Do You Speak Southern? (knowing what certain phrases mean)

[Are_grits_groceries]

http://www.ajc.com/southern-quiz/?icmp=ajc_internallink_textlink_homepage

I got all of them right whatever that means.

[Shrike47]

1. I got 16/20 which I thought was OK given I've never been to the South or had a friend from there.

Books and reading certainly broaden our horizons.

[Luminous Animal]

2. We said about half of those things in Michigan at least 56 years ago.

"mater", "buggy", "lightening bug", "pot likker"...

Here are two rural Michigander phrases that I grew up with.. see if you can interpret them:

"Like a cat scratching tar on a hot summer day"

"As deep as an asshole on a tall deer."

[Shrike47]

4. Lightening bugs were a mysterious and wonderful happening to me the only time I ever saw them.

They don't inhabit the West Coast.

[Luminous Animal]

7. There are a few things I miss living on the West Coast and lightening bugs rates in the top 5.

They were a magical summertime event. Another was sparkling snow. When the flakes were fresh, fluffy and flat, and the moon was bright, the snow would sparkle like diamond.

[treestar]

113. The woods would light up like a Christmas tree

with the lights flickering on and off!

[treestar]

62. My cousins from California used to love going after them

when they came back to visit.

In Delaware, we also used the term "lightning bugs." So I didn't think of it as Southern, though Delaware technically can be considered a Southern State under some metrics.

[Jackpine Radical]

104. We use firefly & lightning bug interchangeably in Wi.

A lot of the other terms don't seem foreign either.

[Jamastiene]

109. I'm from the south.

I have heard both, but have heard lightning bugs more than fireflies. I always have said fireflies though.

[Art_from_Ark]

14. Well, I knew what 'maters were from watching Andy Griffith

Last edited Sat Jan 25, 2014, 09:45 AM - Edit history (1)

In my part of the South, whenever I heard "pot likker", it always referred to moonshine.

We did call fireflies "lightning bugs", though.

But "sweet tea" was called "sugar tea". And while it was occasionally served at my house, the usual kid's summer drink was either Kool-Aid, Funny Face, Fizzies, or Hi-C.

Also, where I'm from, "ain't hittin' on all cylinders" was used to mean "a few fries short of a Happy Meal".

[RainDog]

89. A lot of people from the south migrated to Detroit

to work in the automotive industry after the war.

[Luminous Animal]

93. I think it is more rural idiom than regional.

The town I grew up in was a very small farming town.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Meh. Some may be "Southern" but they are like 'regional' within the South.

I have lived in the South almost my entire life and my mother's family is all Southern, but some of those phrases I have never heard. I would write more, but the Devil is beating his wife...not really, but it is a Sothern phrase.

[Are_grits_groceries]

6. True.

But that would be a factor in any group of phrases. I had never heard of a couple but I interpreted them correctly.
I haven't seen the devil beating his wife in a while.

[Behind the Aegis]

8. True...so many think "Southern" is uniform.

It would be the same as saying, "here are some English phrases..." The first time I was ever questioned about the "Devil" comment was after I moved to Oklahoma. People laughed for hours. LOL!

[LuvNewcastle]

10. All of my family is Southern and I've lived in Miss. all my life,

but I had to guess at a bunch of the questions. I got 17/20, which is good, but I got lucky on several of them. Southern English isn't even the same throughout Miss., and it certainly isn't the same as the Carolinas or Texas or parts of Tenn. The accent might be close, but we use very different expressions.

[okaawhatever]

22. The Devil isn't beatin' his wife here in TN but it's colder than a witch's tit in a brass brassiere.

I think it's fixin' to snow.

[Tom Ripley]

71. But is it as cold as a well-digger's ass?

[okaawhatever]

92. Lolz. Exactly. nt

[Ghost in the Machine]

112. Here in East Tenn last week, it was cold enough to freeze the balls off a pool table!!

3 degrees one morning, wind chill factor was -12!! The hardware store and plumbing supply store sold out of pipe in a day from all the busted ones around town. I have a well, and know enough to leave a few faucets running when a hard freeze is expected... especially the farthest one away from where the water main enters the house.

