Regional Dialects/Odd Sayings

[Stargazer]

Originally Posted by Lucy

Many settlers there were Scottish or English, and local language still reflects that, as do musical traditions.

I've actually heard that because of the isolation of some of the areas in the Appalachias, that there are spots where the dialect is closer to what Old English (like how they spoke in the Middle Ages) would have sounded like than anything you'd hear in Britain today. I have no proof to back that up, but I always thought it sounded plausible.

[Google]

 

[myrosiedog]

Originally Posted by giz

I remember part that they did on the people off the coast of the Carolina's. The whole series could have been twice as long and I would have been happy.

The Gullahs. Now that is also a very interesting language. Pat Conroy who wrote The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides and other wonderful books taught school in the 1960's on an island where Gullah was spoken. There is a movie about it called Conrack as that is how they pronounced his name in Gullah.

The evolution of the Southern accent in the Southeast is traced back to the scottish and English influence and the african influence melding together to form the "drawl".

The Gullahs were isolated on an island and they supposedly still have more of the African influence in their language than anywhere else.

Giz, that sounds like an interesting show. I wish I had seen it.
Same with the Appalacians Lucy. I think its so interesting how different areas of our country are SO different in culture, language, traditions, etc.

It's very interesting living in Florida which has become such a melting pot. I grew up in a small rural farming and ranching community and it was very "Southern". Now there are so many Northerners and Hisapnics living in Florida that the larger areas have become much less Southern and that it has been very interesting for me to see different ideas and customs that are very different than what I was raised with.
One of which is when someone dies. As soon as word gets out, we would start cooking and people would go to the family of the deceased house to visit, eat, help out and would basically be there until after the funeral. Some of my Northern friends have HATED this, preferring to be alone with no visitors and don't want all the food that people bring either. And they have had a hard time dealing with the "intrusion" as they call it. Me, I wouldn't have made it through my parents death without people coming over and bringing food and being around telling stories and helping out for several days.
And there are still old time families where I am from that have the deceased brought to the house and laid out in the living room until the day of the funeral. I wouldn't go that far, its creepy to me, but when I've told other people about this custom, they too find it weird. But my dad used to make extra money as a teen "sitting up with the dead" at peoples homes until the day of the burial. He and usually a friend would stay up all night with the deceased to "keep it company" and make sure nothing happened while the family slept.

Anyway, I like hearing about what others customs are like and even in the South, accents, customs and traditions vary from place to place. Lousiana is vastly different than say South Carolina and so on.

[Muduh]

In my small town in Kentucky, even though the body was at a funeral home, some family members stayed with them round the clock. Even after I moved away, and married, the custom was still followed. I remember years later, when they started asking everyone to leave at 9 pm. Some of my older relatives were not very happy with that and actually started using another funeral home, because they allowed them to stay. Now, no one does that, as far as I know.

[Lucy]

Seems like we've talked about funeral customs before, because I think I've told this before. Anyway, while my own family did not do the "sitting up with the dead" custom, my best friend's family did, at least up to a few years ago when her grandmother died.
Everyone I know does show up at the house with food, though, when someone dies, and they're pretty much there every day till the funeral. I much prefer that -- I can't imagine being alone and isolated at such a time, I'd much rather have bustle and people around, I think it helps keep your mind busy during the first few days.

[myrosiedog]

Originally Posted by Lucy

Seems like we've talked about funeral customs before, because I think I've told this before. Anyway, while my own family did not do the "sitting up with the dead" custom, my best friend's family did, at least up to a few years ago when her grandmother died.
Everyone I know does show up at the house with food, though, when someone dies, and they're pretty much there every day till the funeral. I much prefer that -- I can't imagine being alone and isolated at such a time, I'd much rather have bustle and people around, I think it helps keep your mind busy during the first few days.

I agree and having the food around means so you have to think about cooking and such at a time when you really don't feel like it.

I could not imagine being isolated and alone either. That somes soon enough after the funeral when everyone goes home.

One other thing. I have a good friend from a very large Italian family and they moved here in the 1970's from Pennsylvania. They do the crowd gathering and everyone bringing Italian food thing after someone dies too. But it seems like the people I have met here in florida from other more midwest states don't do the food and crowd thing.

