Southern Dictionary?

Somehow I stumbled across an English poet on the interwebs. His name is Ian McMillan. He’s from Yorkshire, a small area of England, and like many parts of the U.K. it has a unique set of words and in some cases unique grammar. It read as if he was part of a dictionary project that compiled these many words, phrases and grammar usage that are as much a part of Yorkshire as the topography itself. And it wasn’t like these “Talk like a Southerner” books which are as much factual as they are satirical, it was a serious and scholarly project.

It makes me wonder if someone has done that with the Southern United States yet. We could have general Southern words then separate others by state, region, sub-region and communities. Is this something I’m looking to take on as a serious project? Probably not. But I would be very interested in helping one along.

It could be like Wikipedia or the Urban Dictionary and could be moderated by trained/approved volunteers. The concept intrigues me. What do you think?

Who can be Southern?

Wade posted this article [http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/03/south] a while ago and I thought I’d comment on it a bit.

The article states:
“Southerners were parochial, had Southern accents, drank sweet tea for breakfast, got married 15 minutes after college graduation and named their kids Hunter and Caitlin. (She didn't mean rednecks, but the kind of educated types she was in a sorority with.)”

And while many Southerners do all of the things mentioned they also say that you have to hate Democrats, be Ultra-Christian, Conservative, hunt and own guns to be Southern. I just don’t buy it. I define myself as Southern, and not just “ethnically Southern” as the article states.

I don’t think you need another Southerner to define you as Southern like some nation looking for legitimacy. I believe if you believe you are a Southerner then you are one. I think that Southerners have an inherent D.I.Y. attitude that a lot of the geek culture has. It may mean something different, but it is there. Making their own wine. Raising their own food or trying to buy local all seem to be Southern qualities. Being nice and pleasant to be around and making others feel comfortable are also Southern qualities.

I’m in no place to argue one’s Southerness or to bestow the title on someone. If that were the case I’d revoke many a Southern I.D. card from those in what I consider uppity neighborhoods since many have bland city accents, are rude and not pleasant to be around, and have people that cut their yards or agree to be in a neighborhood that tells you whether or not you can park your cousin’s pontoon boat beside your house while his roof is repaired from the storm damage.

As many of you know, I’m not as Southern as I seem to be. I’ve never gone hunting. I prefer A/C to outdoors activities. I go swimming more often in a pool than the lake or ocean. I’ve never raised a successful garden. I don’t work well with my hands nor can I fix many things.

But do any of those things cheapen my Southernhood? I don’t think so. I could acquire new skills and learn to love the outdoors more but that doesn’t make me more Southern, does it? I think Southernhood is a state of mind. If you get to the South or grow up here and you want more than anything to get out then you aren’t a Southerner. You may be labeled that in New York but you and I both know you don’t feel like one and so you aren’t. We still love you but if you don’t want to be here we don’t want you here either.

Special thanks to Wade Kwon for this post. Without him tweeting the article I wouldn’t have made this post.

Your thoughts are always welcome in the comments.

My Apocryphal Country [Guest Post]

by Alex Bledsoe

[Alex is a published author and I was humbled when he agreed to do this post. I'm also a fan of his after reading The Hum and the Shiver. I am now (im)patiently awaiting its sequel, The Wisp of a Thing. -Drew]


Three of my seven novels are set in the South, specifically in my home state of Tennessee. Two, Blood Groove and its sequel, The Girls with Games of Blood, take place in and around Memphis, a real city. The third, The Hum and the Shiver, occurs in the made-up town of Needsville.

So why the difference? Why use a real place for one story, and an imaginary one for another?

The tradition of fictional Southern places, at least in the popular consciousness, goes back to Faulkner and his tales set in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. Beginning with 1929's Sartoris, he set most of his subsequent novels and stories in that made-up bit of geography. He called it his "apocryphal country."

The advantages of using a fictional place are obvious. You don't have to worry
about accuracy, or offending the residents (for the most part; I'll get to the
exception). You can put anything in it that your story requires. It's really no
different than making up the kingdoms and countries in my other, pure fantasy
novels.

But fictional places, for the most part, carry no weight of reality. It's possible
to fake it, to imply a heavily involved past, but it's never the same. For famous
cities, it's even more difficult. Just the name “Memphis” brings to mind Elvis, BB
King, barbeque, the Mississippi River, Martin Luther King, Jr., high crime, weak
education, and even a huge, actual pyramid. If you tried to create analogs to all
these things in a fictional city, you'd run the risk of looking silly. Why not just use
the real thing and be done with it? So I did. I dropped hard-core, scary vampires
into actual 1975 Memphis.

