This is a posting by my sister.. err the linguist?

What I've noticed between the Mid-West and East Coast is- people don't say "yo." It kinda bothers me, like the near extinction of the word, "shmuck." "Yo" in the mid-west is kinda like a joke, which is totally weird for me. And the reaction I get from the word is equally surprising. People give me funny looks, are taken aback and even shocked. It's similar to the twilight zone. Perhaps the twilight zone is parallel to the boondocks, I dunno, just a theory of mine. But either way, the mid-west is a place lacking popular nouns, adjectives, and parts of speech such as "yo," "dumb," and of course "mad."