Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There's no right or wrong to it, it's just a very unusual way of referring to a highway, that I'd never heard before, until we moved down here. Actually I found it kind of amusing (and still do).
Everywhere else I've ever lived, people would have just said "One" and "Six", "Route 1" and "Route 6", or "US 1" and "South Carolina 6". But never "Number such-and-such".
I have even wondered if it was a holdover from the bitter memory of the Civil War, with people not wanting to say "US" with relation to a highway (or anything else). But when I heard people say "Number 6", that theory went entirely out the window.
Lexington County, great place though it is --- clean, safe, excellent schools, friendly people --- is one of those places you'd never mistake for anywhere else, very much its own entity. I have to wonder if the "Number" thing is just some unique local quirk. I do know that the area was settled by several German or Dutch families originally --- they pronounce the common name (at least in LexCo) "Meetze" in the correct Dutch way, with "ee" being pronounced as a short "e" like the NYC baseball team, not "meets" (as in "Harry meets Sally") as a typical American English speaker would think. (I know, the name also gets spelled "Metts", which would be phonetic, "spelled the way it sounds".)
I grew up in Lexington and I never thought about calling them "#1" and "#6." We say "Highway 378" lol. I know that Highway 1 and Highway 6 both change names so many times I guess it was easier to call them by number than by name. Highway 1 is E. Columbia Ave - Augusta Hwy -W. Main St - E. Main St - Augusta Rd. - Meeting St; just from Batesburg-Leesville to Columbia. (Gervais St downtown). Highway 6 shares a similar name change.
I've heard this too, as far as saying "number one" or "number 6". I thought it sounded a bit silly as well. I dont know why its said that way. Maybe theres no real backstory and perhaps it's just something that was said by someone and the word stuck as it went around haha. But I agree, it's a bit unusual.
I grew up in Lexington and I never thought about calling them "#1" and "#6." We say "Highway 378" lol. I know that Highway 1 and Highway 6 both change names so many times I guess it was easier to call them by number than by name. Highway 1 is E. Columbia Ave - Augusta Hwy -W. Main St - E. Main St - Augusta Rd. - Meeting St; just from Batesburg-Leesville to Columbia. (Gervais St downtown). Highway 6 shares a similar name change.
Your answer actually makes a lot of sense. I do realize that US 1 and SC 6 do change names quite a bit, depending on where you are. Within Richland County, US 1 is Gervais Street through the downtown area, then changes to Two Notch Road somewhere around Benedict College, and stays that way until you hit the Kershaw County line. Multiple name changes throughout the latter stretch would be confusing. And the name-change thing is endemic in Charlotte. Horrible town to try to drive around in, for that reason.
I've heard this too, as far as saying "number one" or "number 6". I thought it sounded a bit silly as well. I dont know why its said that way. Maybe theres no real backstory and perhaps it's just something that was said by someone and the word stuck as it went around haha. But I agree, it's a bit unusual.
I've suspected that myself - something that just got started and nobody knows how it did. Both highways just being single-digit, single-syllable numbers might also have something to do with it. To say "the Food Lion on 6" or "the Dunkin Donuts on 1" sounds a little off, like something needs to go with it. Maybe once upon a time, someone said "number..." and it stuck.
One other thing I noticed about Midlands speech, is that people will frequently say "on today", "on yesterday", and "on tomorrow". That seems to be largely an African American thing. The latter could actually be a holdover from the archaic phrase "on the morrow". I've never heard "on" used that way anywhere else.
I grew up mostly in southern Lexington County. I have always said Route (root) 1 and Highway 6. I say Highway 378 or just 378 because what else does 378 mean in the Midlands? It depends on context or where I am as to whether I call them something else according to what part of each road I’m talking about and whether they are commonly called something else on that part. But I have considered it to be a local linguistic variation when I hear the “number version.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
