Como se dice?

In Maine, they tell you that you're "from away" unless something like 5 generations were born and raised here. And that's fine. I'm a New Yorker and always will be, no matter where I live (or happen to have lived for the last dozen years).

There are lots of regional variances in language that I find interesting. I usually describe my own accent as "Brooklyn meets Jersey" which is funny, since I've never lived in either place (but my grandparents did!) And please note that I freely admit that the way I say the word "orange" is really strange (unless you happen to be from New Jersey and say it the same way).

My real name - Tara - is a mere four letters long, and yet I've discovered at least that many ways to say it. My people say it the Jersey way. It's hard to explain in type, so just go watch an episode of Sons of Anarchy and listen to the way Jax says Tara's name. (As if there weren't enough really good reasons to have a crush on Charlie Hunnam already....) If you really want to annoy me, you'll pronounce it like the stuff you use to pave a road (y'know, tar) with an extra a on the end.

So, I sent an email to a friend who lives in Rhode Island last night that included, among other things, the following question: Do people in Rhode Island call them sprinkles or jimmies?

I wasn't quite expecting a one-sentence response (with three exclamation points, no less) that unequivocally expressed his opinion that they are called jimmies, "and everyone else in the world is wrong."

This reminded me of the way my co-worker S made a little masking tape label to put over the jar the manufacturer had labeled "sprinkles" so that she could rechristen them "jimmies."

I told S about the email, and it clearly made her day. I pointed out the part I bolded above:

me - if you have to say that everyone else in the world is wrong, I think that's a sign of something.
S - that people who say "jimmies" are crazy?
me - you said it
S - we are. we're crazy about jimmies!


A few minutes later, I recounted the same story to my cubicle neighbor.

A - YES!
me - um, this doesn't mean you're right

I went on to explain that the New England terms for things just don't make sense. Where I come from, we call them traffic circles. Why? Because the traffic moves in a circle on them. We call them sprinkles, because you SPRINKLE them on the ice cream. How people in New England ended up calling them rotaries and jimmies is beyond me.

Then L, who has the cube on the other side of the wall from us, sent me this link:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100810100924AAxGE3Y

me (over the wall) - that still doesn't make any sense
L (over the wall) - I'm just saying that it's more of a New England term. I didn't say that it made sense.

And there you have it.

ADDENDUM:

I went over to MK, who's from Connecticut, and I asked her.

me - you're from Connecticut
MK - yes
me - sprinkles or jimmies?
MK - both. they're interchangeable.
(laughter from the adjoining cubes)
me - I can't believe I, of all people, am thinking, "No, you have to pick one!"

ADDENDUM #2:

I emailed my friend who's from West Virginia and asked her.

me - Out of curiosity, what do people from West Virginia call them?
E - Jimmies. And I HATE IT.

And I almost fell out of my chair laughing....