I'm not from the South but I got this e-mail from a true Southerner so I expect it is pretty accurate. Any additions or corrections? DD

quote:

Only a Southerner knows the difference between a hissy fit and a conniption fit, and that you don't "HAVE" them, you "PITCH" them.

Only a Southerner knows how many fish, collard greens, turnip greens, peas, beans, etc., make up "a mess."

Only a Southerner can show or point out to you the general direction of "yonder."

Only a Southerner knows exactly how long "directly" is -- as in: "Going to
town, be back directly."

All Southerners know exactly when "by and by" is. They might not use the term, but they know the concept well.

Only Southerners grow up knowing the difference between "right near" and "a right far piece." They also know that "just down the road" can be 1 or 20.

Only a Southerner, both knows and understands, the difference between a redneck, a good ol'boy, and po' white trash.

A Southerner knows that "fixin" can be used as a noun, a verb, or an adverb.

Only Southerners make friends while standing in lines. We don't do "queues," we do "lines"; and when we're "in line," we talk to everybody!

Southerners never refer to one person as "ya'll."

When you hear someone say, "Well, I caught myself a lookin'," you know you are in the presence of a genuine Southerner!

Only true Southerners say "sweet tea" and "sweet milk." Sweet tea indicates the need for sugar and lots of it -- we do not like our tea unsweetened. "Sweet Milk" means you don't want buttermilk.

And to those of you who are still having a hard time understanding all this Southern stuff, bless your hearts, I hear they are fixin' to have classes on Southernness as a second language!

***************************************************************
07-12-04, 12:05 PM
Professor
Correction to your last sentence: ...they's fixin' to... Big Grin

07-12-04, 12:20 PM
jusork
I don't know about the "ya'll" one. I think I've heard people say it to one person before.

And my mom is definitely big on the standing in lines one. She talks to the person in front of her pretty often.

I haven't heard of a lot of those though. My culture must be slipping away.

07-12-04, 09:05 PM
newnickname
"Yonder" and also "yon" (= 'that [something] way over there') are still in use in Scotland, too. "Yonder" is not really a direction; it's an adverb or preposition of distance, something like "beyond".

"Do you see yon house?"
"He's out yonder, somewhere."

07-12-04, 09:22 PM
AMoore

quote:Originally posted by newnickname:
"Yonder" and also "yon" (= 'that [something] way over there') are still in use in Scotland, too. "Yonder" is not really a direction; it's an adverb or preposition of distance, something like "beyond".

_"Do you see yon house?"_
_"He's out yonder, somewhere."_



Yonder is also used out West. There was even a popular song, oh, about 70 years ago -- "There's a Blue Sky Way Out Yonder."

A Southernism that my Father never lost was the use of "yea" as in "yea long" or "yea big." I believe it was a common Elizabethan English usage transplanted to the Carolinas.

Alan Moore

07-12-04, 10:06 PM
Professor
"Y'all" apparently can be used in the singular or plural. However, "All y'all" is strictly plural. I heard the latter phrase spoken by a prominent community leader in Georgia to a group of local physicians.

07-12-04, 10:39 PM
newnickname
How about "All y'all is sunburned" when talking to one person? Smile

07-13-04, 03:00 AM
FredPuli
Let's look back 'home' for a moment. Yonder is still in use in Eastern England (clue:the 'real' Boston is in Eastern England, though how and why the word is now only associated with the Southern states is not obvious. Perhaps time stood still there. It is thought archaic in most parts of the UK ) The expression 'yonder and yon' is used as in 'the soldiers of the defeated army fled yonder and yon by ' i.e anywhere and everywhere out of sight, distant.

Y'all sounds as though it is used like 'all together' in Norfolk, in the East .In " How are you all together ? " it means " all of you people" or "all things considered, how are you, an individual ?" It is quite distinct from the word 'altogether' though.

'Sweet tea' means tea with lots of sugar everywhere in Britain. It is the folk medicinal cure- all, like Jewish chicken soup, but is generally prescribed for cases of shock, both physical and emotional. Cups of 'hot sweet tea' got most of London through the German bombing blitz in WW2;though sugar was rationed people must have saved it for medicinal purposes; so it must work !"