But I put the Tufa, my mythical race of Southern folk-singing faeries, in the made-
up east Tennessee town of Needsville, located in the equally mythical Cloud
County. I wanted the same thing Faulkner did: a landscape that I could shape to
echo the themes and characters of the stories. I wanted to put certain characters
in the mountains, others in the valley, still others at the edges of the county,
looking in. Yes, it's based loosely on a real place, the same way Lafayette
County inspired Yoknapatawpha. But when you're talking about a small town
and not a big urban area, it just seems polite to make it fictional.

Of course, that doesn't always help. In the 1960s, author Jesse Hill Ford set The
Liberation of Lord Byron Jones, a sensational examination of small-town racism,
in fictional Somerton, Tennessee. However, his neighbors in real-life Humboldt
had no trouble seeing their town in his book, and weren't terribly delighted to be
depicted as corrupt, ignorant racist rednecks. Things did not work out well for
Mr. Ford.

Still, Yoknapatawpha County, Somerton, my own Cloud County and Needsville,
all give writers an option they don't get in real life: the chance to work in a
landscape that mirrors the inner life of their characters. Conversely, places
like Memphis, New Orleans, or Atlanta give readers a common ground with the
story's characters, a chance to go and literally walk in their footsteps. And both
have a proud tradition in Southern literature, of which I am delighted to be a new,
tiny part.

------
Alex Bledsoe grew up in west Tennessee an hour north of Graceland and twenty minutes from Nutbush. He's been a reporter, editor, photographer and door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. He now lives in a Wisconsin town famous for trolls, writes before six in the morning and tries to teach his two sons to act like they’ve been to town before.

Southern Word of the Week - Chester Drawers

(n.) I think your dress socks are all in the chester drawers.

(n.) I bought my chester drawers from that place that Tina Gordon advertises for.  I think it's out of business.

Chester drawers are a chest of drawers.  I don't know why or how it got shortened and condensed here, but we all know what we're talking about.  Sometimes they come in a bedroom suite (pronounced suit), which I've been told that we pronounce incorrectly as well, but my limited research says that we may not be pronouncing it wrong.

Is there any furniture you've been told we pronounce incorrectly?  Is there any furniture unique to the South, or does everybody in the country have a chifforobe?  Let us know in the comments.

Southern Word of the Week - Comeapart

A comeapart is almost like a nervous breakdown but usually not quite as severe.

(n.) It started raining on her weddin' day and I thought she was gonna have a comeapart.

It's one of those words that you can understand by the context its used in. I used it sometime in the past year but after it came out of my mouth it surprised me since few people I come in contact with ever use the phrase. I do like how it sounds though. 

Thanks to my virtual friend Jamie for using this in a Facebook post and reminding me of this term.

What's in a (nick)Name?

So nicknames happen all over, but the South seems to have a lot of nicknames.  How many Bubbas do you know?  I've known more than a few and I actually have one of my church friends that calls me Bubber and that's not my only nickname.  Over the years I've been called:

Rabbit
Nub or Nubbie (I cut part of my thumb in a freak fruit basket assembly line accident)
Jew (Rhymes with Drew)
Drawers
Bubber
Harmonica Guy
Harmonica Man (not a nickname but a character on a Catholic Children's show.  Yes, really.)

I'm sure there are more, a few one off names that are funny for a few hours, but that is a lot for one man of 30ish years.  The best part about all of them is that they were spontaneous.  I'm not a fan of meeting someone and then saying, "I'm Patrick but everyone calls me  JB."  If everyone calls you JB introduce yourself as such.  I introduce myself as Andrew but if somebody says, "yeah, but we all call him Drew" that's fine, I just feel weird calling myself that but I will answer to it without cringing or thinking twice. For some reason I've always rejected Andy...but Andy-B (a Church youth group nickname) is somehow ok.

What's worse is when someone nicknames themselves then tells everyone that is what they want to be called. I know you've met at least one of these people. It's awkward and they always end up looking foolish.

Do you guys have any weird nicknames in your family? Let me know in the comments.

Accent Modification

I have a confession y'all...

