City Names

[David Bowie]

From: "Peter A. McGraw" <pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU>


: There's a difference here.  I don't know about "Indy," but "Philly"
: and, as far as I know, "Cincy" are affectionate nicknames used by the
: locals for their respective Fair Cities, whereas "Frisco" is used by
: ignorant outsiders and disdained by native San Franciscans (one of
: whom explained to me once that "it's like something someone from Los
: Angeles would say"). The only comparable phenomenon I'm personally
: aware of involves a state rather than a city: only New  Yorkers call
: New Jersey "Jersey.")

I'm not entirely sure about the restrictions surrounding that last one--when
i was growing up in (Southern) Maryland, we used to call New Jersey
"Jersey", and around Philadelphia one hears the use of "Jersey" all the
time, too. Even out here in Utah i've heard New Jersey referred to as simply
"Jersey", and the one student in my classes who's from (central) New Jersey
refers to his home state as "Jersey" as often as not.

David Bowie                                       Department of English
Assistant Professor                            Brigham Young University
db.list at pmpkn.net              http://humanities.byu.edu/faculty/bowied
   The opinions stated here are not necessarily those of my employer