Topic: It's like we speak our own little language

[Laina]

So, as you may or may not know, I live in a pretty rural part of Kentucky. That being said, I wanted to share with you some of our little lingual idiosyncrasies & see how they compare to other English speaking folks. Maybe you've heard some eleventy-billion times before, maybe this is a whole new thing to you-lemme know.

1. So a lot of older people here don't consider certain curse words to be curse words, but commonplace slang. Examples: shit, piss, ass-it wouldn't at all be uncommon to hear a cute little granny fresh outta the Old Regular Baptist sermon using these terms like they're the word "the" in casual conversation.

2. We have funny words for genitalia...if a mod viewing this could let me know wether this is too risqué to post or not it'd be appreciated.

3. We have words for simple everyday things that a "Proper feller/womern" would never figure out I think. (Yes, older people here do say "feller" & womern" for guy/lady/woman). Examples:

Poke-bag/sack, usually made of burlap, but could be any material really

Cairn (pronounced 'ke-yah-rn')-a modified form of the word "carrion", meaning of course rotting flesh. It's usually used as negative way to describe the smell of something, or when making a negative comparison ("You're sorry-er than kyarn, Conrad!").

Sorry- We all know what this means, but the way it's generally used down here is as a replacement for the word "lazy" ("You are the sorry-est thing I have ever seen!").

Kegged (pronounced 'kaih-gged', kind of with the Japanese way of pronouncing 'ai', just a little more elingated)-A generally negative term for when something is tightly packed ("It's all kegged up in there"), or stuck. ("He's all kegged up in bed.")

Holp- Old English way of saying help. Mainly older folk use this.



There're quite a few more, I'm just a little exhausted typing all of this on my phone. More to come soon!

[Ratty]

Dialects can be fun, it indicates a lot about who settled where generations ago, especially in a place that was so geographically isolated as parts of Kentucky. The isolation has allowed old forms of speech and old words that drop off elsewhere to hang on, like "reckon" for "suppose".
You really need writing to homaginize a language, I remember hearing a supposedly true story that in Britain about 1600 (iirc) before news pamphlets and things became common there, some Londoners went a few miles out of town and tried to buy eggs from a local farmer but couldn't. The farmer thought they were trying to rob him because the word for egg in London meant something different than it did just a few miles out.

Poke-bag/sack, usually made of burlap, but could be any material really

This sounds like it's named in reference to "polk salad", the poisonous weed which is a traditional boiled food in parts of Kentucky.

You also forgot one of the best ones-
vieenies (vi-ee-n-ees)- canned vienna sausages.

[Laina]

This sounds like it's named in reference to "polk salad", the poisonous weed which is a traditional boiled food in parts of Kentucky.

You also forgot one of the best ones-
vieenies (vi-ee-n-ees)- canned vienna sausages.

Ugh, polk salad-disgusting to me. lol My dad loved the stuff though; it grows in our yard & we used to go pick it all the time when I was little. And I didn't forget "vai-ehy-nees", was just saving it for if anyone was interested in learning more. lol

Very interesting story about the farmer & eggs I reckon (that's a common one here I planned on mentioning, nyuk). I love to read little things like that! I've always had a keen interest in languages.

[TheCruelAngel]

Up in the great North West of America, I've heard our dialect referred to as "dictionary" English. Though  quick browse to Wiki shows it as "standard American"

(click to show/hide)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Northwest_English

. So kind of boring here...

The only weird thing I've noticed is that sometimes older generations of WA natives will pronounce wash with an 'r' so it becomes "warsh". Or at least my wife's mother and her grandmother do this... 

[Bloodreign]

Louisiana has some very strange dialects here, English sometimes mixed with French, sometimes used in place of one another, the show Swamp People even has to be subbed for folks out of state that don't know what the hell they are saying, but I know what the gator hunters are talking about (and that these guys give bad names to real gator hunters).

Plus there's Creole, which spells things exactly as they sound in French.

[Laina]

Up in the great North West of America, I've heard our dialect referred to as "dictionary" English. Though  quick browse to Wiki shows it as "standard American"

(click to show/hide)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Northwest_English

. So kind of boring here...

We call that "proper talk" down here. lol Anyone from the north is automatically "a proper talking northerner".

The only weird thing I've noticed is that sometimes older generations of WA natives will pronounce wash with an 'r' so it becomes "warsh". Or at least my wife's mother and her grandmother do this... 

My mom does that. She can't say "wash", it's always "warsh", as in "look at that antique warshtub, sissy!".

Btw, the terms "sissy" & "bubby" are gender specific terms of affection down here, like chan or kun are in Japanese. "Sissy" of course a variation on sister & "bubby" a variation on brother. I have NEVER in my life heard a true southerner ever, EVER once utter "Bubba" & it not be in an ironic manner-shit just doesn't happen down here. "Bubby" is as close as we got.

