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?

Up in the mountains of Western Maryland and West Virginia, instead of saying "You guys" they say "Yoose guys".

Arghhhhhheeoowwwww - that voice is in my head now!!!!

My Granny “Iffin youins dont quit that I’m gonna smack you so hard you’all starve to death abouncing”
My Grandad—“Thank You Paw Paw”
“It’s alright youngin—you and me be blood kin and long as I got so much as a biscuit you entitled to half”

Few years back while deer hunting in Wyoming spotted a couple of boys walkin in the middle of no where. I stopped to help them out and asked them where their truck was. They told me their truck was, "stuckered". After scratching my head a few times I figured it out. They were miners from KY working out of Riverton, WY. Nice guys, just talked funny.

When going to get water for camp, I'll tell my Wyoming buddies I am going to go "make water" It just drives them crazy.

I heard an old timer say, "he clum that tree to get that girls cat down"

I been around the Pennsylvania Dutch thing a good bit, it took some getting use to. I'd hear much the same but we had horses.
It'd be throw the horse over the fence some hay one time or make the lights out....

Not hillbillies but years ago we had cousins move to NE Texas that had grown up in Lincoln Nebraska.
They had some funny sayings. If you asked Keith where he was from he would say, I growed up in Lincoln. They would be piecing instead of snackin.
They didn't oversleep, they slept in. My favorite was
instead of needing to take a dump, for them it was I gotta go grunt.

Gunner
Earl Hollerman(spell) told John Wayne something like that in the sons of Katie Elder.

I used to know a guy who grew up in Sweet Home Oregon. He graduated High School in late 60s.

He is the only person I have ever heard say "yuins". I have no idea where he acquired the idiom.

"Did I not see you in church ?"

Answer:

No.

Yes.

Both correct as it's how its said rather than the spoken word.

Um, aren't those the same thing?

Oops !. Meant to say " the words themselves"

Thanks.

Lots of oil and gas workers here from all over the country. Often get blank stares in conversation with them.

Interesting ones are the people from Louisiana. Great fun listening to an old boy and a cajen try to make sense of what each other’s saying.

Nicknames around here are unique. Some so ingrained that only close friends or former classmates know a persons real name. Ex; Panger, T-Bone, Fats, Bench, Coony, Whip, Iggy (Ig for short), T, Sister, Sonny P, Weed, German, Murph, MudDuck, Buttons, Rafe, .....endless list. Don’t know about other areas but here nicknames are very common.

Neighbor lady son's given name is Cooter

On the birth certificate.

I


Probably a family name.




P

Is their last name Brown. There's a lot of people around
Here that get drunker than Cooter Brown!😉

I can remember grandma talking about leather britches and the like.

She also followed the wives tale about lightning.
She'd pull the shades if a storm blew up, said lightning was the devil and if it/he saw your eyes he could get in to your soul.

My wife's grandma, rest her soul, used to say that. She was from Payna, Illinois and lived most of her life in Michigan City, Indiana.

SWVA it's "you'ins or y'all "

I hear '' don't pay 'em no never mind'' a lot around here.

Communication is why you marry someone from the same mountain you are on, preferably the same holler.

I live in the middle of the mountains of North Carolina, Marshall. This county is notorious for having the most hillbillies of any county in the state.
And I lived in central Georgia for 22 years before I came up here. Both places, Deep South. But different.
Down in central Georgia, the word for second person plural is, of course, "Y'all."

But up here in hillbillyland, the expression is "you'uns." Also they have a nasal twang to the speech up here in the mountains.

Anyone else see something listed here,
That they thought was normal,

Only to find out,
others have a limited vocabulary?

"He shore do like the sound of his own voice."

"He's educated beyond his intelligence."

"He aint too smart but he tries hard."

"Up the window."

"That boy could break an anvil with a rubber hammer."

"Look here" or "Say" to get someone's attention.

And of course, "Bless his heart." Polite way to say that someone is an idiot.

All in SC.

Yins around here.

I got an uncle Stringer. He 71 and that’s his given name. He might hear “Hey String” once in awhile. Never really got a nickname though. Many think that’s it.

