How To Say Anything To a Southerner

[Nyboy]

I think it has to do with blood flow.

 

[Smart Red]

You started this. . . you and your big feet!

 

[Nyboy]

LOL now I like animals with big ears !!!

 

[MontyJ]

Heck, in my state, each county just about has its own dialect.

Isn't that the truth! Do y'all say yins down there Journey? As in yins all going to the mall later? For those that have never heard it...you ins...youins...yins...would be the pronunciation path. It's pretty prevalent here in the northern panhandle.

 

[Smart Red]

Northern Wisconsin language has melded with both Northern Michigan's yuppers and Northern Minnesota's. Every question my cousin asks is followed by "eh?" or "hey?" as in: "You'll stay for lunch, eh?" "That's a new coat, hey?"

Hum, looking at their speech pattern in writing leads me to believe that without their "EH/HEY?" they would never be able to ask a question. They speak in statements followed by the questioning "eh?" Interesting, hey?

 

[journey11]

Isn't that the truth! Do y'all say yins down there Journey? As in yins all going to the mall later? For those that have never heard it...you ins...youins...yins...would be the pronunciation path. It's pretty prevalent here in the northern panhandle.

No, we generally don't have any yins down here. LOL Although I have heard it a time or two.

 

[seedcorn]

Heard it from relatives from southern Tennessee.

 

[Beekissed]

We have yins here in the middle and over in the eastern panhandle. That's all dying out, sad to say, as more and more of our youth all revert to text speech or no speech at all...just texting. The yins were the "text speech" of our day, I guess.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Northern Wisconsin language has melded with both Northern Michigan's yuppers and Northern Minnesota's. Every question my cousin asks is followed by "eh?" or "hey?" as in: "You'll stay for lunch, eh?" "That's a new coat, hey?"

Hum, looking at their speech pattern in writing leads me to believe that without their "EH/HEY?" they would never be able to ask a question. They speak in statements followed by the questioning "eh?" Interesting, hey?

I remember when I was on vacation in Quebec and discovered that, contrary to my assumption that it was a semi racist gimmick created for TV stereotypes (like persons of Asian heritage getting their "R's" and "L's" crossed.*) there really are Quebecois people who end every question with "Yes, No?"

Note should also be made of a person I knew who ran a stamp and coin shop I would frequent when I was in college who had an odd idiosyncrasy, he would put the phrase "in other words" at the end of every clause when he spoke (where most people would say "um" or nothing at all).

I also remember one of my botany teachers was from somewhere in the Midwest, and I always found it odd that she would pronounce "measure" with a hard "a" (as opposed to a soft "e") which I had never heard outside of a cartoon before.

*Which I turns out is also a real thing. I remember once being asked by the checkout person at the Japanese bookstore I frequent if I liked eating moray. After saying I was not over much fond of any sort of eel, I saw her get really confused and say "No, No, moray, chicken moray. You know, in chocorate sauce"

 

[Carol Dee]

Born and raised in Iowa, German decent. So I do not know where the *R* came from in Wash ! (It was the way it was pronounced by all relatives) But it took a lot of hard work to train myself say *Wash* not *Warsh*