Linguistic pet peeves

[smiths02]

I work a lot with people who are incarcerated or who live in poverty - the term "stay" is often used by those populations to indicate that they don't have a permanent residence. They may move from place to place very frequently, and thus have no real "home" or long-term permanent living situation.

I'm sure it originated with temporary situations or people in temporary situations, but I head people who own their homes say it.

That's actually a colloquialism in parts of the AA community. I've seen some very heated discussion about that. Apparently it can be a sensitive topic. I was not familiar until I witnessed the discussion.

I know it is a colloquialism.

Many of the other posters mentioned colloquialisms or regional dialects that bother them. I just don't like that one.

 

[amberpi]

This appears to be one of those UK versus US things (though neither think that "worse comes to worse" is correct).

US: Worse comes to worst.
UK: Worst comes to worst.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dic...?a=british#if-the-worst-comes-to-the-worst__1

Weird, I'm from Nashville, lived in NYC, ATL and did a 10 month in London, and I've always thought it was worst comes to worst...

 

[asta]

Its not prevalent in the city, but in rural TN - people will say "fixin to [do some action]," and it drives me nuts!

My first husband was from the Chicago burbs/Northern Indiana - they would end sentences with "with." I had never heard that before and it did and still does drive me crazy! "Want to come with" with WHO? Just you and someone, or a with a party? Lol!

I'm from Tennesse too. I was just going to post "fixin to". I know I use it but try not to.

The oddest pronunciation I have ever heard was a waitress at a New Jersey restaurant who called a potato something like "pertete". Even the New Jersey natives at the table had to stop her and ask what she was saying.

 

[L&Lfan]

Like I said, I'm from the South, I live here and love it! And love the colloquialisms, I just think its super, duper creepy to address a romantic partner as "baby," etc. Yick, yick, yick! But our use of language is certainly colorful and I think that is charming in the extreme!

You must hate a lot of songs.

 

[amberpi]

You must hate a lot of songs.

I can't think of any favorites that use baby. I'm good

 

[Squirlz]

Weird, I'm from Nashville, lived in NYC, ATL and did a 10 month in London, and I've always thought it was worst comes to worst...

That's the only way I've ever heard it as well.

 

[L&Lfan]

I love Amy Grant's Baby, Baby
And of course, The Supremes' Baby Love
And Donna Summer's Love To Love You, Baby
Gosh, I could probably name 100s more.
It's a song lyric staple.

 

[disneyjr77]

Around something instead of about something...Let's meet around our Disney trip instead of Let's meet about our Disney trip.

 

[Stacy's a freak]

I love Amy Grant's Baby, Baby
And of course, The Supremes' Baby Love
And Donna Summer's Love To Love You, Baby
Gosh, I could probably name 100s more.
It's a song lyric staple.

ha! How about Hit Me Baby One More Time?

 

[North of Mouse]

Someone mentioned 'I'm fixin' to do such and such. Yep, that's us - grew up with that and we all still say it. Also, the grandparent' names - we are Grammy & Grampy - love it!
Children 'meddle' sometimes (means get into things) Of course, 'y'all', meaning more than one.

We also grew up saying to guests - Get down and come in!! (someone recently says this harks back to buggy days where you did actually 'get down' out of the buggy). Not really sure.

There are actually two things that do bug me - people away from our area that say 'pee - can' for the nut pecan - 'pecahn' or 'pecawn' (not sure how to spell like pronounced) and 'crick' for creek!! We have lots of pecan trees/shelling/processing plants in LA.

 

[ahutton]

When in college at a speech tournament someone pointed out to a speaker during feedback that "without you" was two words, and are often mushed together into withou-chew. I can't listed to the U2 song anymore, it makes me nuts.

 

[DisBabe94]

Ooohhh the one that gets me is unnecessary possessions. For example if I want to go to a restaurant that's called Adagio, and somebody says "hey we're going to Adagio's"

 

[FlightlessDuck]

The new Subway commercial for the Italian sub, where the actor, with his NY/NJ accent, says capicola, pronounced the way it's written. Everyone here pronounces it gabagool. It's like saying cavatelli instead of gavadeal.

Not only do I not know what either capicola or cavatelli are, I don't know why they would be pronounced the way you prefer. Then again, I am 0% Italian.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

My pet peeve is when people complain about the pronunciation of "ask" as "aks"/"axe".

It's a perfectly valid pronunciation going back to 16th century England.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I'm South Philly born and raised and so I'm guilty of just about every one of these examples. I have a very heavy urban accent, the 'Philly Dialect.' I'm more than capable of speaking correctly when the situation calls for it, even with the accent, but when I'm with friends or family I slip back into the neighborhood slang.

Having said that, I know people who say "ammonia" for pneumonia, and "death" for deaf. That makes me grit my teeth.

 

[EMom]

Its not prevalent in the city, but in rural TN - people will say "fixin to [do some action]," and it drives me nuts!

My first husband was from the Chicago burbs/Northern Indiana - they would end sentences with "with." I had never heard that before and it did and still does drive me crazy! "Want to come with" with WHO? Just you and someone, or a with a party? Lol!

I'll defend fixin' to. If you research that phrase, it is hundreds of years old. Many think it came from England long ago and some groups just kept using it. It is very common where I live.

 

[dish rag]

Saying funna instead of going to. I only hear this in Florida.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

At some point around here it was decided that there should be a "k" or "x" sound in "especially". As in, "expecially". NO!!! No "k", no "x". Just "especially".

Also a problem in "axe" for "ask".

 

[Stacy's a freak]

Without'choo is another good one. Really anything that ends in a hard "t" with a "you" after it gets the "choo" pronunciation around there here parts

As for "youze guys", I actually love that one - it's a nod to my downstate NYer roots.

 

[siskaren]

Ooohhh the one that gets me is unnecessary possessions. For example if I want to go to a restaurant that's called Adagio, and somebody says "hey we're going to Adagio's"

Yeah, here what I often see is Boma's or the one that really drives me nuts is O'Hana (I always want to say, "It's not an Irish place!" )