It’s an exciting day at Morning Bray Farm. In just a few short hours, we’ll be sitting on our back patio with Carson enjoying Maryland blue crabs that have come straight out of the Chesapeake Bay. To mark the occasion, we share with you the Merlin Dialect.
If you’ve grown up or lived in Maryland for any part of your life, you’ll find this hits rather close to home.
The Merlin (Maryland) Dialect is spoken by a mixed population which inhabits a triangular area on the western littoral of the Chesapeake Bay, bounded roughly by a line commencing at Towson’s Toyota, then westward to the Frederick Mall, thence following the western border of the cable TV franchise and the string of McDonald’s along Route 50 to the Bay.
All of these lands and the natives thereof are known as the Land of Merlin.
They divide it further into semi-tribal areas called Cannies “COUNTIES”
(e.g.,Ballmer Canny, PeeJee Canny, Hard Canny, etc.).
The dialect area is centered on a market center called Glimburny, where the people come on weekends to trade their goods.
Because of the numerous words and phrases common to both the Merlin Dialect and modern English, linguists have long postulated that there is some kinship between the two. Speakers of Merlin Dialect are all able to understand standard English from babyhood, chiefly because of their voracious appetite for television. However, they invariably refuse to speak standard English, even with outsiders who obviously are not understanding a word they say.
LESSON 1 – VOCABULARY
Ballmer – Our city
Merlin – Our State
Arn – What you do to wrinkled clothes
Bulled Egg – An egg cooked in water
Jeet – How we say “Did you eat”?
Chest Peak – A large nearby body of water
Colleyflare – A white vegetable
Downey Owe Shin – Summertime destination “Down to the ocean” (such as Ayshun City)
Faren Gins – Red trucks that put out fires
Hi Hon – How we always say “hello”
Meedjum – The grassy area between lanes of a highway
Nap Lis – State of Merlin capital
Ole Bay – What our crabs taste like
Oreos – Not a cookie, but our baseball team
Payment – That strip of cement that you walk on
PohLeese – Those guys in uniform that git ya when you’re speeding
Share – Hot water that cleans you in the morning
Flares – Such as tulips
Tarred – What happens when you work too hard
Warsh – What we do with dirty clothes
Warter – What we drink (can also be Wooter)
Brawl – Broil
Sem elem – Seven Eleven
Allanic – an ocean
Arnjuice – from the sunshine tree
Arouwn in all directions – norf, souf, ees, and wess
Aspern – what you take for headaches
Bald – some people like their eggs this way
Bawler – what the plumber calls your furnace
Beeno – a famous railroad
Calf Lick – bleevers are Protestant, Jewish, and .
Canny – a state gubmit division, such as Anne Arundel or Prince George’s
A few of you shared kind comments about my hat in yesterday’s post. A couple of you suggested that my hat needed a flower. Since it’s a Maryland kind of weekend here at Morning Bray, Don went out and picked one of our Black-eyed Susans and slipped it into the brim of my hat with a ribbon.
The Black-eyed Susan has been the official Maryland flower since 1918 when it was designated the “Floral Emblem” of Maryland by the General Assembly.
June 19, 2010 at 7:26 am
Oh my. I’ll have to have a native with me when I head over there. I can just see me thinking there’s a fight, when there’s just crabs!
Have a great day!
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June 19, 2010 at 8:09 am
We lived in Maryland from 2000-2004 and STILL miss it. Best place ever.
Di
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June 19, 2010 at 10:32 am
Di,
I’m right there with you. I miss Maryland and our childhood friends and family who still live there every single day. But then, if I still lived in Maryland, I probably wouldn’t live on a farm with beautiful donkey boys.
You know, it’s funny, I swear I hear that Merlin Dialect every single time Don gets on the phone with his dad. 🙂
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June 19, 2010 at 8:20 am
Ya done good, Hun. So funny, so true. Took me years to learn the local dialect! Love your blog.
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June 19, 2010 at 10:38 am
Diana,
Thanks, Hun! 🙂
Please say hello to Maryland and beautiful Nap’lis for me. I will always love it and miss it. Oh, I can just smell the water now.
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June 19, 2010 at 8:27 am
Ah dialects. I love them so.
You may have given me a blog idea. 🙂
Have a good visit with Linda and enjoy those crabs!
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June 19, 2010 at 8:30 am
Oh, my sides hurt from laughing! Thanks for taking me back to SC….we shared many words in the same ‘dah-ah-lec’
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June 19, 2010 at 8:39 am
Hilarious—of course if one is from Maryland, then it is not hilarious at all
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June 19, 2010 at 9:06 am
Love it! The Maryland dialect sounds a lot like a south Louisiana dialect in some ways…especially, jeet, warter, tarred and balled!
Enjoy your crab “ball” and let me know what you think about Carson’s dish…
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June 19, 2010 at 9:48 am
Lilla,
I can’t wait for Carson’s dish! 😉 I just know I’m going to love it!
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June 19, 2010 at 10:07 am
If we all lived closer, I think we’d have to stop by for a little visit this afternoon. What? You’re about to eat? Oh, we couldn’t impose! What’s that? Well, yes! We’d love to join you, thank you so much!
Wishful thinking. It’s burgers on the grill for us today. 🙂
Enjoy your party!
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June 19, 2010 at 10:26 am
C,
I was so thinking the same thing. It would be so much fun to have you all here with us today. How cool would it be to have a get together somewhere, sometime?! Of course, you’ll be with us in spirit today. 🙂
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June 19, 2010 at 10:38 am
Have visited here a few times before (from 7MSN) and just went through everything since your first post. Added you to my blogroll, as well.