Sometimes, around certain company...I change my accent.  Yes, I know.  It really is against everything I preach but it has been pointed out by others (namely my wife) that I do it.  I'm aware, but not really ashamed.  No matter what I do I'll always have a bit of an accent.  It shows my roots and my heritage.  Sometimes I do it because to some people in some parts of town find a drawl like mine hard to understand.  Sometimes I do it to show that the perception of people from my neck of the woods isn't always true.  Sometimes I just want to sound a little classier normal.  It's not like I'm a 14 year old girl sporting some generic/fake British accent; I'm not pretending to be someone else, just something different.  It's like putting on nice clothes before meeting important people.  

Other times when I'm around old high school friends I notice my accent is stronger.  It also seems to happen when I'm out and about and someone makes mention of my Southern heritage or talk about how they think I live in the meth capital of the greater Birmingham area.  

Do you change your accent up depending on the situation?  Has someone else pointed out that you inadvertently do it?  Let us know in the comments.

Southern Word of the Week - Hot Mess

(adj.) I know she thought she looked good, but she looked like a hot mess.
(adj.) After partying last night I feel like a hot mess.
(adj.) You can't spell hot mess without me.

Is it Southern?  I have no idea, but I've heard it a lot lately.  Bascially a hot mess is something that went awry somewhere whether it be the way someone looks, feels or acts.  The final example listed above came from a friend and I thought it would be the perfect t-shirt at one of those stores that has all the t-shirts at the beach or whatever. 

So make sure you aren't a hot mess, but also be sure you know what a hot mess looks like because you know you want to point them out to your friends.

Southern Word of the Week - Eat Up

ex. (adverb?) That boy is just eat up with stupid, bless his heart.
ex. (adverb?) She is eat up with meanness.  She don't never say nothin' good about nobody.

Eat up is something you use when the person you are talking about is basically just inundated with whatever affliction you put after it.  You can also get eat up with mosquitoes or ticks, but for the most part being eat up is how you diagnose someone elses shortcomings.

Southern Word of the Week - Hissy Fit

Hissy fit: a temper tantrum. 

(n.) Nadene is gonna throw a hissy fit when she finds out you got bleach spots on her new dress
(n.) That kid laid down in the floor of the T G & Y and had a hissy fit like you've never seen! 

Kids often throw hissy fits, and often it applies to adults that become unreasonable when faced with a certain set of facts.  There is a time and a place for hissy fits, but they occur far more frequently than they should.  You can also just have a hissy, which is practically the same.

Southern Word of the Week - Tag

The registration plate for your automobile
(n.) Did you go to the courthouse to get your tags yet?

I asked one guy from New Jersey about his tags once.  He didn't know if I was talking about something you wear (i.e. credentials, press pass, etc.), or what.  Then I said, "No, a car tag."  He still had no idea.  He thought he was supposed to put something in the rental car.  I explained that it went on the back of a car and he said, "Oh, you mean my plates."  I honestly had no idea that anyone would not know what I was talking about when I mentioned a car tag.  Just another reminder of how wonderfully different the language is in different regions of the United States.

Southern Word of the Week - Ignernt

Lacking knowledge. Pronounced IG-nernt
(adj.) Some folks is just plain ignernt.

My daddy always used to say, "Everybody's ignernt about something."  Of course he didn't pronounce it that way, but I think I'm embracing more of my Southern roots than he did.  I sound extremely Southern when around my high school/grammer school friends.  What was I talking about?  Oh yeah, ignernce.

There are many people in the South that are ignorant about many things.  But do you wanna know how to clean and butcher a deer?  That same person you thought was ignernt, will be able to not only how to properly clean that deer, but probably be able to tell you the why's and what for's too.

Southern Quotables - Dolly Parton

"It takes a lot of money to look this cheap."
-Dolly Parton

Southern Word of the Week - All over hell and half of Georgia

"Boy where have you been?  We've been worried and looked all over hell and half of Georgia for you!"
"Where are my car keys?  I've been all over hell and half of Georgia looking for 'em!"

There are many different ways to say it but it often involves hell and not more than half of the state of Georgia.  I honestly haven't heard it much, and have only really seen it in print, but I did use it honestly this morning.  It obviously means what it says, just in a Southern storyteller kinda way. 

Have you used this phrase or have one similar?  Lemme know in the comments.

