If you've grown up or lived in Maryland for any part of your life, you'll find this hits rather close to home. Take it from someone who grew up in Baltimore City - this is not an exaggeration.
The Merlin 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 border of the cable TV franchise and the string of McDonalds' 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 Glinburny (Glen Burnie), where the people come on weekends to trade their goods.
Because of the numerous words and phrases common to both 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
Bowlwin- Official sport of the Pasadena redneck
Chesta Peak - A large nearby body of water
Collaflare - A white vegetable
Downey Owe Shin - Summertime destination "Down to the ocean" (such as Ayshun City - Ocean City)
Droodle Park - Druid Hill Park
Far Ngins - Red trucks that put out fires
Hi Hon - How we always say "hello"
Hollandtown - Highland Town
Meedjun - 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)
Winders - Those glass things that we look out of
Parmore - Power mower
Tamaters- tomatoes
Sem elem - Seven Eleven
Allanic - an ocean
Arnjuice - from the sunshine tree
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 - many nuns taught me at my Calflick school as a kid
The Merlin 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 border of the cable TV franchise and the string of McDonalds' 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 Glinburny (Glen Burnie), where the people come on weekends to trade their goods.
Because of the numerous words and phrases common to both 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
Bowlwin- Official sport of the Pasadena redneck
Chesta Peak - A large nearby body of water
Collaflare - A white vegetable
Downey Owe Shin - Summertime destination "Down to the ocean" (such as Ayshun City - Ocean City)
Droodle Park - Druid Hill Park
Far Ngins - Red trucks that put out fires
Hi Hon - How we always say "hello"
Hollandtown - Highland Town
Meedjun - 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)
Winders - Those glass things that we look out of
Parmore - Power mower
Tamaters- tomatoes
Sem elem - Seven Eleven
Allanic - an ocean
Arnjuice - from the sunshine tree
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 - many nuns taught me at my Calflick school as a kid
