Nomenclature, Regional Variances

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Camper shell around here.
"Pop" is what I always called it growing up in the Ohio Valley area. I came down here to VA 20 years ago and folks have never heard of pop. They call it "soda." To this day I still say pop.
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Oh, brother. Down here in The Swamp we've got more than a few variations from the norm:

Median strips are known as "neutral grounds"

Some of the real old folks still call sidewalks "banquettes" (pronounced "bankets") -- from the French, meaning "little banks," because in the early days of the NO colony, a flood would turn the streets into rivers

"I was goin' to yer momminem's house" = "I was on my way to the building where your mother and your other relatives reside"

"Stay" for "live," as in "I stay on the West Bank" (commoner among black residents. Sounds like a temporary visit to a hotel)

There's more, but while we're on the topic: Has anyone ever heard the expression "French screwdriver" to refer to a Phillips-head screwdriver? My mother, who was from Saskatchewan, used this phrase (and I do sometimes), but I've never heard anyone else admit to knowing it. Anybody?
 
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Those of you who order "pop" or "soda" without specifying what exactly you want, are you being then asked what exactly you want, or do you get any random brew? Or does this vague terminology come only into play at places with self-service soda (pop?) fountains?

As for moi, I just order what I want by brand or at least by type.

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Here in Alabama, we say coke. When someone goes to the store they might ask if I want a coke (it's not capitalized b/c I'm not really referring to the brand name). I say "yeah". They say "what kind of coke". I might say Dr. Pepper (fill in any other carbonated beverage option).
 
I have heard "French Screwdriver" exactly once, and of course my reaction was "Huh?". (My more redneck statesmen would have said "Say wha..(t)?").

What does everyone call that big white thing in the kitchen where you keep your pop/sodas/cokes?

I used to work as a traveling consultant and these questions were often used as ice-breakers when different regions of the company got together. At one of those meetings someone from Canada mentioned a class of workers called "OK-Backups", meaning guys that accompany truck drivers and direct them in reversing into tight spots. Anyone else heard that one?
 
I'm from So Cal bu have lived in the midwest and now in the South, so I've heard all kinds of terms.

To me, it's definitely a "camper shell" or "snug top". I know what those are instantly but have to think for a moment when I hear "topper" or some other term.

I consider all carbonated beverages "sodas" but have found myself asking for a "coke" eventhough I want something else. "Coke" is definitely a Southern word, esp here in Atlanta where it's almost a sin to call it something else. Having said that, the only thing worth drinking is a Cactus Cooler (So Cals know what's up).

"Barbecue" is another strange one. Back home in CA the word was used to describe an activity or event. In the South "barbecue" is definitely a food, pork in particular. The activity is called "cookin' out" around here.

Words like "fixin" and "y'all" and "all y'all" (y'all plural) are spoken by almost everyone down here. Even Yankees use them, complete with the NY accent. Pretty funny to hear sometimes.
 
Oh, and a few other things:

(1) Something you like can be described with one of three terms, in ascending order:
(a) Cool
(b) Too cool
(c) Awesome

The term "killer" is reserved to describe something so good, so cool, so awesome, that there is no question of its quality or appeal. For example, Tony Iommi's guitar tone is not just cool or awesome.... it's KILLER!

(2) A restricted access roadway is a "freeway". If you have to pay to drive on it, it's a ripoff.

(3) Freeways are described using just their number with the word "the" before it. So it's "the 405" not "I-405". It's Ok to use just the number alone. Here in Atlanta we have 75, 85, 285, etc.
 
I've always known the covering that is level with the cab as a "canopy"; a "camper" is meant for sleeping in and usually has the thingy that sticks out over the cab.

Non-alcoholic beverages are usually either called by their name or just "pop" or "soda pop"; the latter is somewhat obsolescent.

"Going to" is pronounced "gonna" but this may not be colloquial.

Trying to think of others...
 
A couple of anectdotes on fixin', which seems to be a southern thang. Both of these happened in Dallas..

The first happened on a project which had a diverse group of people for the time (1980), which is another way of saying we were all born in the U.S.

