound to ‘steep’ it or ‘soak’ it and southerners frequently ‘wet’ their tea.(Leeds Reporter, March 1998) Word reference of American Regional English (DARE) As boss editorial manager of the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), a gigantic exertion to gather and record nearby contrasts in American English, I go through my days investigating the endless instances of territorial words and expressions and attempting to follow their starting points. Propelled in 1965 at the University of Wisconsinâ€Madison, the undertaking depends on a huge number of meetings, papers, government records, books, letters, and journals. . . .[E]ven as we close to the end goal, I experience a typical misperception: individuals assume that American English has gotten homogenized, making the word reference an inventory of contrasts since a long time ago leveled out by media, business, and populace shifts. There’s a trace of legitimacy to that. Certain local terms have been debilitated by business impacts, as Subway’s sub sandwich, which is by all accounts snacking endlessly at saint, hoagie, and processor. It’s likewise evident tha t outsiders will in general converse with one another in a to some degree homogeneous jargon, and that more Americans are moving ceaselessly from their etymological homes as they move for school, work, or love.But DARE’s research shows that American English is as differed as could be. The language is broadened by movement, obviously, yet in addition people’s artistic freedom and the flexible idea of nearby vernaculars. We have many approaches to allude to a remote spot, for example, including the boonies, the sticks, the tules, the puckerbrush, and the willywags. The famous town nitwit, in such a spot, may in any case be portrayed as unfit to convey guts to an endure or spill piss out of a boot. On the off chance that his condition is brief, a Southerner may call him swimmy-headed, which means woozy. Furthermore, if his house is filthy, a Northeasterner may call it skeevy, an adjustment of schifare, the Italian action word to disgust.As these models propose, the region alisms that continue are frequently not those we gain from books or educators or papers; they are the words we use with loved ones, the expressions we’ve known always and never addressed until somebody from away commented on them. (Joan Houston Hall, How to Speak American. Newsweek, August 9, 2010) Regionalisms in the American South Jargon is . . . strikingly extraordinary in different pieces of the South. No place yet in the Deep South is the Indian-determined bobbasheely, which William Faulkner utilized in The Reivers, utilized for a dear companion, and just in Northern Maryland does manniporchia (from the Latin insanity a potu, absurdity from drink) [mean] the D.T.s (daze tremens). Little tomatoes would be called tommytoes in the mountains (tommy-toes in East Texas, serving of mixed greens tomatoes in the fields region, and cherry tomatoes along the coast). Contingent upon where you are in the South, an enormous patio can be a veranda, piazza, or exhibition; a burlap pack can be a tow sack, crocus sack, or grass sack; flapjacks can be flittercakes, wastes, corncakes, or battercakes; a harmonica can be a mouth organ or french harp; a wardrobe can be a storeroom or a storage; and a wishbone can be a wishbone or pulley bone. There are several equivalent words for a stick peach (green peach, pickle peach, and so forth.), arousing wood (lightning wood, lit bunches) and a provincial occupant (snuff chewer, kicker, yahoo). (Robert Hendrickson, The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms. Realities on File, 2000) Elocution: REE-juh-na-LIZ-um