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It's a silly survey, just like most surveys. If you want to represent it as factual information then you can have at it.
So just because surveys can't provide 100% statistical accuracy, we should disregard them altogether?
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeaconJ
You're actually acting like people call their finished basement a cellar? I seriously doubt that is true. I know plenty of people in New England, and they know the difference. Their pool table is certainly not in the cellar. That's hilarious.
Yeah, and those are the people who make a semantic distinction between the two words. I wager that I probably know more New Englanders than you do, and I know plenty who use "cellar" to refer to a finished basement. In fact, I do!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeaconJ
This is a very lame argument that I don't care to continue. You go ahead and believe whatever fairy tales you like. You definitely haven't convinced me or anyone else of anything.
I'm not sure why you're so hostile about this. These "fairy tales" happen to be supported by 70 years of linguistic research into American dialects, which is the field that I've dedicated my life to. All I said that was that "cellar" was a common non-standard lexical item in New England.
For example...I have heard people use the word "cellar" my entire life - it depends on where you live. In the suburbs it's a basement; in the city where houses don't have large finished basements, it's a cellar. Yet, in your survey, it shows 0% for Georgia. That's absurd. And I'm pretty sure people in New England suburbs don't call their downstairs den a cellar.
I'm not trying to say I know what percent of people use what words. I'm saying no one could know that kind of information unless they surveyed everyone in the area - and that's not going to happen.
Den is livingroom, cellar is basement, yes even in the suburbs, you do realize suburban people arnt a differant breed than urbanites right?
The Bay Area is definitely a hotbed for creating slang. A huge percentage of common urban slang used around the country originated in the ghettos of the Bay Area in places like Hunter's Point in San Francisco and East Oakland. Popular Bay Area rappers like E-40 coined common slang terms used around the country like "Po-Po" (slang for police) and "it's all good". The ebonical "fo-shizzle" speech popularized to middle America through Snoop Dogg has roots in the Bay Area:
Other ghetto Bay Area words that have found their way around the country are "fetti" and "scrilla" which are slang words for money. New York rappers, like Cam'Ron, have picked up on these words:
Ultimately ghetto Bay slang is like another language. Other ghetto slang words that were birthed in the Bay Area that have become popular through rappers from other regions of the country include the word "pimpen" as a greeting, which was popularized by Atlanta rapper T.I. but was first used in the Lakeview district of San Francisco:
Here are some other highly original terms that were popular in San Francisco ghettos in the 90's:
get your mask cracked- get punched in the face
gassin'- spraying an automatic machine gun or spitting fire raps
cutty- shady; a place that is dangerous or sketchy where a lot of illegal activity is going on
ac' right- liquor; wine, beer or malt liquor
cuddy- a good friend
smobbing/mobbing- driving fast down the street
simp- a fake pimp; someone who is p*ssywhipped so to speak
bammer- sh*tty bad quality weed that causes headaches instead of a good high
mainey- crazy, extremely cool or weird
gaffle/gaffling- stealing or robbing or coming up on money in a illegal way quickly
The Bay Area is definitely a hotbed for creating slang. A huge percentage of common urban slang used around the country originated in the ghettos of the Bay Area in places like Hunter's Point in San Francisco and East Oakland. Popular Bay Area rappers like E-40 coined common slang terms used around the country like "Po-Po" (slang for police) and "it's all good". The ebonical "fo-shizzle" speech popularized to middle America through Snoop Dogg has roots in the Bay Area:
Other ghetto Bay Area words that have found their way around the country are "fetti" and "scrilla" which are slang words for money. New York rappers, like Cam'Ron, have picked up on these words:
Ultimately ghetto Bay slang is like another language. Other ghetto slang words that were birthed in the Bay Area that have become popular through rappers from other regions of the country include the word "pimpen" as a greeting, which was popularized by Atlanta rapper T.I. but was first used in the Lakeview district of San Francisco:
Here are some other highly original terms that were popular in San Francisco ghettos in the 90's:
get your mask cracked- get punched in the face
gassin'- spraying an automatic machine gun or spitting fire raps
cutty- shady; a place that is dangerous or sketchy where a lot of illegal activity is going on
ac' right- liquor; wine, beer or malt liquor
cuddy- a good friend
smobbing/mobbing- driving fast down the street
simp- a fake pimp; someone who is p*ssywhipped so to speak
bammer- sh*tty bad quality weed that causes headaches instead of a good high
mainey- crazy, extremely cool or weird
gaffle/gaffling- stealing or robbing or coming up on money in a illegal way quickly
I don't think that is something unique to Oakland. ALL inner-cities are hotbeds for slang and have always had their own local slang terms. The rise of Hip Hop just allowed certain cities to popularize their local slang to a mass audience around the country. Years ago when I was in the Army, guys from different cities had to school each other on the local slang terms from their hometowns.
