"Pahk ya cah in Hahvahd Yahd," or, Regional Linguistic Pet Peeves

Darren Rowse over at Problogger has put together a group writing project, asking his readers to post some lists. I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, but figured now was as good a time as any to post it.

I’ve lived in New England for over 18 years (with a short break for a school year in Minnesota in the early 90′s). In case you’ve never seen “Murder, She Wrote” or heard a bad JFK impression, people talk funny in these parts. But it’s not all dropping the letter “r” from the end of your words – witness some further linguistic weirdness collected from my time in Massachusetts and Maine:

* Putting “the” before a street name. Maps call it “New Gorham Road.” Street signs call it “New Gorham Road.” Why do you insist on calling it “The New Gorham Road?”

* The Law of Conservation of the letter R. As I said earlier, it’s not all dropping an “r.” In fact, sometimes the sentence becomes an equation, where an “r” unnecessarily dropped from one word is unnecessarily added to the end of another. For a perfect example, read this sentence (overheard many years ago on a cold, windy day in North Reading, MA) aloud: “It’s really rawr out theyah!”

* The possessive “‘s” after the name of a store that has none. Examples: “Hannaford’s,” “Target’s,” “Ames’s”

* “So don’t I” when the meaning is “So do I.” I’ve actually never heard this in everyday conversation, but I remember a high school teacher bringing this up as one of their pet peeves, and it’s bugged me ever since.

* …and this is probably less of a New England thing (more local advertisement in general), but quotation marks around random phrases in print ads. For example, “We sell for less!” or “Bringing you the best since 1962.” Quote use like this is just screaming for some creative attribution, like:

"Best pies in the tri-county area!" -  Bishop Desmond Tutu

Anyone got some further linguistic pet peeves from other parts of the country (or world)? Leave a comment and let me know – this kind of thing fascinates me.