Just gotta say, I worked on the eastern shore for about 6 months (in another lifetime) and less than a week after arriving, when I called home, my parents were astounded that I had already picked up the dahlec!
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June 19, 2010 at 11:25 am
Loved it. Now I’ll have to practice for a ‘cation we takin’ to Merlin next yer. Any recommendations for that trip are much preshatit
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June 20, 2010 at 8:05 am
Di,
Where in Maryland? I’ll be more than happy to help you plan another trip! 😉
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June 19, 2010 at 12:10 pm
We were in Ballmore, Merlin, just yesterday!
Retrieving our daughter who has been there for the last 5 years.
We ate crab….. 🙂
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June 20, 2010 at 8:06 am
Really?! Was she going to college there? Loyola, perhaps? 🙂
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June 19, 2010 at 1:09 pm
When I was a teenager (back in the ’60’s) my parents had a small cottage in North Beach (that tiny place next to Chesapeake Beach) and every summer we got out the string, picked up some chicken necks from the grocery store (can you even get them any more?), let them sit out for a while (the smellier the better), tied the necks to the string, threw them in the water, sat on the dock and waited for the crabs to latch on! There is nothing better than “Merlin” Blue crabs!! As we used to say, “Pay me a beer, hun.” Enjoy!!
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June 20, 2010 at 8:08 am
Sue,
I have an aunt and a cousin who live in Mechanicsville, which is not too far from North Beach.
Ha, crab on!!! I fondly remember tying chicken necks to string and waiting for them to get stinky. And yes, don’t forget the beer. Good times. 🙂
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June 19, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Now I know why we had such a hard time understanding those folks in Frederick when we visited for an antique sock-knitting machine convention and Baltimore. I didn’t know we should have brushed up on our Merlin! I fondly remember visiting Naplis many, many years ago,while still in the Navy. My ship was hosting visitors from the Naval Academy (sorry don’t know how to say that in Merlinese) and we all donned our best whites and took a long boat ride in. Anyway, I also noticed that y’all pronounce wash the same way many of us did in Ohio “warsh.” I used to catch a lot of grief about that. Great post!
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June 20, 2010 at 8:15 am
Ken and Mary,
We promise you’ll never catch any grief from us if you start talkin’ about warshin’ stuff. 😉
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June 19, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Got me tongue tied trying to read that LOL
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June 19, 2010 at 4:19 pm
I went to college in southeastern PA and we used to drive to Maryland and bring back bushel baskets of crabs. Inevitably, several would escape and climb under the seats, over our feet, etc.
Enjoy!
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June 20, 2010 at 8:13 am
Leah,
Good times and great memories! 🙂
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June 20, 2010 at 9:36 am
I’m smilin’ ear to ear this morning =D Love the dialect lesson and remember it all fondly.
The flower in the hat is total perfection.
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June 20, 2010 at 7:20 pm
Hi Hon,
Jeet your crabs? I was planting some flares yesterday and damn, I’m tarred. Had to hop in the share and take some aspern. We’re going downey owe shin next month – you know Ayshun City. Wish you’d move back to Merlin.
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June 20, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Hun!
Why’d you have to go and make me weepy? Love you and miss you. I promise I’ll call you this week. xxoo
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June 20, 2010 at 8:21 pm
and people make fun of us Southerners??!!! haha….thanks for the lesson! living in the deep south….I think I might do okay if I went up there.
I know y’all enjoyed your crabs sure ‘nuf!
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June 21, 2010 at 3:10 am
Oh my goodness. This just cracked me up….so very true 100%!
My husband was born in Westminster. And I’m a 1984 graduate of “Glimburny” high school myself.
I remember once summer as a teenager going camping in Pennsylvania and I was wearing my red and white gopher t-shirt. A handsome young guy was flirting with me, and then stopped when he saw the words on my shirt, and asked is Glen Burnie your boyfriend?
Every summer my family would head to the Eastern Shore to visit family. They’d always say, “Hey there hon, come on down the ocean for some fresh crabs and brewskees”.
I wonder if the teenagers still head down to Ocean City after graduation for a week rental at one of the beach cottages…and lots of wild partying.
Oh yes, them were some wild times!
I’ve not had a crab cake for years, and I miss Old Bay something fierce.
I wonder if green chile would go well with crabs, ya think?
~Lisa
Displaced Merliner living in New Mexico
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June 21, 2010 at 3:17 am
OH what a terrific post and 100% true, too!
My husband was born in Westminster and I’m a 1984 graduate of “Glimburny” High School.
Funny story about that, too. Every summer my family would go camping up in PA. One summer I was at the campground wearing my red and white gopher shirt when a young handsome boy was flirting with me. He stopped when he read the words on my shirt and asked me, “Is Glen Burnie your boyfriend?”
I have fond memories of heading down Ocean City after graduation, renting a cottage for a week…..Wild times! I wonder if kids still do that now?
Just about every weekend during the summer we’d head to the Eastern Shore to visit family, who’d invite us out, saying, “Hey there, Hon, come on down the ocean for some crabs and brewskees”.
Don’t mind if we do.
I sure do miss Old Bay. And I’ve not had a crab cake for years! I wonder if crabs would go well with green chile?
Thanks for bringing back old memories.
~Lisa
Displaced Merliner living in Tijeras, NM
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