Hmm - got curious. From the book ‘Catywampus’ by Dan Ryan:
He says it comes from the US submarine fleet of 1896-1906. On certain classes of ships, you could make a diagonal shot with a torpedo diagonally across the deck, and that was called ‘catycorner’, meaning diagonally across a flat plane. But when submerged, the shot became three-dimensional, or ‘catywampus’.
I’m thinking they most likely swiped the term from Southern colloquial; speech, though. It wouldn’t make any sense, otherwise. That is, as opposed to other terms like fubar, that had a particular use in the military and caught on later. For one thing, there was an over-representation of Southern men in the service. And for another, in those years, my grandfather was Navy and ended up running the armory and acting as an instructor at Pensacola. He was from East Texas originally, born in the early 1880’s and used that term in common speech - which makes me think it wasn’t strictly a Navy thing at all. Interesting, though, that you thought of it as a generally messed up state, and I thought of it as that, too, but more directional. Looks like we’re both right - probably just depends on the context.
Both grandfathers used tons of language from that area that is old-fashioned and a lot of it doesn’t mean anything to modern people at all. I never see most of those terms used outside of interviews with Old West historical figures. It all still makes sense to me, but I grew up listening to them speak that way. It was kind of a thing, with them - like, Good Ol’ Boy-speak.
Most similar: Stockton, Fresno, Salt Lake City. I was born/raised in the central valley, so this makes sense.
Least similar: Shreveport, Baton Rouge, New Orleans. I am a bit surprised that all the least similar ones are in Louisiana.
I decided to try the test again since the map for Salt Lake City was related to the potato bug question and I actually alternate between roly poly and potato bug. So …
Most similar: Santa Rosa, Modesto, Fresno
Least similar: New Orleans, Philadelphia, Jersey City
Cool! Sounds like you got the Nordic thing, all right. First time I’ve heard anybody describe how it gets used at home.
I don’t know of any kind of phrases associated with Huguenots, though. All of mine got here earlier and were so bent on being British citizens a.s.a.p. that they anglicized their names.
I’d always heard that French people complain they can’t understand Acadians in LA, but my adopted bro is from Haiti, and said he didn’t find it hard at all. Now, I don’t know if the thing was false in the first place, or just the French/Creole mash-up makes it work for him. He doesn’t seem to know, either. He says in Haiti, everybody uses Creole, but you only learn French in school. We were talking about it one day with a Tunisian friend, and I found his French easy to understand, but my bro’s is hard for me to follow unless he practically baby-talks to me. All I know is what I picked up from just being around LA. Maybe somebody else knows?
I’m not sure… This doesn’t apply to the French language but, on my mother’s side I had 3 Norwegian great grandparents, and one Swedish great grandmother. Apparently she could understand Norwegian just fine without actually learning it but didn’t like how it sounded, while my Norwegian GGPs couldn’t understand a word of Swedish at all.
I don’t know if there’s precedence for one-way dialect intelligibility, but there’s a lot of crazy things in language. Heck, there’s non-commutative math, why not non-commutative language pairings?
A little of both, hence the confusion when somebody would try to place the accent. My mother’s roots are French Canadian and my dad was 1st generation Swede.
After ~17 years living in Los Angeles it has toned down to where I don’t get “where you from?” inquiries from the cashier very often anymore. My wife has actually picked up a bit of it - she often gets asked if she is Canadian or from Minnesota when talking to somebody on the phone.
I think the two are similar. When I was very small, I spoke German. Because, at military dependent schools back then, they’d just pair a native speaker with an ESL kid, and they’d work it out. And sometimes, the native speaking kid will pick up the other language, as well. And German and English have many, many similar words. But over time and with disuse, I lost most of it. Once in a while, I’d dream in German, or catch myself absent-mindedly listening to somebody speaking German, but that was about it, and I couldn’t do it on purpose to save my life.
Then, one night, I was watching a movie. It sounded vaguely German, but wasn’t. Yet, I was following along just fine. Checked it out - it was an Ingmar Bergman film! All I can figure is, if German and Swedish are that close, Norwegian probably isn’t too far off?
That makes even more sense, then. You’d have to be…'hanging around ze hoos near ze highwee watching ze cares go byeee" ? …Something, lol.
I guess it maybe has one good point, though. If people are asking you where you’re from, you can tell they’re actually listening to you and paying attention!
Yeah - easy to pick up someone’s else’s patterns. My daughter’s really, really good with languages. But after she lived in India for a few months, I actually had to stop her and tell her she was doing impersonations of the relatives. She’d done it long enough by then she didn’t even notice. Same thing, every time she goes to Europe or hangs out with Euro friends for very long. If I was slick with languages, think I’d want to go crazy and master bunch of them!
Ooh! Reminds me - I’v got ‘Fargo’ in my Netflix cue. Loved that. You betcha! Gotta do it again…
It’s funny… not being a native speaker I’d expected to be either placed around the West Coast (you know Hollywood and such), or, having dated a PA-Dutch girl, around the East Coast. Turns out I’m basically a Virginian trapped inside a Dutch body.
Just thought - funny thing. A Romanian friend had very good English skills, but he’d mess up the syntax here and there. He once got great new gig and told me, “The future is so bright, I’m having to be putting on my sunglasses!”
I was actually hoping that entering Britishisms like “lorry”, “car boot sale” and “you lot” would cause automatic eviction from the quiz or references to Benedict Arnold.
I grew up in Midland, MI for about half my childhood (the other half being Phoenix, which is all Great Lakes transplants anyway) and anytime I’ve been to London, ON, and surroundings, it sounded like everything I say with a couple British-isms (i.e. “bum” instead of “butt”) and a slightly different accent on a few folks. Not shocked.
To be fair, as an Arizona native (who spent enough time in my life in other places to not hit AZ on this linguistics map), I’d point out that the place is a mix of Californians and upper Midwestern transplants more than it is even natives.
If anything, it’s probably one of the least regionally dialected places in the country.
I confused it, I think, because half my childhood was in Arizona (which I did get a high likelihood on, but never got Phoenix as a town), half in Michigan, and my adult years are all in Maryland.
It gave me Grand Rapids, MI, which is only off by about a two hour drive from where I really grew up in Midland, and two towns in the agribusiness parts of central California. Possibly a mix of Arizona plus whatever I’ve picked up from my wife, who’s from closer to Sacramento? I’m sure if I’d said “pop” like I used to say 10+ years ago, it might have been more accurate. It’s all soda now, since I don’t like being looked at like a hillbilly.
Butt is used, but bum is considered the more polite version. Mom is pronounced like Mum but can be spelled either way. Out and about use that extra sound that Americans hear as oot and aboot though the real sound is closer to but distinct from oat and aboat.
At one point Hawaii had an association with the British empire (see the flag below). I’m guessing that this might be the source of some of this.
For me, I got pegged for Pittsburgh - which is correct - but with a lot of heat everywhere west of the Mississippi. Which I blame on my Montanan wife. (She was told that she was from Anchorage or Minnesota.)
It said Madison, WI first (where I grew up), and Rockford, IL second (where my mother grew up). And I’m taking it in San Diego. So the IP couldn’t have helped. I’m convinced.
I say “kitty-corner,” as I picked it up from my mom who’s from Rochester, but the quiz still nailed me as the coastal California kid I am.
My once complaint is that I always had to make one choice; there are times where I say two interchangeably, like “water fountain” and “drinking fountain.”
