Definition:
A linguistic term for a word, expression, or pronunciation favored by speakers in a particular geographic area.
See also:
Etymology:
From the Latin, "to rule"Examples and Observations:
- "In the [American] South it’s called Coke, even when it’s Pepsi. Many in Boston say tonic. A precious few even order a fizzy drink. But the debate between those soft drink synonyms is a linguistic undercard in the nation’s carbonated war of words. The real battle: pop vs. soda."
(J. Straziuso, "Pop vs. Soda Debate." Associated Press, Sep. 12, 2001) - "In Delaware, a turnpike refers to any highway, but in Florida a turnpike is a toll road."
(T. Boyle, The Gremlins of Grammar. McGraw-Hill, 2007) - "Sack and poke were both originally regional terms for bag. Sack has since become a Standard term like bag, but poke remains regional, mainly in South Midland Regional dialect."
(Kenneth Wilson, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, 1993) - "What some call a roll, others call a bun, or a cob, or a bap, or a bannock, while in other areas [of England] more than one of these words is used with different meanings for each."
(Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England. Wiley, 1999) - "How do you make your tea? If you come from Yorkshire you probably ‘mash’ it, but people in Cornwall are more likely to ‘steep’ it or ‘soak’ it and southerners often ‘wet’ their tea."
(Leeds Reporter, March 1998) - Regionalisms in the American South
"Vocabulary is . . . strikingly different in various parts of the South. Nowhere but in the Deep South is the Indian-derived bobbasheely, which William Faulkner employed in The Reivers, used for 'a very close friend,' and only in Northern Maryland does manniporchia (from the Latin mania a potu, 'craziness from drink') [mean] the D.T.s (delirium tremens). Small tomatoes would be called tommytoes in the mountains (tommy-toes in East Texas, salad tomatoes in the plains area, and cherry tomatoes along the coast). Depending on where you are in the South, a large porch can be a veranda, piazza, or gallery; a burlap bag can be a tow sack, crocus sack, or grass sack; pancakes can be flittercakes, fritters, corncakes, or battercakes; a harmonica can be a mouth organ or french harp; a closet can be a closet or a locker; and a wishbone can be a wishbone or pulley bone. There are hundreds of synonyms for a cling peach (green peach, pickle peach, etc.), kindling wood (lightning wood, lighted knots) and a rural resident (snuff chewer, kicker, yahoo)."
(Robert Hendrickson, The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms. Facts on File, 2000) - "When we think of jargon, slang, and regionalisms, we tend to focus on the words unique to a communal lexicon. Meson, pion, and quark are terms only a physicist could love. But most common word forms belong to many communal lexicons--though with different conventional meanings. In Britain, biscuits can be sweet or savory, but in America, they are always savory."
(H. H. Clark, Using Language. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996)
Pronunciation: REE-juh-na-LIZ-um
