local dialect in the US

[Glenn]

I guess that's more of a cajun thing, then. So you don't know about "Fat City?"

Yeah, I hear "cold drink" too but it's mostly people in the ghetto who use it. Mostly everyone else says "coke" or "soft drink."

If you want to get really local, my family uses "ratatené" (although I've never seen it written, so I just came up with the spelling on my own) to refer to what I think everyone else calls "prune fingers." Other people around the area don't seem to have ever heard the word, though.

On a side note, I was thinking about the place names thing, and I changed my mind. I suppose they do qualify as being dialectal; it just struck me as not quite being in the same category for some reason when I first saw it.

 

[Glenn]

Oh yeah, my roommate from L.A. used to always say "faded" to mean "drunk." I can't tell you how many times I heard "you guys gonna go get faded tonight?"

I started using "crunked," but that has other applications too. It means any sort of loss of control over though, I guess you could say. So, for example, if you were to get hit really hard and not quite be all there, you could say that you "got crunked." I may be the only one who says that, though.

 

[nice gaijin]

yeah, I heard "faded" a lot back in high school, though I don't recall using it myself. Then again, there have always been a lot of slang terms for drunk. There's also the dictionary of slang, seen here.

Although slang is a part of and plays into the idea of regional dialects, it would be a mistake to confuse the two. Perhaps a regional dialect (based on differences in vocabulary) is better defined by the longer-lasting words in common use.

 

[Glenn]

Although slang is a part of and plays into the idea of regional dialects, it would be a mistake to confuse the two. Perhaps a regional dialect (based on differences in vocabulary) is better defined by the longer-lasting words in common use.

It would be a mistake to confuse the two, but were we? If you're referring to "faded" being a fad word that isn't used anymore, then I'll clarify that I'm talking about the guy I was living with until last week, and he used that word the entire year we were living together. If not, then sorry I missed the point.

 

[nice gaijin]

I actually wasn't referring to anything yet said in this thread; just that it's important to distinguish the two. Slang can eventually come into common use but it does tend to come and go. Although I have heard "faded" being used since the late 90's, its use seems to have sharply tapered off in recent years, at least in these parts. Of course, there are people who use terms that have long since passed out of common use. This might not yet be the case for "faded," or "crunk," but I would hesitate to consider them a part of any dialect, just yet. But we never know.

 

[Glenn]

Alright, I gotcha now. Yeah, I agree with you.

 

[Gaijinian]

"Y'all" comes to mind...
North American English regional phonology - Wikipedia
That site may come in handy...