Age: 20s Hometown: Tampa, FL (Originally Boston, MA) Occupation: Student

Context: The participant and I talking in our kitchen in our apartment. She is from the east coast, born in Maine, and has lived in Boston and Florida.

Text:

Me: “How heavy is it raining outside right now?”

Them: “Oh, it’s only spittin’ outside.”

Analysis: This is an example of folk speech, specifically a regional idiom used to describe a state of weather. When asked about where they heard it used most commonly, they said their family and grandparents who are from Boston originally even after moving to Florida they continued to use this idiom to express a light rain. Both places on the east coast are know for a lot of rain, so it is understandable that they might have multiple phrases to describe various degrees of precipitation.