“I’ll take an tell yin’s this, aftin he spoke I skinned er back and took 3 fingers”

Translation, Hearing the news he opened a bottle of whiskey and drank about half a pint.

Now imagine the fellow saying what I quoted without a tooth in his head😁

no "g" in strength, either I would guess, sounds like strenth?

Fargo North Dakota

"You betcha!"

My maternal grandfather, born in 1899, referred to side meat as just any meat that might compliment an abundance of fresh vegetables at a certain time of year. The meat was not the main course, nearly irrelevant, the vegetables were the important & preferred dish. The meat? Just an add on if you were so lucky to have it. Side meat.

Middle meat? thinking that's another subject as to the quality or cut of meat you happened to be getting off the animal at the time. Eating high on the hog was getting ham, chops, loin, etc. Middle meat was everyday meat, the upper cuts saved for company, Sunday dinner(that's about noon to 1PM BTW, supper is the evening meal) or special occasions.



A sayin? Again my maternal grandfather. As a youngin, I asked him why he had a gun. He looked me in the eye with a very serious expression that I've not forgotten, & said;

"You never know when a bad man might come in off the pike"

Chester drawers: chest of drawers
Ill dog: mean dog
He ain't right: he is fughed up
Let me spell you: let me take over and give you a break
He ain't no count: he ain't worth a damn
They worked me like a rented mule
No shoulders: a snake
A staub: a stake

LOL, yes but it begins with "Yah shhuurrre..."

Moonshiners and alien lights in the sky.

Yonder ..............is how far?

"Borrow me a couple dollars"

lol, I think yonder is both a distance and a direction all at once!

we used to say "tump it over" as in she tumped over the laundry basket and had to have a do-over on the warshing!

I referred to a mess of firewood once and someone asked me how much a mess was.
Told him it is actually a specific amount, more than a bunch but less than a schitload. Duh

My grandma used to call a sink a zink. A car trunk was a turtle hull. A coat was a “sleeve” and socks were anklets.

I have heard and used them all.

For us yonder became yander, or over yan way. After while is aa'ter whaal.

Or even the same family.

Around here, "ornery" is "onrey".

My sweetheart in No. Carolina says measurements are as follows,
Next door = 1-2 minutes
Right up the road =5-10 minutes
A couple miles = 10-20 minutes
Not too far = 20-50 minutes
A little ways = over half an hour
A pretty good ways = 2+ hours

I had dinner with some of her friends, wow, I had to pay close attention to figure out what they were saying.
She's been there long enough to translate for me but not long enough to sound like a local herself.
Super people, they do sound a bit different though.. Bless their heart. or maybe it's me that sounds different....

My mom had 4 sisters.....

When I am down home in Monroe Co WVa, people will ask me where I'm from... and I'll tell them that I live in Oregon... but my family was from down here and I was born down here....

First words out of their mouth is always " So if you were from down here, who's ya MaMa?"

I'll say here name is Louise Meadows....and I'll get She was one of Johnny Meadows's girls?
Which one? Trigger? Tooter, Bunny, Muffet....

They don't know my mother as Louise....I'll tell them she was Trigger... and they know exactly who I am talking about....My granddad nicknamed them all before they were three years old....

I'm one to talk tho.... each one of my kids had a nickname from me before they were two....it changed with time tho.. My son's nickname changed to Beavis when he was about 14....

My brother is 60 now.. but when I see relatives, they ask me how's BooBoo doing?
he got that nickname as a baby because one of his first sentences was from Yogi Bear, when he would repeat after BooBoo " Hey Yogi..."

He's lived with that around family for 59 years now...

My granddad's name was William Henry Meadows.. but every one called him Johnnie...
and every one called my grandmother "Happy".. when her real name was Corabelle Daisy Lilly....
not to be confused with her sister Blondie...or her brother Brownie...

just typical WVa....

My great grandfather on my mom's side was one of three brothers that started the Lilly Family Reunion in 1929... that reunion held every year, has made the Guinness World Book of Records many many times as being the largest family reunion either in the USA or the World.. depending on the year....

