Friday, March 28, 2008

How We Talk In Hoosierland

Here in Indiana we really don't have much of an accent. However, we do have a few words that are somewhat unique to the area. I'm certain that many of these words transcend our fair state and into the depths of the Midwest (or at least Ohio and Michigan), but that's ok. So, here they are...

hunerd
hun - nerd (hŭn' nurd)
-noun definition: a cardinal number, ten times ten.

prolly
prol - ly (prol' ee)
-adverb definition: with considerable certainty; without much doubt
(NOTE: This is sometimes pronounced "probly".

satistic
sa - tis - tic (suh tis' tik)
-noun definition: a numerical fact or datum, esp. one computed from a sample.
If you're confused, I can use all three of these words in a single sentence for you:

There was prolly over three hunerd people in Earl's satistic class, but he skipped out to watch basketball on tv and play in a euchre tournament.


And speaking of "Midwest" I had a business associate from Australia asking me the other day why Indiana is considered the Midwest. I assumed that it prolly had something to do with what the country looked like on a map a couple hunerd years ago when Indiana was right in the middle of the western portion of the United States.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Don't forget "waRsh."

Melynda said...

I remember after I moved up here from Evansville and said to Jason that something was "iggnurnt".

He lovingly mentioned that I might want to at least learn to pronounce that one right.

I see his point. Now I laugh at my family when I hear them say it. When I talk to them on the phone it takes me a day to get over speaking in twang again myself.

Mighty Morphin' Mama said...

Our Michigan relatives just love to tease us 'aboot' our Canadian accents. We don't have accents!

Mighty Morphin' Mama said...

No doot aboot it. Eh?

Uvulapie said...

Ah git no idear what you'uns jus' sed raught then.

Wani said...

I will admit I do use "prolly"... I took a quiz once and here was my score:
My Linguistic Profile:
70% General American English

20% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

0% Yankee

Here's the link if you want to take it too:
http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofamericanenglishdoyouspeakquiz/

Mr. E said...

Ya'll ought to hear how we all talk down here in Texas! We crack ourselves up sometimes.

Rebekah said...

lolol- so true, my husband says 'prolly' all the time.

I wanna play eucher!

Hunny Bee said...

Yeah, I was gonna say 'warsh' too. My mom warshes things when they get dirty. Closely related to 'warsh' is 'Worsh' as in the time my family visited Worshington D.C.
It doesn't matter how many times I point out that there's no 'r' in 'wash', they still insist. Cracks me up!

scott said...

The southern Indiana accent is decidedly different from northern Indiana, as well. Other than "waRsh," my favorite is people trying to say "retired" or "toured" or other similar-sounding words.

They all come out sounding like "retard" and "turd."

JAM said...

I'm from Louisiana, Jeff Foxworthy has made like a trillion dollars from the junk that we say.

But I thought satistic meant that you like hurting people. I had no idea it had anything to do with numbers.