For the most part though, slang is something that can change quickly from decade to decade, year to year, or even month to month in some places. A few slang words survive and are more persistent though and can last for generations. My slang is still trapped in the 80s/90s for the most part, I don't follow any of the newer lingo. I do say "jawn" and "bull" though, that has transcended all generations and age groups in Philly (hometown).
Most inner cities also have their own versions of street & criminal based slang where they can hold entire conversations...and if you don't know the slang, you will have no idea what they are talking about.
Also, I have to disagree with you on who started the "izz" slang that Snoop popularized for the mass audience. That slang was used in Philly for as long as I can remember, most likely before I was born. That old school disco song, "The Double-Dutch Bus" (by old-head Philly cat) has that throughout portions of the song long before Snoop. Check out:
I don't think that is something unique to Oakland. ALL inner-cities are hotbeds for slang and have always had their own local slang terms. The rise of Hip Hop just allowed certain cities to popularize their local slang to a mass audience around the country. Years ago when I was in the Army, guys from different cities had to school each other on the local slang terms from their hometowns.
For the most part though, slang is something that can change quickly from decade to decade, year to year, or even month to month in some places. A few slang words survive and are more persistent though and can last for generations. My slang is still trapped in the 80s/90s for the most part, I don't follow any of the newer lingo. I do say "jawn" and "bull" though, that has transcended all generations and age groups in Philly (hometown).
Most inner cities also have their own versions of street & criminal based slang where they can hold entire conversations...and if you don't know the slang, you will have no idea what they are talking about.
Also, I have to disagree with you on who started the "izz" slang that Snoop popularized for the mass audience. That slang was used in Philly for as long as I can remember, most likely before I was born. That old school disco song, "The Double-Dutch Bus" (by old-head Philly cat) has that throughout portions of the song long before Snoop. Check out:
- "Down the shore" means you're heading towards the beach towns. For me at least, it doesn't just mean "going to the beach", it means hanging out in any of the beach towns in general. If I go to the beach and only the beach, as in no boardwalk, restaurants, being by the bay, etc, I say "I'm going to the beach" but if I'm spending a day at the shore or visiting my family some of who live in the vicinity I say "I'm going down the shore." A "shorehouse" is a summer home at the beach in NJ.
- Some people say "bubbies" for "boobies, boobs, or breasts" but it's not too common. You hear it sometimes, like from Teresa on Real Housewives of New Jersey… I know, not the best example but growing up my mother frequently called them that, too.
- We say "soda", "subs" not heroes or grinders or whatever, "cold cuts" for deli meats, "ya's" or "yuhz" but mostly "you guys", we "take a shower", say "roof" not "ruff", pronounce water as "waw-ter" or "wudder" in South Jersey, we say "tawk" (talk), "wawk" (walk), "dawg" (dog), "awl" (all), "awf" (off) etc, "busting your chops (or balls)!" is like saying "I'm joking around with you!" and someone who's a tease is called a "scooch". Not sure how regional this is but my family and family friends have always said scooch and I've never heard it outside NJ. We say "merry-go-round" for carousel. We have "mischief night" which is the night before Halloween when you go out and TP people's trees or houses or if you're really mean egg their cars or houses!
- "The city" is New York in my area, nothing else ever. Not Philly, that's laughable . And it's pronounced "ciddy". We also tend to drop the 't' in a lot of words. "Atlantic" becomes "Allanic" or "Atlanic" for example.
- We take "a slice" of pizza from a "pie". Cheese pizza here is called "plain". Pasta is also "macaroni" and we know the various types around here: penne, rigatoni, capellini, farfalle, spaghetti, linguine, angel hair, ditalini, especially if you're Italian. One of my best friends is from Southern California, she moved to Staten Island, and when she visits me in NJ and we go out to eat, she's always so confused on the pasta types. They're all the same to her. Sauce is also known as "gravy" but in my family at least (100% Italian/Sicilian grandparents), "gravy" is always the special Sunday sauce that's cooked with the meats (meatballs, sausages) inside it. "Sauce" was usually plain tomato sauce without meat cooking in it all day.
Hmm there's so much more but since it's everyday speech for me it's hard to point out!
- In Ohio people will say "needs washed" instead of "needs to be washed".
- "Pop" = soda
- gyros are pronounced "yur-ohs"
-In New Jersey "mad" is used the same as "very" or to describe something in a large quantity
- "Going down the shore" is what you do in the summer
- "The City" means Manhattan
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