The Southern dialect
I love language and I always have to be careful when I’m looking up a word in the dictionary. I could easily lose 10 or 15 minutes because I get distracted by other words I wasn’t intending to look up at the time.Some of my friends — I won’t name names, but they know who they are — tease me about saying “I declare.”
It doesn’t bother me, but it did get me thinking about other Southernisms. I also say “I’m fixin’ to ...” a lot of the time, instead of “I’m about to ...”
And I am from the South, so of course I say “y’all.” Though I do see many people spelling it wrong. It’s a contraction of “you all,” but, for some reason, some people think it’s spelled “ya’ll.”
Something else I’ve noticed is people’s reactions to “yes, ma’am” and “no, sir.” They seem to think you’re saying it out of respect for their age, which they say makes them feel really old.
I grew up in a place where that’s just what you said to show respect to people of all ages. I can remember being very young, probably early elementary school age, asking adults questions and getting “yes, ma’amed” or “no, ma’amed.”
One of my favorites is “bless his (or her) heart,” often used at the end of a sentence. There seem to be many nuances of meaning, depending on the situation.
Posted by
on 05/13 at 07:32 PM
One that always pops in my head is “mash” as in “mash the button.“
When my family moved here from the Midwest, my younger sister was about 8 or 9. She came home from school crying because a teacher kept telling her to “mash” a key in computer class and she had no idea what “mash” meant.
I know after more than 15 years of living in Florence, I’ve heard myself saying “cut the light on” and “y’all” comes naturally. I wonder if my sister uses “mash” now…