[Sherylcatmom]

Seven Days picks up on a funny meme, Vermont style.

http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2012/01/****-vermonters-say.html (broken link)

What "Vermont lingo" do you hear -- and use?

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Oh, (big) brother. The forum bleeped out the URL!

Go to the Seven Days blog and look for $h^t Vermonters say: Blurt: The Seven Days Staff Blog

[sugarmaple]

Hi, the first expression that comes to mind:
"it's just down the road"

When I first moved here [yikes, do I dare say from where? -smile], I would ask someone for directions and that is what I was told, now, my understanding of "it's just down the road" and their interpretation of "it's just down the road" were clearly two very different understandings.

Where I had been from, it would have meant perhaps 5 blocks or at most, 1 mile. Here, miles, as in many many. I learned this relatively quickly when I knew I was following the directions, did not get there yet, would pull into yet another general store or quaint shop and was told "it was just down the road", so I would get back into the car, drive another, say 5 miles and still had not found 'the place'.

Down the road can be 10 miles, it can be 20 miles AND it can be in another town; however, it is true, wherever you going, it really is 'down the road'.

[swanstone1]

Originally Posted by sugarmaple

Hi, the first expression that comes to mind:
"it's just down the road"

When I first moved here [yikes, do I dare say from where? -smile], I would ask someone for directions and that is what I was told, now, my understanding of "it's just down the road" and their interpretation of "it's just down the road" were clearly two very different understandings.

Where I had been from, it would have meant perhaps 5 blocks or at most, 1 mile. Here, miles, as in many many. I learned this relatively quickly when I knew I was following the directions, did not get there yet, would pull into yet another general store or quaint shop and was told "it was just down the road", so I would get back into the car, drive another, say 5 miles and still had not found 'the place'.

Down the road can be 10 miles, it can be 20 miles AND it can be in another town; however, it is true, wherever you going, it really is 'down the road'.

I thought that was a Texas statement. Everything was always just down the street....even though that "street" is 20 miles, it takes an hour to get there. What else do you expect from a state where you can drive 12 hours and STILL be in it?

The old time locals here always laughed at me because to them, down the street meant literally 5 or so houses. To me it was within the same state. Maybe there is a difference between "road" and "street"????

As for Lingo??? Is there one? The old timers have a kinda yodel like way of saying things but not too much influence in the trendy lingos that most places have.

[arctichomesteader]

Flatlander (couldn't resist adding that one!).

[FrugalYankee]

The conjugation of the verb "to be" that results in something like a past subjunctive II, namely "I weren't gonna say it." Or "it weren't right."

[Sherylcatmom]

"So don't I." I don't think I've heard that anywhere else.

[pauldorell]

Originally Posted by arctichomesteader

Flatlander (couldn't resist adding that one!).

In Wisconsin they call people from Illinois flatlanders, but I hear it in Vermont too. I have a letter written by an old-time Vermonter in 1978, in which he talks about a table he made when they remodeled our house: "It would be especially nauseating to discover that they let some flatlander bastard have it with the house." The table was made from an old tree that had been cut down: "I had Brushe's wrecker winch it up my mill yard in 1959 where we worried it in two halves with a chain saw." I'd never heard "worried" used like that. He's probably long dead by now, but he'd be happy to know that the flatlanders didn't get the table.

[arel]

You don't hear too much Vermont lingo in the Brattleboro area. There are lots and lots of people from out of state, often from New York and New Jersey, and local speech patterns reflect that.

I've even heard Brattleboro described as an overseas territory of NYC. It really does feel like that a lot of the time. There is a strong cultural connection with New York City, much more so than with Boston, which is only half the distance away.

But about 20 years ago, I spent some time in White River Junction. On July 4, people gathered in a school yard for fireworks. I saw several men with their pick-up trucks, and I heard a lot of them say "Ayup". That night I really knew I was in Vermont.

Do I say "Ayup"? Nope. At least not yet. I'm from out of state and I speak in a way that is most natural and comfortable for me. If I were to pick up a local phrase or inflection here or there, it would be because it came naturally.

I don't feel the need to use local lingo in order to fit in. For one thing it isn't necessary in my area of Vermont. And anyway, with my New York accent, I'd sound ridiculous.

[OhBeeHave]

A friend of mine has been in northern NH for a long while and he uses ayup.

I've been using wicked for a very long time -- even before heading to VT. Then again, I have cousins in NH so I probably have them to blame for it.

[vter]

My grandparents always called going downtown going "downstreet". They also called the playground at the school the "common". Not sure if that is Kingdom (where they lived) specific or not.