Somebody leaves and says, "I'll be back shortly." That means soon. But if they don't expect to be back soon, do they say, "I'll be back longly?" No. They say, "See you later," which doesn't give you much useful information.

In the South, they might say "I'll be back directly." That means anything but direct. It means they will be back after a while, but not soon.

In some regions, they say, "Catch you later." That means they will see you at some undetermined time in the future. Maybe you should run when you see them coming, so they can try to "catch" you.

In Hawaii, they say "Aloha," which can mean hello or goodbye. It's up to you to know if you are coming or going.

In some localities, short for hello is "Hi." Other places, they say "Hey," instead of hello or hi. But sometimes hey is used just to get your attention and means that they have something else to say. For example, "Hey. . . . Are you going to eat the apple?"

In the Nashville area someone may ask, "Will you carry me to town?" Carry, used this way, is a synonym for "take," and there is no heavy lifting required.

In the West, carry means to actually pick it up and take it with you. But it also implies with little or no effort. You might carry a pocket knife and hardly notice that you have it. But if an effort is required, you "tote" something. "Can you tote that big suitcase by yourself?" If somebody is going to tote a gun, it is a large one. You might carry a small pistol, but a hogleg pistol in a holster is more tote than carry.

Another regional thing is what people call flowing water. It can be a creek, a brook, a wash, a run, a stream, a branch, or if it is big enough, a river. Sometimes the largest creek around is called "the river" even if it is small enough to jump across. Some times we call a stream a "fork," if it joins another stream of about the same size. Brook seems to be used more in the North, creek in the South, and branch in the West, but there are no hard and fast rules.

The English language is a little strange, but entertaining.
Howard