Transe Macabre (transemacabre) wrote in linguaphiles,
Transe Macabre
transemacabre
linguaphiles

(US) Southerners: A vocabulary quiz

I'm a US Southerner, from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and I've got a short and mostly harmless quiz for the other Southerners out there. I'm curious as to how much of my distinctively Southern vocabulary is shared with other types of Southerners -- where the geographic/cultural limits are, and what words replaced them in other Southern dialects.



The problem is, to even have this quiz, we have to establish what 'Southerner' means. And boy oh boy, there are few topics that can get Americans more riled up than whether or not they 'count' as Southerners. It's complicated by the fact that 'Southerness' does not precisely follow state lines, and several states have areas that are culturally Southern, and other areas which are not Southern. I would also like to hear from *native* Southerners, not transplants, who may not be familiar with or use the local dialect.

So to make it easier, for the purposes of this quiz a Southern state will be defined as the former Confederacy: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. However, it is acknowledged that this definition is not perfect, but it is the best I can do without going into ridiculous amounts of detail. Okay, now onto the quiz.

Do you, as a native Southerner, A) recognize and B) use some or all of the following words? Please identify what state/area you're from:

Y'all: Plural second-person pronoun.
All y'all: Associative plural second-person pronoun, referring to a group, some of which may not be present.
Chifforobe: This is a piece of furniture related to the wardrobe, armoire, bureau, and chest of drawers.
To put-put to zip around or dart around. I believe this term derives from the Cajun put-put boats.
Yonder: A place that is vaguely over there, somewhere.
Whoopin: The beating your mama gives you when you are naughty.
Mama and Daddy: The people who brought you into this world.
Fixin to: "About to do"
Cut on/cut off: Turn something on/off
Wallerin: To roll about on someone. Little kids waller on their mamas a lot.
Tote: Carry, as in "Tote this bag for me."
Lightning bugs: Fireflies.
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  • Interpretation of the Legend

    (inscriptions on the Kushan Kingdom coins / надписи на монетах Кушанского царства)

  • Spanish query

    I would be most grateful if anyone could help me out with a Spanish idiom, an expression appearing in a discussion of torture from the late 18th…

  • A very strange Etruscan inscription

    Chiusi is a small town in Italy (province of Siena, Tuscany). And once it was one of the most powerful centers of the Etruscan League of 12 cities.…