What if you were standing between a person from New York and a person from New Jersey who were talking at exactly the same time. You hear a “How awe ya” (Ellis “New York Slanguage”) and a “How ya doan” (Ellis “New Jersey Slanguage”), even though these two greeting mean exactly the same thing they are said in different ways. Where did their slang come from? Why is it different in other places? And how …showed first 75 words of 1761 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1761 total…different. Slang also shows us some cultural history and what types of technologies existed at that time. It shows us what types of activities were popular and what people enjoyed doing. It is fascinating how speech can teach us so much about history. It’s also unbelievable how two states such as New Jersey and New York can have speech as different as they are when these two states are directly adjacent to each other.