The Interstate
Informant: Caitlin Flint, age 21, Metairie, LA. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.
Verbal Lore: Folk Speech, slang
English
United States of America
context: Interstate 10, which runs east-west across the Southers United States and is the only interstate to run through the actual city of New Orleans
Transcript:
“ The next bit of slang is a little but different, it is more of a phrasing thing. Calling it ‘the interstate’. In New Orleans there is one interstate that runs through the city , it is Interstate 10, it runs east- west across the southern United states from Florida to Texas. It bisects the city, pretty completely, and because it is the only actual interstate in New Orleans, it is referred to as ‘the interstate.’ This is one particular thing that I have noted while I have been away from New Orleans. I don’t refer to it as interstate 10 particularly often, I have always called it ‘the interstate’, and whenever I say that to my out of town friends, the majority of them are entirely confused, because they are from places where there are multiple interstates and that it makes much more sense to refer to it by the route name. so this is just one particular quirks about the city. Using it in a sentence would be something along the lines of, ‘ Oh, do you live on the north side or the south side of the interstate.’ And that would be about it.”
Collectors commentary: This slang is uniqie to New Orleans because it is dependent on the geographical feature that is Interstate 10.
Keywords: The Interstate, interstate, I10, New Orleans