Gary from NY comes up to a group of us shooting the breeze and says "Hey YouseGuys, what's goin' on?"

Steve, good-ole-boy from the South (is this redundant, do they have them anywhere else?) drawls "YouseGuys?. What's up with this "YouseGuys"? Can't you talk normal?"

Gary - "Well, what about you, with fixin'? It's always "I'm fixin' to do this, fixin' to do that. It's like your All-Poipus-Utility-Voib!!!." Steve had to admit he'd been trumped.

And there was the time at the Dallas airport - A Southwest Airlines gate attendant yelled out "Come awn everybody, we're Fixin' to GIT!!!".

Now about barbeque - most times round these parts it's pronounced BARB-q, and no, I didn't accidentally miss a syllable. And of course a real Texan wouldn't dignify anything that didn't start as a cow and end with being covered with a tomatoe-based sauce as worthy of the name.

Now unofficially (don't tell anybody), when I spent a week in my mother's home town in North Carolina last summer, I decided that that pork imitation wasn't half-bad. Of course it did still have a tomato-based sauce....
 
Aw, dawlin', yeah ya right. Gotta go stand in line at da store to make my groceries for da weekend. I'll get me a cold drink when I get back.
 
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I came down here to VA 20 years ago and folks have never heard of pop. They call it "soda." To this day I still say pop.
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I came to VA about 19 years ago from Illinois and I no longer call it pop. It's now soda to me.

My mom still calls it pop.
 
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A couple of anectdotes on fixin', which seems to be a southern thang. Both of these happened in Dallas..

The first happened on a project which had a diverse group of people for the time (1980), which is another way of saying we were all born in the U.S.

Gary from NY comes up to a group of us shooting the breeze and says "Hey YouseGuys, what's goin' on?"

Steve, good-ole-boy from the South (is this redundant, do they have them anywhere else?) drawls "YouseGuys?. What's up with this "YouseGuys"? Can't you talk normal?"

Gary - "Well, what about you, with fixin'? It's always "I'm fixin' to do this, fixin' to do that. It's like your All-Poipus-Utility-Voib!!!." Steve had to admit he'd been trumped.

And there was the time at the Dallas airport - A Southwest Airlines gate attendant yelled out "Come awn everybody, we're Fixin' to GIT!!!".

Now about barbeque - most times round these parts it's pronounced BARB-q, and no, I didn't accidentally miss a syllable. And of course a real Texan wouldn't dignify anything that didn't start as a cow and end with being covered with a tomatoe-based sauce as worthy of the name.

Now unofficially (don't tell anybody), when I spent a week in my mother's home town in North Carolina last summer, I decided that that pork imitation wasn't half-bad. Of course it did still have a tomato-based sauce....

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Tomato? You must've been west of Raleigh.
For the best BBQ, you must have the Eastern NC version.
 
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Hey,

Out in Californy the thingy plopped atop the pick-up bed was called a "camper shell." The goody that is usually level with the top of the cab and typically has a rear window that lifts upwards allowing access to the innards.

Variations on the above theme but the "camper shell" label is not applied to a full-size slide-in camper that weighs much more and extends above the cab roof and ofen extends across the top of the cab.

Here in the cultural backwater the locals use the term "topper" vice "camper shell."

Curious what you hayseeds call the dern' thing.

Also, any regional differences in terminology you have noted/noticed.

As an aside, just out of cootish curiosity, out west most folks called the refreshing carbonated beverage "soda." Here in Nebraska, the ultimate cultural backwater, the locals call the stuff "pop" and I was often ridiculed when I referred to the stuff as soda. Narrow-minded local idiots have trouble understanding that others outside this bizarre area may do anything differently and, if they DO, well... then they are WRONG so all right-minded folk will do and think as the brain-dead masses in this locale do.

Another variance is the ground/earth term viz USA/Britain as well as tire/tyre, hood/bonnet, etc. Those are interesting but i am most curious about regional differences within the USA though all inputs are welcomed. Well, welcomed by me. It's likely that 99.8 percent of Nebraskans would consider anything outside their perceived norm as the debils work and to be ridiculed until the outsider agrees to become assimilated into the hive mind-set so prevalent here in over-yonder-cross-the-holler country.

