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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

What Language Are You Speaking?

The other day my Mother-in-Law posted a status on Twitter. It basically said that she was lounging on the sofa and my niece and nephew were about to take a nap on a pallet.

Now, I'm not sure what a pallet is to you but to me it's a piece of wood that looks like this:


Well, that's what a pallet was to me before I met J's family. When they said "Pallet" they mean something like this:



A bunch of blankets that they pile up to make the ground comfy.


It's always interesting to me how some things mean something totally different in one part of the country than in the other.

For instance, when my Mother-in-Law (they don't ALL involve her . . . Or I would just think it was all just her own language.) says "Light Bread" I think:


LIGHT Bread

However, what she really means is:


Sure, it's light in color. I suppose.

When I went to college I was sitting in class when the instructor said "Put up your books." . . . Huh? I looked up. Were there shelves I was supposed to leave my book on. I am not joking. I had Never heard that expression before in my life. I caught on pretty quick, when I saw what everyone else was doing, that what she meant was "Put your books away." Is that really so hard to say?

I wasn't at college long (maybe a few hours) before one of my roommates asked me where she could plug up her curling iron. Plug it up? Darling, we plug things IN not UP.

"I can't see a thing! Cut on that light!" or "It's late! Would you cut off that light?" These come from both college and J's family.

Cut the light on and off?? That may cause the light to no longer work, just saying . . . However, I can TURN the light on or off, whichever you wish.

So, which do you say? Are there things like this that totally threw you when you heard them?

5 comments:

Call Me Cate said...

Let's see...

I agree with you on pallet and light bread. "Put up" is one I've always heard so I can go either way on that but I usually go with "put away". Plug in/up and cut/turn on/off I've heard frequently but tend to plug things in and turn things on/off.

The one that still throws me a bit is hearing someone say "mash a button". I mash potatoes. The first time I heard this, someone asked me to mash the 3rd floor button in the elevator for them. I still think that one is odd.

VandyJ said...

I've heard and used the put things up.

But what still throws me is Riding the short bus to school--to mean you are a bit slow. I came from a small town and some of the buses that ran the rural routes were short. Didn't mean antything when I was growing up. Not until I came the college did I hear that one.

Kendra said...

We always slept on pallets growing up when staying at my grandma's. And she even just said that to my son about coming over and sleeping on a pallet.

Melissa said...

Hmm, we come from the same place, cause I agree with all of your "words" meanings! Especially the pallet. lol! that is funny!

Anonymous said...

I know "pallet" as a word with two meanings, depending on context! Probably comes of being a Navy brat. LOL

When I lived in the South, a couple that got me were "mashing" a button instead of pressing it, and having your picture "made" instead of taken.