Yat

One of my favorite things about visiting New Orleans is the language. Only in New Orleans can someone use asinine phrases that make absolutely no sense, and make them sound cool.

Yat refers to a unique collection of dialects of English spoken in New Orleans, Louisiana. The term also refers to those people who speak with a Yat accent. The name comes from the common use amongst said people of the greeting, "Where y'at?" (Where you at?), which is a way of asking, "How are you?" The Yat dialect sounds similar to that of Brooklyn, New York, natives, with influences from Louisiana Creole French and Southern American English, particularly Older Southern American English. While the term "Yat" is usually reserved specifically for the strongest varieties of the New Orleans dialect within the city, the term often refers specifically to speakers of Yat, outside of the city proper, and around the rest of Louisiana.

Commom Yat Terms
-make dodo - sleep, or go to sleep; from the Cajun French "fais do do"
-parish - da parish usually refers specifically to St. Bernard Parish
-suck da head, squeeze da tail - a phrase that describes the local technique for eating crawfish
-Up da road - typically used in St. Bernard Parish, the term is used as travel direction for someone traveling to upper St. Bernard Parish on St. Bernard Highway (US Highway 46)
-Wutsapnin- New Orleans greeting derived from "What is happening?"
-ya'mom'n'em* - "your mom and them" meaning your family
-Chalmatian - someone from Chalmette in St. Bernard Parish.
-snowball - a frozen treat similar to a sno-cone, but made of 'shaved ice' and not crushed ice