Peace,

Ghost

[nolabear]

91. I'm surprised that one wasn't in there. One of my favorites.

In my neck of the woods (is that another one?) it means the sun is shining while it's raining.

Yes, very regional. My Southern is way French and Haitian and Spanish and regular old Irish Southern. Not at all like Mr. Bear's Appalachian Scottish infused Southern. But there are many similarities.

[Live and Learn]

5. Obviously not, 65% and that was only because of lucky guesses.

And yes, I have been to the South a few times but never run across most of these terms.

[onestepforward]

9. I'm at 50% Southern.

In real life, I'm more like 25%, but I conjured my Tennessee grandparents for a lot of the answers, lol! I sure miss them. They were both progressives

[MADem]

11. I've lived for a few years here and there south of the Mason-Dixon but I didn't

get all of 'em right--most, but not all!

Where the hell was "Bless (your/his/her) heart!" in that quiz? That should have held pride of place!

[Are_grits_groceries]

12. That was probably considered way too easy.

However, it should have been included just to see how many would miss it.

[Le Taz Hot]

13. I got 70%

which isn't bad for a "prune picker" (another name for a Californian).

[madokie]

15. 50% for me LOL

Many of those I'd never heard before. Just as well I'm from northeast Oklahoma anyway.
50%
Your score: 10/20
Hmm. You could do much better.

[Barack_America]

16. 5 or 6 were actually familiar.

I managed to get 75% by guessing.

[sendero]

17. Texas..

... isn't really part of the "south" they are talking about.

While most of these were obvious, I've been here for 50 years and I have never heard of a "belly washer"

[socialist_n_TN]

38. That one stumped me too...

And I've spent pretty much all of my life in the south.

[Texasgal]

95. The one about the belly button was

strange to me too.

[Hosnon]

18. Born, raised, and live in South: Haven't heard of many of these.

And don't use/hear many others.

I'd say about 5 were on point.

[Are_grits_groceries]

20. A lot more were on point to me.

Whoever drew this up must have GA/SC leanings.

[Hosnon]

25. It is AJC...

But my life is pretty much centered on those two states... dunno.

[FourScore]

40. Same here. Born and bred Southerner from GA. I didn't score so well. n/t

[DFW]

77. Me too

But Virginia and Texas ain't Jawwjuh. The South no more uniform in speech than Noo Yawk and Baaaston.

[raccoon]

19. I didn't think "preaching to the choir" was a Southernism. nt

[Are_grits_groceries]

21. I think that's become a lot more widespread.

If it was ever just a Southernism, it isn't anymore.

[JHB]

23. Missed 6, about as many were guesses I got right, and...

...I only knew "buggy" because of a DU thread a few weeks back.

And seriously: "Yankee shots"?

[Are_grits_groceries]

42. Another phrase I've heard all of my life

is 'He'd go bear hunting with a buggy whip.' Meaning he ain't skeered of nothing.

[Raine]

24. 70% ... I guessed at most of them, only knew a few for sure. nt

[NightWatcher]

26. pretty weak test. I'm as southern as they come and hadn't heard of a few of em

[Drahthaardogs]

27. When you are from the rockies cattle country

There are no southerners or yankees. They are all just easterners who talk funny and say weird things. Texans are included in that list.

[Kali]

58. back east is anywhere east of New Mexico

[Drahthaardogs]

63. Yes.

If you made one of those "U.S. According to People from the Rockies"

You would have four groups

1) Normal people = New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada

2) Militia = Idaho

3) California = Washington and California

4) Easterners = Everything else

[livetohike]

28. 85%, but I only lived in the south (north of Charleston, SC) for two years

[Are_grits_groceries]

34. Not too far from me.

I live near Pamplico.

I don't think any place in SC is too far from another unless you live on different borders.

[pnwest]

29. My particular favorite, splained to me by

a Kentucky boy who called himself country, "from asshole to elbow", is the meaning of "Aw, bless his heart". What you're really saying is, "that poor, dumb bastard".

