The Daily Parker

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Humor: Maryland vocabulary

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.

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