“Word?” East Coast v. West Coast
Two weeks ago, I left for New Mexico to attend a National Institute. I’d never been that far into the American West before nor I had I met anyone from Wisconsin, Texas, or Mississippi. I had met some Californians, but I’ve never gotten to know any that well. Anyway, on the way to Albuquerque, I met two other New Yorkers; when we arrived at the airport, there was already a large group waiting. One of the New Yorkers said, “I’d be so tight if they lost my luggage again.” The other replied, “Word.” To this a Californian said, “Why would you be happy that your luggage is gone? And what is ‘word’?” Throughout the ten days, East Coast and West Coast debated the usage of “tight” and the West Coasters attempted to use “word” at all the wrong times. Someone would laugh or point it out when a New Yorker said “word” because it came so naturally; it’s one of those not-really-annoying kind of words that just slip off the tongue. It may just be a trend, but those Californians still say “hella” and “hecka.”
5 comments
Word.
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I think it’s really interesting how the West and East coasts have both developed different trends in language. More recently, however, I’ve been hearing New Yorkers say “hella” and “hecka,” including my own sister. I know a few people who really hate this though, and describe New Yorkers who speak in such slang as people who think they are in California. Regardless, I wouldn’t be surprised if one day, most New Yorkers and Californians started speaking with the same slang words.
Every geographic location has its own culture; speech is a big part of it. Your encounter displays the vast difference of just one language from one part of the country to another. It’s really interesting that something you might say with regularity in New York might sound like its from a foreign language in another location in America.
Yep, both “word” and “mad” are total New York things. I told my friends from Miami about both of them, and they thought it was so weird and hilarious.
Meanwhile, NY kids seem to think “forreal” is ridiculous as well. Slang is amusing.
It’s amazing how even in the same country, there are differences in dialect. The coolest thing about this story, though, is how instead of consternation or bias, there was actually genuine humor arising from this situation. It must have been cool (and funny!) to see the differences and similarities in trend.