[Codeine]

30. 85%

I imagine many of these are less "Southern" that "the patch of the South where the author grew up and the phrases his own family favors." And about half of them can be heard all over the country.

[Are_grits_groceries]

43. True.

Whoever wrote that list must have lived in my neck of the woods.

[Seeking Serenity]

31. That list was more for a region of the South than the South as a whole

I've lived in the South all my life (and would never want to live anywhere else), but some of those things I'd never heard of, such as a belly washer. And "ain't hittin' on all cylinders" 'round here means "not very bright," not the "not feeling well," as that quiz suggested.

And the frog strangler meaning a heavy rain isn't a phrase from 'round here. Here, we'd call a heavy rain "a real gully washer." "D'joo hear that storm last night?" "Yep. That was a real gully washer."

And instead of "running on the rims" as an expression for exhaustion from hard work, we'd say "runnin' on fumes."

I said this one to a Yankee friend of mine, and she about bust a gut laughing. She asked me how my day had been, which had been a busy one, and I replied, "Honey, I've been hopping more than a one-legged man in an ass-kickin' contest."

[socialist_n_TN]

39. I've always heard "Busier than a one-armed paper hanger."..........

in addition to the one-legged man one. And yep, "ain't hitting on all cylinders" means not very bright. "Frog strangler" is one I have heard of along with "gully washer". They were used interchangeably where I grew up. I've NEVER heard the "running on the rims" one, but I have heard "running on fumes".

[arely staircase]

49. yeah I missed the "hitting on all cylidars" too

here (East Texas) it means not to smart. Didn't the quiz say it meant to be tired? And I guess it does in Georgia.

[arely staircase]

51. comin' a blue norther

a cold front is a approaching.

also, I once got laughed at in Colorado for saying "pine straw" instead of "pine needles" which is apparantly what they call pine straw there.

[Seeking Serenity]

54. Pine straw! Exactly!

I hate pine straw! It keeps the grass from growing and is too dad-gum hard to get up. Only thing pine straw is good for is burning!

[Codeine]

57. Pine straw?

That's a new one on me. I've only ever heard "pine needles."

[Codeine]

59. We say "not firing on all cylinders" in California.

And it means the subject is stupid. It's akin to someone not being the sharpest tool in the shed, the sharpest knife in the drawer, etc.

[LuvNewcastle]

69. I agree with all of those you listed.

I don't know where that author's from, but I think the expressions you and I know are more representative of Southern slang than that test.

[giftedgirl77]

32. I got a 65% & i live in SC...

[Are_grits_groceries]

35. Where bouts?

I live near Pamplico.

[giftedgirl77]

37. I have never heard of that place, but we are transplants.

We live in Aiken.

[Are_grits_groceries]

41. Ah yes. Aiken.

I lived there when I worked at the 'Bomb Plant' one summer.

[QC]

36. I got a 90. n/t

[socialist_n_TN]

44. Pretty much all my life living in the south........

except for a few years of travel as a musician and I only got 85%. As someone stated above, some of these must have been specific to various REGIONS of the south.

It's the same with a "southern accent". A southern accent is different in Louisiana than it is in Virginia. And those are different than the accent is in Tennessee. Which is different than it is in Mississippi and Alabama. Which is different than it is in the Carolinas and I believe the Carolinas even have some differences between North and South and coastal and inland. A southern accent is not really generic to everybody south of the Mason-Dixon line. LOTS of regional differences.

[arely staircase]

48. It comes from the Atlanta Journal Constitution so

I guess Jimmy Carter would have done better than I did.

[NWmomma]

45. From Louisiana, but only got 80%

I found that some of the sayings must mean different things in other areas of the south. Where I grew up, pot liquor was any juice of a dish, like purple hull pea juice, or butter bean juice. We'd pour pot liquor over our corn bread.

There were a few more that meant something different too, just can't remember them. It's interesting to see the regional differences.

