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I'm quite familiar with the southern Cal version of that one, having spent 12+ years in San Diego.
It's interesting/amusing to see the differences in slang and expressions between two different areas that ostensibly speak the same language.
One of the more extreme I've heard of comes from my wife's uncle, when he was in Australia during his army days in WW2. He had hit it off with a local girl at a dance, but was quite taken aback when she suggested he come by her place the next day and "knock her up". To an Aussie that meant he should come by and knock on her door to visit, to an American it meant something much more intimate [grin].
When I first got to California, I started saying "The 280" to fit in. I was told only SoCal people (LA, etc.) said it that way. NorCal is just "280". Back home it was also just the number of the highway, which was almost never called a "freeway". My favorite exception to this is the Whitehurst Freeway--a short elevated freeway that runs along the Georgetown waterfront in DC. It's like a little bit of Chicago in DC. AFAIK, there are other parts of the country where limited-access roads are more frequently called "expressway". Some of this is an accident of history.
A "turnpike" was originally a toll road. In Northern Virginia, there is a road called "Little River Turnpike". It is not a toll road, and it is not limited access either. In fact, it's got lots of traffic lights. However, back when the road was first constructed, way back in horse and wagon days, it WAS a toll road. The name stuck, at least on parts of the road.
In other areas it is simply "route 50", which may be pronounced "root" or "rout". In Northern Virginia, either pronunciation was accepted; perhaps because it is a melting-pot area. In other areas, using the wrong pronunciation or word will give you away as a stranger. There are probably experts who can tell where you are from by the way you talk.
Anyway, the Aussie version of "knock her up" is certainly hilarious.
Or in northern California it will be prefaced as appropriate with "Interstate", "route", "U.S.", or "highway". Most freeways in California also have names, but in northern California at least, people don't use the names much, and often don't know what they are.
In Chicago they use "expressway" for what Californians call a freeway. In southern Illinois such a road is just called an "Interstate". In Silicon Valley, they use "expressway" to refer to a quirky road seldom seen elsewhere. It is like a freeway but with stoplights instead of interchanges.
One expression I'm not sure about is calling the state "Cali". It may be a southern California thing or maybe a generational thing. Some people use it like everyone will know what it means, while others haven't heard the expression at all.
Another California quirk to mention is that the term "The City" is often used for San Francisco. I've even heard it used by people in Los Angeles and in southern Oregon. It probably goes back to a time when San Francisco was the only CITY on the entire West Coast.
Bill
It can be quite confusing here in the San Jose area [San Francisco bay area] regarding I-280 and I-680. When 680 South intersects with U.S 101, it becomes 280 North [also 280 South becomes 680 North]. The weird thing about this is the fact that US 101 is also designated North and South! ;)
"... In Silicon Valley, they use "expressway" to refer to a quirky road seldom seen elsewhere. It is like a freeway but with stoplights instead of interchanges."
Got that right... I live not far from Capitol Expressway. It's 4 lanes each way, with limited access, a lot of lights, and a 45 MPH speed limit!
--Rick
Back home, "parkways" are like this. The George Washington Parkway in Virginia has, IIRC, a 45 mph speed limit and is supposed to be scenic, but the locals use it like an Interstate highway because it is built almost to Interstate standards. It has little tiny brown signs, and poor merge areas however. People routinely zoom 65, 70mph on that thing. Sometimes people push it even faster, and occasionally, this causes horrendous accidents.
The Southern parts of it have lights, though I don't recall if that happens only in Alexandria, where it becomes Washington St.
The Fairfax County Parkway, out in the burbs, also has sections that are up to Interstate standards; but other sections that have lights.
LOL, I forgot about the overlooks, this guy captured it perfectly:
http://dc.metblogs.com/2007/07/15/scenic-overlook-you-be-the-judge/
I used to commute up Washington Street and then North of that where it became the GW parkway, to get from crossing the Wilson Bridge up to Crystal City, because the only major alternative was to drive up US1, which has traffic lights all the way along that section and is also a through route from the Florida Keys to the Canadian border, and just took too long to fight through. I think sometimes it isn't that people want to drive through parkland, it's just that it's between them and their place of work. It's just there.
PS: I did eventually work out that I could cut through Mt. Vernon St.
Reminds me of a "scenic overlook" not far from here that used to be scenic... years before the brush grew up and blocked everything in sight... :-)
--Rick
Here in Orange county New York you can take the " Quick way " or "Parkway" for the 2-3 lane highway. " Local " for country main thour-o-fare. Or the Thruway, Interstate, Causeway for the 3-6 lane raods
I just hate when people come to NY and only think of NYC ,
there's a HUGE state above that city !
Steve
Yes it's kinda funny how a phrase can mean different things to different people.
The American term of "rooting for your team" means to support it, in Australia if you said that same thing we would think that you wanted to have sex with your sport team !
Duncan
That made me laugh. An old relative on a visit to Australia a few years ago told his nephew's teenage son to root around in his suitcase for a present he'd brought him. He couldn't understand the shocked stares.
I'll chip in with one that happened to me the other day. My American friend was talking about travelling Europe, and saying she would need a 'fanny pack'. I smiled, and after some explaining realised what she meant was what I and other Poms/English call a 'bumbag'; the American name meaning something quite different!
Having lived in Australia, I've picked up a lot of names for things from them. The best example is the footwear one uses in the summertime, well-known as 'flip-flops'. Aussies call them 'thongs', and now I do too, unless I catch myself first. Though I can remember vividly the first time I saw a sign in a clothing store saying "Kids' thongs!"
'Thongs' was the term for that style of footwear when I was a kid, at least in the mid-west US, but years later when my wife said something about needing to go out and buy a set of thongs my 10-12 year old boys were horrified to hear this mentioned in front of them.
Yeah, I've heard "thongs" used for both things here in the U.S., which is not usually a problem since one can tell which is meant by context.
Bill