I occasionally present workshops on storytelling and the oral tradition. Among other topics, we explore the role of dialect and colloquialism in the traditional tales of New England.

These quirky, regionally specific, often comical words, phrases and pronunciations of everyday speech play an important role in establishing the basic ground rules of social interaction.

I suppose there will always be people who insist that the famous “Maine accent” is disappearing. Clearly they haven’t been talking, or more to the point, listening, to the right people.

Spend an hour poking around the working waterfront on the Maine coast, a hardware store in Harrington or a sports shop in Greenville and you’ll hear accents as thick as Aunt Edna’s clam chowder.

It's worth noting that dialect exists universally, in all cultures and societies for exactly one purpose. A person’s accent allows attentive listeners to determine, almost instantly, whether the speaker is “local” or “from away.”

That’s important information, whether the issue is survival of the fittest or simply deciding how much to ask for that stinky old lobster trap in your yard sale.

Colloquialisms serve much the same purpose. I thought about that recently when I ran across a quirky but familiar term in a Stephen King novel. In the book, Steve uses the word hosey.

As a native Mainer, I know exactly what hosey means. In my youth when somebody on the playground shouted “I hosey the next turn on the swing!” everyone knew that meant he or she was next in line. My wife, having grown up in Minnesota knew all about a similar term “dibs” but never heard “hosey.”

There are, of course, many words and phrases, which sound completely normal to locals yet are virtually a foreign language to “outsiders.” Enough of them, in fact, that my former Boothbay Region High School Sophomore English teacher, the late Gerald E. Lewis, wrote a bestselling book, “How to Talk Yankee” on the subject.

Here is a short list of some of my own favorite Maine colloquialisms. You might try them on your out-of-state visitors this summer just for fun.

“Cunnin'” means cute, as in, “That baby of Charlotte’s is some cunnin’! Lucky she don’t take after her mother.”

“Daow” means no. (The opposite of ayuh.) It was widely used when I was young. “You goin’ to Burt’s wedding next Sat’day?” “Doaw! I went to the last three and besides there’s a good ballgame on.”

“Scrid” means a small portion. “You want another plate of beans?” “Nope. Got to save room for just a scrid of Mary’s roobub pie!” For some reason in Maine and a few other spots around the country, it’s always pronounced “roobub” rather than rhubarb.

One of my personal favorites is the classic “Numb-as-a-Hake,” used to describe a particularly dimwitted person. What fascinates me about this phrase is the choice of the hake from among all aquatic creatures as being particularly slow on the uptake.

I can understand “flat as a flounder” or “ugly as a sculpin” but why single out the poor hake as the class dunce?

I’ll finish up with a truly wacky example, which I’ve only heard used by a handful of people in and around the Boothbay region. I’m pleased to say that this is one colloquialism for which I can personally provide what Paul Harvey used to call “the rest of the story.”

A certain generation of Boothbay Harbor locals (you know who you are) attended high school or even grade school in a tall barnlike structure that once stood about halfway down School Street.

One feature of the building’s architecture was that some, but not all, of its bathrooms were in the basement of the building. Since there are at least 1001 euphemisms for a bathroom, I won’t attempt to list them here.

What I can say with certainty is that several generations of local folks who once attended classes in that particular school building, grew up referring to the “bathroom” as “the basement.” As in, “Mrs. Proctor, may I please be excused to go to the basement?”

So, if you ever find yourself in the company of a local adult of a certain age when they excuse themselves from the table while simultaneously mumbling something about needing to go to the basement, you’ll know that they haven’t been struck with a sudden urge to check the fuse box or do a bit of impromptu oil burner repair.

Nope, they’re simply making a “pit stop,” taking a trip the “head,” “the john,” “the loo,” etc. Don’t let it throw you off. That’s just the way we say it around here.