[arely staircase]

47. I always thought people were saying pot licker

as in so good you wanted to lick the pot when it was all gone. and I have never heard the belly button thing in my life.

[arely staircase]

46. I ot 80 percent

I didn't know the belly button thing, thought pot licker was something really good, and a couple of other things I think maybe regionl to the Southeast. I was born and raised in the Deep South.

[TBF]

50. 65% after 10 years in TX -

but then I sort of keep to myself because the folks down here scare me.

[Warpy]

52. I got 80%

Apparently there were a few things that didn't make it up to NC.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

53. 55% and I've been living in the South for quite a while.

Last edited Sat Jan 25, 2014, 04:52 PM - Edit history (1)

But I live and work in an area where most everyone seems to be from somewhere else...

[Kali]

55. I didn't get 3 of them

I would argue about "not running on all cylinders"

I still think it means somebody not all there, a few cards missing from the deck, etc.

But I've never heard "bellywasher" or the belly button as "where the Yankee shot you."

[arely staircase]

64. same here on cylnders

I have now focus grouped it and here it definitely means not very smart. I have never heard belly washer or where the yankee shot you.

[nolabear]

105. Agreed on all fronts.

I missed those two in spite of being born and bred, as the saying (not Southern I don't think) goes. I got the "all cylinders" one right but I've heard it mostly the other way too.

[SummerSnow]

56. Born and raised in NYC, parents born here, but grandparents born in the south..

But I got 70%. Heard alot of those expression around my grandparents

[ScreamingMeemie]

60. 80%. However, I guessed on a few, and a lot are heard north and south.

Some of them are good ones, but the terms buggy, lightning bugs, preaching to the choir, etc. are pretty much national "language."

[treestar]

61. 80%

My college education (in the South) paid off!

[stage left]

65. I got 90%.

I'm SC born and raised but I've never, ever heard of a belly button being referred to as where the yankee shot you, even by my relatives from Wahalla. So I missed that one. I had to guess a few of the others. I use maybe a third of them myself. One of my favorite phrases I heard from my father in law, describing an inveterate liar he knew. "That fellow," he said, "would climb a tree to tell a lie, when he could stay on the ground and tell the truth."

[Are_grits_groceries]

76. You talking about Walhalla then you talking about mountain influence.

Wander along the coast and it will be quite different. My best friends in college were from Walhalla. They taught me how to clog.

[LuvNewcastle]

86. I say the "Climb a tree" phrase sometimes.

I know a lot of liars.

[arely staircase]

66. To get shed of something

to get rid of it.

[Generic Other]

67. Of course you got them all right

"Grits" is your middle name!

I got "egg-suckin' dog" right.

[Are_grits_groceries]

75. I think

'egg-sucking dog' was a phrase in To Kill A Mockingbird.' I may be mistaken.
Anyway, I've heard it all my life.

[2naSalit]

68. I got 80%

and I've lived north of I-80 (sometimes I-90) all my life with the exception of the few years I lived in southern CA. But I traveled a lot.

One that I thought was not a southern thing was lightning bugs, that's what we called them up in rural Maine when I was a kid.

I used to have a good friend from the Bristol, VA/TN area and she had some really good ones that made me laugh like:

Lightning bug = "candle fly"
Knocking on the door = "peckin' at my door"
The trays under the element on an electric stove = "stove eyes"

That woman was true hill country and had the whole vocabulary, I was constantly trying to interpret whenever we met for coffee.

[Tom Ripley]

70. I got them all correct, but thank god I still don't "speak Southern"

[Lex]

83. Bless your heart. nt

[Tom Ripley]

98. LOL!

[OnionPatch]

72. I've heard many of those

growing up in Ohio. From people who had no connection to the south.

[UTUSN]

73. Missed 6 but don't mean much since many of my hits were guesses. Heard one

where the vulgarism for ... never mind. It was in the military from a Southern dude, might have been a put-on joke.

[Blue_In_AK]

74. I was missing quite a few of them so I quit.

What I take from that is that I've been away from Texas for probably just about the right amount of time, i.e., 45 years. Lol.

