Category Archives: Folk speech

What’s the difference…

Nationality: American
Age: 25
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: Feb 2023
Primary Language: English
Language: None

Text:

Q: Do you remember any other jokes that we used to tell

R: Yeah, …fuck, what were the ones about like-  oh I remember. You know the one that are like whats the difference between this and this.

Q: Oh yeah I think so. Do you have any specific ones

R: Yeah, so, whats the difference between a Buck [male deer] and a Witch

Q: I remember this one but you should say the answer

R: Now it feels weird, no- ok, ones a hunted stag the others a stunted hag

Q: Thats a good one, there were so many

Context: This was told by a high school age boy to other high school age students in upstate New York on a small collective. 

Analysis: I feel like there is not too much of a deeper meaning to this riddle except word play as the other jokes in this group are similar in format but equally random objects with seemingly no connection. For example whats the difference between a coyote and a flea. One howls on the prairie the other prowls on the hairy. This was told by my brother so I remember we also made up some of our own as young adults. It was sort of a way to test wit and mental agility in a similar way to a pun battle for example. 

Keep that line green!

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Nationality: American
Age: 68
Occupation: Investment Banker (prev. farmer)
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: February 2023
Primary Language: English

“Keep that line green!”

Genre: agricultural jargan

Source: My father– was born in Bakersfield, California in 1959 to a family of farmers and currently works in finance. 

Explanation/analysis: My Dad remembers this saying as one of many from his teenage years working on his family’s farm. During watermelon season, he remembers his childhood friends (and summer coworkers, and eventually all trojan brothers) yelling to “keep the line green”, encouraging the workers to work as fast as possible loading the watermelons from the fields to the trailer. The line refers to the visual green blur the watermelons created when thrown fast enough. He elaborates that in the tough heat and conditions the workers would form a passing line for each row “with 100 melons, in perfect unison” being thrown from one person to the next until it reached the final strong man standing in the trailer being pulled by a tractor. My dad notes that sayings like this kept morale high and encouraging joking and keeping their minds off the heat. 

Counting to 10 with one hand in Chinese

Nationality: Chinese Canadian
Age: 19
Performance Date: 02/16/2023

Context:

S, 19 was born in China and moved to Canada at a young age. She told me about a way of counting to 10 on a single hand through a series of hand and finger gestures. I took a video of the informant counting to 10 in this fashion.

Video:

VIDEO OF INFORMANT COUNTING TO 10 USING ONE HAND

Analysis:

This method of counting makes it convenient for a person to count using only one hand; it also is a good way of teaching children to count, since each number has its own gesture and it is different from traditional western finger counting (the number of fingers is the number you are on, so you are limited by the number of fingers you have). This method of counting allows a person to reach the number 100 by using both hands. This article further explains this method, as well as how to continue counting past 10: https://www.instructables.com/HOW-TO-COUNT-TO-TEN-ON-ONE-HAND-in-Chinese/

Uffda

Nationality: American
Age: 80
Performance Date: 02/22/2023
Primary Language: English

Context:

J, 80 was born and grew up in Spearfish, S.D. He is the grandson of Norwegian immigrants that moved to North Dakota so they could homestead and farm in the early 20th century.

Text:

“’Uffda’ in Norwegian is an exclamation, it represents surprise, annoyance, etc. My mom and grandmother both used that word generously.” said my informant.

Analysis:

The term ‘uffda’ seems to be a very common stereotypical expression in areas such as Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. These regions in the US, are populated by the descendants of Scandinavian immigrants, including many Norwegians. The phrase is used to express surprise, annoyance, relief, exhaustion, disappointment, astonishment, exasperation, and dismay; and it can be used positively or negatively. It is basically the equivalent of an exclamation mark in a regular conversation; it probably has the same functionality as when we say “OMG!”. The following links and articles verify the existence of this folk speech term: https://fillmorecountyjournal.com/what-part-of-uffda-dont-you-understand/

Uff Da: What the Norwegian American Expression Really Means

“Made You Say Pink”

Nationality: Asian-American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 2/14/2023
Primary Language: English

My informant (18), from Maryland, describes a riddle that she and her friends performed in middle school: “It’s not really a joke, but it’s more like a challenge, like a “are you dumb” challenge. So it’s like I bet I can make you say the color pink ‘okay’ okay so then you’re like ‘what’s the color of the sky?’ ‘Blue’ ‘What’s the color of this chair?’ ‘Brown’ ‘What’s the color of my hair?’ ‘Black’ ‘What’s the color of the grass?’ ‘green’ ‘Ha, I told you I could make you say green’ ‘no you didn’t, you told me you would make me say pink’ and that’s how you make them say pink”

“And so it’s like this little thing that my swim friends and I, back in the past, like middle school? We would just always perform this on each other to like try and get the other person and just to make them seem, you know, like it’s more of like one of those ‘stupid tests’”

The informant began by saying this was a joke, and then changed to calling it a challenge, and finally called it a “test”. I think this piece is actually a kind of riddle, because it tests the wits of the person it is performed on, but instead of wordplay, there is a “trick” meant to catch the subject. Because this is used within the informants team, it might imply that performing this trick affords the performer a kind of social capital in the group when they are successful, suggesting that intelligence is valued in the group.