No doubt the South is rural and agricultural. People have a lot of space and a lot of time in rural, agricultural areas. In this area 'bye and bye' is an annoying way of telling an impatient or fretting child that something, say the return of its parents or a visit to Santa Claus, will happen in the fullness of time, inevitably. 'Directly', on the other hand, means 'no more than probably in the next sixty minutes or whenever I've finished doing this and if I remember you are still waiting ' Shop assistants are inclined to say 'Yes Sir, I'll be with you directly' In Britain this still means 'Possibly before the shop shuts in six hours time and if I remember you and if you are still here''Now' has more immediacy and means 'after I've finished this chat with this other assistant about last night's concert and I expect it will be sooner than the 'if'.. [as before], but don't bank on it' 'Presently' is sooner than 'directly'.

I've never heard a shop assistant say 'presently' Wink

'Just down the road' always means 'a lot further than you innocent townee thinks'. It is like 'it's ten minutes from here'. That is used annoyingly in towns too. Strangers would do well to ask 'Ten minutes by what means? Walking? Running? Car? Bus? Helicopter?' Fighter jet?' It may well turn out that the speaker has only been there once in their life; after all, it's in the next county and nobody from round here ever goes there. Long distance truck drivers also use 'just down the road' in this manner; it's as well to enquire whether this is the occupation of the man you ask directions of. For him, 200 miles may be 'just down the road'if the road is a main route.

'A lookin' is pure East of England, East Anglia. No verb in Norfolk is used without 'a-', though not invariably so.(Some speakers seem to use it all the time others use it more to emphasise the verb, to stress it) So it's 'I'm a-thinking, a-doing, a-fixing ' etc etc.In narratives you'll hear 'I was a-going down the road'. This is, of course, different from 'I'm a-going down the road' because the latter may be in the past, but being relived, or it may be the immediate future, what the person is on the point of doing, or it may be what they are doing at that very moment. As time has no meaning in Norfolk this causes no difficulty (who cares? It's all the same)

07-13-04, 05:59 AM
Dixie
Y'all is plural. I have never heard it used to mean one person except in movies or tv when someone is faking southern talk.

07-13-04, 12:12 PM
Rakuchild
Hmmm...if I say "Y'all" to one person, my meaning is "you and everyone like you," used in a situation where more than two of us are in discussion and I want to let person A know how I feel and at the same time, letting person B know if he agrees with person A, I consider his opinion in the same way. Person B can then protest at being lumped into person A's statement and can defend himself. Smile Or if there are only 2 of us discussing something, I'm letting the other person know that I'd say the same to anyone holding that point of view.

Por exampla-
Spousal Dude- It's a fact that Capt. Kirk was the best starship captain of the Enterprise.
Me-Y'all are crazy![awknowledging that S.D. isn't the only one to fancy such an idea] Picard was the best captain.

Complicated, n'est pas? Big Grin

"All y'all" is extremely plural, not wanting to leave anyone in a group out. Big Grin

07-13-04, 12:19 PM
Sarai

quote:Originally posted by doñadiana:

Only Southerners make friends while standing in lines. We don't do "queues," we do "lines"; and when we're "in line," we talk to everybody!



Who does "queues?" I'm not a southerner, but I stand "in line" too. I wasn't aware that any English speakers in the US had a different term! Who is it? Is it really that common?

07-13-04, 01:26 PM
methos
I was a bit surprised to see this one on the list myself. "Queues" for people are a British thing. The only context in which I've heard queues used in the US is for objects, such as a print job when more than one is sent to the same printer.

I would have pointed it out this and perhaps other things in this list, but especially on the two similar ones at DP), but I didn't want to ruin anyone's fun Wink.

07-13-04, 02:59 PM
Ewood27
Many years ago, when Germany was still divided, only Pan-Am, British European Airways and Air France were allowed to fly along the air corridors into West Berlin. Air Traffic Control was by US military controllers.

I was a pilot with British European Airways. One day a drawling Southern US Pan Am voice was y'all-ing for minutes on end with an equally Southern air traffic voice. Then a fraightfully British voice chipped in, "I say, Rodney, they're not a bit like us really, are they?"

07-13-04, 09:37 PM
Dixie
A variation of donadiana's email:
Only a Southerner knows instinctively that the best gesture of solace
for a
neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a big
bowl of cold potato salad. If the neighbor's trouble is a real crisis, they alsoknow to add a large banana puddin!

Only Southerners grow up knowing the difference between "right near"
and "a right far piece." They also know that "just down the road" can be 1 mileor 20.

No true Southerner would ever assume that the car with the flashing turn
signal is actually going to make a turn.

A Southerner knows that "fixin" can be used as a noun, a verb, or an
adverb.

Only Southerners make friends while standing in lines. We don't
do"queues," we do "lines"; and when we're "in line," we talk to everybody!

Put 100 Southerners in a room and half of them will discover they're
related, even if only by marriage.

