Appalachian English: Why We Say 展arsh Rag & 鏑ow Tar

[Sysop]

Interesting article.

Appalachian English: Why We Say “Warsh Rag” & “Low Tar” | Appalachian Magazine

 

[Wagtail]

"Low Tar" is going to need an explanation please.

Loiter?

 

[mddorange]

"Low Tar" is going to need an explanation please.

Loiter?

It means that the air in the tire is low. :duh:

 

[wngsprd]

I had a good friend that grew up in Hatteras Village, isolated back then on the Outer Banks of NC before it was so developed and touristy. He and other locals had the same Elizabethan pronunciations. Took some getting used to at first. Was very pleasant to listen to.

I've noticed many folks, even TV news people call Washington DC, Warshington.

 

[stuckmotor]

I've known people to ad an r to the word question. "querstion"

 

[bunyip]

English are notorious for adding or dropping the 'H'.
Names like Arold Erbert Umphrey followed by Hann Hangela Hindiana etc etc.
Those little squares of towelling material we call face washers and a thong goes on your foot.
Prison language was unique too, a swy took me a while to work out.

 

[stuckmotor]

Bunyip,
Don't leave us hanging. What's swy?

 

[/pine]

A low tar is not as bad as a flat tar....

 

[John Fitzgerald]

People who have roots here in the Arkansas Ozarks, and have remained in rural areas, speak much the same as people from Appalachia.

flat tar, war plawers, warshing machine, ha'int, far a burnin......

 

[bunyip]

Swy, 2oz packet of tobacco, origin, no idea.

 

[bigtiller]

Ghetto talk gets me wondering what was said occasionally. I herd someone on TV talking about Taylor Swift. The name was pronounced Tail Swif

 

[stuckmotor]

Swy, 2oz packet of tobacco, origin, no idea.

Bunyip,
Thanks! That's another of life's mysteries I don't have to worry about.

 

[/pine]

Actually I think when referring to Appalachian vernacular "swy" is short for "that's why" or "that is why"

 

[Wagtail]

Aussies tend to drop the trailing 'r' of words but I got very confused when someone, giving me directions, referred to a "ca pa"...

I eventually figured it out as "car park". :confused2:

 

[bcp]

Q: Did you know that the three wise men were firemen?

A: It says they came from a far.

 

[bunyip]

I saw a documentary some time ago about a ships crew from one State in the USA, trhe accents were almost musical and they tried to recruit all crew from the same state, I cannot recall were it was but the accents were quite unique and I would never have identified them as American, can anyone enlighten me, I think it was either a large container ship or an ice breaker but had a substantial crew.

Just did a bit of digging and found out that 'swy' is the game of two up played by Aus servicemen in the past and was also a two shilling coin, apparently swy comes from the German Zwie for two.
Pre decimal coins had slang terms like zak and deener (6p and one shilling) but I had never heard if swy.