Southern Word of the Week - Drawers

(n.) That boy would look a whole lot smarter if he'd keep his drawers  pulled up.
(n.) You'd 'a never gotten in trouble if both of y'all would've kept your drawers on.

Drawers are either jeans, pants, shorts or underwear.  Plumbers are notroious for having their drawers slip down while they are on the job.  Kids often pull off their drawers and run around naked. 

I really don't know where the term came from but I have used it a lot since I've had kids. I'm constantly asking my 4 year old to pull her drawers up. 

As a side note, I was known to my best-friend Micah's family as Drawers because his father would announce me when I called as Drawers rather than Drew.

So pull up your drawers and let me know the best line you've heard using this word in the comments!

Nekid and Naked

While sounding similar, these words have two distinct meanings. 

Naked means you don't have on any clothes, like when a baby is first born.
Nekid means you don't have on any clothes and you're up to something.

So if you happen to find yourself or someone else without clothes, please choose the appropriate word.

The R Word

Redneck.  We've all heard the term and we all know what it means or at least says about the person it's directed at: Un-wealthy person of European blood.  Now it is true that it is a truly hateful word, two people of equal socioeconomic status can be in an argument and redneck will slip out of one or the others mouths and then a full on fight can take place.

Some of us call ourselves or others (that are present) rednecks in jest, but we all know its just being funny. But if others aren't present it is usually meant to portray a poor person or family.  It's not nice, but it does happen.

The term came from poor farmers and field workers that spent long hours outside for a low wage and had their necks burnt by the sun.  It's a shame that folks trying to earn an honest living got branded, but good or bad I guess thats how the human animal works.

Jeff Foxworthy is amazing on how he took a joke, the redneck or at least a characture of the redneck, and has made his whole career out of it.  It's a pretty funny bit, but it has run its course.  Same with the emails with the redneck weddings, etc.  They may be funny, but really wasn't Jersey Shore just the same type people yankees make fun of but instead of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, etc. it was in New Jersey?!

Ideas, statements, reactions about this term?  Tell us about them in the comments.

P.S. - I used one instance of the Confederate Flag because that's what a lot of people think rednecks wear. Most are used to the Naval Jack which is a rectangle, but this is one of the battle flags and was square.

Southern Word of the Week - Wrench

(v.) Take this rag and wrench it out so I can clean up this mess
(v.) Go wrench your feet off; how'd they get so muddy?
(v.) Wrench off this wrench; I dropped it in the oil catch.

Wrench is Southern for rinse.  Often you'll hear someone talk about warshing and wrenching something: cars, clothes, pets, etc.

Do you know someone that wrenches  stuff?  Let us know in the comments!

Thanks to @LuvHouses for the inspiration!

Southern Word of the Week - I swannee

(inj.) Well, I swanee, I cannot believe he said that to you!
(inj.) I swannee, I didn't expect to see you here.

My dad used to say it to convey surprise.  I think he mostly did it in jest as most people don't say it anymore, but I'm sure his grandmother did use it sincerely.  It's almost disappeared except in old timers and people who talk about the Southern dialect.

The small amount of research I did suggested that swanee was short for swear, but being good Southern Christians they didn't want to say swear.  "You aren't supposed to swear," is what I was always told by little brothers and sisters of my friends because that's what their Maw Maw's had always told them.

Did you hear someone say this and get thrown a curve ball?  Do you or someone you know still use this saying?  Let us know in the comments.

Driving in the South

I'm not really talking about driving in Atlanta or Nashville, I'm really talking about driving in the rural Southern U.S.  down here things are different.  People give you directions like, "It's up yonder a piece" or "you drive 'till you get to where the old high school was, then turn left."  Some times it's just assumed that you know where somethings used to be.

Then there's the horn.  When you drive in the rural South and hear a horn in traffic it's usually a bad thing.  I've been to New York where a car horn can mean come on and merge in, hold on, or to make known to one driver that another driver is still there so you don't back into him.  It isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can be.

I had a friend that was originally from Pennsylvania that was actually told once, "you can't get there from here."  That sounds like a oxymoron, because you can get from any place to any other place.  Like so many other sayings in the South it isn't literal, its just an expression.  It can be hard to get from one place to another, even in one town.  Once on the railroad tracks by my house a train had been stopped for hours and to get to high school I had to go way around it.  It felt like I couldn't get there from where I was because it was the long way around.

Do you have Southern driving/direction stories?  Share them in the comments.