The dialect heard in the state of Utah includes lexical items such as the hotdish casserole called funeral potatoes, as well as the mayo-ketchup condiment called fry sauce, and a particular type of scone, also called fry bread. Utah is also known for its dirty sodas, which contain multiple ingredients such as syrup or fruit. In the Mountain West, you’ll hear talk about fourteeners, “mountains that stand at least 14,000 feet” and powder days, referring to great skiing conditions after a good snow, and red rock, or red sandstone. In addition, the speech of many Utahans features a vowel merger in which heal and hill sound similar, and the word barn sounds like “born” and born sounds like “barn.” The difference between Anglophone and Hispanophone settlement patterns are reflected in the different terms butte and mesa. Then there’s the Latter-Day Saints’ influence in the use of ward for a local congregation. This is part of a complete episode.
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
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