My great grandfather's legal Christian Name, was Spotts Clownly Lilly...
but of course he went by a totally different other name... his nickname, which was Jimmy...IIRC
Raleigh County WVa.....the Lillys were the first white settlers in what is now the State of West Virginia..

Robert and Francis Lilly, the family patriarchs, were both born in 1696....
Francis Died in 1810 and Robert died in 1814....
Francis lived to be 110 years old and Robert lived to be 114 years old...

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/west-virginia/lilly-family-reunion-flat-top-wv/

http://mymedievalgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/10/robert-lilly-and-mary-fanny-moody.html

You some kin to old Ben Lilly ?

Mike

I've lots from my PA Dutch grandparents on my Mom's side but some of my fondest to remember is from my Step-Dad, gone now since 1986.

His name was "Carlie".......born in KY his Ma told the clerk his name was "Carl Lee".......but she she said it all together so..... LOL.

I called him "Pa" out of nothing but true respect. He was truly "more honest than the sunrise". (his saying)

Looking at something smaller than normal, like a yard or room he'd say " Hain't enough room in that to whup a good sized cat."

His favorite dessert to his dying day was "Sweetnin' Bread". A glass of milk with bread tore up in pieces and soaked in it with sugar.
Not at all like Sweet Bread..........that I like that most these days have NO clue what the H it is. Finding some is "a trial". lol

Many more will come to me today but one always had me laughing.

When Mom was nagging ("raggin") at him he would sing.....

"You can tell from the smell
She don't feel so well
Bought three days this time of the month"

and.....I cannot recall the rest......crud.

A man of honor and the hardest working man Ive ever met. Dad was too but Pa took it over the edge.
He was a factory supervisor at night, ran his own restaurant during the day and cleaned carpets and tile floor weekends.

His first wife passed away from cancer leaving him and their two children hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
Too proud to file bankruptcy he " worked his tail off" and paid every cent due.
He wouldn't marry my Mom till it was paid off not wanting to "bring a debt into her family".

I miss my Mom and Dad dearly.............and Pa is right up there with them.
He gave all he could and asked for nothing in return when it was family or friends.

God Bless
Steve

A mess of bluegill is a lot more than a mess of bass.

Over in Eastern Tennessee, they have these contraptions that they call Toe-motors. I always though they were fork lifts.

They also end a sentence that offers choices with the word "one" as in "its either going to be you or me, one.

If they are good looking ....

We talk about inbred hillbillies, but one of the most inbred group in the US is the Amish. They can only marry within their sect and there aren't enough of them for good genetic variation. In Europe, the royal families have their fair share of it, too.

I was a kid, this old guy was tall and skinny, wore overalls and smoked a pipe, some friend of Gramps'

How many hillbillies joined the army and fit the Germans?

"You can't git there from here. You'll have to go to (another place) first." It means there's no direct route.
A friend is retired from the AF. When he was stationed in Charleston, SC a major that was his boss asked Bob what part of WV is he from? Bob asked how he knew he was from WV. The major replied "Only West Virginians refer to every place in directions as up or down. This applies to altitude, direction as in north or south, and direction of the nearest river.

If he's a West VA Lilly, then yup.... only trouble is, which Ben Lilly are ya talkin about???

Family Reunion Joke:

So at the Family Reunion, the President of the Reunion, said that we'd like Jim Lilly to come forward and give the opening Vocation and prayer....

So 300 Jim Lillys stood up....

No NO.... We were referring to "CornLicker Jim" Lilly.....

At least 3 people sat down....

Ben Lilly the houndsman , born 1856 in Alabama. His ma & pa were from North Carolina.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Lilly

Mike

Mike,

I bet if one looked back far enough in the old family wood pile....

Hell there are Lillys I've ran across here in Oregon that their family roots from back in West Va....
in fact there are Two Lilly family Reunions annually up near Portland and then one over toward Pendleton..

There are a lot of Lillys all over the country....even a few that have managed to make themselves famous..
for 'sometimes' crazy stuff....

The other side is Meadows... there are a lot of them also, all over the country...
both sides date back a long time in this country...