Rhode Island English

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  • International Friendship Day is celebrated in August.
  • Our WordCamp friends in Belfast are holding their first WordCamp the same weekend Rhode Island is holding its fifth annual WordCamp!
  • We both speak English, but each with our own spin on it.

So to honor (or should I say honour) our international friends, during this month of International Friendship Day, here’s a guide to Rhode Island English.
Are you watching TV (or should I say “the telly”) and want to change the channel right from where you are sitting?  Just use the “clicker.”  Why do that?  Because it’s “wicked” easy.  (Also pronounced wikkit.)
If our Irish friends come to the Ocean State and want a cold ice cream drink, do not order a “milk shake.”  In RI a milk shake is milk shaken with syrup.  If you’d like ice cream in it, ask for a “cabinet” (yes, like the furniture!) or a frappe (pronounced “frap”).
Would you like a healthier cold drink?  Water, perhaps?  You get that from the “bubbler” (pronounced bubbla.)
You see, in RI we add Rs where there are none, and to make up for those extras we take away Rs where there should be some.  So for instance, we have a lot of “hot.”  You know, the organ that pumps blood and holds love.  However, if you have a wonderful concept to explain, let everyone know about your “idear.”
It’s mealtime and you’d like to invite someone to join you, just ask “jeet?”  (did you eat?)  If that person has not yet, they might respond “no joo?” (no, did you?)
Rhode Island has the nickname “The Ocean State.”  And yes, we are the smallest state in the USA.  We do not have an official animal, but we do have an official bird: The Rhode Island Red (chicken).  First bred right here.  The official state fish (would I kid you?) is the Striped Bass, adopted by the state’s General Assembly in July of 2000.
The state drink is coffee milk, as in milk with coffee flavored syrup stirred in.  (Pul-eez, chocolate milk is so passé.)
Our state shell is the quahaug (pronounced co-hog).  What’s that you say?  You think I left out a word?  You think our official state shellfish is the quahaug?  No, my friend, you under-estimate Rhode Islanders.  It is the shell of the shellfish which is official.  We have an official state shell.  And I strongly suspect we are the only state in the Union with that distinction!
So we wish our WordCamp siblings in Belfast a successful first WordCamp and look forward to the day you can come to visit us!  We’ll have a wikkit good time!

WordCamp RI will be held September 30 and October 1 at the New England Institute of Technology in East Greenwich.

WordCamp Belfast will be held 1 and 2 October at the Peter Froggatt Centre in Queens University Belfast.

Did you notice my bi-lingual skills in presenting the dates of the two WordCamps?  In RI we’re wikkit smaht.