Yankee or Dixie????

DH scored a 91% Dixie - guess it's rubbed off on me. But they really needed a question about sidewalks. (Are they made of concrete, cement, or....SEE-ment???) the answer separates the true southerners pretty fast!

Guess the English-southern connection is one of the reasons Vivian Leigh was able to play Scarlet O'Hara with an authentic-sounding accent?

I am reminded of how the name Scots Irish got corrupted by Americans into the name Scotch Irish. I have heard folks from the British Isles getting so seriously involved in trying to explain the corruption to the Americans who just can't seem to understand the problem..... "Scotch is whisky and not people!!!!!" I always get amused because I know that they will keep right on saying it after they are away from the "proper" speaking person. I have even read it in books.

Yep, by the time all of the differences get terribly eroded I will be dead and gone and won't care. LOL Another bit of humor. Why is it always "dead and gone" instead of just dead? If we are dead we are surely gone or at least hopefully unless we are Freddie Crugar.

Wow...so certain words across the sea are words we'uns use here in the South!? That's great! Does that mean if I ever make it over there they'll understand me?
How exciting! I'm elated! Butter my behind and call me a biscuit!

40% Yankee and I'm cooking grits right now!?

I do not think that will help you Root! LOL

So if you are 40% Yankee, then you are 60% Dixie????????

73% (Dixie). That is a pretty strong Southern score!

Ohio is a weird state. There are many different accents here, and like Vic said, depending on what area of the state you're in, you'll hear it pronounced differently.

Mine said 49% yankee, just barely
what the heck did that mean?

Yeah Kell, twins seperated by birth! LOL Have you heard Peggy on the phone? I went to meet her and watch her daughter cheer at a basketball game. Well, everyone was cheering for the "Paint-ers". Then I noticed a big black cat in the middle of the court. LOL Peggy still swears I have as much twang as she does. ;)

Bad just came in from planning 12 I think x 32 gh addition maybe will maybe wont we will see,

So the effiness come from the 63 Dixie or the 37 Yankee in me?I calls my cat sugar mama called me sugar at times when I was little and has started it again and my family nickname is Bubba or Bub LOL hows that for the far North West corner of the main states?
Ernie

I would like to see the scoring on this test. I came out 42% yankee but 50% of my answers said common to Great Lakes or North East. Another 35% said common throughout US. Unless something has happened that I don't know about since my last trip across country, Lake Superior is not in Dixie. lol.

Can't help it. Statistics and how they tweak tests facinates me.

My DD (ten yrs old) took the test today! (She, of course didn't know what a drive-thru likker store was.)

She got a 75% Dixie. (I was worried there for a bit cus her Mom is from above the Mason-Dixon line and I kept thinking she's gonna test out to be a Yankee in the South. I had no reason to fear, I reckon!) By the way, ain't nuttin' wrong with being a Yankee in the South... it's just that if you're 'Dixie' in the South I believe you'll find your way around better and can follow the directions better should you have to ask!

I reckon it all comes down to not just colloquialisms but also understanding the accents! (Don't get me started on accents. Mine changed once, nearly scared me to death.)



This message was edited Feb 21, 2004 6:37 PM

Frog I noticed that to oh well back out side its scortching today sun is shining and its almost 50 degrees heat wave will disapate about2.30 Ernie

Chele, funny you say that about Peggy. She and I have just been talking about our accents today. She said I sound like a valley girll. Oh no, that was Susie..... she said I sound like a valley girl or a jersey girl. I am not sure which is worse. Peggy came ot my defense, said I sounded citified! LOL.

philomel, there are many linguists that say the southern accent is closer to our British beginnings than to the North. there are some words that are similar, especially when we drop our r in some words. LIke Mothah for Mother

I was born and raised in IN and even though we were only 40 or 50 miles from Cincinnati, the locals pronounced Cincinnati as Sin Sin at uh whereas if you were actually from Cincy they would say, Sin Sin at ee. Also in IN they say Oh Hi uh where the buckeyes will actually say Oh Hi O. Chevrolet was another one. In IN it was Shivvy whereas in Cincy it was Shevy. So moving to OH as an adult and ultimately marrying someone from Cincy really did a trip on my ears as far as hearing things pronounced differently. Also, when dd came home from living in Australia for a year, it was fun to hear her say all different kinds of things as well as pronounce them differently. One night we were cleaning the kitchen and she said "Chuck it in the bin" and she said this fast like it was one word. I said.."What?????"...It meant, put it in the trash. Down under they say aluminum as Al u men ee um and emergency as EM er jency and they call sweaters jumpers. BTW, dd that has lived down here 3 years longer than me took the test too and got 63% Dixie - YIKES!!!!

