10 Phrases That Will Make You Swear Clevelanders Have Their Own Language
By Nikki Rhoades|Published August 01, 2017
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Nikki Rhoades
Author
Nikki is a lifelong Ohioan with a love for literature. She holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Akron and has enjoyed publishing her written work since 2007. She has a love of travel and does so frequently, though she believes that home is where the heart is — she continues to work in and around Cleveland as a digital content specialist to this day, working on everything from commercial scripts and social media posts to grassroots marketing initiatives.
Here in Cleveland, we’ve aced the art of rhetoric. Language certainly evolves regionally, and though we may not hear our accent (we are part of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, so we emphasize our vowels in a unique way. Our speech is littered with short a’s acquiring more of a nasally yeah sound, along with other oddly emphasized vowels), we have certainly noticed that a few of our words and phrases are uniquely our own. How many of these ten phrases have you found yourself using?
Though it is now operating under the name "Progressive Field," many Clevelanders still affectionately refer to our lovely baseball stadium as "The Jake."
Our road verge, the strip of grass between the road and the sidewalk, is an area we affectionately refer to as our "tree lawn." The closer you get to Akron, though, the more you start to hear "Devil strip" used to describe the space.
Interestingly, the pronunciation of "Cuyahoga" seems to differ depending on when the word is being used. When used alone, the word is often emphasized with the Cuya-hoag-uh pronunciation. When it is followed by another noun, such as in the case of Cuya-hawg-uh River or Cuya-hawg-uh Falls, a different enunciation becomes evident.
Forest City is our nickname for Cleveland. The urban jungle of skyscrapers and industry that comprise downtown leaves out-of-towners wondering where we came up with this nickname, but in actuality it can be traced back to the 1830s when the city was noticeably more forested.
Though the Cuyahoga River Fire is seen nationally as a tragedy, it inspired the much-needed Clean Water Act of 1972. To celebrate, we Clevelanders adore a cold Burning River Pale Ale, the more delicious outcome of the heavily-publicized fire incident.
In Cleveland, we have our own way of communicating. Some of our words and expressions are unique to our region, and they have inevitably become a part of our everyday speech. How many of these phrases have you ever used?