[MNBrewer]

78. 17/20. Grew up in GA. Live in MN.

[Sanity Claws]

79. At least one of them is not just Southern

I grew up in NYC and we also say lightning bugs, not fireflies.
New Yorkese and Southern are generally quite different but not in this instance.

[Cleita]

80. 65%? Yikes. I have only visited the south on occasion, but

my dad was from Arkansas so maybe that's why I remembered a lot of it.

[octoberlib]

81. I missed 4.

I've lived in NC for 20 years and have never heard people say half of these. I live in Charlotte though, which has a lot of transplants. They also left out 'bless his/her/your heart" which is southern for fuck you.

[Cleita]

84. Bless your heart is going national.

I'm starting to hear it around here in California and in this same context.

[libodem]

82. 18/20

90 %

[laundry_queen]

85. This Canadian got 60% from mostly guessing. nt

[X_Digger]

87. Quite a few of them are open to interpretation or must be regional. n/t

[PotatoChip]

88. I got 60%. Heads up to NRaleighLiberal for my correct 'Mater' answer.

... I love it, btw. I now refer to all of my tomatoes as 'maters' and it seems to be catching on up here among my gardening friends. There is just something about that word that makes us all smile.

Interesting to me was how some answers were so similar to words used up here in the NE. 'Buggy' for a grocery cart would be one example. Perhaps it goes back to a similar Irish/Scot ancestry?


That was fun. Thanks AGG!

[nolabear]

90. I'm SOuthern as they get and missed a couple.

"Where the yankee shot you?" Never heard of it. And one other, but I forget what it was. I'm fixin' to go over yonder and mash a few buttons and find out.

Oh! Belly washer! Never heard of it.

[LiberalElite]

94. 75% - not bad for

a girl from The Bronx.

[Demo_Chris]

96. 12/20 and I live in Texas. nt

[oneshooter]

97. I believe that "belly wash" refers to any non alcoholic drink.

Tea, soda, coffee were often referred to as "belly wash".

[Rhythm]

99. I got 100% too, AGG...

I'd expect to, though, since i am a multi-generational southerner...

[11 Bravo]

100. 90% I missed the "belly wash" and buttermilk questions.

[HockeyMom]

101. 50% and I'm from NYC

I got more than some people who actually ARE from the South? lol

[PeteSelman]

102. I got 17 of 20. I'm as Yankee as can be.

We say lightning bugs up here and running on all cylinders is a universal term.

I guessed on a few but they weren't hard to figure out.

[liberal N proud]

103. Interesting because I work directly with a number of people in North Carolina

I will have to pay attention to she of their phrases, some of them I have heard many times.

[Initech]

106. All you need to know:

Y'all is singular.
All y'all is plural.
All y'alls is plural possessive.

[chieftain]

107. This Midwesterner who has lived in the South for 30+ years got 75%. n/t

[3catwoman3]

108. 75% for this Yankee...

born of midwestern parents and raised in western upstate NY.

I remember "pot liquor" from The Yearling, and the author's phrase "That's a toad strangler of a rain." There was also something about "...a hound'll suck eggs" when Penny Baxter and the Forresters were discussing dogs - it didn't sound complimentary.

When we moved to Rochester NY, my new friends there laughed at me because I turned lights "awn," and they turned them "ahn."

Some years ago, when getting ready to do an ear recheck on a little boy I frequently treated for ear infections, he pointed to his ear when I picked up my otoscope. We started playing the "Where's your nose, where's your tummy" game, and he was getting them all until I asked "Where are your eyes" No response. I asked again, and again, nothing. His mom, who was from one of the Carolinas, looked at him and said, "Why Bradley, where are your 'aahhs.' " He got it immediately. I was fascinated that my pronunciation sounded so different to him that he didn't know what I had said.

[WillowTree]

110. Where I lived in Texas as a kid a hard rain was sometimes called a frog strangler, but more often..

.......it was referred to as a "gully washer".

[Cali_Democrat]

111. Yikes...I bombed that test

I'm definitely not Southern.

LOL.