Real Montanans Know What This Phrase Means

We like to think we don't have an accent in Montana, or at least I didn't think we did, until I went to college in Minnesota and they told me I was saying "mountain" wrong.

When they imitated me, they made it sound like I was saying "Meow-tane." Of course, I returned the criticism, "It's not mow-tain either." After traveling around and living in other places, I've eventually come to admit that Montanans do have a way of saying different words. Take these for example:

Montana Accents and Montana Slang

But it's not just our accent, we have phrases too, that no one seems to understand.

Apparently, a survey from Preply says that Montana is very misunderstood--like, we rank #2 overall for having phrases that other people don't understand. There was one phrase in particular that seemed to trip up a lot of people. See if you know what this one means:

"Borrow Pit"

I'll admit, I always thought it was called a "burrow pit" not a "borrow pit" but I knew that it was a phrase referring to a ditch. When my grandma used to worry about us or anyone driving in the winter, she'd always say somthing like, "You don't want to end up in the borrow pit!"

For what it's worth, this isn't necessarily unique to Montana, you'll probably hear this phrase regionally too.

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But what, technically is a "borrow pit"? The definition according to the U.S. Army is:

A term used in construction/civil engineering that describes an area created to remove earthen material from, which will be used for fill at another location. - army.mil

Most people probably just say "ditch" instead of "borrow pit." But "ditch" was also a slang term that had people confused. A "ditch" is a drink with whiskey and water, but one-third of people in the survey assumed it just means to leave someone behind or stranded.