Friday, October 29, 2004
Delectable dialects
By The Erudite Redneck
My post yesterday and y'alls'* responses got me to thinkin'. I love when that kind of synergy happens. I think, y'all think, we all think for I think, y'all think, we all think -- whoa, I'm gettin' dizzy.
Colloquys are like that, sort of like a conversational Tilt-A-Whirl. Somebody get me a dippy dog** and a cocola.
I digress.
We all are as different as we are alike, even those of us from right around here in the same general part of the country. For every variation of dialect, there is a variation of world view -- and that's something that bicoastal snobs just don't get (or git).
Nothing makes me want to go to New York City like some ^(*)&^*$ talkin' about "flyover country" like it don't matter, or worse, that it's all the same!
You know why the Blue Collar comedy guys (Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy and Ron White) are successful? Because each represents a major strand of the redneck experience:
Jeff Foxworthy is the suburban Atlantan and represents modern Dixie; Engvall is from Winslow, Ariz., and represents the Southwest; Ron White is from the Texas Panhandle and represents the Great Plains; and Larry the Cable Guy is from somewhere up in the farmy Midwest and represents that redneck neck of the woods.
Watch 'em sometime, if you haven't. If yer from any of those places, or any of the redneck pockets of the Pacific Northwest, California or anywhere else, you will think it's some of yer own kin.
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* Y'alls' -- possessive form of "y'all," one of them rare words with two apostrophes. Trumped only by this one: "y'alls'es' with three apostrophes. Usage: Guy at a chicken-fried palace on I-40 somewhere around the Weleetka-Wetumka exit accidentally backs into one of two church buses in the parking lot. He goes inside and spies a couple of adults (ADD-ults) and two different sets of kids at two different tables. He walks up and says to both tables, "Hey, I just wrecked one of y'alls' buses." He turns to one table and says, "Was it y'alls'?" then turns to the other table and says, "Or was it y'alls'es'? Used to distinguish one group of y'all from another.
** Dippy dog -- what they used to call wienies on sticks dipped in corn batter and fried at "the" drive-in where I grew up, which was right down the highway from "the" stop sign. In 1975, on a family trip from eastern Oklahoma to Nebraska, we stopped at a drive-in somewhere in Kansas. An 11-year-old ER walked in and said to a pretty teenage girl (older woman) behind the counter: "Hey, do y'all have dippy dogs?" Whereupon she fell into a fit of girly giggles and the young ER turned beet red. "Where are you from from" the lass inquired. "Oklahoma," I said. "I thought you sounded like you were from the Deep South." "Do what?" I thought. And that precise moment is when I started to notice that me and mine was a little differnt.
END
My post yesterday and y'alls'* responses got me to thinkin'. I love when that kind of synergy happens. I think, y'all think, we all think for I think, y'all think, we all think -- whoa, I'm gettin' dizzy.
Colloquys are like that, sort of like a conversational Tilt-A-Whirl. Somebody get me a dippy dog** and a cocola.
I digress.
We all are as different as we are alike, even those of us from right around here in the same general part of the country. For every variation of dialect, there is a variation of world view -- and that's something that bicoastal snobs just don't get (or git).
Nothing makes me want to go to New York City like some ^(*)&^*$ talkin' about "flyover country" like it don't matter, or worse, that it's all the same!
You know why the Blue Collar comedy guys (Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy and Ron White) are successful? Because each represents a major strand of the redneck experience:
Jeff Foxworthy is the suburban Atlantan and represents modern Dixie; Engvall is from Winslow, Ariz., and represents the Southwest; Ron White is from the Texas Panhandle and represents the Great Plains; and Larry the Cable Guy is from somewhere up in the farmy Midwest and represents that redneck neck of the woods.
Watch 'em sometime, if you haven't. If yer from any of those places, or any of the redneck pockets of the Pacific Northwest, California or anywhere else, you will think it's some of yer own kin.
----------
* Y'alls' -- possessive form of "y'all," one of them rare words with two apostrophes. Trumped only by this one: "y'alls'es' with three apostrophes. Usage: Guy at a chicken-fried palace on I-40 somewhere around the Weleetka-Wetumka exit accidentally backs into one of two church buses in the parking lot. He goes inside and spies a couple of adults (ADD-ults) and two different sets of kids at two different tables. He walks up and says to both tables, "Hey, I just wrecked one of y'alls' buses." He turns to one table and says, "Was it y'alls'?" then turns to the other table and says, "Or was it y'alls'es'? Used to distinguish one group of y'all from another.
** Dippy dog -- what they used to call wienies on sticks dipped in corn batter and fried at "the" drive-in where I grew up, which was right down the highway from "the" stop sign. In 1975, on a family trip from eastern Oklahoma to Nebraska, we stopped at a drive-in somewhere in Kansas. An 11-year-old ER walked in and said to a pretty teenage girl (older woman) behind the counter: "Hey, do y'all have dippy dogs?" Whereupon she fell into a fit of girly giggles and the young ER turned beet red. "Where are you from from" the lass inquired. "Oklahoma," I said. "I thought you sounded like you were from the Deep South." "Do what?" I thought. And that precise moment is when I started to notice that me and mine was a little differnt.
