When I first came to the Washington area, I realized that I had an accent — I never thought I did, but people commented on the way I talked. Not so much the way I pronounced words (although that did happen) but some of the terms and phrases I used. For instance, I used to say, “sure ’nuff?” on occasion and I’d get a reaction like, “where you from, boy?”
Anyhow, I got to thinking about how it’s sometimes difficult to understand people, and I’m not talking about the immigrants, which is another issue altogether.
When I grew up in Oklahoma, we all used a term, “Y’all.” The term, which is often pronounced yaaaaaallllllll further south, is a way of referring to at least one other person. Actually, if you were talking to more than a handful of people, the correct expression would be “all y’all.” Another term that I heard and used growing up, but don’t hear around here is, “Fix’In.” It’s not used in reference to repairing anything, but is a way to indicate that at some, yet to be determined time, some action is going to be taken. I remember my grandmother saying things like, “I’m fix’in to go to the store.” A couple of terms that I often catch myself using (and I’ve noticed that Kelly uses them, too) are: “dudden and iden.” Dudden means doesn’t and iden means isn’t. For instance I may say, “That just dudden make sense,” or “That just iden right.” Of course, these often slop over into the next word and all run together; I might say, “That sounds funny duddenit,” meaning that sounds funny doesn’t it. Funny how I talk idenit?
While I was writing this, I realized that I also use “haden,” such as “He haden made up his mind yet.” The more I listen to myself, it’s a wonder anyone ever understands anything I say. The other day I caught myself saying, “I usta could do that,” referring to the fact that I used to be able to crush a beer can with my hand before I had it fixed.
Something I remember hearing growing up that I don’t hear much around here is, ‘mind to.’ For instance if you’re thinking about going to Virginia, you’d say, “I got a mind to go to Virginia.” He’s in a bad way always meant he was very ill. And one more from my past — I got shed of my old car, meaning I got rid of it.
We all talk funny — both strange funny and ha ha funny — and use terminology and phrases that may be foreign ( or “farn”) to others. When something has already happened, some say, “That’s in my behind” — just like today’s ramblings….
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