self-talk
n.— «Social workers said a practice called “self-talk” can help people cope. Ruthanne Faught with Women Strength in Peoria said, “If your self talk is this is ok, it maybe only temporary, maybe I need to look at taking the bus, maybe I could car pool, maybe I could ride a bicycle. It’s that self talk that calms you down.”» —“Gas Spike Causing Tempers to Spike” by Brock Spencer in Peoria WHOI-TV (Creve Coeur, Illinois) Sept. 1, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A listener named Mark now lives in San Diego, California, but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. There, he recalls, when he and his friends played sandlot baseball, cards, or board games, if an opponent tried to get around the rules and then got called...
Is there such a thing as a “neutral” accent, and if so what does it sound like? And that quirk in the way southern Californians talk about freeways. They’ll say things like take the 405 and get on the 8. Why the definite article...