Yep.

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For some reason I had a hard time just reading that...I have never heard the term "topper." Colloquials are quite fascinating. I notice out here we typically say take "The 405" or take "The 101," which seems to be non-existent around the country.

Southern and mid-western accents really stand out also to the west coast people...sometimes I feel CA is rather distant from "America."
 
dude, if any of you dudes come out to calif. and order a pop, nobody will know what you are talking about, you'll never get one. try to order a "sweet tea" out here and you'll get regular tea and maybe some packets of sugar (I know its not the same).

bar-b-que in calif. is beer and guys standing around a grill with meat that has been dry rubbed or marinated. we don't typically slather alot of sauce on the meat. I like the sauce in texas though. I haven't been to st louis for any bbq yet.

once you move to states west of texas, oklahoma, nebraska, etc the dialects and strong accents drop off. colorado, nevada, oregon, arizona, california all have very little accent. I do know that us californians have a tendency to over pronounce the vowels.
 
In Tidewater Virginia the simple version is called a "camper shell", occasionally a "cap", rarely a "canopy". The big slide-in version is most often called a "camper".

The proper name for that refreshing beverage is "beer", preferably "Guinness stout".
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But otherwise "soda", not "pop", but most people here would say "drink" ("Kids, who wants to stop for a drink?") or "coke". "Drink" is a more encompassing term that would include tea, etc., aside from its obvious adult connotation. By the way, Coca-Cola isn't too happy at hearing "Coke" used in a generic sense. Rarely an old person will say "soda pop" when talking to a young child.

For the long sandwich, almost every common term is in use here: "sub", "hoagie", even occasionally "grinder" or "po-boy".

Military personnel stationed here who are originally from other parts of the US have a lot to do with so many different terms for the same items being heard here. That is also why the old Tidewater accent died out and the area has a generic US accent now. If you go to the Piedmont or mountain areas of Virginia, you will hear a distinct twang that sounds as if it's from further south. You will possibly see people playing "Dueling Banjos" on the corner in some of those mountain towns too.
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True carolina BBQ sauce is more like italian dressing, and less like standard kansas BBQ sauce. VERY good with pork. I swear some of the best meals I have had have been down at my dad's place in Winston-Salem, NC.

To add to my previous statement, up here, if you say you are going to bar-be-que, which that is 3 syllables, means sitting outside over a grill with actual coals in there. If you cook on a propane grill, it is known as "grilling".
 
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bar-b-que in calif. is beer and guys standing around a grill with meat that has been dry rubbed or marinated. we don't typically slather alot of sauce on the meat. I like the sauce in texas though. I haven't been to st louis for any bbq yet.



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Oh yea, a bbq means some awesome carne asada, tortillas and whatever else you want to create.
 
Here we have what I call a truck cap, lifted off the bed:

truck2.jpg


Sort of made to look like it matches the truck in paint and aerodynamics.

Now here's a camper shell, ugly as anything:

outback.jpg


Get it? Cap= cool. Camper, Not cool.

Had a camper shell on an old mazda b2000, it had little cranks inside to open the vent windows. Perhaps window opening ability from inside/out might help define.

If a yokel from away comes here and tries to sell a truck with a "camper" I immdediately prepare for the ugliest possibility.
 
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True carolina BBQ sauce is more like italian dressing, and less like standard kansas BBQ sauce. VERY good with pork. I swear some of the best meals I have had have been down at my dad's place in Winston-Salem, NC.

To add to my previous statement, up here, if you say you are going to bar-be-que, which that is 3 syllables, means sitting outside over a grill with actual coals in there. If you cook on a propane grill, it is known as "grilling".

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BBQ sauce in the eastern part of NC is basically made of vinegar and peppers.

BTW that's an old little truck in that photo. I used to have one like that, A Ford Courier, made by Mazda, when I was 16.
 
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