Howdy Y'all!

Grammatical Idiosyncrasies

I am from the south - the "Dirty South" as people like to call it; meaning way past the metropolis of Atlanta, past the Malls and stately mansions, in the backwoods. Our town is so small we finally got our first red-light when I was 16, the nearest grocery store is 45 minutes away, and the only gas station in town has been there "since God was a boy," and Bo owns it. Bo has had three wives; number 1 was Lisa; he tattooed her name horizontally across his forearm. When they divorced he tattooed an "X" over the L, I, A and utilized the S to form his 2nd wife's name, Stella, vertically. When he married wife number 3, he kept up with tradition, tattooed an "X" over S, T, E, L, L, and used the A to form Amy, horizontally. I swear you can't make these things up!

While doing research for my paper this week I came across various kinds/types of idiosyncrasies, which I passed and kept hunting how the heck to do a phonological, syntactical, and semantic entry for -er (perhaps I'll go into the stroke worthy search in a different post). This afternoon while on the phone with my brother he said: "I got me a new car today alls I had to do was air up em' tires."

Let's pause here - I have eight brothers and sisters, yes my family is redneck, mainly because they think household furniture is acceptable both in and outdoors. It's perfectly normal to have at least two cars that are being "worked on" in the driveway and anywhere between 2-5 dogs running amuck through the yard (dogs do NOT live inside in the dirty south). However, my family is also the most amazing group of siblings in the world, some have gone to college, some have not, some are married and have kids, some do not. They love my mother with a fierceness that unless you're from the south, you will never understand. They love God; they love America, and the love John Deer! However, grammar may have slipped through the cracks here and there with some of "us." Okay, back to my story.

I was not startled or even alarmed when he said this; we just kept right on rolling with the conversation. After I got off the phone and as I was relaying the conversation to my husband, and  I made my best "Red" impression (side-note - we call one brother Red, that's not his name, we have just always called him that) and my husband cracked up! It was then that I noticed exactly what he said, which caused me to do some research.

What the heck is up with the Southern Dialect?

**This is only about"my" Southern peeps and in no way is a reflection of how all southern individuals speak**

Southerners often replace adverbs with their adjective counterparts: such as saying "That works real good "rather than saying "That works really well."

Often use "her" or "me" rather than "herself" or "myself": such as "I got me a new car" rather than saying "I got myself a new car."

Using a noun in the place of a verb or adjective: such as "I need to air up my tires" rather than saying "I need to put air in my tires."

Dropping the final vowel on a word while keeping the meaning the same: such as "I think ever-body should vote" rather than saying "I think everybody should vote" **Should be notated that things may be Bigger in Texas but, everything is plural in the south! We don't really do "everyone" or "someone" it's "ever-body, which is articulated like "err-bodi" all the time, in all situations.

More times than I should admit, Southerners will put a /t/ onto the end of a word, in the place of the -ed suffix; such as "I grabt me a sandwich at lunch" or "I showert this morning." rather than saying grabbed or showered.

Occasionally Southerner's take the order in which letters are arranged in a word, as a suggestion and NOT as a rule: such as "Can I aks you a question?" Which is probably the worse mispronunciation of any word ever and has got to be like nails on a chalkboard to a real linguist (which I most definitely am not!)

I could go on with the amazing language we Southerners have just made up, including words like cooter-brown, dagnabit, youins, shant, goldarnit, and on, and on but, I think you get the picture; we talk funny!

There has been much discussion and debate over just how and why the Southern Dialect is the way it is. It was changed, formed, influenced, created, and broken by the English who settled it, by the African Americans who were forced to work it. By the southerners who were cut off from the prosperity and growth in the North (mostly by their own doing) from the Application Trail down, the long-time practice of using children as free labor rather than educating them and this list could go on and on. I don't have an answer as to why some Southerner's speak the way they do, and why some don't. I grew up in the south, I went to the same schools my brothers attended. I was in my 20's the first time I traveled more than 100 miles away from home but, I would like to think I have my use of grammar, pronunciation and articulation under control. Perhaps there aren't just idiosyncrasies within the Southern dialect; maybe the answer is that in some "areas" the whole of the English language has transformed into a Southern language which is it's own separate entity, hiding under the umbrella of American English. Or maybe we just need better schools?? What do you think?