Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Badfic fake Southern Idioms

Picked up the habit from the raft guides when I used to tackle white-water in Canada.

And LOL. The bubble doesn't burst until people start saying it around me!

JD

Hey, CP33 - Atlanta, Georgia is part of the south. And “fixin’ to” is a very southern saying - I’ve heard it all my life. But I don’t recall ever hearing it when I lived up north in Columbus, Ohio or out west in the Rocky Mountains. Maybe it is bad grammar, but it’s no different than some of the other sayings from around the country. It couldn’t possibly be worse than “youse guys”.

Y’all might be interested to know that the southern dialect and more especially the Appalachian dialect is considered closer to the King’s (or Queen’s) English which, of course, is the home of English, than any other American dialect. For instance, how would some of you define row (I don’t mean to row a boat.)? Now come on... Do it without looking it up. How many of you know what it means? (Bet Elisabeth knows.)

~~~~~

And how about this... What’s the following mean?

“Elisabeth, will you go to the store for me?”

“I don’t care to do that, James.”

Come on now, tell me quick - your first impression.

~~~~~
And where in the world did you get those Southernisms, James? Surely those weren’t on LnC, were they? Oh, I see - Elisabeth made them up. But, yes, some of Perry’s Southern sayings weren’t quite right.

I believe “sweet” is more widespread, Pam.

~~~~~

Hehehe... I know Elisabeth made this up (pretty cute). Here's what we'd really say:

He's drunker 'n a skunk. ('n is a very shortened version of than.)

I'm as corny as Kansas in August,
I'm as normal as blueberry pie.
I'm as trite and as gay as a daisy in May,
I'm as corny as Kansas in August,
High as a flag on the Fourth of July!
If you'll excuse an expression I use,
I'm in love, I'm in love,
I'm in love, I'm in love,
I'm in love with a wonderful guy!


From here . *is a dork*

Julie

row = fight

i think...

Yes, it does mean row. I know I've heard it sometime here.

Very good, Carol. I does mean fight. Hey, Smiley, I'm not sure what you meant... Did you mean that row means to row a boat? There is a another meaning. It's a noun rather than a vowel. As Carol says, it means fight or argument.

So no one else wanted to say what they thought the other meant, huh?

I meant that I've heard people around here refer to getting into a fight as getting into a row. A rabble rousing row, infact.

Yes, a rabble rousing row it is.

Sounds like "no" from here. But it's lots more polite than "do it your damn self"

PJ

Hey, Pam, I'm surprised you came up with that answer since you are from NC. It's a regional thing. In some regions of the US, this means, "No, do it your damn self!" In other regions of the US, this means, "Why, sure, James. I'd be delighted."

I found that out the hard way when I had a boss from Connecticut. She was totally bewildered when several of her employees told her, "I don't care to do that." They (and I) meant that they'd be glad to do it. She thought they were saying, "Nope, ain't gonna do it."

I'm in NC now but I was born & raised in PA. And I confess I'm having trouble figuring out how "I don't care to do that" means "yes, I'd be delighted" " I don't care if I do that" makes a bit more sense to me -- kind of like "don't mind if I do" which generally conveys much more enthusiasm than the bare words would suggest to me.

I guess maybe it's like "I could care less" which actually means I could *not* possibly care less than I do right now. Or "That ain't nothin'" which, again, means that it *is* nothing.

English is a funky language. Which is what makes writing in it so fun.

PJ

I've just caught up with this thread - very interesting.

I was caught by surprise with Nancy's bringing up row = fight as something unusual or surprising, because here in the UK it's commonplace to use it in that context. In fact, most people in the UK would say "I had a row with her" rather than "I had a fight with her", I think. Fight here mostly tends to denote something more physical than a verbal argument.

And, of course, it's pronounced differently in that context. Not row as in boat, but row (r-ow).

It had never occurred to me before that that wasn't universal.

Learn something new... (at least, you do on these boards )

LabRat

As to southernisms, how about...

God bless a milkcow

Good googaley-moogaley (say it just how it is spelled)

Grinnin' like a possum eatin' briars

Durnit (instead of dammit) *got quite a few spankings over this one, too close to the real thing* :rolleyes:

Pam, this line reminded me of one year when I was watching the American Presidental election returns. (Yeah, I know. I'm Canadian. But there isn't much that's more entertaining than an evening of watching election returns ). Anyway, I spent the whole evening and long into the night with a pad of paper and a pen, feverishly writing down Dan Rather lines for use in my fics .

As for y'all... I'm a Canadian and I use that expression occasionally. It works so much better than just saying 'you' when you want to be sure that everyone knows that they are included.

ML

And so it is in the region of the US I live in. But it’s not commonly used in other parts of the country. If I’d said that when I lived in Columbus, Ohio, they would have given me a dumb look. But this part of the country (Kentucky) has deep Scottish roots so that may explain it.


No, not really. It’s a friendly statement. Like: “I’d be glad to help you.” or “I don’t mind doing that.” It would be closer to how the following is used:
This is often used around ‘these here parts’ to say, “You’re welcome.” I guess it’s kind of like saying you’re welcome in Spanish - De Nada which means of nothing or it’s nothing. That’s kind of odd since there isn’t much in the way of Spanish roots here. But there is some French roots here. Perhaps since they are both Romance languages the French is similar, but I don’t know.


Well, gosh darnit (variant of durnit), my mama taught me this saying and I bet I’ve been known to say it in the past week or so.

Going off topic, just a tad, this reminded me of a Jonathan-ism that I read in a fanfic a long time back, which always amused me. Something about a mouse and catnip. A mouse selling catnip maybe? Anyone know the one? It's bugging me now and I have zero clue which story it would have been in either.

LabRat

All this talk of possums reminds me of a song I heard at a family gathering one year. My music of choice is rock, so I wasn't paying real close attention as the singer started out with the whole "children are hungry/don't have a job" sort of lyrics. But I just about fell off the picnic table bench laughing when I heard the chorus:

There's five pounds of possum in my headlights tonight.
If I can just run him over, every thing will be all right.
We'll have some possum gravy, oh what a beautiful sight;
There's five pounds of possum in my headlights tonight.

'Toc

OK,
I know I'm late to the party,
but have just come back to the boards after a 3 month break due to RL driving me up the wall...

anyway
did anyone else notice that he should be
as relaxed as AN Opossum...

and
grinnin' like AN Opossum eating...


oh,
and the tain't nothing phrase reminds me of the Aussie (but perhaps universal) no problem in that they share the same meaning...

In the US South, no one says Opossum. The O is dropped. We say Possum

Just caught up to this thread... funny.

I'm a 5th generation native Texan, so I have a few opinions on how to talk Texan, which is not necessarily the same as southern.

I'm gonna hav'ta disagree with the opinion most of y'all seem to have about the phrase "fixin to." That is commonly used here and is quite proper for a Texan to say.

In fact, I'm fixin to go to lunch.



This is a little EXAGGERATED but close to home...
http://www.rice.edu/armadillo/Texas/talk.html


*****
Never ask a man if he's from Texas. If he is, he'll tell you on his own. If he ain't, no need to embarrass him.

They say Texas is like a whole other country... and The Republic of Texas WAS a sovereign nation before joining the United States.