Maps show U.S. language differences by area

[rashore]

I was born in Wisconsin, so it's milk.

The roll with stuff on it... it's a sub if it's cold cuts, a po-boy if its seafood, a hoagie if it is hot.. and a bomber if it's meatballs or sausage like italian sausage. And those names are for on the roll only- if it's between two slices of bread it's a sanDwich or sammie. Or oh, hot on a croissant is sometimes a hoagie too- we used to sell those for fundraisers in school, frozen hoagie croissants.

Mary/merry/marry is pronounced three different ways. Mar-y, mer-ry, mar-ry. It becomes apparent if you sing Mary Mack correctly, it's quite the tongue twister when you get up to speed.

A dresser is a long and low chest of drawers, highboy is a tall chest of drawers, chifferobe is a tall chest of drawers with a long cabinet for hanging clothes, bureau is a desk or sometimes a dresser.. A wardrobe is a tall cabinet for hanging clothes that might have a drawer at the bottom behind the doors.

[EnderOTD]

Reminds me of the time I visited my cousins in Florida as a child. I asked one of my cousins if i could have a pop to drink, he just looked at me quite confused, he replied,"you want popcorn?"

My aunt being from the midwest told my cousin, "get him a soda Michael, they call soda, pop up north". He thought I was from a different country lol.

[Thanato]

If anyone knows what a Chesterfield is, you get a digital cookie.

[Clarakore]

I was born in Wisconsin, so it's milk.

The roll with stuff on it... it's a sub if it's cold cuts, a po-boy if its seafood, a hoagie if it is hot.. and a bomber if it's meatballs or sausage like italian sausage. And those names are for on the roll only- if it's between two slices of bread it's a sanDwich or sammie. Or oh, hot on a croissant is sometimes a hoagie too- we used to sell those for fundraisers in school, frozen hoagie croissants.

Mary/merry/marry is pronounced three different ways. Mar-y, mer-ry, mar-ry. It becomes apparent if you sing Mary Mack correctly, it's quite the tongue twister when you get up to speed.

A dresser is a long and low chest of drawers, highboy is a tall chest of drawers, chifferobe is a tall chest of drawers with a long cabinet for hanging clothes, bureau is a desk or sometimes a dresser.. A wardrobe is a tall cabinet for hanging clothes that might have a drawer at the bottom behind the doors.

This is why Midwesterners are known for perfect pronunciation and having the clearest accents.

If anyone knows what a Chesterfield is, you get a digital cookie.

A sofa.

[Michelle]

If anyone knows what a Chesterfield is, you get a digital cookie.

According to my antiques it's a cigarette.

[lightly]

i've heard people pronounce tiger..... tager . ¿ Anyone ever hear a chimney called a chimbley? how about having breffass for breakfast?

lol Ya! EnderOTD it's pop ... NOT soda! . . forners!

[rodentraiser]

OK, I give up. How do Mary/merry/marry all sound different? My aunt's name is Meredith and everyone calls her Merry, pronounced like the other two. By the way, is it ahnt or ant where you live?

Anyone ever seen that great show, The Story of English? I urge you to try and get the series from the library. They cover many regional accents including how people talk on Tangier's Island off the coast of VA and you get a chance to hear the different accents. They also go into some depth about where all our sayings come from. If I remember correctly, "you-all" is actually from Ireland. So is a-comin' and a- goin' - putting the "a" in front of certain verbs.

I'd like to give you guys a funny story. I visited VA for the first time ever a couple years ago (I live on the West Coast). I was looking for a street and I stopped to ask a bunch of old men where it was. They kept telling me that "Pahm" was just down the road. I told them I didn't want to go to Palm Street. They kept looking at me like I was loopy and maybe I was. The street I was looking for was Parham, and I finally figured out that's how they pronounced it. I left feeling really stupid and they probably laughed about the dumb Yank for the rest of the day.

[Clarakore]

Research the mary-marry-merry merger for a full explanation but here is a quick explanation on the difference of pronunciation.

—snip

In many British (and some American) accents, ‘marry’ (and other ‘-arry’ words) are pronounced with the same vowel in ‘cat;’ ‘merry,’ (and other ‘-erry’ words) are pronounced with the same vowel in ‘pet;’ and ‘mary’ (and other ‘-ary’ words) is pronounced with the same vowel as that found in ‘fair.’

http://dialectblog.com/2011/09/21/marry-merry-mary/

[Odin11]

The coke/soda/pop thing always makes me laugh. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard, "Hey, what kind of Coke do you want? I'll have a root bear."

I live in MI, so its pop for me. I was down south once in a restaurant and asked for a coke and the waiter was like "what kind?" and I was like "what do you mean I just want a coke". She said "what kind do you want, Root beer, Mountain Dew, 7 up?" and I asked "you don't have coke?" and she got mad and said "yes we have coke" so I give up and said "then can I have a 7 up". The look on her face was priceless.