Friday, July 6, 2007

OH MY WORD-----I'm a Hick!

I grew up in East Central Mississippi in a town of about 40,000.  We considered ourselves "city people".  : )  I can still remember well, the phrase used every Saturday...."Country done come to town."  That meant all the people from the surrounding counties---very small towns and "country folk"---had come into town to shop.  Well, dignified city dweller that I was (smirk), and having had such a grand education in the public school system, I was quite particular about grammar as a child and teen.  I would even correct my parents grammar (I'm sure they LOVED that!) 
Imagine my utter horror last week, when I heard myself say, "Were you walking around by......y'allsselves.    Y'allsselves??????   Okay.  Just to clarify, if you live in the south the word "y'all" IS proper grammar.....but y'allsselves?????
We've lived in Tennessee now for 17 1/2 years, and "mountain locals" have a vanacular all their own.  (Except I don't think I've ever heard any of them say y'allsselves!)  They don't even say "y'all".  They say "you'en" or "yewns".  The last 10 years or so, my husband has been a contractor, and....well, let's just say that his subs don't treasure grammar the way I do.  So, some of that tends to seep into our language over time.  It has really become my pet peeve.  In other words, it's driving me crazy.  Here are a couple of the things I hear coming out of some of the mouths around here---and yes, sometimes mine.
Fer-  "We went fer a look."
wudja- "Wudja do that fer?"
dudn't- "That dudn't look right."
whatn't-  "That whatn't right."

Those are a few that immediately come to mind, although there are more.
Okay, while we're on the subject, I have a question.  How on earth do you live in the south and teach phonics???  I mean the word is "dawg", not "dog".  And, any true southerner knows you say "git" , not "get".  Do any of you know how stupid we sound to ourselves and to our children when we try to pronounce some of these words phonetically? 
I've come to one very important conclusion.  Whoever came up with phonics did not live in the south.  In the meantime, this weekend, git your children out to play with their dawgs, and hope you moms git some time to y'allsselves!
Letitia

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