[Laina]

Just thought of another one & this is one you catch younger generations saying; hell, I say it a lot when speaking to older people-instead of "no", we say "new". Means the same exact thing, it's just our own way of pronouncing "no".

 Also, when a name ends in an "ah" sound (Lun-AH, Glend-AH, Clariss-AH, et. c.), we pronounce it with a long "e" sound instead. So, Luna becomes "Lun-EE", Glenda becomes "Glend-EE", so on & so forth.

[Lashen]

I have a soft spot for the two Carolinas (North, in particular). I was in South Carolina last year and my friends there can tell who is from up north solely by their accent. I've never been able to tell the difference.

[X]

1. So a lot of older people here don't consider certain curse words to be curse words, but commonplace slang. Examples: shit, piss, ass-it wouldn't at all be uncommon to hear a cute little granny fresh outta the Old Regular Baptist sermon using these terms like they're the word "the" in casual conversation.

Many people out there don't realize where the origins of some of the curse words originate from. For instance the word shit is an acronym meaning Ship High In Transit.

Ass is a slang term for a donkey.

Fuck is another acronym and has several meanings:
Fornication Under Consent of the King

Fornication Under Command of the King

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge

The word bitch is slang for a female dog. This one is way more common-knowledge then the others.

The word Bastard is explained as such:

1250–1300; Middle English  < Anglo-French bastard, Medieval Latin bastardus  (from 11th century), perhaps < Germanic  (Ingvaeonic) *bāst-,  presumed variant of *bōst-  marriage + Old French -ard -ard, taken as signifying the offspring of a polygynous marriage to a woman of lower status, a pagan tradition not sanctioned by the church; compare Old Frisian bost  marriage < Germanic *bandstu-,  a noun derivative of Indo-European *bhendh- bind; the traditional explanation of Old French bastard  as derivative of fils de bast  “child of a packsaddle” is doubtful on chronological and geographical grounds

There are also words that appear in the English language that are not in themselves English. For instance the words Hyper, Super, Mega, Aqua, all words of the Latin language. Latin is very much a dead language as there is no real culture alive today that speaks it anymore, however in places like Law school and the scientific community, Latin is something that must be learned. We've chosen Latin as the language of science and that's why all scientific names are applied to everything we've cataloged besides the basic name we've given it. An example; Homo Sapiens. Man/Woman (Homo) Sapiens (Thinker). Now besides Latin there are also other words from other currently existing languages that are used as well. In the light of this I'm not so sure If we can say that we're still speaking English anymore as it is now encompassing other words from other cultures and countries, but with the same meaning as their English counterparts. It's almost a kind of enveloping evolution when you think about it. The world and it's people are naturally becoming of one unity.

[Laina]

Veeeeeeeeeeeery interesting...I'm serious, that was a good read. I love me some origin stories.

As far as the part about us sorta not really kinda speaking English anymore, I think we should rename our language to Globish (glow-bish) since we are all encompassing. Our language is legion, it is many.

[Mooning Freddy]

There are also words that appear in the English language that are not in themselves English.

I suppose English comes from the Germanic languages, which explains many similarities between modern day German and English and the great differance between English and Welsh or Gaelic languages.
Many English words indeed are derived from Latin or Greek.
The word "politics" for example, comes from the Greek word "Politika", which is derived from the word polis=city.
Therefore Aristotle, in his great philosophical work "politika" uses the word as referance to "matters of the city (or state)"

Don't know too much of English slang, so how I teach you some Israeli army slang? YAY 

Esh (Fire): Means excelent. Don't know whether it's really military slang but I like it.
"How is that hamburger, man?" "Fire, mate, fire"

Shavuz (Broke-dick): Apparently has a different meaning in other armies. In here it means depressed, especially after a long time of being away from home.
"Danny is so dick broken, just sits in his room and doesn't feel like doing anything."

Zahov (Yellow): A soldier or usually a commander who insists on doing everything according to the practices taught in military courses, no matter how foolish or unnecessary (and they often are). A "yellow" officer would be despised by his soldiers, who would find the right moment to teach him the error of his ways.
"Damn Bob is so yellow, he's probably shining during nightime".

Mevulbal (Confused): Disrespecful or arrogant. The army is built on respect, and a confused soldier is one who doesn't know his place. The word "confused" is usually a referance to a "young" soldier who just arrived at the platoon and therefore doesn't know how things work in there. If the soldier keeps on being confused the other soldiers have ways to treat his confusion.
Well, Eric, you seem very confused to me. Better lock your door tonight, some people may pay you a visit.

lol, have many more but that's it for now.