Regionalisms

I was reading about the Don Imus affair in my issue of Newsweek the other day and noticed that they used the word "shtick" in the article. I was surprised that a national magazine would use a Yiddish colloquialism that I suspected so many of the people reading the magazine wouldn't understand. I mentioned this to some people during Shabbos and they were under the assumption that everyone knows what "shtick" means, but I pointed out that I doubt it's a popular word amongst those in Alabama, at which point it was suggested that not that many people in Alabama probably read Newsweek (to which I objected and used as proof that my parents receive the magazine).

Then today one of my co-workers came up to me and used the word "kvetch." I relayed my previous conversation to her and she told me she thinks everyone knows those kinds of words these days. But I think it's because I'm living in NY. She agreed with my point, and mentioned that people here don't use words like "fret" and "reckon" which I definitely accept as part of my vocabulary and have rarely thought anything of, not even realizing that they were considered Southern terms (especially "fret").

It's interesting how these words become so normal that we don't even realize until we find ourselves in different parts of the country. (I also never realized until living here that I put the accent on words such as "insurance", "umbrella" and "Thanksgiving" in a different place than those from up here in Yankee territory.)