Gina comes from Hard Canny, Merlin.
If you've grown up or lived in Maryland for any part of your
life, you'll find this hits rather close to home.
Maryland is divided into semi-tribal areas called Cannies (i.e., "counties";
e.g., Ballmer Canny, PeeJee Canny, Hard Canny, etc.).
The dialect area is centered on a market center called Glimburny (Glen
Burnie), where the people come on weekends to trade their goods.
Speakers of Merlin dialect are all able to understand standard English from
babyhood, chiefly because of their voracious appetite for television.
However, they invariably refuse to speak standard English, even with
outsiders who obviously are not understanding a word they say.
Lesson 1: Vocabulary
- Arn
- what you do to wrinkled clothes
- Allanic
- an ocean
- Arnjuice
- from the sunshine tree
- Arouwn in all directions
- norf, souf, ees, and wess
- Avnew
- what you call a street
- Aspern
- what you take for headaches
- Bald
- some people like their eggs this way
- Ballmer
- Our City
- Bawler
- what the plumber calls your furnace
- Beeno
- a famous railroad
- Beero
- where you put your clothes
- Bulled Egg
- An egg cooked in water
- Brawl
- Broil
- Bowin'
- ten pins & 3 balls
- Calf Lick
- bleevers are Protestant, Jewish, and ...
- Canny
- a state gubmit division, such as Anne Arundel or Prince George's
- Chest Peak
- A large nearby body of water
- Colleyflare
- A white vegetable
- Downey Owe Shin
- Summertime destination "Down to the ocean," often to a place such as Ayshun City
- Droodle Pork
- Druid Hill Park
- Flares
- Such as tulips
- Faren Gins
- Red trucks that put out fires
- Hi Hon
- How we always say "hello"
- Holandtown
- Highland Town
- Jeet
- How we say "Did you eat?"
- Lyeberry
- where the books are
- Meedjum
- The grassy area between lanes of a highway
- Merlin
- Our State
- Nap Lis
- State of Merlin capital
- Nattie Boh
- beer that goes great with steamed crabs
- Ole Bay
- What our crabs taste like
- Oreos
- Not a cookie, but our baseball team
- Payment
- That strip of cement that you walk on
- Paramore
- Power mower
- Pitcher
- what's hangin in the frame on the wall
- PohLeese
- Those guys in uniform that git ya when you're speeding
- Share
- Hot water that cleans you in the morning
- Sem elem
- Seven Eleven
- Stoop
- where you sit on a summer evenin
- Tarred
- What you get when you work too hard
- Warsh
- What we do with dirty clothes
- Warder
- What we drink (can also be Wooter)
- Winders
- Those glass things that we look out of
- Warshinton DeeCee
- Capitol of America
- Zinc
- where you warsh yer dishes
Submitted by reader G.B.