Yesterday I was playing around with a couple of bloggers, and I used a local idiom from the South that I use in the place of expletives, the word, "Cottonpickin'!" You can use that in mixed company without embarrassing anyone, and it fits a similar number of syllables as some much more vile expletives that are used far too frequently these days. But I digress.
As we had our little exchange yesterday, I began thinking about a blog that would describe some ways we butcher the language, but not in the erudite manner of Ed Butts.
Some of the things I find funny/irritating have to do with mispronunciation of a single word. For instance, here in South Texas, a lot of folks pronounce the word "lack" as "like". My dad might ask me "How much do you like bein' done?" What he wants to know is how much I lack to be finished with the project I am doing. Being the wise acre I am, my reply to that question is "I like being done a lot, but I have a few more minutes work to do."
Now, as a matter of instruction for you who might find yourselves in South Texas, I have a little dialoge you might hear. Do not worry as you read through it, I will translate it for you.
"Jeet yet?"
"Gnawd, jew?"
"Yount two?"
"Okiedoke."
Translation:
"Did you eat yet?"
"No, did you?"
"Do you want to?"
"Yes."
This kind of butchering probably only happens in South Texas. Or have you heard such butchering where you are?
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2 comments:
I live in Illinois and oftentimes, people who are not from here will pronounce it "Ill-i-noise," which is annoying to natives.
I also notice that folks sometimes want to "axe" (ask) you something, and that's one that really gets under my skin!
I don't want an axe under my skin! In the south when I toss a ball back and forth with my friend, we say we are playing catch, in other places it is called having a catch.
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