terms for CA

[storkrn]

Jerry Dunphy, a local news anchor, uses it regularly. The local ABC
affiliate calls itself the "southland's source of late breaking news".

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerome Foster" <funex79 at SLONET.ORG>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 2:36 PM
Subject: Re: terms for CA


> 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)
> >
>