The South - The North

[keltin]

I’ve seen quite a bit of “that must be a suthuhn thang” or “dats a Yankee thang”. So I’m wondering just how different is the North from the South? Personally, I don’t talk with an accent….even though ya’ll huv sho’nuff seen bad accents on the boob toob.

Some vocabulary that surprises even me in the south is:

Hose Pipe – My DW is from Tennessee (NORTH of here), and she uses this term. What the…..OH, it’s a “Water Hose”.

I say “Ice Box” which is the fridge (so does Emeril!). When my DW and I first go together, we were unloading groceries one day, and I said to stick the butter in the “ice box”. Later, I went looking for it and couldn’t find it……she had stuck it in the FREEZER. Ice….Freezer…….ok.

Northern folk seem unaccustomed to “Sweet Tea”. Down south, we drink it both ways, sweet and un-sweet.

Northern folk call a carbonated beverage a pop. The last time someone asked me for a “pop”, I almost hit him!

Conversely, I’ve got a bad habit of using “coke” generically to mean any soft drink (Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, RC Cola, etc). Instead of saying I want a soda or a pop, I say I want a Coke, even though I don’t mean Coca-Cola but instead mean Diet Mountain Dew.

Growing up on the Gulf Coast, I love seafood, but the further North I get, the less likely people are to be adventurous. Things like “muscles”, “mud bugs”, frog's legs, soft shelled crabs, catfish (especially "mud cat"), etc seem esoteric to some. Mention a mullet toss (nothing to do with the hair cut) and you’re often greeted with blank stares. Speak of “floundering”, “gigging”, or “trolling” and you get the same stares. Cast nets, trotlines, crab traps, crab boils, corn boils, etc……all foreign once you get a bit North of the Gulf Coast.

So, what are the oddities “ya’ll” see everyday that makes you “geographically different” from others?

Heh - Anyone else know what a "needle fish" is? I bet Uncle Bob does! How 'bout a Gar or "Nutra".

 

[Katie H]

Fun thread, keltin.

As background, I was born in Nebraska and lived in Kentucky during my formative years. My mother was from Minnesota (read that Yankee territory) and my daddy was from central Kentucky (read that "Southern").

When I was in high school, I was branded a Yankee because I didn't speak with the southern drawl. Instead I pronounced my words clearly. Just me. Not slurred as some of my classmates did and also didn't speak rapid fire-style.

However, when I lived with my Minnesotan grandparents during my first year of college, my grandmother said she couldn't understand some of what I said. She wanted to know what I meant when I asked for a "flash water." I'd simply asked for the "flyswatter." Guess I'd become more southernized than I'd realized. I couldn't win for losing.

When I moved to the Washington, D.C. area many moons ago, I was considered to be a Yankee because of my speech style/patterns.

I've been back in Kentucky for 14 years and don't know if I'm considered a Yankee or a native.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

 

[keltin]

Flash water……Fly Swatter! Honey child, that device is o’var…..in the hollar. LOL!

That’s great! What do you call a “carbonated beverage” such as Pepsi? By name or some other nickname.

What about a “water hose” or “ice box”?

 

[jpmcgrew]

I have lived in west and still do and in the south(Georgia) when I was younger 15 years old I picked up a southern accent instead of saying Hi I learned to say Hey Yall and so on,I thought a needle fish was a Gar Fish which looks really prehistoric with a long alligator like snout and alot of teeth also called an Alligator Gar , a Nutra is a water rodent which is quite nasty as it is very destuctive but from what I understand people down south will actually eat them.From all my observations you might be able to turn a Yankee into a southerner but you can never turn a southener into a Yankee.
Oh and yes its not ice tea but *** taih,oil is url.And in Texas sh#t is sheeyeet.

 

[Katie H]

I call it Pepsi, darlin'. As far as the hose and refrigerator are concerned, they're the hose and refrigerator/fridge.

My northern relatives called sodas/carbonated beverages, "pop." Not too weird, "refrigerator." Older adults said "ice box."

 

[keltin]

OMG!

I decided to joke on my DW. She was at the “ice box” and I asked her “where is that Flash Water”.

Without bating an eye, and non-chalantly, she dug under the kitchen ink and handed me a fly swatter! LOL!

I laughed myself to tears….she thought I was crazy of course…..but I’ve finally explained it. That was great!

 

[keltin]

I have lived in west and still do and in the south(Georgia) when I was younger 15 years old I picked up a southern accent instead of saying Hi I learned to say Hey Yall and so on,I thought a needle fish was a Gar Fish which looks really prehistoric with a long alligator like snout and alot of teeth also called an Alligator Gar , a Nutra is a water rodent which is quite nasty as it is very destuctive but from what I understand people down south will actually eat them.From all my observations you might be able to turn a Yankee into a southerner but you can never turn a southener into a Yankee.
Oh and yes its not ice tea but *** taih,oil is url.And in Texas sh#t is sheeyeet.

The Needle Fish and Gar (Alligator Gar) are related I think. The needle fish I speak of are much smaller and less toothy, They love to come up to your light when you’re floundering. Harmless, but weird.