END
Comments:
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Well bubba, (that is what my daughter calls her
brother, also referes to Bubba from in the Heat of
the Night OOHHHlala) that was a goodarn. I am very
proud to be not be from around here, if it is not the
south. When I was in California, I had a man leave
a message on my machine, he did not know me. Wrong
number, but said he just had to say hi because he
liked my southern accient. Now some made fun of the
face that I said fixin when refering to doing some
thing. I figured they just needed to get over it.
brother, also referes to Bubba from in the Heat of
the Night OOHHHlala) that was a goodarn. I am very
proud to be not be from around here, if it is not the
south. When I was in California, I had a man leave
a message on my machine, he did not know me. Wrong
number, but said he just had to say hi because he
liked my southern accient. Now some made fun of the
face that I said fixin when refering to doing some
thing. I figured they just needed to get over it.
I've been pondering what we would call this particular dialect. "Rubonics" comes to mind ... any other ideas? Around here it could be "Okienese." Then we'd have to get into the sub-culture speaks. I believe E.R.'s is "Stumpspeak" -- he'd have to confirm that though -- each group needs to name its own language, I think. That might make my language "Landrunish."
you stopped at a "drive-in," huh? that's called a "drive-through" here. i thought you were talking about an outdoor movie theater! LOL!
Howdy, Gem.
I see the potential for confusion, but a drive-in was a place to pull up and get a bite to eat, to me, before it was a place to drive up, watch a movie, do ... um ... stuff with yer sweetie and-or drink beer and do ... um ... stuff with a carload of yer friends, and oh, and watch a movie. Nowadays, in this part of the country, the Sonic Drive-In is a common place to pull up and get a Coke or a burger or malt or slushie or whatever. :-) Where are you from/at? :-)
I see the potential for confusion, but a drive-in was a place to pull up and get a bite to eat, to me, before it was a place to drive up, watch a movie, do ... um ... stuff with yer sweetie and-or drink beer and do ... um ... stuff with a carload of yer friends, and oh, and watch a movie. Nowadays, in this part of the country, the Sonic Drive-In is a common place to pull up and get a Coke or a burger or malt or slushie or whatever. :-) Where are you from/at? :-)
I prefer y'uns to y'all. I have no idea what it's a contraction of. Perhaps Professer ER knows.
# posted by 
: 10:26 PM
: 10:26 PM
Speaking of Bi-Coastal Snobs, did any one catch the audio of John Kerry buying a hunting license? "Can I get me... a hunting license here?" He hesitated half-way through, trying to remember how the common people talk. The only thing missing was a y'all at the end.
# posted by : 10:31 PM
: 10:31 PM
John Kerry asking for a hunting license reminded me of John Candy, as the vaguely European Dr. Tongue, playing the Jon Voight role in Midnight Cowboy. He would end each line with very unconvincing y'all.
# posted by : 10:41 PM
: 10:41 PM
Oh my gosh--I hope I'm not one of those bi-coastal snobs. I don't live ON the beach, does that help? ;)
Recently I referred to tennis shoes as "sneakers." Someone stopped me in mid-sentence to ask if I was from back east as they've never heard the shoes referred to as sneakers anywhere but there. Nope, I've always lived west of the Rockies.
I did, however, spent just one week in Arkansas. I came back with a twang that took a couple of weeks to shake. Apparently, it's a pretty potent ax-saynt in Arkansas!
Recently I referred to tennis shoes as "sneakers." Someone stopped me in mid-sentence to ask if I was from back east as they've never heard the shoes referred to as sneakers anywhere but there. Nope, I've always lived west of the Rockies.
I did, however, spent just one week in Arkansas. I came back with a twang that took a couple of weeks to shake. Apparently, it's a pretty potent ax-saynt in Arkansas!
# posted by : 1:50 AM
: 1:50 AM
BTW, I figgered what ya'll meant by "dippy dog" without even lookin' at the explanation. :)
# posted by : 1:53 AM
: 1:53 AM
Notes and clarifications:
John Kerry would have to have once KNOWN how common people talk to be able to remember it. That wind surfin' deal wadn't a fluke. He is in the top 1 percent of people most unlike me and mine in this country.
I think "y'uns," variously spelled "you'ns," is a contraction of "you ones."
I think Gem might not have ever seen a drive-in. A drive-through, like at McDonalds or Burger King or whatever, is what we'uns around her call 'em, too. A drive-in is where you pull up in your car and 1., a carhop comes and takes your order, then brings it to you, 2., you talk into an intercom to place your order, then a carhop brings you your order, or, 3., you get out of the car, walk up to a window and order, go back to your car, then someone waves at you through the window when your order's done and you walk back up to the window and get it -- which was the kind of drive-in that sold the dippy dogs, and was the kind of drive-in where the sweet-thing in Kansas laughed at the young ER back in the day. Heck, that was back before the day, I reckon. :-)
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John Kerry would have to have once KNOWN how common people talk to be able to remember it. That wind surfin' deal wadn't a fluke. He is in the top 1 percent of people most unlike me and mine in this country.
I think "y'uns," variously spelled "you'ns," is a contraction of "you ones."
I think Gem might not have ever seen a drive-in. A drive-through, like at McDonalds or Burger King or whatever, is what we'uns around her call 'em, too. A drive-in is where you pull up in your car and 1., a carhop comes and takes your order, then brings it to you, 2., you talk into an intercom to place your order, then a carhop brings you your order, or, 3., you get out of the car, walk up to a window and order, go back to your car, then someone waves at you through the window when your order's done and you walk back up to the window and get it -- which was the kind of drive-in that sold the dippy dogs, and was the kind of drive-in where the sweet-thing in Kansas laughed at the young ER back in the day. Heck, that was back before the day, I reckon. :-)
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