Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire A Few Hillbillyisms

My wife is from the mountains of North Carolina

I say wasp , she says wasper.

I say loafing , she says loafering.

I say heathen , she says heathern.

If I say I don't care to do something that means I don't want to. If she says she doesn't care to do something it means she doesn't mind doing it.

There's more I can't think of right now.

Mike

Ha!

I'll again bring up when someone asks, "Do you mind?" and another responds, "Sure," indicating that it is OK with them. Seems to me that if they mind, it means that they aren't OK with it.

I speak native Appalachian-American in the WV dialect. I understand and can communicate well enough in the Norkle Lina dialect. I've heard wasper and heathern and used heathern several times in less than positive descriptions of folks.

I say Lord have mercy , she says Lord have merciful


Mike

“Yea boy” is used constantly to affirm a statement made by someone else.

In the piedmont it is “side meat”. West of Iredell County it becomes “middlin meat”

Seems like somewhere just west of Hickory it goes from “y’all “ to “youins”. The term “youins” runs all the way from western N.C. to southwest Pa. Right up the Appalachian mountains. Folks from these two regions would be shocked at how much they have in common.

Its all different versions of Scottish and Irish dialects...

When I speak West Virginian, most folks around here can't understand a thing I am saying...
When they over hear me singing a country song to myself or off the radio, they seem to be fascinated with it, the way I pronounce words..... I just do it when I don't think anyone is watching me or overhearing me...

Far...fire
Tar.... tire
Tar Arn.... Tire Iron.. Lug Wrench
Lawwg.... Log

Afer....Before
Fairydiddle..... Chipmunk...

Exactly how far is "down the road apiece"?



a lot of the people in western NC and S.Western Va migrated down from Pennsylvania back in the 1700s...
particularly Germans....but also Scottish and English.... Daniel Boone is an example...born in PA, migrated to North Carolina and then up thru the Cumberland Gap into what is now Kentucky....

KYHillChick comes from down on the KY/TN line. I'm a Cincinnati Krauthead.

She has a music degree from Berea (Hillbilly Harvard) so most of her colloquialisms are gone. That is, until she gets a call from home. You can always tell when she's gotten a call from her family. Her tone goes up, the sound comes out of her nasal passages, and she starts adding dipthongs and tripthongs.

One of the big things I notice out of KYHillChick is her reluctance to say what she means.

"It's gotten cold in here." she'll say.

"Yes, it has," I say.

After a long pause she'll say, "I'm getting cold."

"Would you like a blanket?"

"I meant would you go turn up the thermostat?"

"I'd be happy to."

"Why didn't you do it before?"

"Before what?"

"When I first asked you to."

"You didn't ask me to do anything. You just said it was cold."

"You knew what I meant."

"Yes, but you were using your Hillbilly subtlety."

"And?"

"The whole point of Hillbilly subtlety is that you never say things directly. If I, as a Northerner, show that I understand what you're saying, then you have failed to be properly subtle. I, therefore, have to respond as if I do not fully understand-- to show proper respect."

"Never mind that. I'm cold. Turn up the damn thermostat."

"There, now we're getting somewhere."


Our new thermostat has an app for Androids that allows us to set the temperature from anywhere.

Funny thing I heard on a t.v. program about the hills. Lady said she'd had to live in Baltimore ("the city") for eight years. Back in the Smokies, she allowed that she'd rather "live in hell with my back broke" than to return.

I'm 100 southeast of Pittsburgh.
People are getting much more "sophisticated" around here, at least the ones
I'm exposed to now, and the local dialect is fading.
My youngest has made comments about things my folks say.
I don't think she will again!

But, growing up, my family were loggers and farmers. Some real hillbilly and
Pieces of German were the dialect.
Driving truck in the 90's, I was often thought to be southern.
The farther north I was, the farther south they thought I sounded

My wife and kids make fun of me when we go to Myrtle Beach. In an hour
of talking with locals, I start to sound like them.
I even notice it, without thinking about it, it just happens.

I ain't no wise tired !

I heard that once, somewhere !

“Holler I growed up in war so steep we’uns had to scotch the punkins to keep ‘em from rolling off the mountain”

I thought all women communicated that way.

Grew up among Pennsylvania Dutch, Amish, Mennonite, and some hillbilly's too.

Throw the cow over the fence some hay.

I'm all by my lonesome.

Yin's going?

Cabins either have a smokestack or a chimley.

And from my Hoosier friends, if something was impressively strong or powerful it was bad to the bone.

Oh, by no means. Wife 1.0, AKA Satan, always spoke in the 2nd person imperative. She was of Dutch extraction.

Tell me what you want for dinner.

I don't know, what are my options?

Don't make this hard.

How about going out to Frisch's? I could go for a Big Boy.

Stop trying to get me to eat garbage.

I take it you're not in the mood for Frisch's?

Pick something now or starve for all I care!

How about Chinese? Let's go eat Chinese.

Bite me.

Been almost 48 years now since I was in the military with a few Appalachian boys. I done fergot some of their lingo. Although reading this thread rang a few bells in my head.... Like "youins" versus the usual southern "y'all". Just thinking about "youins" reminds me of a guy that was from extreme western "No Carolina" ......... (that No is pronounced just like the word "no". )

Here in Idaho, we occasionally hear one of these idioms, but not as a regular thing. Idaho is one of later states, settled largely by immigrants from the other states, first from the east, then from the west. Settlement didn't really get going until after 1900. There were no large groups from a certain area who brought their dialects with them and settled together. Many were miners, farmers, and loggers. They all got mixed up and spread out and their dialects got lost along the way.

Have a neighbor here that come plumb all the way over from West Virginia[that's a good 40-50 miles], she has an inferiority complex about her birth state.
When I say "she lives up the hollar from us" she gets quite offended.

Do those phrases refer to your girlfriend as opposed to your wife?

You storyin' me?