Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can go up to Aarhus though, right?
Interesting. I'm sure you can, over there on the mainland. But to my somewhat more easterly attuned ears, it doesn't sound quite right.
Hmm, are you from Als?
Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”
131–136 of 136 posts
Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”
#132Very 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…
In Japan there is a similar phenomenon. Trains going to the capital (or other urban center) use the word 'going up' (上り) and trains going away from the capital use the 'going down' (下り). This is so well used that signs and station announcements use the words too. It's not just a colloquialism.
This is just called "inbound" and "outbound" for Boston.
It is a bit confusing because there is two stops in the city that are as far in as you can go so you can't label the directions this way from there, and you the definition of in and out flips after you pass there.
Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”
#133Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”
#134Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”
#135Honestly, I never thought about the "rules" of how these words were used... that's just how we talk in much of Texas (and probably other places). I can guess that "out" meaning west is because in early American times, going west was dangerous. You were going "out" of safety and into the wild. Going "over" just meant going horizontally on the map but within an established (safe) area. Up and down are kind of obvious,…
The sing-songy nature of "all y'all" provides such a nice wind-up for dropping the hammer on a bunch of kids not listening to their mother. The foundational difference between "y'all get out in the yard for family photos" vs "all y'all better get your asses out in the yard for family photos" is unmistakeable if you grew up in Texas. I use y'all in slack/email within the company I work at and correspondence with just…
Haha, I love hearing other uses of this. For me, "all y'all" is usually followed by "can fuck off" or "are about to get your asses kicked". I'm not violent, but it means I'm _really_ frustrated.
Funny!
Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”
#136Honestly, I never thought about the "rules" of how these words were used... that's just how we talk in much of Texas (and probably other places). I can guess that "out" meaning west is because in early American times, going west was dangerous. You were going "out" of safety and into the wild. Going "over" just meant going horizontally on the map but within an established (safe) area. Up and down are kind of obvious,…
It's still kind of true within Texas that going to the West takes you away from civilization. The four biggest cities are all in the eastern part of the state, and the western part of the state is a whole lot of very empty desert punctuated with smaller cities and towns that are very far apart. One could even consider it a smaller equivalent of the Australian Outback, another occurrence of the word "out".
Same concept! And I bet there is a similar feeling for Texans and Aussies (may I use that term?) when speaking of the wild regions.