Grammar Moses: Yinz know any good regionalisms?

The Oxford English Dictionary is marking its 90th anniversary with, among other things, a celebration of regional language.

As a student of English, I love to discover how people in other parts of the country have their way with the language.

I was solicited by OED to get the word out that it's looking for help in expanding its offerings in regional words and phrases that sometimes fall under their editors' radar. They're calling the effort "Words Where You Are."

Here is your chance, dear reader. First, of course, send your ideas to me, so we can talk about them. Then - and only then - send them to oed.com or join the conversation on Twitter at #wordswhereyouare.

I'll get the conversation started.

I was born in Wisconsin, where drinking fountains are "bubblers" and where if you want a can of pop you need to ask for a "soda."

And while cheese curds might be the greatest thing to come out of Wisconsin (via Alabama) since Bart Starr. I know many people north of the Cheddar Curtain refer to them as "squeaky cheese."

If you ask for a Coke in Atlanta, you'll be asked what kind. That's because all pop in Atlanta is referred to as Coke. Maybe it has something to do with Coca-Cola's headquarters being there.

My dad bought me a little book by Edward McClelland a couple of years ago titled "How to Speak Midwestern."

In it, McClelland delves deeply into Yinzer speak in Pittsburgh, Yooperisms from Michigan's Upper Peninsula and whatever it is they call what Minnesotans say.

To a Chicagoan's ear, the lingo in these places can sound like a foreign language.

What follows is a combination of McClelland's observations and mine:

"Dibs" is a Chicago thing. You can call dibs on riding shotgun in the family car, but in Chicago "dibs" generally refers to the practice of staking your claim on a parking spot in front of your place (usually with a broom and a couple of disposable chairs.)

If you've been to Springfield (Illinois, that is,) you know what a "horseshoe" is. If you've eaten more than one, you're living on borrowed time.

If you like your sammich "dipped," you prefer it to still resemble an Italian beef sandwich. If you order it "wet," pray the napkin dispenser is full.

If you walk up to a sandwich counter and someone asks you "Hot or sweet?," a Chicagoan might be the only person who knows he's being asked whether he wants roasted green peppers or giardineira on his sandwich.

People are proud of their sandwiches. Depending on where you live, the same sandwich could be a "sub," a "grinder," a "hoagie" or a "hero."

You might order a gravy sandwich in Wisconsin or a loose meat sandwich in Iowa.

A simple night out in Chicago might include a beef and a show. Some Chicagoans "go to the show" instead of going to a movie theater.

In Minnesota, hockey pants are called "breezers."

In Pittsburgh, where a sub is a "hoagie," a rubber band is a "gumband" and a vacuum cleaner is a "sweeper."

I've heard "bakery" referred to as both the place where goodies are baked as well as the baked goods themselves. "Hi, now. Don't forget to bring the bakery," one might say in Oshkosh.

McClelland calls this a Wisconsinism, but I hear it all the time in the Chicago area.

In New York, pizza is universally a gigantic, floppy triangle that could double as a codpiece.

Here, you can get cracker thin, thin, thick, double dough, stuffed, butter crust and cornmeal crust, cut in squares or as segments of a circle.

Gosh, why would you ever leave home?

Yinz write carefully!

• Jim Baumann is vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.