[PGM35]

Originally Posted by giz

Did anyone watch The Story of English? That was a great old series on PBS. It spent more time than I wanted on American English (cause it meant they missed out lots of other English-speaking countries), but it was really good. I remember part that they did on the people off the coast of the Carolina's. The whole series could have been twice as long and I would have been happy.

I took a Sociology class, Dialects was the major topic, in college where the professor showed that. I thought it was amazing and very interesting!

[snoopy]

Rosie, speaking of Gullah, it is still spoken here in coastal South Carolina, and the culture is still alive and well. They only refer to the language and the culture as being Gullah, but do not refer to the people as being "Gullah People". Just people speaking in that particular dialect and living in that culture.

My sons attend a highschool that is 60% black, 30% white, and the remaining 10% are a mix of hispanic, asian, and a small percentage of exchange students from France, Russia, Sweden, etc.

All this considered, there are two main cultures that dominate the school, now, and back when I was in the public school system. The majority of the black population speaks in a very distinct dialect here, mainly influenced by the Gullah language and accent. I find it strange, personally, as these kids have attended the exact same schools as me, and now my kids, that their dialect is at times like a foreign language to white people who have grown up with them.

I wonder if that is the case with blacks who grew up in , say, Boston. Do they have Bostonian accents, or do they have their own distinct dialect in the North as well? Please don't mistake this as a racist attitude on my part- I crack my black friends up with my imitation of their accents and cultural slang, ie. , "Boy, you BESS shet up 'for I dot yo eye an' cross yo t! I don play dat!" I might offend someone I don't know, but to those who have been lifelong friends, I am a source of endless amusement!

I am just curious, because Asian and Hispanic children raised and schooled here sound exactly like the "white" kids, but the black kids who were born and raised here still maintain a distinct accent, dialect and language all their own. (Definitely "Gullah" inspired.) In other words, most of the black kids here have zero desire to sound like the majority of the population (I respect that) but the other minorities born here retain no trace of their native language's accent when speaking English. My best friend's niece has a German father and American mother. She speaks fluent German flawlessly, like she was born in Germany. But she was born here with both languages taught to her simultaneously, so she also speaks English with no trace of an accent save a slight Southern accent.

So, my point is, why do the black kids who were born in the same hospital as me, same schools, same part of town, same sports teams, sound like they are from a whole different part of the country? Am I the only one who sees this? Sorry this was so long, but I really wanna know!

[doxie]

Rosie - have you read "The Water Is Wide" by Pat Conroy? It's the book that "Conrack" was based on and I'm pretty sure that it was his first book. It's an interesting read.

I had a great-aunt who made cakes and kept them in her freezer just in case anyone died. She'd pop the cake out and show up with it as soon as she heard the news. My Dad used to joke that if we ever saw Aunt Lucille ringing the doorbell with a cake in her hands, we should be prepared for bad news.

[Unklescott]

Originally Posted by doxie

My Dad used to joke that if we ever saw Aunt Lucille ringing the doorbell with a cake in her hands, we should be prepared for bad news.

That's cute. Being a southern boy I've seen many a neighbor show up with a casserole after a death in the family.

[myrosiedog]

Originally Posted by doxie

Rosie - have you read "The Water Is Wide" by Pat Conroy? It's the book that "Conrack" was based on and I'm pretty sure that it was his first book. It's an interesting read.

I had a great-aunt who made cakes and kept them in her freezer just in case anyone died. She'd pop the cake out and show up with it as soon as she heard the news. My Dad used to joke that if we ever saw Aunt Lucille ringing the doorbell with a cake in her hands, we should be prepared for bad news.

Yes, I've read it and all his books and I do think that was his first book. He is a favorite author of mine, although he hasn't come out with anything new in a great while.

Oh, that is so funny about the cakes, as there was a woman in our town, just like that and we used to say the SAME thing. How funny, I am really now. I guess every town has one! When my grandmother died, she was at our house 2 hours later. Her husband was the doctor in town to almost everyone including our family, so I guess that is how she always knew so quickly. I mean, we hadn't even called the funeral home yet or all the relatives and here she was with a cake at the door!
What we were actually doing was debating taking the Christmas tree down. We had just put it up that morning and it had NO decorations on it (they were stacked up in boxes in the living room after having just come out of the attic) and we were trying to decide if we should continue decorating or just take it back outside for a few days. NOthing like worrying about important details when someone in the family dies.