Sayings from the Deep South - Looking for contributions

I live in Ohio now, although i am not a native of the state. I am a native of New York--the city, not simply the state. I was raised in Illinois and Virginia, and lived and travelled extensively in "the old South" as a child and adolescent.

I haven't seen any war memorials here in Ohio, but then, i don't go looking for them.

Thanks, CatFisH, for that corroboration on the proper (i.e. Mis'sippi) way to pronounce "pecan." I was worrying that I might need to get my hearing aid replaced (my memory board having long since shorted out). to the "second place trophy" comment regarding what some folks down here still insist on calling The Wawah Between the States!

Arrright, Tryagain!! Mystery solved about where Kingdom Come is! Shoulda knowed it'd be in SE Kentucky. I was indeed "born South," right here in the Magnolia State but went to U of K, yet I never knew about that park.

Cotton to = like. "I don't much cotton to war memorials."

I don't have no truck with 'em, neither.

I have a big time at the beach, though.

I'm fascinated by the Civil War and hope Set gets around to starting a so named thread when he gets some spare time.

The Civil War to which you refer took place among Americans. Therefore, we won . . . and we lost . . . more on next week's show . . .

(Great point about Civil War winners and losers, Setanta. Sadly many people both north and south of the Mason Dixon Line still choose sides and hold grudges and stereotypes. Yes, a Civil War thread would surely generate a lot of interest--though I've just begun to plumb the depths of a2k, so it may have already been done.)

Now, a little trick on writing in the Southern vernacular that I learned from a Southern author who has a great ear and is a master at writing Southern dialect: Most people (and I did the same thing for decades) abbreviate "them" as " 'em " when writing dialect. Listen closely as you read these sentences: "Let them go," "Let 'em go," "Let'm go." To my ear, the last version most closely approximates the eliding of the "th"--we don't make separate words of "let" and "em"--we run'm together. "Letum" is probably an even more accurate representation of the pronunciation, but too much literal phonetic spelling can get pretty tedious to the reader.

Oooops, sorry if I've gotten tedious here....

A couple of years back, when the site was new, i got into a rather acrimonious exchange with another member because i asserted that Sterling Price's Missouri State Guard and the various incarnations of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi did not constitute a coherently organized army. Additionally, the history forum here is a home to many sharp exchanges about who is right and who is wrong on any topic. Nevertheless, i have screwed my courage to the sticking point, and . . . i've started an ambitious project:

The American Civil War -- clickity-click

Thank goodness I'm here to clear up some of these errors.

It was the War Of Yankee Aggression.

Lovin' hiyall and Catfish!

Yikes, Sofia! We ain't sposter let them Yankees know that's the real name for The Wawah! (Glad you had a sojourn down heah, and that you so quickly learned that Biloxi is pronounced buLUXy.)

Just received this batch from a friend:

Only a Southerner knows the difference between a hissy fit and a conniption fit, and that you don't "HAVE" them, you "PITCH" them.

Only a Southerner knows how many fish, collard greens, turnip greens, peas, beans, etc., make up "a mess of."

Even Southern babies know that "Gimme some sugar" is not a request for the white, granular sweet substance.

For those who are not from the South but live here now: y'all need a sign to hang on the front porch that reads "I ain't from the South but I got here as fast as I could."

And to those of you who are still having a hard time understanding all this Southern stuff, bless your hearts, I hear they are fixin' to have classes on Southernese as a second language!

southern speak...ah do declare...dat sounds fine as Aunt Nellie's pickled beets...ownago hiyall? ah do hope it aint a fer piece from heah

Wooah thar, Mr Stillwater, and weall now stillwater runs deep, writes, "Rack off hairy legs!"
He must have got the wobbly boot on.

Why not start a new thread, and learn us some ?'strine'

Anyhoo;

Quar: An organized choral group, usually connected with a church or school. "Did you hear the news? The preacher left his wife and run off with the quar director."

Raffle: A long-barrelled firearm. "Dan'l Boone was a good shot with a raffle."

Rahtnaow: At once. "Linda Sue, Ah want you to tell that boy it's time to go home and come in the house rahtnaow."

Ranch: A tool used to lossen or tighten nuts and bolts. "Hand me that ranch, Homer."

Raut: A method of getting from one place to another which Southerners pronounce to rhyme with "kraut". Yankees, for reasons that remain shrouded in mystery, pronounce "route" to rhyme with "root". Or worse still, "foot."

Restrunt: A place to eat. "New Yorker's got a lot of good restrunts."
Retard No longer employed. "He's retard now."

Sass: Another Elizabethan term derived from the word saucy, meaning to speak in an impertinent manner. "Don't sass me, young lady. You're not too old to get a whippin'."

Shainteer: Indicates the absence of a female. "Is the lady of the house in?" "Nope. Shainteer."

Shudenoughta: Should not. "You shudenoughta have another drink."
Spell An indetermined length of time. "Let's sit here and rest a spell."
Stain The opposite of leaving. "Ah hate this party, and Ah'm not stain much longer."

Supper: The evening meal Southererners are having while Yankees are having dinner. "What's for supper, honey?

straight from the golden girls, the most hallowed of all 80s sit-coms:

"Well, my-my sir, your sweet words could charm the dew right off the honeysuckle." --Blanche Deveraux, Atlanta Ga.

welcome lawyer person...Golden Girls was sometimes yiddish take on the South...lol

My favorite from Blanche was "jumpy as a virgin at a prison rodeo."

What fer?
Cat fur to make kitten britches
Daddy cut them out
Mama sewed the stitches.

The most redneck sentence I ever heard - When an east Texas cousin came to visit he remarked: Ah dun druv auh fur piece an I haint et nothin yit. Who can translate?

In Texas, ranch, wrench, and rinse are all pronounced the same - raench.
"Out on my raench I raenched my arm using a raench to turn on the water to raench my back."

"Theres yer problem with thisyere quation. Ya aint considered similitude. Boy yer bout half smart"

A hydrology engineer from Arkansas giving "tips" to a junior who was analyzing some reservoir performance.