Southerners know grits come from corn and how to eat them.

Every Southerner knows tomatoes with eggs, bacon, grits, and coffee are
perfectly wonderful; that red eye gravy is also a breakfast food; and
that fried green tomatoes are not just a breakfast food.

Only true Southerners say "sweet tea" and "sweet milk." Sweet tea
indicates the need for sugar and lots of it -- we do not like our tea unsweetened.
"Sweet milk" means you don't want buttermilk.

And a true Southerner knows you don't scream obscenities at little old
ladies who drive 30 MPH on the freeway. You just say, "Bless her heart"
and go your own way.

To those of you who're still a little embarrassed by your Southerness:
Take two tent revivals and a dose of sausage gravy and call me in the
morning. Bless your heart!

And for those that are not from the South but have lived there for a longtime, ya'll need a sign to hang on ya'lls front porch that reads "I aint from the South but I got here as fast as I could."

Bless your hearts, ya'll have a blessed day.

07-13-04, 11:03 PM
AMoore

quote:Originally posted by FredPuli:
Let's look back 'home' for a moment. Yonder is still in use in Eastern England (clue:the 'real' Boston is in Eastern England, though how and why the word is now only associated with the Southern states is not obvious. Perhaps time stood still there. It is thought archaic in most parts of the UK ) The expression 'yonder and yon' is used as in 'the soldiers of the defeated army fled yonder and yon by ' i.e anywhere and everywhere out of sight, distant.

- snip -



That last sounds like our Southern and Western usage of "hither and yon."

You also mentioned "bye and bye." The only usage of this I've run across is "in the sweet bye and bye" meaning someday, maybe (or maybe never).

Alan Moore

07-14-04, 10:25 AM
Fritzzs

quote:Originally posted by doñadiana:
I'm not from the South but I got this e-mail from a true Southerner so I expect it is pretty accurate. Any additions or corrections? DD

quote:



A Southerner knows that "fixin" can be used as a noun, a verb, or an adverb.

It also means food: as in: Ma, give me another "mess" of those good "fixins"
___________________________________________

Only Southerners make friends while standing in lines. We don't do "queues," we do "lines"; and when we're "in line," we talk to everybody!

Never heard of this one....
___________________________________________

Southerners never refer to one person as "ya'll."

Ya'll wanna make a bet ? We shore as heck do...

________________________________________________



Only true Southerners say "sweet tea" and "sweet milk." Sweet tea indicates the need for sugar and lots of it -- we do not like our tea unsweetened. "Sweet Milk" means you don't want buttermilk.

In all my years, I ain't never here of this one!
________________________________________________



And to those of you who are still having a hard time understanding all this Southern stuff, bless your hearts, I hear they are fixin' to have classes on Southernness as a second language!

Not really... The new classes will be to teach English as a second language.....


07-14-04, 11:34 AM
teeceeum
Never heard of sweet tea or sweet milk? Well, I'll swan!

07-14-04, 12:00 PM
Texan-In-Exile
All y'all's right! Razz
It jis' depen' on what part of de South ye fum: Fum disheer part, or fum over yunder! Cool
(For non-Southerners: You might have to read that out loud a time or two - or three - to understand what it says. Wink)

07-14-04, 12:04 PM
Dixie
We always say "I'll swanny."

Swan·ny
INTRANSITIVE VERB: Chiefly Southern U.S. To declare; swear. Used in the phrase I swanny as an interjection.
ETYMOLOGY: Probably alteration of dialectal (I) s' wan ye, (I) shall warrant ye.

Swan
INTRANSITIVE VERB: Chiefly Southern U.S. To declare; swear. Used in the phrase I swan as an interjection.
ETYMOLOGY: Probably alteration of dialectal (I) s' warrant, (I) shall warrant.

07-14-04, 12:22 PM
EBknowsBUBBA
I will pass on some personal observations.

Someone who uses a hose pipe (a.k.a. water hose) is from Alabama.

Someone from Mississippi does not push a button. They "mash" a button.

07-14-04, 12:45 PM
doñadiana
Only a Southerner know....

quote:Originally posted by Sarai:

quote:Originally posted by doñadiana:

Only Southerners make friends while standing in lines. We don't do "queues," we do "lines"; and when we're "in line," we talk to everybody!



Who does "queues?" I'm not a southerner, but I stand "in line" too. I wasn't aware that any English speakers in the US had a different term! Who is it? Is it really that common?



Well, I didn't make the list so I don't know why it was on there. Maybe people from the South think that the rest of us only stand in "queues." Roll Eyes

DD

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,