A Little More Southernese

I have been collecting more examples of words, phrases, and usages that I consider "Southernese". I wrote a post about this in the past, and a few people found it amusing. I wrote about the times I would slip into that unique language.

How I would use "Y'all" as a trump card when introducing myself to my patients' families during that difficult first encounter when the family has yet to decide if I am a real person or one of Satan's Spawn.

"Where Y'all from?", puts everyone's mind at ease.


I was thinking about this the other night while at work at the prison clinic on the overnight shift. One of the women I worked with asked me "where I stayed". She meant to ask where I lived. It was only the third time I had ever heard this phrase, and all three inquirers were black women.

A few weeks ago I was at the Home Depot in their garden department. Someone had just bought something heavy, and a lot of it. They needed it loaded. The cashier knew this was not a job for ladies.

"I need a may-on" she hollered over the loudspeaker.

People from here have a talent for turning one syllable words to two, and two to one.

A "flahr" is a colorful part of a plant that blooms.

Working twelve hour shifts makes anyone "tarred" and anxious to go home to "bay-ed".

When I came to the South thirty two years ago, I was accused of having a New England accent and using New Hampshire dialect. This was not true. I speak colorless, non-denominational American English. I could be from anywhere, though I do take pains to keep my speech precise and jargonless. No one could pin me to any map for I speak American Anonymous.

How good it is that some people do not-