It's a fact. We all use phrases that are peculiar to our region and dialect. Amazing how even within the Amercian South, myriad dialects betray a speakers geography, quite like our UK neighbor's might.
My article on proper "y'all" usage sparked a new idea. I take great joy in learning new phrases and clever ways of saying things. No, not for shock value, per se, but for the joy I get out of mastering a new phrase and incorperating its color into my speech. Yeah. I'm a nerd. Big deal. It's a hobby and it's not drinking. Yet.
I've got several phrases and oddly Southern -isms to throw out there. I know you've got some hailing from your neck of the woods. Or city block. Or possibly apartment complex if you're from London. (Just a joke.) I'm not talking about just slang. I'm talking about bonafide sentence constructions, phrases, and things one will hear when traveling your homeland. I suppose translations won't really work so, though I hate to limit this to English speakers, I think its an evil necessity. Unless your barrio or ethnic area of an English-speaking land has brought about a new phraseology you think is interesting. Have a go!
I'm fixin ta throw some out there. (And yeah, I'm guilty of saying "fixin ta" even though I don't as often as everyone else here.)
Southerners are known for colorful phrases. I'm sure everyone's heard the phrase "nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs." I love that. I heard this one in a movie even: "He's grinnin like a possum eating dirt outta a hair-oil bottle," [sic]. Irritated people get "bees in their bonnets" and "burrs under their saddles." "That really gets my goat" is not too uncommon.
Dharma mentioned "fixin to" and "pitcher" for photograph on the "y'all" article. Kudos. We don't really say our long Is by the way. So it's never "I've;" rather it's "Ah've." My seniors in my communication class get a kick out of hearing themselves say the sentence, "My pie is in the sky tonight" because it's so obvious. "Mah pah is in the skah tahnaht."
Ever heard, "Like a duck on a june bug"? It means really getting after something. I've heard "sweatin' like a hog" lots and am tempted to call it more mainstream, though I could be wrong, and despite the fact pigs don't actually sweat.
"Busier than a three-legged dog tryin' to bury a turd." I don't speak like this, but I hear this enough to include it.
"Lord willin and the Creek don't rise." An allusion to the Creek indians, not the small waterway.
"I'll knock you wompyjawwed." Could be very local, but I hear it often enough.
"Polk Salad" -- a genuine Southern dish made from a weed. My grandmother cooks it. It's poisonious if not cooked correctly. It shall be a lost art -- it smells to high heaven when you cook it. (Another Southernism?)
"Tump." I show the word to students and they can't tell me what it means. I use it in a sentence, they immediately know it. It means to turn something over. "Watch out or you'll tump that glass over." No one ever writes it for some reason.
"Yonder." Over there.
"Coke." Any soda. Go through Dairy Queen and order a coke. She'll say, "What kind?"
In my HEL class, we noticed we have no difference between the words 'caught' and 'cot.' I think I've learned the distinction, but it's not easy for me.
Southerners use double negatives as profusely as our UK kin. I think that's where the Old South gets it's softened Rs from as well. "Ain'tchew got no ahced tea yay-et?"
Southern women, especially waitresses and grocery checkers, call everyone "sweetie," "honey," "baby," "darlin," and "sugar." Don't be offended. Admittedly, I get irritated when the woman is obviously younger than me, but it's ingrained.
We don't drive trucks. We drive pick-ups. And my grandfather calls it a "turtle-hull" not a trunk. I've heard it called a "bonnet" instead of a "hood" but I think that's a Brit throwback. (Bonnet and boot, right?)
We eat three meals: Breakfast, dinner, and supper. Yanks have lunch, I'm told. And two of the three almost always include iced tea, most likely sweet. Liquid gold...
Southerners talk so very slowly compared to Yanks, I'm told. Now if ah cun jest fahnd a way to record some of the local ac-ce-ints fer you. Wild.
Help me out, Little Whip. I know there's oodles more. What about other regions? Rats. It seems I've lost my pen. Now where's he to, my lover? (Already workin it!)