Quote:
Originally Posted by Xanthe
My friends and I always laugh at the fact that the stereotypes of NJ in those shows like Jersey Shore and Housewives of NJ are actually people who were either born across the river in NYC or are the children of parents who were born in NYC. That whole Brooklyn/Mob-wannabe accent is so not NJ.
Actually, it's more "quardder-ah" and "quardder-duh", though a "cuplah" or "cupalah" million dollars sounds right to me. 
Folks here get their houses/homes "robbed" not burglarized. Cigarettes are "lit" not "lighted". We never call the Atlantic Ocean "the Pond"; it's "the Ocean", because it's really the only ocean that counts. We really do say that we're going "down the shore", not "to the ocean" or "to the beach".
In the town in NJ where I grew up, we used a wonderful word, "aina" (long "a" sound + "nah"), often sounded with a question mark or an exclamation point. The closest definition would be "ain't it" or "you're speaking the truth" or "no shit". It was like an "amen" to another person's statement. 
"I'm tellin' yah, if he comes home late one more time, his mom's gonna whip his behind!"
"Aina."
"She said that she heard it from her mom who heard it from her aunt."
"Aina?"
"I slipped on that ice comin' down the hill from the tracks. It's like glass over there."
"Aina!" |
So, reccon y'all 're aina retentive up there?