User:AryamanA/DC regionalisms

Some words I've heard in DC and tried to make sense of.

Slang

• joan, jone (“to insult, slander; to roast”)
• bamma, bama (“a country bumpkin”) (from Alabama)
• cise, sice (“to excite; to instigate; to exaggerate”)
  • IPA^(key): /sɑɪs/
• ji, jhi, jih (“really, very”)
  • IPA^(key): /d͡ʒɑɪ/
• jont, joint (“thing, item, object; person, dude”) (seems to be common in Mid-Atlantic)
• mo, moe (“dude, bro”)
• kill (“no way!, woah!; relax!”)
• kirk (“to lose one's temper”) (also kirk out)
• mans (“man, dude”) (in my mans, not sure if DC-specific?)
• Mumbo sauce (“kind of regional condiment”)
• lunch (“to fool around, dawdle”) (doesn't seem that common)
• dip (“to leave discreetly”)
• dap (“giving dap”) (DC people do it in a specific way, it starts like a horizontal high five but then you wrap your fingers with the other persons. I was terrible at this for pretty much the first year of living here (and not very great even now).)
• pressed (“aggravated”) (seems to be a youth thing)
• brick (“long period of time”)
• hip (“in agreement”, adj.)

  I'm hip.

  I agree.

Mainstream yet regional terms

• the Beltway (“I-495”)
• K Street (“lobbyists, special interest groups”) (used metonymically)

Interesting things

• Older white people rhotacize? Especially in Northwest. Sort of Boston-ish.
• "Maryland" and "Baltimore" are pronounced very differently from GenAm. Going to transcribe it in IPA one of these days.