St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-04-03
SOuthermisms. y
EXAMPLES OF QUAINT SAYINGS IN
GEORGIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA,
From Dixie.

From Dixie.
Some years ago Richard Grant White
wrote a delightfully."- interesting book
on Americanisms. He might we'll have
divided the subject into two parts
Yankeeisms and Southernisms. Also.
lutte correctness in pronunciation, or in
tho formation of sentences, is 8 most
difficult accomplishment and few there
be, either North or South, who have
reached such q degree OF perfection
that no exception can he taken by
"carping critics. to their utterances.
IN the matter of pronunciation the
LINES are changing, and one can scarce
ly keep pace with the innovations being
introduced by the leading orthoepists.
The purpose of this paper is, how
ever, to present. in succinct wav, a
few of the quaintnesses of pronuucia-
tion and construction held by the
southern people IA class. Among
these the first that comes to mind is the
custom of .omitting the last two letters
at such words rs more," store"
"Sto." :" To- What o'clock is it r.
you ask the CaroIinian, and ten to one
he tells you it's half pas fo',' if that
happens to be the hour.
Another common Southernisin is the
use of like as it, or like for the
words as it, She looked like she
knew me-" is q common expression, or
IS she looked liked AZ, if Shed'd die"
This is common in Washington, and in
the. States south of Mason and Dixon's
line.
The word " funny is frequently used,
instead Of strange, and sometimes with
startling effects. 4 young Southern
girl was visiting us once, and caller
was telling of the death of her mother
through swallowing a fish bone. oh !!
wasn't it funny ~ exclaimed our visi-
tor at the close of the narrative. Is"
think ynn mean strange said the cal
is.r as so6n as she recovered from her
establishment. Our girl friend has
never used the word funny" since.
II You happen to hear anybody say
"rye cheer you may know It is inten-
ded to mean right here For in
stance: A South Carolinian will say.
Where was he at last night ~ and his
fellow citizen will say, He stood rye
one syllable not a Russian VOID as
might be supposed; it means "Do you
hear ?" and is addressed to servants i'm
this form. "You, jim! Bring in that
wood, djearg'
"To get to go" is essentially Geor-
sia expression. They say, "D0, don't
fail to come tonight aud the reply is.
aI've tried TO get to go three weeks
now, 80 reckon I'll be there t'night"
The expression Do DON'T is heard in
Georgia aud South Carolina, but rarely
elsewhere. One OF the most laughable
things YOU ever heard is the peculiar
pronunciation of the word about"
it is impossible to express the South
Carolinian pronunciation, phOnetically.
1t sounds like eabout-prOnounced very
quickly in three syllables. "Quare,"
for queer" is another word. The use
of reckon for presume" is said to
have been derived frOm the Yankees.
as was tue expression fright smart"
for the word much
In imitation of English, perhaps is
the custom of saying I've got it," for
word "4got' where it is quite nnneces-
sary. Also English is the use OF
" obliged" as g I'm obliged to do it,"
for " must do it !" he is obliged to
go.n for che must gon Ambiguity Of |
expression is too prevalent in Dixie, |
and too many people sacrifice sense to
to sound. t
Low-country people and he resi-
dents of middle South Carolina say
:. yee-ardell" for garden" gee yard /
for . guard"-with the hard sound of
ss e. So, too, with such words as card"
g car and $ cart" into which is intro
aluced the sound of kee," to take thes
place of the first cons0nant, thus
q kee-ard, - kee-ar," kee-art."
The use of delightful for delicious in
such sentence as The ice cream is
delightful is very common. 8 Pretty"
is word very often misused, for in
stance: Isn't is Il pretty day ~
and this errer is very general one.
North Carolinians say the scenery is
:" pretty y'-meaning picturesque; tue
day is pretty, y,'-meaning fine. and
that persons manners are pretty
we'll bred.
"You ALL" or, as it is abbreviated,
e y'ali,n is one of the most ridiculous of
all the Southernisms can call to mind.
Ii usually means two OF more persons, I
but il at all tinses used when only one
person is meant. For instance, a caller
10 see u.s. She means the lady upon
whom she is calling and her husband
may call. ]!
The Yankees haye'quite as many ridi
suious figures OF speech as those have ,
mentioned as peculiarly Southern and
It will be reserved for another paper to J
present the oddities of Yankee c0nver-
Iation. In the mean time every true I
learted Southerner who reads these 9
ines will declare that he never used 6
my Of these Southernisms, and will be !
nat aR honest in his hnlief as khe Char c