Things we say: October 2008 Archives

Well, first of all, here was my good-quality barbecue from the Scrabble tournament earlier this month (which, by the way, I took second in my division at!):

My previous posts on hamburg barbecue, at first, drew only the "correct" answer - which, is of course, "hamburg" and not hamburger... and certainly not Sloppy Joe. C'mon now.

But then, some other folks chimed in.

April doesn't know any better. She's from the Midwest. She wrote: "I have to say, it's Sloppy Joe. That's what us Missourian's call it!"

We'll forgive her. She isn't from these parts. (AND she lives in Lancaster, so she doesn't have to be a "Yorker"!)

Doug has no excuse; he lives here. But he says: "That's not a hamburg barbecue, that's a Sloppy Joe. Yum."

And Jo, who had the right answer, brings up a good point: "For those who are adamant about the sandwich being called hamburg barbecue, how come supermarkets call it ground beef? Why isn't the sandwich, therefore, called ground beef barbecue? Maybe it could be called ground beefecue."

There you go, folks. Beefecue. Maybe we can start a new Yorkism.

OK, next quiz: What way do locals mispronounce the name of this staple of middle-of-the-night York County shopping goodness?

I'm guilty of this one myself, and I can see no good reason why we do this.

For some reason, we say Wal-Mark. (Oh, and don't get me started on Weis and Lowe's. Wees. Lowell's. Whatever.)

You ever heard any of those gems of business pronunciation?

... that is the question which is at hand.

I mentioned this favorite Yorkism in my post about an upcoming seminar on how to talk correctly. Or, that is, to not "talk York."

It's the idea of dropping the infinitive verb form from your sentence and using only the verb complement. Or, if that's too ninth-grade English for you, to leave out "to be" and only say what, exactly, you're doing.

Our dog needs to be bathed... or our dog needs bathed?
Those weeds need to be pulled... or those weeds need pulled?

One of my favorite readers, Mark from Austria, writes:

"How more York can you get? Conjuntions and the verb 'to be' are usually not used in daily speech. Think...The car needs fixed... Just to add a little from the European aspect, the same is true throughout most of the German speaking countries here in Central/Eatern Europe. Between Mundartzt (dialect) and the combination of long compound words (German is not such an easy language) verbs are informally shortened or omitted, primarily in speech. Just thought I would let you know."

So, look, another "Yorksim" that doesn't just happen in York! We're European, baby!

What do you think? Does the "to be" serve any purpose to anyone beyond my grammar-crazed boss, Randy, and my eighth-grade English teacher, Ms. Kaltreider?

I didn't have one person (well, of the three who responded) get the "hamburg barbecue" quiz wrong. Of course, that's the correct answer - hamburg barbecue - if you're a Yorker.

Megan says her husband (Hi, Neil!) gets totally frustrated and says there's no such thing as "hamburg."

Joe says he guessed hamburg barbecue as well, and in addition, weighed in that though you might have a slightly different recipe for an official "sloppy Joe" than for "barbecue," they end up basically the same.

And Dan, who I cornered about this lovely food while we were treadmill-power-walking, says it's definitely "hamburg" barbecue - or maybe just "barbecue." Then, you add "pork" if it's pork barbecue or "chicken" if it's chicken barbecue. But barbecue alone is, of course, hamburg(er).

Surprisingly, my favorite Yorkism-er, Jo, didn't vote. Where are you, Jo?! (Oh, Hubby didn't vote either, but him, I can kick.)

I just got a news release here at the paper that seems like it was just MADE for me and my blog readers. And, like the title of my post says, I'm not sure whether I'm flattered or... just slightly insulted!

It's from local writing/editing coach Cindy Kalinoski.

A new seminar unveils a local writer's passion to eliminate "York-isms" from business writing. The seminar, entitled "The English Makeover," addresses the 15 most common writing mistakes, beginning with the errors most often found in our area.

The seminar's creator, Cindy Kalinoski of The Word Helper, says, "If you're in York County for more than a year or so, you're likely to catch yourself saying these incorrect phrases. It's just part of the regional language. But that doesn't mean professionals can make these mistakes, so I'm determined to help them stop using 'York-isms,' at least in writing. At home, it's okay to communicate informally, but when we're representing our employers, we need to use correct language."

In the seminar, the first mistake under this category is leaving out the phrase "to be." If you've grown up in York, you've probably said something such as, "My house needs painted," not realizing this is incorrect. The proper way to express this would be: "My house needs to be painted."

The second error in the York-isms list addresses a common mix-up between the verbs "let" and "leave."

"There is a lot of confusion about these words locally," observes Kalinoski. "Rather than,'She let a message on his voicemail,' we should say, 'She left a message.' If you're trying to allow something or to dismiss or move past a subject, the popular way to say this locally is, 'I left it go,' when letting something go is correct. There are many different uses for these verbs, so with local usage, it's no wonder people often use the wrong one."

Want to go? Check out TheWordHelper.com.

And, if you're interested in reading more about one of Cindy's topics, check out this previous post:

· Aug. 18, 2007: You let my bad grammar alone

I just wrote an e-mail to one of my best friends, whose son will turn 4 in a couple weeks. (Should that be couple OF weeks?)

Here's what I asked her:

"What does this child want for gifts?"

Wow, how Yorklike was that?

Friend Jo reminded me of this Yorkism this weekend...

If you're a Yorker, which is right:

A) Hamburger barbecue
B) Hamburg barbecue
C) Sloppy Joe

And, is there a difference between these three things? Discuss. My "correct" answer to come later this week. (By the way... if you search on Google images for "hamburg barbecue," it asks you, "Did you mean hamburger barbecue?" Stupid Google.)