In Alabama a river must be able to float commercial traffic (flat boat min.), creeks can support boat traffic, branches feed creeks and can originate from springs (water flowing from the ground that may or may not be seasonal) or seeps (wet spots on the ground). There's also bogues which resemble bayous. We don't have marshes in freshwater but there are a lot of swamps.
A bay can be found inland away from the coast if it's wet and boggy.

Doughty; adjective (pronounced dOtee) is a tree you want to cull because its rotten or hollow (not to be confused with the hollers of north Alabama).

A wash is a gully.

Interesting thread. Living in France I can't help but think of the quantity of French words that are used in everyday English after some modification. Your "frap" milk shake probably came from the French word "frapper" the verb to beat something. Another one I like is "looney" when talking about someone who might be a bit goofy. Here you would say a person like that is "lunee", or like the moon and can be in a different state of mind on any day. Trap is also from the French word "trapper" meaning to catch something. My French wife used to crack me up when she's ask me how many ducks I caught.


Common names for panfish in the south always had me mystified....

Pete

^^^^^^^^^^
"My French wife used to crack me up when she's ask me how many ducks I caught".
That is the most common term I hear used by Alaska natives; "did you catch your moose", "did you catch a caribou", etc..

While english is a germanic language that is only really true of old english as spoken by the saxons, angles and jutes who migrated to the southern portion of the largest of the British Isles from germanic speaking areas of northern europe. Later that area would be called England after the angles. The remainder of the Isles continued speaking the original brythonic languages we call gaelioic today, btw brittony in France also spoke a brythonic language.
Modern english is somewhat of a forced marriage of germanic origin and structure and Norman french thanks to William the Conqueror.

I grew up using the term “boughten: meaning store bought food. As in “those cookies are boughten”.

Once had a fellow referring to “Jaggers”. I kept thinking huh? Finally asked. He was talking about what I call briars.

Once worked in a factory of a worldwide company. Part of my jobs was shrink wrapping and palletizing product. A manager one day was questioning us about “shrinkage” on the partial pallets of products left over the weekend. Several of us are trying to figure out what was wrong with the shrinkwrapped product. Turns out some product had been stolen. Thus “shrinkage”.

when i was in college, i had a professor that asked everyone to read a little paragraph outloud and he would take a guess at where they were from based on how they pronounced the words and their accents. and hed always nail it. i read that paragraph and he said, so english isnt your first language, your from the lower brule reservation, and youve got a close family member thats primarily a german speaker, and another from Tennessee. and he was dead on.

Borrowed from the pages of Pat McManus.

Shibboleth , Hebrew meaning "flood, creek , ear of grain

Stove "with eyes". dippy eggs, blinky & Blue John, doughty, jaggers, and shrinkage (for theft or missing) are all new ones for me.

I had heard of "water bubbler" before because I guy I work with is from Wisconsin. I wonder how far that radiates outside of WI?

White bass, creek (at least this side of the "River" in SD), hamburger over ground beef (but both are used), and subs here

Pete- Warrior is right that there is a lot of French-based words in modern English but there are also a lot of Latin and Greek-based words as well. French is a "romantic" language that is based on Latin so maybe the Latin got brought along with that, although how did the Greek keep coming (or maybe they had gotten brought into the Latin). Greek and Latin were the languages of the early Christian Church so they probably survived in a lot of western European languages because they were taught to certain groups of people.

Does anyone know what "owly" is used for, such as "he sure was owly today." ?

And, I can't be from South Dakota, at least East River, and not ask what you all (if you have a term for it), call cubbed red meat (started off with lamb but more commonly done with beeef now) placed on a wooden skewer and cooked in an deep fat fryer? We call it "chislic" around here.

And, because JP hasn't answered, "canned Kilk" is like American Spam

http://www.cracked.com/blog/8-canned-meats-eaten-reviewed-because-god-lie21/

Time for me to go to work. Later

When I was a kid "doggies" ( pronounced with a long O sound, doeggy) was a calf whose mama died or wouldn't feed it. So anybody with enough to chase them all day would really be having bad trouble, which is not to be confused with double bad trouble which is even worse.

NonPCfed
My Grand mother who was German born on farm here in WI used the word Owly. As I knew and understood it she meant about the same as crabby, or grumpy, fowl mood. At least that is how I understood it. May have been referencing awake all nigh poor night sleep made ya that way? not sure? And of course she is long gone so no way to ask her.

Mac

Up nort'd we sell stuff, down south they sale stuff.

Toque - knit wool cap
Runners - athletic shoes
Hydro - electric utility (in Ontario, we buy electricity from "Hydro One")
Pickeral or Pickerel are Walleye here

Michiganders who say "ruff" instead of "roof" or "graj" instead of "garage"

Timmies - Tim Hortons Coffee Shop

Double Double - coffee with 2 cream and 2 sugars

I've seen the word "sale" instead of sell used on this forum.
I think it's just that guys using that word in that context simply don't know how to spell "sell", and are just spelling it phonetically (like how they pronounce it). So it comes out as "sale" even though they really mean "sell".

its not a buggy - its a cart, thats what you put your groceries in

there are parts of VA where you "carry" someone when they need to go somewhere.

my wife calls it a bubbler, she is from Central Ohio.
Her mom, calls them hamburgs - her grandmother was Bulgarian, if that matters at all.

It's all coke - any fizzy drink is coke, regardless of brand

fixin to, or fittin to - means were are getting ready to do somethign - "I'm fittin to put his spoon across your backside!"

skosh - means a little bit

poke= a sack

my wife does not like that we "cut" our lights on

my wife calls the remote control a clicker

And it's pronounced "worsh"

Mike

Around our country colloquialisms vary a lot. Then you have accents. When call up and order something out in the mid West or West I know folks often have a hard time understanding me. Not sure how I got it but I have a severe "Down East" accent, which often causes some issues when talking to someone from out of state.