Terms Which Have Disappeared

[Trenchfriend]

 

[PeterGunnLives]

I vote to bring back the term "jake," as used in Chandler's The Big Sleep.

 

[BlueTrain]

I love the movie but I don't remember hearing that word. But I do remember the word "jakey" being used when I was little, referring to of or about "country jakes." One aunt in particular used that word as well as "tacky" fairly often and never without justification.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

I love the movie but I don't remember hearing that word. But I do remember the word "jakey" being used when I was little, referring to of or about "country jakes." One aunt in particular used that word as well as "tacky" fairly often and never without justification.

The word "jake" was used at least once in the novel , but not in the movie adaptation, to refer to things being OK, as in "everything will be jake."

There was a humorous scene in the A&E "Nero Wolfe" TV series when Archie says "Everything's jake," to which Nero replies, "There is good slang and bad slang. That's bad slang."

 

[2jakes]

Sociolinguists call the use of different dialects for different audiences "Code Switching," and it's a very common thing among people who grow up speaking either a low-valued or a high-valued dialect. Code switching often goes hand in hand with hypercorrection, which is, in part, the habit of being overprecise in the use of certain pronunciations that are customarily dropped your own native dialect. Around here this usually takes the form of exaggerated rhoticity -- the unctuous overpronunciation of the letter "r" -- and an exaggerated "g" sound at the end of words ending in "-ing."

This type of hypercorrection, if you listen for it, is a dead giveaway to someone who is "code switching." My mother got into the habit of this when she worked in a hospital dealing with lots of middle-class/middle-brow people, and developed the habit of stretching final "g's" and "r's" out beyond the point of endurance. "I'm goingggggggg to see the lawyerrrrrrrrrrrr" instead of her normal pronunciation of "I'm goin' ta see tha lawya." She also hypercorrects words ending with an -oh sound, which she grew up pronouncing -ah: windah, p'taytah, tamaytah become windohhhhh, po-tay-tohhhhh, to-may-tohhhhhh. Makes my ears hurt. She does this all the time when she's out in public, but if she's just talking to me, the old pronunciations come back in force.

I learned to do the same thing myself during my years in radio. Although my normal speaking voice is fast and nasal, when I was doing news I spoke what you might call "NPR English" -- that low, even, standardized from-the-chest pronunciation that all radio news broadcasters are expected to speak. Since I was also playing all sorts of other characters with all sorts of other dialects in commercials at the same time, I thought of it as just another acting job. That characterization has come in handy over the years -- I use it on the phone to this day when I'm dealing with some business functionary who doesn't want to see things my way. A friend called this my "scary lawyer voice" after I used it to convince AOL to cancel her account and refund her overpayment.

The Strand Experience.
Would that be your normal speaking voice?
You have a pleasant voice in that interview.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's my radio voice. My normal voice is louder, faster, and more nasal. HEY COME IN AN SEE A SHOW -- LOTSA ENNATAINMENT FAH YA DOLLA! MOOM PITCHAS ARE YA BEST ENNATAINMENT VALUE! HEY MISTAH, GREAT SHOW TONITE! GET IN OUTTA THA RAIN, NO CHAHGE FOR THA HEAT!

 

[2jakes]

LizzieMaine...I definitely have to travel up to Maine someday.
If only to hear that "pitch-talk" voice of yours in all it's nasal glory.

 

[Trenchfriend]

The older still knows it and it's partly still alive:

Getting free cake-rims, which can't be selled, from your family-bakery around the corner.

 

[2jakes]

@Trenchfriend

Hey....what's with all this talk about food?

We're talking about LizzieMaine & her many voices!

Sheesh!

 

[Trenchfriend]

@Trenchfriend

Hey....what's with all this talk about food?

We're talking about LizzieMaine & her many voices!

Sheesh!

Hungry, my buddy??
So, better don't imagine "Döner Kebab", "Bratkartoffeln", "Eisbein mit Sauerkraut", "Goulash and Maccaroni", "Fish-sticks and Potatoe-mash" and so on...

 

[2jakes]

Hungry, my buddy??
So, better don't imagine "Döner Kebab", "Bratkartoffeln", "Eisbein mit Sauerkraut", "Goulash and Maccaroni", "fish-sticks and potatoe-mash" and so on...

New Year's Rule Beginning Jan. 2017:

Any food that you mention on this forum.
You must share with the members free of charge.
You'll get the details on the address & where to ship.

 

[Zombie_61]

Sociolinguists call the use of different dialects for different audiences "Code Switching," and it's a very common thing among people who grow up speaking either a low-valued or a high-valued dialect...

It's not quite a "dialect", but we know more than a few people, mostly women, who do something like this when they're talking on a telephone call. It's usually not a huge difference from their normal speaking voice--sharper pronunciation and a bit more "from the diaphragm"--but we have one friend who does this when she's taking a "professional" call at work who also affects a form of "Marilyn Monroe breathy" manner of speaking that we refer to as her "phone sex" voice.

Speaking of "moonshine", when the family lived in Chicago area my father-in-law used to make various forms of the stuff. One of his more popular brews was "Applejack", made from apples, of course, but he also made "Grappa" which is an Italian type of grape-based brandy. In addition to his regular job at a steel mill, he painted houses "on the side" to help cover the costs of raising four children, and he'd ship his Applejack and Grappa to relatives all over the U.S. in empty paint cans (with no return address, of course). Sadly, I never had an opportunity to sample the goods because he chose to destroy his still when the family decided to move to California, but the older relatives still talk about how good his Applejack and Grappa were.

