terms for CA

[Jerome Foster]

I've seen Southen California referred to in the press as "The Southland" but
I've never heard anyone say it, either in person or on radio or TV.

J Foster
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arnold Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 9:53 AM
Subject: Re: terms for CA


> elizabeth phillips:
>   I'm also looking for way of referring to California (such as "La-la
>   land" or "Tinseltown") and the origins of such names.
>
> "Tinseltown" is, i believe, used for hollywood specifically - perhaps
> by extension to los angeles in general (hollywood being, to the
> outsider, the central element of l.a.), but certainly not for southern
> california, or for california as a whole.  "La-la land" is, of course
> a play on "l.a." and refers specifically to los angeles, though often
> extended to some larger region - roughly the greater metropolitan los
> angeles-land area - perhaps even to southern california as a whole
> (though san diegans might not agree, and even santa barbarans might
> demur), but not to the whole state.
>
> "Tinseltown", with its reference to The Silver Screen and the glamor
> surrounding it, is at least mildly positive.  "La-la land", with its
> suggestion of kookiness, is (mildly, jokingly) deprecatory, and i
> don't think i've heard angelenos use it except in explicit
> self-mockery.
>
> i don't think that northern californians would recognize either
> expression as applying to the place where they/we live, and i
> certainly have heard nocal folks use these expressions, as outsiders,
> to refer to hollywood/l.a./socal.
>
> (the line between socal and nocal is, of course, fuzzy.  my parents
> and stepfamily, who have lived in various spots from santa barbara
> north to san luis obispo and paso robles, reject both "southern
> california" and "northern california" as names for the area where
> they live.  they all live on "the central coast".  certainly not
> in tinseltown or la-la land, even if their tv comes, by cable, from
> there.)
>
> "the west coast" (ditto "the left coast") refers to california
> prototypically, though the expression takes in oregon and washington
> as well.  "the west coast" also refers prototypically to the *coastal*
> regions, where "coastal" takes in at least the first valley east of
> the coast (the santa clara valley, for example, where i live, or the
> santa ynez valley, where my parents lived for years).  the referential
> center for "coast(al)" doesn't take in the central valleys, or the
> even more eastern valleys of southern california - but "coast(al)" can
> by extension take them in (even though residents of chico,
> bakersfield, and needles find it odd to hear that they live on the
> west coast, and i have no doubt this is true also for people who live
> in spokane and walla walla).  by further extension, all of nevada is
> on the west coast - this makes some sense, both geographically and
> culturally - and sometimes arizona is too (as in the region for the
> West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics).
>
> arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)
>