26 JAN 09: Valley-Speak
After living in Georgia nearly 25 years, I've learned some of the proper regional lingo. Some of them even surprise Columbus natives when I mention them. You realize, for example, people don't step on the gas pedal in the South - you MASH it.
Yet it was my late stepmother in Kansas City who taught me one Southernism. I knew people are supposed to say "y'all" instead of "you." But she taught me the plural form of that "you" - "all y'all."
Yet I've found there are certain words and phrases which are special to the Columbus area, and not really known anywhere else. The first one I learned was the "scrambled dog" - and how it had nothing to do with a Georgia quarterback trying to run from defensive linemen.
Today we launch a new BLOG SPECIAL EVENT, to compile some of those Columbus-area slang words and phrases. I've learned a few new ones only in the last few weeks:
+ "Walking mall." A woman used that phrase to describe Columbus Park Crossing. And she has a good point - because it's quite a long walk from one end to the other, except when shuttles run in December.
(But here's the thing - the woman who said that worked at the departing Hallmark store in Peachtree Mall. If that's not a "walking mall," what is it? I don't see adults checking out strollers to roll through it.)
+ "Burned to ashes." Sad to say, this phrase was used by a woman to talk about the death of her brother in a house fire. She made it sound like even the bones didn't survive - and all that was left was a picture from a Daffy Duck cartoon.
+ "European bank hybrid debt securities." Oh wait -- that's the problem Aflac supposedly has.
What other words and phrases are unique to the Columbus area? Please e-mail us your ideas, and we'll put together a list of them. There might not be enough to make a "Fountain City Dictionary." But we might send copies to places that could use them - such as the WLTZ news anchors in Iowa.
COMING THIS WEEK: New accusations from Hurtsboro...
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