I dunno, Vic, I remember Sears having T-shirts that said "Nerk, Ahia" because so many people say it that way 'round here.

HAH! As the world turns!
I ‘member the time I’s up in the mtns all by myself for several months. Wasn’t another soul around. I didn’t mind it either! ( I tend to talk to myself so felt I was in pleasant company.) One day, as I was coming over the top of a mountain and started descending down into the next holler, I wasn’t paying attention and nearly stepped on a rattlesnake. (Don’t worry, we didn’t hurt each other. We both realized that we each had just gotten accidentally interrupted while minding our own business.)

Anyway, when I saw that snake I automatically side-stepped and hollered out loud, “H-H-H-Hey!!” That was the loudest I’d spoken in weeks and the sound really carried across the way! The next morning, as I was making my coffee and enjoying the quiet solitude around me (as well as deciding where I’d go next) all of a sudden I heard “Ayyyy!!!” That certainly scared me! I didn’t know anyone else was around! As it turned out, there wasn’t.

Finally, I deduced that the land area I was in was so vast that what I had heard was my echo coming back to me from the day before! It had taken so long traveling back to my ears that it apparently had slightly changed its accent (and dropped the “H” sound!). Yep…no doubt about it, proof positive that as time goes by our accents may change all on their own!

heheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheeeeeeeeee!!!

I think OH is a melting pot of sooooooo many accents, etc., huh GW??? DD that lives down here had to go up home for a funeral last summer and when she came back she said, mom, I don't even talk like my friends anymore. We both laughed. I do know I say down yonder or over yonder a lot now and I don't think I even knew what that meant when I lived in OH. LOL....

lol shoe like I said you the man! (thinking we got a story out of shoe good going vic. )

vic, I understand you perfectly clear! I can sure identify w/your DD also...were I to come across my friends I went to school with (while in Florida) with they'd never be convinced I am who I am!

Mystic...you dawg...did ya'll plan that? Eeeking something outta me? For shame!

Shoe, you pop up with your delightful humorous stories at just the right time to put a smile back on my lips at the end of a rather difficult day. Bless you! You are a uniquely wonderful guy!

I'd never realised that woodspirit

Shoe you're the best LOL
I second ruby42!

Great story Shoe!How about telling us another one.I love to read your stories,as does everyone else here i'm sure.

Now 'Shoe...that was a goodun!

As to Yonder....my grandson asked me one day: "Grandma, why do you say yonder?" DUH! Jo

this was such a fun thread! :) Thanks for starting this Vic! It made alot of people laugh!

I have to ask. How do you guys say soy? Like the bean. When I say it, it rhymes with boy. Hubby sounds like he is calling pigs! LOL He says so-ee.

Kell, when ever I think of 'valley girls', I think of that movie or the show 'square pegs'. Tell me you don't say 'like....'!

Badseed, I say "soy" kind of like you (boy) but with just a slight tinge of "ee" on the end. But definitely not like so-eeeeeeeeeeeeeee, like calling pigs! That's hilarious!

I say soy that rhymes with boy. Here's one, my mother was raised in southern IN and when we would go visit relatives they would say - Uncle Jim (or whoever) will be here "directly". I never heard that anywhere else. Other ways of saying that...

in a little bit
shortly
afterwhile
soon
etc., etc.... directly???? where does that come from?

"directly" almost sounds military to me, lol!

I would say that sounds like England, Scotland or Ireland to me.
drec-kly is how my grandmother said it.

my mom still says drec-kly --- "I'll find it directly."
Real common around here...
some of the words that I speak, and have heard my entire life... although I don't say many of them anymore because hubby is a city boy--he teased me out of them.

press --- closet
Boot ---- Trunk of car
miller ---- moth
dinner --- lunch
supper --- evening meal
davenport --- couch or sofa

We say "I'll be there directly" here in England, as one of the ways of saying "I'll be there at once"
I don't know the origin, but it wouldn't be considered anything strange to say that

Well if you were to ask me I would say 100% yankee. I guess my words say different. 65% (Dixie). A definitive Southern score! I know it's all the brain warshing Jesse and Lisa did on me down in the bayou.

But Howie...did you get them to put taters in the Gumbo? Jo

LOL Is that pronounced "der-ecktly" or "die-recktly"? I have heard that one for years, but the second way.

Here it's either die-recktly or di-recktly as in 'dip' (well 'dip' here anyway lol)

53%, just barely Dixie. I sent this test to a friend and he responded with this: http://www.americanaccent.com/ For all you 'furiners,' there's some great lessons on speaking "americanese."

it said 73% dixie, well was born minne. been in ok. 39 yrs.. now for dixie my husband he is georgia soda cracker.. no offense there meant,.. he is a cracker..

This message was edited Feb 24, 2004 1:54 PM