Come With

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Carol from San Diego.

Hi, Carol. Welcome to the program.

Hi, Carol.

Okay, so as an English professor, I was a little bit surprised that I use a phrase that I’ve used all my life. It sounds weird to other people, and I guess I should tell you I grew up in Milwaukee. Milwaukee, we don’t pronounce the L.

And a friend of mine was visiting me in San Diego from Milwaukee, and she was describing an upcoming trip, and I said, oh, can I come with? And her companion, sort of, he’s not from Milwaukee, he rolled his eyes and said, come with what? Come with a jar of pickles? Come with a bouquet of roses? All good, yes and yes.

And it’s so funny because I knew that was a colloquialism. I would never put it in writing, but I didn’t know that it sounded weird to other people. It must be regional, I’m assuming.

Yeah, where is he from?

He was from North Carolina.

Oh, yeah, they don’t use that at all there.

Carol, it does sound weird to us. I’m telling you, to say, do you want to come with sounds to us like dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. Jar of pickles.

Right, right, exactly. A bouquet of roses, yeah.

So he thinks you’re weird. You’ll never talk to him again, and then what?

No. I will have to hang my head in shame in front of my students.

Oh, as an English professor.

I know.

As an English professor, what did you say back to this guy? You’re like equipped to handle this argument, right?

Oh, yes. Well, I knew that it was colloquial. I didn’t know it was regional. But then it got me to thinking where, how it originated. I’m thinking maybe in Milwaukee, they have a very large German population. So maybe it has to do with the German. You say, comme une minute. Or even in French, you say, je peux venir avec. You know, you can use that phrase in French, colloquially.

Yeah, very good. Yeah, in German you have those verbs mitgein and mitkommen that literally mean come with or go with, right? And there are similar verbs in Scandinavian languages like Norwegian and Swedish, which also settled the area all around the Great Lakes, far down in Chicago and all up through Wisconsin. And heck, even over into Minnesota. This is incredibly common in Minnesota as well.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

So, Carol, the guy should have been thanking you for the history lesson. He’s from North Carolina. He’s got a whole batch of his own things that he says that you don’t.

But here’s the thing. Come with is very regional. It’s said with a bit of pride, actually, by people from that part of the country because they recognize that it’s something they’ve got going on in their English and the rest of us don’t. And sometimes I think they use it just to kind of tweak the rest of us.

Well, one person’s pride is another person’s.

But Carol’s got it exactly right, doesn’t she?

Yes. The Germanic influence.

Yes. It’s great. It’s really interesting to see something sustain itself across the centuries. Or at least a century, right?

Sure, sure. And it’s really weird to go to another part of the country and say that and have people look at you like you have four. And I didn’t realize that it was regional, so that’s why it took me by surprise.

Well, I’m not going to stop using it.

Good, good, yeah. Part of your linguistic heritage. God forbid we should all sound alike. How boring would that be?

Exactly. Really boring.

Thanks for calling, Carol.

Thank you, guys. Take care.

Bye-bye.

Great stuff. Well, we love talking about regional dialects, regional accents, that kind of thing. Call us, 877-929-9673, or email us. That address is words@waywordradio.org.