 

[2jakes]

I'm not sure what the word is to describe it other than perhaps as a "manner of speaking".

It was evident when my mom spoked with her mother. The tone or manner was different
than when speaking to my dad or me. I can only describe it as a daughter looking up to her
mother in the tone she used whether she agreed or not with her.

I had an uncle who had a manner of speaking similar to Gary Cooper in the film, "Sgt. York".
Not much on words and if he was grateful, he would say...
"I'm much obliged" or I'm a thanking you".
Spending time with him during the summer months, I found myself speaking the same way.

When returning to school in the Fall, I wasn't aware I was speaking like this until the guys
in class would point it out.
There are still phrases or words that I still hold on to.

Some, I have no idea where I got them from.
One phrase I use when I like something is:
"That's peachy-keen!".
A co-worker likes it that he started using it.
One day he asked me what it meant and added
that it was driving his wife bonkers since he kept
saying it all the time.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

peachy-king!"

I've always known that as "peachy keen". I work with a number of younger people of foreign birth. That's a double handicap when it comes to understanding old-guy irony. I often find myself replying to one of those pro-forma "How are you?" questions with "Just peachy, thanks." and that invariably elicits a puzzled expression.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Another term for moonshine is "white lightning." This is because moonshine, like all whiskey, is white (clear) when it comes out of the still. Moonshine/white lightning is sold and drunk as is. Commercial whiskey is aged in charred oak barrels, which imparts the brown color, flavor and "mellowness" to the finished product. My wife's grandfather during Prohibition made moonshine so pure that the local hospitals used it as a disinfectant and washed down operating rooms with it. For this reason the Prohibition authorities left him alone. That, and because he controlled several thousand Democratic votes in the county. The governor sent down the hands-off order.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Is white liquor called "diabetics-liquor" in the US, too?

 

[2jakes]

Is white liquor called "diabetics-liquor" in the US, too?

No, we call it "Diabetiker Schnaps".

 

[BlueTrain]

In some families hard liquor was (supposedly) kept on hand for "emergencies" (snake bite medicine or something). I rather doubt that moonshine was saved for that purpose or otherwise excused for medicinal purposes. But I suppose it might have been a good pain killer.

I grew up in a small town of about 8,000 (thought it was larger at the time). But when I was in high school we moved out to the country where my stepmother was from, my mother having died when I was in junior high school. It was in the next county and in some ways, in the previous century. Although people there spoke a perfectly understandable form of English, more or less the same as I did, there were all sorts of words and expressions in use that I had never heard before. Most were used humorously, though. It had been an isolated area, although one should not get the wrong idea about it. There were even immigrants living in the little coal towns that at one time dotted the land, most gone without a trace now. The immigrants were all from Italy and generally were older than my father, which suggests they all arrived probably around the same time, but I never asked about it.

On top of the basic language and regional accents, as well as educational differences in speech, many individuals have their own peculiarities of speech, too. Some people speak faster than others, for instance, and not always at the speed you might expect. One aunt of mine who lived in south-central Virginia where my father was from had a very peculiar lilt at the end of her sentences which I don't think I've otherwise heard very often. I don't how to describe it technically but she raised her pitch at the end of a sentence, as you might do when asking a question, but that's a poor description. Anyway, I only saw her a couple of times a year but that was enough to remember her odd speech patterns.

 

[2jakes]

In some families hard liquor was (supposedly) kept on hand for "emergencies" (snake bite medicine or something). I rather doubt that moonshine was saved for that purpose or otherwise excused for medicinal purposes. But I suppose it might have been a good pain killer.

I grew up in a small town of about 8,000 (thought it was larger at the time). But when I was in high school we moved out to the country where my stepmother was from, my mother having died when I was in junior high school. It was in the next county and in some ways, in the previous century. Although people there spoke a perfectly understandable form of English, more or less the same as I did, there were all sorts of words and expressions in use that I had never heard before. Most were used humorously, though. It had been an isolated area, although one should not get the wrong idea about it. There were even immigrants living in the little coal towns that at one time dotted the land, most gone without a trace now. The immigrants were all from Italy and generally were older than my father, which suggests they all arrived probably around the same time, but I never asked about it.

On top of the basic language and regional accents, as well as educational differences in speech, many individuals have their own peculiarities of speech, too. Some people speak faster than others, for instance, and not always at the speed
you might expect. One aunt of mine who lived in south-central Virginia where my father was from had a very peculiar lilt at the end of her sentences which I don't think I've otherwise heard very often. I don't how to describe it technically but she raised her pitch at the end of a sentence, as you might do when asking a question, but that's a poor description. Anyway, I only saw her a couple of times a year but that was enough to remember her odd speech patterns.

That's a great description.
I remember a school teacher, very attractive with blonde hair and
a speech similar to Marilyn Monroe.
Very soft and gentle almost like a whisper.
When ever she came to my desk up close to talk to me about the numbers ( I was lousy at math)
I would just sit there like a zombie, with my mouth wide open saliva dripping down.
Just hypnotized and lulled by her voice that I was oblivious of what she was saying.
Just enjoying the warm closeness from this blue-eyed angel.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"Tongue-red (blood)-sausages"