Gars on the other hand will wreck a good fishing spot and chase the Bass off. The are also tough, and if hooked, most often break your line (if you were set for bass). A Nutra….water rat…..looks like a beaver in a lot of ways…….and yeah, I’ve seen that some people do eat ‘em. Then again, some people eat Opossum! I watched a show the other night (Dirty Jobs I think????) where they used wild Nutra to feed farm raised crocodiles (dead and frozen Nutra of course).

I’ve heard of stories in the ocean where sailors were speared through the middle by large jumping needle fish. Apparently, the fish tried to jump over the bow and stabbed an unwary seamen…….odd story…..I wonder of it’s true?

 

[jpmcgrew]

I love all the different dialects in this country very interesting as far as soda goes it can be soda or pop depending on where you live.In Texas I once made a joke after my 2 month job I said I was glad the job was over and said (Im blowing this pop stand)they had no clue what I meant by pop if I had said soda they would have gotten it.

 

[keltin]

Hey....here's a needle fish!

And here is a Gar.

An boy, do those Gar get big!

 

[keltin]

southerner but you can never turn a southener into a Yankee.
Oh and yes its not ice tea but *** taih,oil is url.And in Texas sh#t is sheeyeet.

Just read more of your post!

Yes ma’am, I’ve heard many a’time you can turn a Yankee but brimstone and high water won’t wash off the southern!

Url = Oil
Windurs = Windows
Wursh = Wash

Lordy, lordy!

What of superstitions….I SWEAR my DW is going to kill me with all of these old school southern superstitions. Things I’ve never heard of like……”If you leave your house by one door, you must come back in the house by that same door or it’s bad luck”. HUH!?!?!?!

Then there is the pocket knife thing….give it open, the guy you give it to should never close it before giving it back or it's bad luck for both.

So many…..glad I gots me a rabbit’s foot!

 

[Katie H]

”If you leave your house by one door, you must come back in the house by that same door or it’s bad luck”. HUH!?!?!?!

Yeah, keltin. I didn't know of the leaving by the "same" door superstition until I moved here in 1994. Our house has 5 outside doors, so a person could easily be put into a sorry mental state if they don't leave by the door they came in by.

 

[jpmcgrew]

That was one of my dreams as a little tomboy in Georgia to catch a Gar Fish Id seen some dead but man did I want to catch one on my bamboo pole I never did.Dang.I looked at your needle fish pic never knew those existed they look a bit scary but as a kid I would have sure wanted to catch one.

 

[jpmcgrew]

I used to as a kid sneak down to somebodies pond to catch catfish or wait till the neighbor left for work and gather pecans and sell them.Yes I was a real rebel.

 

[jpmcgrew]

Keltin,Ever heard of the red boots? A civil war thing.Dont know much about them but was told a little.

 

[keltin]

Keltin,Ever heard of the red boots? A civil war thing.Dont know much about them but was told a little.

Great stories JP! But, I've not heard of the "red boots". What is that?

 

[keltin]

Yeah, keltin. I didn't know of the leaving by the "same" door superstition until I moved here in 1994. Our house has 5 outside doors, so a person could easily be put into a sorry mental state if they don't leave by the door they came in by.

Oh Lord, that one has made my life so much more difficult! I had never heard of it either, and we have 3 doors to the outside…….and DW patrols them!

Heck, I’m a bit superstitious at heart, and it seems when I hear a new one, suddenly I own it even though I know better!

 

[jpmcgrew]

Keltin,If I remember right it was some civil war rebels that would tromp thru the red clay of the south making their boots red to wreck havoc.I may need to to a search on internet to see if they come up.

 

[Andy M.]

When I was a kid it was "tonic" then it was "soda" or a soft drink. Never heard anyone call it pop. Pop was the first half of a word that ended in "corn"

If you ask for a coke around here, you expect Coca-Cola. Not Pepsi or anything else.

It was an icebox when I was a kid. Now it's the fridge.

I drive my SO crazy when we're in the kitchen and I say, "Let's go inside." meaning go into the living room. It works in reverse if we're in the living room and I want to go into the kitchen.

The fish keltin listed are simply not available in the north. It's not that we are not adventurous, we just never see them.

If we order tea,we expect it to be hot. Otherwise we order iced tea. It comes unsweetened.

 

[Dove]

My MIL would say "he is in the house" if we were in the kitchen and I would ask where my husband was..meaning the living room...when she made fresh bread it was called Lite Bread..(North Carolina)

When he was stationed in Jackssonville Florida the older men he hunted with had their own language..
My dawg is over younder in the grater ditch..when he asked what was the grater ditch.."you city boy! where the grater came through..(where they were working on the road) and then one said " That Jip over thar is mine." Paul asked why he called his dog a Jip..answer was "if we call her a B.... my wife would kill me" so they all called the female dogs a Jip.

 

[licia]

I'm a Florida native, born and bred within 35 miles of where I now live and I have never heard most of what I've read here about the way Southern people talk.