Losing Our Flavor?

Hmm..I didn't sense one ounce of superiority! She asked a question, and people answered..without ever saying one is more correct. Perhaps..I think you read into it far too much. People (myself included) said the were from the south, to connect a geographical area to how they speak. There is nothing villainous about that! People from the west, east, and Midwest said the same things.

Mountain out of a molehill, if I'm being honest. I have never met a person who insist on speaking a certain way, to make a point, or show "that they are backwards." That is something people on television do, not actual life. Actual life isn't so sensationalized.

WEll, when the evening meal is ready and the recipients of it are not within my earshot, I pick up my phone and send a group text to all of them. It says:

FOOD!

And they all come running.

My mom (British) called it supper. My husband (Irish) thought that was weird. So it became dinner.

I have no idea why you might think it has to do with media. What you call the evening meal is WHAT YOUR MOM CALLS IT, don't think it goes any deeper then that.

:)

I really don't understand what you are getting at but then I haven't seen any of the answers beyond mine. I am very proud of my Sicilian heritage which has damn near nothing to do with whether you call it supper or dinner.

I guess my point is supper v dinner has nothing to do with flavor, it has to do with Americanization. Who cares if one part of the country says dinner or supper?

What makes dinner the right answer, well under my theory it depends on whether you live in the city or rural areas. That is only driven by influence, cities tend to be influenced by trends more than rural areas. That doesn't make one better than the other, only means they are different.

Kind of makes me wonder why you see it as some sad loss when it is really nothing. Kind of makes me wonder why you see it as you do. My theory is it has nothing to do with your southern roots. A good chunk of my family was raised in Huntsville Alabama, they don't care if I call it supper or dinner but they appreciate that it is good. :)

See dinner is not the right answer.....it is one of two answers.

Well if we want to be technical, based on the dictionary definition, "dinner" is simply the largest meal of the day, which for most people happens to be "supper" (defined as the last meal of the day). So, based on the definitions, both terms are correct for most people. I don't personally know very many people for whom "lunch" is their largest meal on a regular occasion. :)

I have no idea what you are talking about.
Nobody said dinner was the RIGHT answer. We were just saying that, that is what we say.
I find it a bit interesting that you read something that so obviously wasn't there.

First, I don't think there is a superior word to use for the occasion of eating together in the evening. (Although the phrase "fourthmeal" should not be one of them, ha ha.)

Yes, the country at large has become far more homogenous, thanks to mass media and television. The United States is so huge, and think about it: in other countries, there are regional accents, traditions, cuisine and crafts which come from varied places inside one single country. I've never been to Europe, but would love to experience the cultural overlaps that have occurred in these countries, being in such close proximity to each other. It seems that I rarely hear a variety of accents on national radio or television from their news anchors or reporters; I'm in Oregon, so I can't speak for the rest of the country, but our local news sounds just as homogenous as the national news.

I think the other problem is that we don't hear about other parts of our country unless something like a natural disaster or other upsetting thing has happened. So we miss experiencing the day-in day-out life of others. Simple things like "do you get dressed up to go to the market?". My friend's daughter visits from Texas, where she's lived for a long time now, and is aghast. "Mother, the store-- everyone looks so depressed. I forgot that people go out in polar fleece, they don't do their hair or makeup. It's like they don't care." I have to laugh. It's true. We don't try overly hard, some of us.

Lastly, I'll say this: I think that there is a cultural disconnect between the north and the south. People are likely to feel that *their* way is better. I was not originally born a northerner: I was born and spent my first years in Honolulu with my mostly Filipino adoptive family. There are a LOT of people who misunderstand pidgin english (which is a language, not a dialect), and some of the ways of the Hawaiians, which are different from our culture here on the continental US. I have heard some very nice, well-meaning people speak of Hawaiians and Hawaii in such an offensive manner, it was very hard for me to hear it. I've even heard the "they should speak English" comment on several occasions. Maybe. Or maybe you should learn to understand a little Pidgin if you are going over there, just like you'd learn a bit of French before visiting Paris.

Stepping down off my soapbox to go make my evening meal.:)

I see the response you are referring to, and it is another senseless post from Carrie B, complete with incorrect grammar and distorted associations:

"Dinner.. I have never went to a restaurant that served Supper? I am Sure a few of you will Google it and Find one to prove me Wrong.. Well I am not saying restaurant do not Serve supper! Just that I have never been to one.. It is more of a Down South Hillbilly thing... "

Who knew, eh?

Does it really matter what you call it as long as you eat? It's all preference. I have no felling of loss or anything really behind this question or the earlier one. There is no right or superior answer.

I think I get what you are saying. Years ago you could tell where a person came from by how they dressed and how they talked. People in the South West and the 'rancher' states such as Wyoming, Montana ect tended to wear western syle clothing all the time. People from Dixie tended to be well dressed more often, ect.
Then there was also a local language hidden inside the American English. Here in Wisconsin we didn't have drinking fountains or water fountains we had Bubblers. We refered to stop lights as stop and go lights. I remember talking to a neighbor who had lived in Atlanta for years and had told me that all soda was called Coke.
There is actually a Socioligical Study called "The McDonaldison of America" that compares the blending of our many different cultures in the U. S. to the McDonald's Corp. If you notice all Mc Donalds are one of only five or six choices in style but the menu, the uniform, the way things are done ect are exactly the same worldwide. Wal-Mart, Target and many other chain stores are exactly the same way. There is no difference, they carry the same products and clothing lines ect. As do the Mall stores, no matter where you are or what Mall stores you go into the merchandise is all the same, the stores are all the same.

With industrilization you have no unique signatures for an area anymore, unless you go to a small business.

And if someone wears clothing that is unique, say home made, they are looked at as weird. They are not following the trend to be the same, a follower. It's like we are expected to wear a uniform.

well, don't be sad. don't lose your flavor. if you want to call it supper, that's what you should do. it depends on where you live.
i am a transplant northerner about to become a transplant southerner. i am stressing because i am so afraid my kids (who have foreign names) will soon be saying to us
hey y'all we're fixin to go...
that's not proper english.
:)

In Canada we use a lot of old English and a lot of French. In French it is diner and souper, and old English is supper. We also pronouce the letter Z as zed and we use a lot more U's in our spelling (colour, flavour, neighbour). I do see us losing our "flavour" as well with the influence of the media. I did see someone referring to the use of supper as being "down south" and "hillbilly", and I found that to be a very low brow comment.

Yeah..not sensing any superiority either.
As long as the meal HAS flavor, who cares what it's called!
At least no O. said victuals!

Didn't lunch used to be called dinner and dinner used to be called supper..back in the old England days? I grew up in the south and we called dinner dinner. But sometimes we called it supper. I don't think anyone really cared which word was used. The words are interchangeable for me.I guess in my lifetime I have no association of some areas using dinner and some areas using supper. But I have read books where lunchtime had one of those words used instead of lunch. I can't remember now. PS - I love local flavor!

I don't think any particular term for a meal is any better or any worse than any other term.
As far as flavor goes - we lost that when we moved away from the Buffalo NY area and could not find a descent Polish kielbasa.
For a long time we just did without, but I recently found our favorite butcher has a website and I can order online!
I should order some smoked kielbasa for Christmas.
Redlinski's is the best!

http://www.buffalofoods.com/

I don't watch a whole lot of media, so it doesn't have a big effect on me.
I work with people from around the world.
Different accents or ways of putting sentences together doesn't bother me for the most part.
But use of the word 'ain't' or a lot of cuss words in conversation just irritates me.
There's nothing flavorful about having a filthy mouth.