Southern English

Larry Caldwell · Dec 12, 2013

Soggy Bottom Outdoors said:
I understand you perfectly Gunny, what about; TOBOGGAN, a stocking hat,.....not a sled. BROGANS, most any lace up work boot. HARD ROAD-usually asphalt or black top, not dirt, mud,or gravels. GALLUS- the suspenders on bib overalls.

Brogans are Irish. Leprechaun is a variation of laphroagan, Gaelic for shoemaker. Lots of southern lingo carries ancient roots. The southern prouniciation of oil (ol) is much closer to the original Latin than the northern pronunciation. Call a cow Boss? Latin for cow is bos. Call a pig with suee? Latin for pig is sui.

My family is not southern, but is very anglo-saxon. We call a tit a tit. I must have been 30 years old before I heard someone call it a teat.

IslandTractor · Dec 12, 2013

two_bit_score said:
May you be blessed daily, my friend.

Wait a minute, you can't just bless me....you have to bless my little heart!

dave1949 · Dec 12, 2013

IslandTractor said:
Wait a minute, you can't just bless me....you have to bless my little heart!

I think you got the two-bit blessing version. :laughing:

Larry Caldwell · Dec 12, 2013

k0ua said:
I havent heard this in a while, but old timers around here called it the "foot feed". I guess on older cars was there also a hand throttle?

Trucks had hand throttles up until the early '50s. When you were driving across a rough field, it was easier to set the hand throttle, because using the foot feed resulted in lots of jerks. It was also great because you could set the ground speed in granny gear, then hop out to buck bales while the truck kept going.

IslandTractor · Dec 12, 2013

Larry Caldwell said:
My family is not southern, but is very anglo-saxon. We call a tit a tit. I must have been 30 years old before I heard someone call it a teat.

I'm not sure tit and teat are just different pronunciations. To this northerner, a teat is the part of a breast where the infant latches on. A tit can sometimes mean the same as teat but more commonly has a broader slang meaning equivalent to "breast". Nobody ever says "look at the set of teats on that cheerleader".

Larry Caldwell · Dec 12, 2013

2LaneCruzer said:
Sharn Jean and I took a little Caribbean cruise a couple years back on the Carnival cruise line. The food was excellent and there was plenty of it. We had breakfast in the dining room one morning, and I asked the waiter if they had any gravy. His reply? "You mean au jus?" The cuisine in the dining room is superb, but it's clear that the chef and the waiters are not from Texas or Oklahoma.

Ask them to pass the gravy in New Jersey and you will get spaghetti sauce.

Larry Caldwell · Dec 12, 2013

smstonypoint said:
It may be a regional bias on my part, but I think Southern humorists can't be topped when it comes to storytelling -- Justin Wilson, Jerry Clower, Lewis Grizzard, Andy Griffith, Wendy Bagwell, etc.

Steve

If you haven't encountered Jeanne Robertson, check her out! She was once Miss North Carolina, is 6'2" tall, and absolutely hilarious.

Jeanne Robertson "Don't send a man to the grocery store!" - YouTube