Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

texasmonthly.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 136 posts

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#121

Post by glandium »

philsnow wrote: post #60
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #30

Was talking with a Japanese friend the other day and had a great conversation trying to nail down the meanings of over by, out near, up there, down by, etc, using local landmarks. The Japanese equivalents are ここ、そこ、あこ, meaning respectively "here", "there (nearer)", and "there (further)". There's also これ、それ、あれ, meaning "this", "that (nearer)", and "that (further)". These distances can be both spatial, temporal, and me…

I always thought the close one is used for things that are closer to the speaker than the listener, the middle one is used for things that are more or less in between the speaker and the listener, and the 'far' one is used for things that are far away from both the speaker and the listener. can any native speakers say whether there is any sense of that, or does it not have anything to do with the listener?

Not native, but essentially, ここ is here, as in something close to the speaker, そこ is there, as in something close to the listener, and あそこ is there, as in something that is neither close to the speaker nor close to the listener.

Now imagine a variant of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m-kbBamg_U with the 3 words.

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#122

Post by glandium »

mrb wrote: post #98
globuous wrote: post #87

Very interesting ! Funny thing, in France we do use "up" and "down" but with a different set of axis. They don't represent north and south. If you're in Lille (north of Paris), you'd say "I'm going up to Paris" although you'd be going south. If you're in Paris and you're going to Lille, you'd say "I'm going down to Lille" although you'd be going north. But if you're going to Lyon from Paris, you'd say "I'm going down…

Native French speaker here. I can confirm. "Going up to" (monter sur) refers to somewhere central while "going down to" (descendre sur) refers to a peripheral location .

Native French here too, except I use "à" more often than "sur".

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#123

Post by shirro »

pwagland wrote: post #41
username223 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a native of... nowhere in particular, I think "up" and "down" are pretty universal among Americans for "north" and "south." I wouldn't be surprised if they're near-universal to inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, since that's the way maps are drawn. A possible exception would be inhabitants of mountainous regions saying e.g. "up to Leadville" or "down to Denver." Having lived in Houston, I didn't notice "over"…

Even in Australia which, last I checked, is not in the US, uses up and down to refer to north and south. That seems fairly independent or state as well. For example ins Perth you go "up to Geraldton" and in Sydney you go "up to Brisbane", and "down to Melbourne". The whole out and over thing seems more regional to me. In Australia "out" is generally just "far from here" and "over"... well that isn't a thing, at least…

I am in Australia and I use up and down for north and south and I agree they are nearly universal. I don't relate over and out to cardinal directions but I do use them in speech.

I use over to refer to towns on the other side of the river from here. You also go over to people's houses. I guess I use out but it has no direction associated with it. It is more related to remoteness from things. You go out to a farm and in to town. Over the river. Down to the city then back up to home.

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#124

Post by GotAnyMegadeth »

midgetjones wrote: post #115
globuous wrote: post #87

Very interesting ! Funny thing, in France we do use "up" and "down" but with a different set of axis. They don't represent north and south. If you're in Lille (north of Paris), you'd say "I'm going up to Paris" although you'd be going south. If you're in Paris and you're going to Lille, you'd say "I'm going down to Lille" although you'd be going north. But if you're going to Lyon from Paris, you'd say "I'm going down…

Same in the UK, it's always "going up to London". Maybe it's a subconscious status thing?

As someone who lives in Bristol I'd always say over for London, up for Birmingham, over for Cardiff and down for Exeter.

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#125

Post by air7 »

In Hebrew we use "up" and "down" to refer to permanently moving to Israel ("up") or moving from Israel("down"). These are such important social concepts that there are nouns too: Someone who moved to Israel is an "Ascender" who just did an "Ascent". In the other direction is a "Descender" who did a "Descent".

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#126

Post by jacobsohn101 »

In NYC, up/down indicates north/south in general.

However there are two special exceptions I can think of.

First special case is when New Yorkers sometimes talk about Albany (NY state capital), we use "up state" in political context, even though Albany is like in the middle of NY. But then again, "up state" can mean anywhere above NYC to some New Yorkers...

Second is when we yell out "up yours, buddy". We don't mean north in that context.

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#127

Post by technofiend »

hmcdona1 wrote: post #104
technofiend wrote: post #62

I guess y'all are fixin to use our directional words. Honestly Houston (and I'm sure the other major cities too) has a bunch of weird pronunciation that marks natives versus folks just lucky enough to move here and I assumed the article was going to go into things like "fixing" or our weird town names. Here in Houston for example "Kuykendall" Street is pronounced with an R like the Dutch name from which it derives "K…

My favorite is if you're from Houston you call on/off ramps "feeder roads". I don't think people use that term anywhere else.

Yeah the feeder road is the entire parallel road not just the on ramp. Between feeders and regular freeway exits every mile or two it really prevents some of the incredibly dangerous driving I've seen in other parts of the country where people dive for an exit because the next one is 5+ miles away. Because we typically have overpasses for intersections under the freeway it's no big deal if you miss an exit. Just take the next one 1/2 mile or a mile away and make a uturn underneath the freeway. If you aren't going far you can just take the feeder down to your missed exit.

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#128

Post by xya3453 »

fian wrote: post #69
pwagland wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in Australia which, last I checked, is not in the US, uses up and down to refer to north and south. That seems fairly independent or state as well. For example ins Perth you go "up to Geraldton" and in Sydney you go "up to Brisbane", and "down to Melbourne". The whole out and over thing seems more regional to me. In Australia "out" is generally just "far from here" and "over"... well that isn't a thing, at least…

It is not uncommon in Australia to say you are going over to a friend's house. In Perth people often would say they are "going over" to Melbourne or Sydney. There is also the reverse "coming over" "Out" is used generally such as in "heading out" where often no destination is specified. Also we sometimes use "outback" meaning anywhere not in a city or suburban area.

Out west (the outback) is used on the east coast, but unlikely linked to the the cardinality.

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#130

Post by arcaster »

As someone who grew up in ATX with family from originally from NYC, I have a very unique and somewhat ephemeral "southern accent".

But I find myself talking the way this article depicted. Oddly enough, most of the time people are either disappointed I don't have an accent or think I'm from Chicago.

Post reply on HN